Summary: I set up a wireless network in my home, and already having my own PC set up as a media server I figured I could use the DSM 320 as a replacement interface for my AV system. I sent my media PC to the basement wired to the router.

Prior to purchasing the DSM-320 I wrote DLink Canada asking if the device supported WPA-PSK wireless security (as the other older protocols are easily hacked) and was advised that it did support WPA-PSK. Unfortunately tech support was incorrect. It only supported the older and weak WEP protocol. They apologized and told me it is in the next firmware revision, that has yet to be seen. My firmware revision remains at 1.05ca as of January 2006. If security is important to you, look for other units that support WPA-PSK.

The best way to hook up this device is by wire, where you have the greatest bandwidth to stream high resolution video. The moment you go wireless, you step down from 100Mbps to 54Mbps which does not take into account security overhead, distance from your router, etc. Wireless performs well for music (Mp3, etc) and high compression video. High resolution video will choke wireless in certain setups, causing jerky sound and images.

The database software as of Jan 2006 seems quite stable on my A7N8X-X based system, and was a breeze to install. The DSM-320 itself has some glitches that can be a nuisance. The unit suffers from database forgetfullness, dropping to the root menu, seeking active servers. It will play an entire movie, but feed it a playlist, chances are that it will play a couple of songs , forget the rest and unexpectedly stop. I have not had this device run for longer than 1-2 hours without my intervention. Use the menu system for a few minutes, and it will unexpectedly dump you right back to the root menu from time to time. Very annoying after seeking through a vey large music or playlist database.

Nero Recode can produce MP4's with embedded chapters. The DSM-320 is not aware of these indexes, obligating you to either use \"jump\" (using a very clumsy interface to type in a time to jump to) or \"rev/ff\" (that really doesn't work well if you have wireless + security + good quality video settings) to navigate any video file. One can select one means of search, the other, not both. Why? Who is the brainiac who thought this one out? Very frustrating, especially if you recode music DVD's.

Worse, the DSM-320 will not play the next available video file in a folder. If a show plays and reaches the end, it will stop. You cannot passively watch a folder full of TV episodes back to back. You must hit \"next\" just before the show you're watching ends, otherwise navigate the menu and select the next episode to watch (plus run the chance of being dumped to the root menu)...ugh.

When it plays back, it does it well. For a multimedia device the sound quality is great, and so is the picture quality.

It boils down to how you intend to use the product. If you have a small database of music and the odd video file you will likely not be disrupted by the DSM-320's shortcomings. If you have a large database of sound and video, you will get frustrated by its instability and quirks.

Summary: XBOX Media center, written by a bunch of kids for hacked xboxes is a way better product than this unit.
The navigation through menus is very slow, playback of video files is choppy a lot of the time, and often the audio will lose sync with the video if you fast forward. The fast forward is one speed and very slow so dont count on fast forwarding a movie. There is a seek mode where you enter the minutes to skip to, but you can only choose that or fast forward, not both.
The media server software that comes with the unit is of poor quality, and I find better performance using a third party server (Twonky Vision).
In my opinion, they made a poor quality unit because they knew it would sell, and now that it is out they don't plan on releasing any firmware upgrades to improve performance and capability. If I knew what I knew now, I wouldn't purchase this unit. You are better off paying the neighborhood or office geek to mod a 100$ Xbox so you can load Avalaunch and Xbox media center onto it. You'll be much happier with that.

Summary: The DSM 320 media player is a wonderful device - in theory. In practical application, it fails misserably. The setup of the device was very smooth and I was amazed that this consumer device actually worked with Server 2003, although I set up Windows XP media server as well. The wireless setup went without a hitch. I noticed a tendency for the DSM 320 to lockup when browsing folders. I have an audio collection of over 3600 .wma files, which I was unable to play unless I wanted to browse and play them one at a time. The shuffle function did not work, even with a .m3u playlist. This device should have never made it past the testing phase. I will take this one back to Best Buy and wait for someone to make something more to my liking.