Media Streamer ( Pinnacle VS MediaGate VS DLink )

[sansp00]

My Roku HD1000 died last week with a fried board. So I am in the market for a replacement unit. I liked the Roku a lot for its rich feature set but it is now discontinued

Which of the following options would suit me the best ( pros/cons ) ?
DSM 520: highest priced of them all, but seems well sorted out and supported
MG-35: Cheapest one of all, not sure about features and support
Showcenter 200: high priced, features look ok, but support does not look to good

Im streaming off a NAS running twonky and would like HD and UPnP support. It's mostly going to be used for music ( mp3s ), pics ( jpg ) and movies ( mpeg2 ) and a bit on internet TV ( TVersity ). I don't want to have a mandatory PC running behind to feed the device. Forget about a XBox, just not interested.

What do you people think and suggest ?

Thanks
Patrick S.

[Sylvain]

I am also interested in getting something like the MediaGate MG-350HD (http://www.mediasonic.ca/product_spe...r/MG350HD.html).

Would anyone have experience with the MG-350HD or recommendations for something else/equivalent/better?

I need a device with a hard disk and WiFi so it can host my entire music collection, photos and movies without having to run a computer.

Thanks.

[diversions]

The Netgear EVA7000 and the AppleTV also look like promising media receivers. Both are over $300 so a bit pricy; Netgear streams full HD not restricted to iTunes downloads unlike the Apple.

Anyone with any recommendations?

[oleg]

I've been using this player for about 6 months and am generally happy with it. It is a bit flaky and freezes once in a while but it mostly works fine.
The firmware is updatable and the manufacturer has been pretty good releasing firmware updates regularly. Streaming of MP3s and DIVX files works fine, while high-bitrate content like DVD and Hi-Def videos are jerky when streamed over the network. For that reason, I copy media to the unit's internal hard drive (purchased separately). You can copy files from PC to MG-350HD over network, as it has NAS support. I would say that for the money its a great device. It may not be as flexible as HTPC but it only costs a fraction of the price.

[Sylvain]

Very interesting input Oleg. I have had the same thought about the comparison with an HTPC. Of course, the HTPC would be nice but the Mediagate will only cost as much as the Windows Media Edition necessary to run the HTPC... If the Mediagate does the trick (as I was trying to find out), it should be a no-brainer choice.

[Sylvain]

I took advantage of a sale at Busines Depot and got an HP3200N small footprint PC and have been using it as my music server. Combined with my Philips TSU-9600 universal remote which controls (and displays) what is being played on the PC via Wi-Fi, this is proving to be a great solution. I only had to replace the video card on the PC to get component outputs but that PC already had the Wi-Fi card in it. Works great. Love it.