jmke

When I started to plan the upcoming review schedule for APH
Networks early last month, the influx of new network media players onto the
market really caught my attention. Providing more digital media integration
with your living room audio/video equipment than ever before, long gone are
the days when we were restricted to watching certain videos on our computers
only, or swapping a bunch of CDs every time you wanted to listen to those
songs on the big system. Last month, we reviewed the Patriot Box Office
network media player, which delivered excellent media compatibility for a
very low price of admission, but failed to provide the kind of experience
users would come to expect for a home entertainment device. Inevitably, there
are compromises due to its cost. At the same time, I also began testing
QNAP's NMP-1000 network media player. QNAP is known for making absolutely
brilliant network appliances in both performance and reliability, such as the
QNAP TS-439 Pro network attached storage system we examined back in September
last year. But here's the thing: The QNAP NMP-1000 retails for $400 at press
time -- effectively four times the price of products such as Asus' O!Play and
the Patriot Box Office as aforementioned. It is probably no surprise that you
are wondering at this point what makes the NMP-1000 so much more expensive
than other products that carry out pretty much the same tasks. And you know
what? I was asking the same question before I got my hands on these products
as well, haha. Is the QNAP NMP-1000 truly the ultimate, no compromise, fully
featured high performance network appliance with multimedia features for the
home user to justify its price tag, or will it fail to hold its own against
the competition? To answer all these questions and address everything else in
a detailed and thorough manner, well, let me present to you this week's
review!
http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/qnap_nmp_1000

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