Network receiver benefits?

[realityczech]

Hi what are your thoughts on the benefits of an ethernet port on a receiver is this really needed if you can wirelessly connect via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi your notebook or your handheld phone or if you want better quality use a USB port to connect your phone?if you have the ability to connect network storage device through USb port to connect to a networked PS3 to your receiver by hdmi? What are the added benefit of an Ethernet port?

 

[m_vanmeter]

after acquiring a Western Digital TV Live Plus box to add to my older system and receiver, I don't see much use in paying a real premium for internet connectivity built into the receiver. Price wise, it is much more cost effective to add the services with a small, separate box.

Audio, video, just about any kind of digital a/v file you want to play...network shares, USB input, Pandora, Netflix streaming, and on and on. Give the WD TV Live Plus a look, it may just fill the void until network connectivity is fully built in to most, if not all, a/v receivers without the huge premium in price.

 

[highfigh]

What about the people who don't want to add an external box for streaming, use a smart phone and already have external storage on their network, but need a new receiver that has the other features offered on a network receiver? They don't need the outboard stuff but a network receiver will let them do all of these things. If the existing receiver is staying in the system, I agree that replacing it with one that has an ethernet port isn't the best decision, though.

 

[bandphan]

I concur with the above ^^. There is much more flexibility with other solutions. Both of my displays are dnla compliant and while the GUI isn't as nice as I would like, it satisfies my needs. One note if you plan on streaming the HD compressed formats or ISO's IMHO it is better to be hard wired to the unit of choice. Music will stream fine over WiFi.

 

[GlocksRock]

For me I just prefer to use my media pc or htpc for streaming music to my receiver, but not everyone has a pc connected to their system. So for those people a networked receiver may be just what they need, but I think most would find it useless, or to difficult to setup and use properly.

 

[sholling]

after acquiring a Western Digital TV Live Plus box to add to my older system and receiver, I don't see much use in paying a real premium for internet connectivity built into the receiver. Price wise, it is much more cost effective to add the services with a small, separate box.

Audio, video, just about any kind of digital a/v file you want to play...network shares, USB input, Pandora, Netflix streaming, and on and on. Give the WD TV Live Plus a look, it may just fill the void until network connectivity is fully built in to most, if not all, a/v receivers without the huge premium in price.

I have a networked receiver and a WDTV Live and the add-on WDTV Live is so much slicker than my receiver that it's not funny. That doesn't mean that built-in connectivity isn't useful. Some companies provide firmware updates and others are improving their interfaces.

 

[jjminch]

Sholling-

Are you referring to your Onk 906? I was looking at the 807 for it's network capabilities, but it is a big price premium. Esp since I've seen WD live for about 60 bucks.

 

[sholling]

Sholling-

Are you referring to your Onk 906?

Yes. The 906 is very limited. It will do internet radio but only individual stations. It won't play FLAC files and my music collection is in FLAC format. The 906 doesn't play video either, and has no web access.

I was looking at the 807 for it's network capabilities, but it is a big price premium. Esp since I've seen WD live for about 60 bucks.

I haven't looked at the 807's interface and have no idea what its limitations are.

Keep in mind that there are levels of WDTV. There is the old style WDTV with no network interface and limited functions that sells for about $50. Then there are the older WDTV Live boxes that play most audio and video format from local external drives or across the network - HD is from local drives only. These also handle Pandora. Finally there is the "new" nearly identical WDTV Live that adds DVD menu access and Netflix compatibility. I use my WDTV Lives (2 of them) everyday.

 

[highfigh]

One thing I really like about having the receiver connected to the network is being able to control it with one of my computers. I also have a music server and since both are connected, I can change what songs I play, create playlists, etc and if I want to listen to something else, I just to to the bookmark and control either of them. Since I have a spare Cat5e to my garage, I'm planning to keep my old laptop out there and use it to control the two, since it will eliminate the need for any kind of remote control. Most of the remotes with two-way communication cost as much as the receiver, or more, and since I'm already wired, it's no work to get it to operate.