I was quite pleased with the X5000's user interface. The blue-grey faded background colouring looked professional and classy and I did not experience any difficulty navigating to the media files stored on my PC. Although there were a few mild waits, (nothing more than five or six seconds) as I scrolled between folder pages, the X5000's user interface was much quicker and considerably less painful to use than the Mediagate MG-350HD (a similarly equipped device that I reviewed recently). The compressed video that I tested looked great on the X5000 thanks to its upscaling capabilities.

A snapshot of the X5000's home screen

The X5000 is supposed to be able to browse the Internet and play content. However, I was not able to access the Internet with the test unit that I received. Every time I would attempt to perform an internet related function, I would receive an error. After a few days of trying different configurations and talking to Neodigits support I was finally forced to give up.

The unit that I received failed to connect to the internet, displaying this error screen.

I won't say that it wasn't frustrating to try to get the Internet options to work; and I won't say that I condone the fact that one of the features of the X5000 failed to function. However, in all fairness, the fact that Internet capabilities did not work was not a great loss. The Internet functions on the X5000 are limited and I don't think it's practical to do much Web surfing using a DVD player. You're welcome to sit and painstakingly input a URL manually using the number pad on the remote. You might even start to feel nostalgic about old-school text messaging as you slowly type each letter. But it would take much less time to merely walk to the next room and use your PC.

The X5000 does give you the option to skip the painful manual URL input by importing your favourite Websites from your host PC through the NeoLink software, but it doesn't change the fact that it's just easier to surf using the host computer in the first place. I've had the capability to access the Internet on my main TV for years, and I have never found it to be convenient to do so.

Some might say that the other Internet-based features of the X5000 such as Internet radio, Podcast access and watching Internet video clips make accessing the Net worth the trouble. However, listening to a low-quality Internet radio or watching a low-resolution Internet video clip is still a pain. You'll likely find that you'd still prefer to use your PC to access that sort of content-not to mention that navigating between these Internet media features requires your TV to be left on, while many modern HDTV components have a limited lifespan.

It seems a waste to put wear and tear on your TV in order to listen to a tinny Internet radio station. If I had purchased this particular X5000, I definitely would have returned it for a replacement. I certainly wouldn't settle for a player that didn't work correctly. On the other hand, even with a working replacement, it's unlikely that I would bother to use any of the Internet related functions anyway.