Setting Up
When I first unpacked the device, I was pleasantly surprised at its small size and low weight. For all the capabilities that it provides, I was expecting a larger, heavier box that would be closer in size to a PC rather than a router. But design-wise, the WMA100 is an un-inspiring little gray box that would look more at home in a server closet than in the home entertainment center.
However, functionality should outweigh aesthetics, so I proceeded to hook it up and try it out. Maybe after using an array of Apple equipment and Roku Soundbridge networked music player [reviewed here], my standards have been raised a bit. But I soon found that the WMA100's feature set was also a bit of a let-down.
As usual, I set aside all software, and documentation and went to work connecting it to my home entertainment system. Since I have an Ethernet drop in my entertainment center, I simply plugged in a network cable, connected audio and video cables, applied power and turned on my TV - and was presented with a silent black screen. Maybe I should at least concede to look at the "Getting started" documentation.
A quick flip through uncovered a blurb on "If there is no screen image". According to the documentation, this shouldn't happen if you are using S-video (which I was), but the presented solution was to press the Output button on the remote until an image appears. Pressing this button brought up a basic top-level menu. Now to really try it out.
My original understanding regarding the way the box worked was that it did a network mount of Windows file-shares to access music, pictures and video. So I had pretty much ignored the "Supported Operating Systems" spec. since all of the various Apple, Linux and network appliance boxes on my network have the ability to perform Windows file-sharing.
But flipping through the WMA100's menus showed no configuration options for mounting Windows file-shares, and the sections for Video, Music and Pictures were empty of content. Whoops, maybe this wouldn't be as easy as I thought - but then that was my fault for ignoring the basic requirements. According to the box, only Windows XP and 2000 are supported and ViewSonic also sells a wireless media server than can be used with the WMA100.
I noticed that a sticker had been placed on the WMA100's box to cover up a reference to Windows 98 support. So, disregarding the sticker, I installed the included software on the only Windows box on my network - an aging Windows 98 system. The software installed fine, but the WMA100 still showed no content. Evidently I'd actually have to believe the documentation regarding operating system support! Until I could borrow a Windows XP system, I decided to try out the only content that showed up in the menus, Internet Radio Stations.
