9 December 2003 16:34 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Anyone who has a digital archive of either music or pictures knows the problems when it comes to sharing that information with others. It's all very well having 1,000 songs on your hard drive but if that disk is in your spare room and not your lounge then you won't be able to listen to them easily. In steps the Linksys Wireless B Media Adapter, a device that allows you to connect your PC to your television.

Sleek and stylish, the box connects to your TV via a phono or S-Video socket. At the other end (ie your PC) you then plug in a wireless connection or RJ45 cable. Installation was simple without you having to know any technical details whatsoever and all in all a nice process.

Once all set up and running (which took us under 5 minutes) you have to let the software know which folders your images and music are stored in and you're off.

Linksys have done well to allow you to view most formats (something not common to all devices of this type) and for music you can listen to .WMA and .MP3 formats. Image viewers have a larger choice - .BMP, .JPG, .GIF and .TIFF formats.

One of the nicer elements to this package is the user interface. Laid out in a simple and easy to follow manner it's the little things that impress. If the information is present within music files such as artist, album and song title then all this is displayed when the track is played.

Verdict

If you are one of those people that has a large digital collection and are fed up with it being restricted to the realms of the PC this will certainly set you free.

Score

Review Recap

Made by

Linksys

Price as reviewed

£168

The good

Convenience, wide format support

The bad

None (aside from your TV needing good speakers instead)

Quick verdict

At £168 not a bad way to spread your large digital audio collection around, but you need the good speakers of a modern TV.

Score

Winner

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