Home > Consumer Reviews > Hewlett Packard DMR-EW5000 Digital Media Receiver for Windows PCs

EW5000 is great concept considering the functionality it promises to provide. I was really excited about the product but unfortunately it turned out to be one of the worst engineered products I have ever seen. (ironically from the company claiming to be the "Inventors".
Yes, the product works and does provide all the features it claims to offer but let us look at them one by one.

User Interface:
In this age of sleek UIs with wonderful layouts and smooth text and buttons, EW5000 User interface seems to be a relic of 80s. Text is fuzzy on TV, there are two many scrrens for simple tasks. Even the BIOS setup UIs are better than this one!!!

Playing Audio:
Audio Quality is fine but the player seems to stop playing whenever it wants. There seems to be no logic to that. UI is not responsive at times and there is no error displayed. The track information UI stops updating after playing a track or two. Wait a bit longer and even the tracks wil stop playing till you hit the play button again and sometimes you have to pick another album.

Wireless connectivity:
Best feature but the worst implementation. The reciever often looses conection and takes forever to re-connect. Again in the year 2003, it shouldn't be that difficult to buffer 5-10 minutes of Audio so that such connection losses don't lead to moments of annoying silence for the listener. You will get many annoying pauses destroying the pleasure of Brahms symppony no. 1 or whatever you are listening to. And please do not blame the connectivity issues on my wireless access point and expect me to put EW5000 a foot away from my WAP.

Server Software on PC:
Doesn't auto sychronize the new addition to the library, takes too much CPU time and takes minutes to synchronize additions or deletions of just 1 or 2 albums.

The box itself:
The worst quality materials have been used to make this otherwise good looking box. Input connectors and the wires supplied seem to be worst grade that the money could buy. Don't even get me started with the remote control.

Bottomeline!! Well you get the picture.

I'm not at all happy with this device. While it does have excellent sound quality playing MP3 and WMA files, it is very buggy. It locks up frequently, is very moody, and doesn't play MPG or AVI files.

I'm hoping for a firmware upgrade from HP to make it more stable.

I would wait for the next model that is more robust and full featured.

I have read a few bad reviews of this product, but I had to verify it for myself. I added the media receiver to my existing wireless network. The unit was placed about 15-20ft (through 1 wall and around 1 corner)from the access point. Upon initial setup of the software it was unable to connect to the router. After repositioning the media receiver (2-3 feet closer to the router and standing the unit on its side)it was able to locate my router. It played for about 2 minutes then lost connection again. I then updated the firmware, which was supposed to improve wirless performance of the device, unfortunately after the update it seemed worse! It took about a dozen tries before finding my server, and after it was up and running, it would drop signal after only a few minutes. I know my wireless network is not at fault because I use a laptop that is double the distance of the media receiver and it gets a good signal. This device may be ok if you are going to use it wired, but for wireless systems, I would wait a while until these type of products become further developed. It seems HP released these way too soon, and possably with inferior hardware!

I had no trouble setting it up, the synchronization takes forever though, as does navigating the primitive menus. Not good for extensive music collections for that reason. Wireless works if you position it properly (IE don't put it in a cabinet with everything else in your home theater if it's a wired mess, and make sure you follow standard wireless rules about angles). The sound quality is great on high quality sound files. Good for me, who doesn't expect a miracle for $199 (shop at HP's online store for that price).

Add on note: I have since purchased the Linksys WMA11B Wireless Digital Media Adapter, and it does everything the HP was supposed to do, but didn't. I love it, and recommend it.

SUMMARY: THE WIRELESS VERSION IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY!!! DO NOT BUY IT!!! Per HP's own admission, it will not work if further than 20 feet from the Access Point - you can run a cable this far.

Details of my experience:
Purchased the DMR ew5000 about a week ago from Amazon (shipped thru J&R). Arrived promptly, and was simple to setup. Had it up and working on my wireless network within an hour. Or so I thought.

After the first night of playing some single songs and looking at some pictures, I thought this was the greatest little home media device to come along in quite a while. Then, reality hit.

The device started periodically saying it couldn't find my server, or that it could find the server but that it had no content. A therapeutic reboot would usually fix this (difficult, because the power button is a fake - like a cable set top box, you must unplug it to actually reboot). However, the killer finally kicked in - it would stop playing an album or playlist after 2 or 3 songs. And it would do this constantly. A real party killer, let me tell you.

The symptoms are these - it starts playing normally, with the song elapsed time clicking merrily along. Then, then elapsed time stops advancing, although the music keeps playing. Alas, within the next 5 minutes, it would stop playing the music too.

HP support's script was amazing to behold. Aside from asking to reinstall the 1.0 version of the software (that's right, no firmware patches out yet...), they then ask you to run an ethernet cable to the device from your server. When I tried to explain that the server is upstairs with my cable modem, while my ew5000 was downstairs with my rather large television, the support tech insisted that unless I plugged it directly, he couldn't help me. When I further explained that I did not have the physical resources to either a) rewire the cable modem to my downstairs, or b) to move my 200 pound television upstairs, he said that was too bad, because to authorize a return I had to do this step. I think Carly Fiorino has found a novel way to avoid warranty repairs here.

Here is my setup. Cable modem and wireless router on one floor, with main server plugged into the wireless router (Linksys) via 100mb ethernet. 2 other computers in the house served via the wireless LAN, and wireless coverage is fine. The ew5000 was setup with my main TV and stereo system (where it is designed to be used), on a separate floor from my wireless router and server, maybe about 30 feet direct through one floor. As I said, one computer is about 200 feet away through one floor, and it has good wireless reception. The ew5000 itself reported a 2MB/s connection at 73% strength in its current location. Apparently, this is insufficient for the device.

One last note - the technician added at the end that the wireless version of this device must be no further than 20 feet away from the wireless access point, with no intervening obstacles!!! I asked if this was in the documentation *anywhere*, and after a bit he admitted it wasn't, but was in his tech support help screens. THIS MAKES THIS DEVICE USELESS!!! If I had only 20 feet from my server to my TV, I wouldn't need a wireless device, would I? I could just by the wired only version for $100 cheaper. But worse for me, I don't seem to have the kind of studio apartment HP must have had in mind for this device.

Bottom line: I love the concept. I loved this device the couple times it works. And the wired version may even work (I don't know, and I cannot find out). BUT THE WIRELESS VERSION IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY!!! DO NOT BUY IT!!! Per HP's own admission, it will not work if further than 20 feet from the Access Point - you can run a cable this far. I have heard good things about SLIMP3, and will probably check that out. I'll just have to wait for a future device to live up to the HP marketing hype of this one.