Though it may look like a computer peripheral, Philips's gleaming silver Streamium SL300i multimedia receiver is a perfect fit for your living room or bedroom. Amazingly compact, the hardcover-book-sized device is WiFi-enabled to stream audio, video, and Internet-based entertainment from your PC to your television, stereo, home theater, or other platform at a remove from your computer. Wireless transmission requires integration with a home network, but we found setup a snap. If you don't have an existing network, you can also run a special crossover Ethernet (Cat5) cable (not supplied) between your computer and the SL300i--an immediate and affordable alternative.

Without bogging down your PC's resources, the SL300i gives you access to your complete library of digital photos, MP3 music, and computer- and Internet-based movies and video content. Use it with your PC or Mac (Windows 98, 98SE, 2000, ME, and XP and Mac OS X; Mac wireless networking available starting fall 2004). If you plan to connect the device to an existing network, make sure your hardware (router, wireless cardbus adapter, etc.) is WiFi-compliant (802.11g/b). While the product claims 802.11b compatibility, we strongly recommend using 802.11g or, if 802.11b, devices made within the last year or so; we experienced only intermittent success with a 2002-vintage 802.11b router.

With broadband Internet access and a compatible wireless home network already in place, setup should be delightfully simple: plug in the SL300i, hook up the audio and video outputs to your TV or surround receiver via composite- or S-video jacks, and turn it on. In our system, the SL300i "found" our network automatically and allowed us to get right to Internet registration (at my.philips.com) so we could listen to any number of Web radio stations while installing the Philips Media Manager software (or PMM) on our computer. You'll need to disable your Microsoft or other computer-based firewalls, relying instead on the firewall built into your wireless router. (Otherwise, open ports 49152 to 65535 for the SL300i.)

The value of the Internet audio and video should not be underestimated. You can use the many theme-based radio stations from Live365.com, Andante, MP3.com, Playhouse Radio, or Yahoo's LaunchCast (among others) to sonically coordinate a dinner or dance party, and there's plenty there to entertain the kids, too. Yahoo and iFilm.com provide high-quality music videos and film trailers at up to 700 kbps. For radio, sound quality proved remarkably listenable, with most but not all stations broadcasting in stereo, free of the swishy artifacts that plague much online audio. Online services also include Internet gaming.

With respect to streaming your media files, the SL300i sees only the files or folders you've selected for it. Within the PMM--and right from your living room--you can sort music by artist, genre, album, or song, or select slideshow mode for viewing your JPEG digital photos. Full-screen mode expands JPEG images and video streams to literally fill your screen, a nice change from JPEG-friendly DVD players that render a digital photo as a tiny box within a huge black frame.

Unlike the pricier SL400i, the SL300i has no display, so you'll be dependent on your TV and the unit's onscreen display for navigating to available content. But you can manage, right from the well-designed remote, all Internet content and even programming from multiple networked PCs. Coolest of all--while one person is remotely accessing content from a PC's hard drive or the broadband Internet connection, the home PC remains fully usable by other members of the household. A total of two analog stereo audio outputs lets you feed a tape deck or CD recorder in addition to your TV or audio receiver.

Philips is actively updating its services and its software, and the SL300i will periodically update its firmware--a cool feature designed to keep the unit technologically shipshape, running ever more smoothly and accommodating ever more formats.--Michael Mikesell

Pros:

• Affordable
• Straightforward setup and installation when used with compatible hardware
• High-quality streaming audio and video
• Full-screen and slideshow options for JPEG image viewing
• Quiet operation
• Includes access to a wealth of online AV content
• Supports music playlist creation
• Fun, colorful, content-modulated screensavers
• Emits cool blue light when powered

Cons:

• No on-unit display
• Finicky performance with some 802.11b hardware
• Incompatible with computer-based Internet firewalls

What's in the Box
The SL300i, a remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, a composite-video/stereo analog audio interconnect, a stereo analog audio interconnect, an installation CD-ROM, a power adapter, an AC power cord, and warranty information.