The Streamium SL300i is set-up as the central media access point in your home, most likely to be in a room where you don't want a full on PC but do want access to digitally stored MP3 and image files, it can be connected by both cable (RJ45) or via 802.11g WiFi connection.

Once you have the SL300i attached to your network you need to load up the Philips media management software, this then allows you to select which folders on your PC contain the files to be catalogued and shared, only files of the supported formats are added to the database and the process can take a while.

Streamium offers support for Video Divx 3.11, Divx 4, Divx 5, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, XviD, Audio MP3, MP3PRO, PCM, WAV and Pictures JPEG, BMP, GIF. All files of these types are added to the PMM software which acts as the server to the network client SL300i unit, it is worth noting that the other Streamium products are also supported by the same software.

Having plugged the unit into out Panasonic flat screen the explorer like GUI appears, from here you can select images, music and video clips, it's not the busiest of screens in fact its possibly the most minimal we've tested, but this is a good thing as all the menu items are clear and nice and big.

The supplied remote control is good and many of the options are colour coded to match the remotes keys, navigation is quick through a 4 way pad, sadly we became quite frustrated that there is no volume control on the remote meaning we had to go back to the screens remote to adjust the level. Also a weird quick of the navigation is the way that once you are in the photos section you have to go back to the top of the menu structure to get the audio tracks, we would have thought it would be easy to keep the nav menu on screen.

So on to the testing, first off pictures, the Philips Streamium SL300i only supports 3 image formats which is quite limiting but the thumbnail viewing and simple point and select does make viewing them on the TV easy enough. If your network / Streamium is hooked to a broadband connection you can view images stored in a Yahoo Briefcase online.

We suspect most users will be looking for the SL300i to become an AV centre in the living room and using the 802.11g connection we gave the audio streaming a good going over. Audio quality seemed fine on both 128 and 192kbit MP3 files and also we had a few wav's to try, only once did we lose connection for long enough to beat the buffering which isn't bad for a few hours continuous streaming. WMA and copyright protected files like those from iTunes are not supported by the Philips at present but these are likely to become available though online firmware updates.

Internet radio on the other hand was a more hit and miss affair, using Music Match controlled by the PC link supplied with the Streamium we found that the added complication of the SL300i in the chain led to more buffering stalls but not that many more than streaming straight on the PC. Connectivity for the audio is provided by 2 sets of analogue photo sockets but we fell they may have missed a trick here with the lack of a digital audio output.

So audio is pretty good and the navigation and browsing of tracks is further augmented by online information by pushing the information key, so what about video?

Well as always seems to be the way the Streamium SL300i is a bit picky with Divx, but we did manage to get some Divx 4 and 5 files to play when we used a moderate bit rate, MPEG4 seemed the most reliable format and again windows media is not currently supported. Using the WiFi connection we managed to watch a (allegedly) ripped DVD with only a few stalls and audio splats which is a fairly good performance for this sort of system.

Video connectivity is Via a scart socket which is used for both video repay and display of the control GUI, if you don't intend to use a TV or screen its a struggle to drive as there is not front panel display and the remote has few direct function buttons. Overall this is a good performer and the Philips Streamium brand is a strong one, the video playback is about average for a WiFi multimedia centre and the audio control is good. The software in particular the interface is simple and easy to use which is a real bonus, we'd have liked a front panel display as well but that is a minor niggle.

Priced at £136 it's good value for money too, if you were only after audio streaming there are cheaper options but for video and images too, plus online access to media its a fair price, the software is upgradeable both the media manager application and the unit firmware so more formats will be supported soon. The Philips Streamium Sl300i is a good entry level device for a home multimedia system and one that lets you share your digital media with any room in the home.

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