Somewhat of an annoying device for streaming
937377
Ordered the Dazzle DVD Recorder in hopes to record and stream gameplay from an array of consoles. I had already known this device wasn't going to output in HD, but I wasn't prepared for the amount of work it would be to setup sound for this device. After many hours of playing around with sound settings, codec, and streaming software I finally was able to capture video at the 30 FPS the device promises with audio. The software and drivers it comes with aren't enough to just use it out of the box on a stream, but for most computers it should be able to work with each other. The drivers aren't very 64bit friendly, and many of the programs that have to be run to get simultaneous video and audio without sdeyncs are 32bit programs. If you're going to be using this for streaming I recommend setting it up through Amarec and then having your streaming software broadcast that program rather than directly through the device for the highest quality results.
All in all, it's a decent buy for the price, but if you don't want to tinker around with a lot of programs, codecs, and drivers I suggest getting something more expensive from another company.
1699265
The control is lousy, nothing worst than having to point straight to the device and press the keys hard so that it responds. It won't read some BR discs, so you have to clean them. Sometimes the streaming stops working, and you have to reset the router and modem even though the computers have Internet. It doesn't remember where the movie was last playing, which my dvd player does that. However, it does the job and it's awesome to stream movies and pandora radio. 3.5-star product IMO.
1725123
The Roku XS player does everything I bought it for: streams Netflix, MLB.tv, HBO Go, Pandora, and allows me to attach a drive via USB.  The device is even smaller than I had realized, and it's nice that it offers both wireless and wired options; I mainly use wireless unless I move it to the living room.  It's the same price as an AppleTV, and while the UI isn't as friendly or smooth, it can do most thing an AppleTV can, while both devices have a features that the other doesn't offer.

The UI is often laggy.  Sometimes the device will error out in the middle of streaming a show/movie, or all of the sudden reboot itself.  The home screen is simply all of your channels aligned in a single horizontal row, which can be a pain when you start to add a few channels and have to scroll back and forth between them.  The remote control is fairly nice, though I haven't used the motion control bit of it yet.  I also found there's an Android app that allows the user to control the Roku right from there phone/tablet, a nice added feature.

Overall a very nice device for the price, and relative to its competitors.  If you're willing to work through the frustration of what can, at times, be a sluggish, buggy user experience, you'll find this small device is really quite powerful.
1477773
It plays dvd's and blurays.  Netflix streams on it well.  My only complaint with this thing is it takes half an hour to turn on and start viewing netflix!  That is exaggerated, but it's very annoying that it does take probably five minutes, I have to select netflix twice via the menu or the button, and it disconnects anytime I turn the tv off so you have to do the process all over again.  I often find myself wanting to throw it out the window.  I give it three stars because it does what it's intended to do, it's just irritating getting it to the point .
3121141
The device is very flaky.  I made sure to update the firmware, all the drivers on my computer, etc.  It would usually start the initial streaming, but within minutes it would start glitching or dropping the connection.  I tried connecting from both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 laptops, and it was an extremely unstable experience.  I ended up getting the Microsoft Miracast adapter instead, and it has worked very well for me.
3009106
This bluray player is frustrating.

It's got Pandora, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, etc. Each of those work pretty well, but the machine itself needs to be powercycled nearly every single time I want to use it. I use it probably 2-3 times per month, but the fact that I have to unplug it and plug it back in every time I want to use it is extremely annoying.

After power cycling it and then picking Pandora for example, it'll go through some strange wifi authentication thing that I have to click through - and then it goes through Pandora's login. Thankfully it remembers my Pandora credentials so I don't need to reenter those every time. So basically from "I want to listen to Pandora" to "I'm actually listening to Pandora", I've unplugged the device, plugged it back in, clicked through too many menus and pointless "OK" dialogs - it takes a minute or two of fussing with just to get going. Very frustrating.

I don't recommend getting this device.
2331944
This would be a great player except for its software issues. It's the only brand / model I've found within a reasonable price that still has a front display. The menus are responsive and disc playback is good. The problem is with streaming.

I first noticed it with Netflix. Playback will get interrupted with what I would call little mini freezes, lasting maybe just half a second, but something that's very noticeable. It seemed to always occur during the first minute of any title upon first starting up the Netflix app, then sporadic occurrences after that. I would say it would be rare to play through a 22 minute show and it not do it at least once. I had a need for a second player anyway, so as I test I bought another one to see if I had just gotten a defective player. That one did the exact same thing, even at a friend's house with a direct connection. I was putting up with this as I really wanted the front display, but then my wife began to watch shows on Amazon Prime and that was when I ran into a deal breaker.

With Amazon Prime streaming, it would be fine at first but then the audio would begin to cut out for a few seconds at a time. It would happen with more and more often until it was cutting out all the time; then you would have to reset the player to get it back to normal. But it would slowly build back up to constantly again. This became so aggravating for her that I had to replace it with a Sony player that performs flawlessly with streaming Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Without these streaming issues, this player would be a keeper.
598786
It's fine if you want to stream a program without stopping.  The last-ten-second-replay button is a nice feature, but it tends to freeze things if you overuse it--which I do.  Navigation is a little difficult since the channels are just in a single line and you have to scroll through a lot of them, but apparently that will be fixed with an software update coming soon.
4951124
This device is cool in the fact that it is a 1TB media server. But, as far as a streaming video player. It's not really great. The main menu is "sticky". The streaming quality is very laggy. And yes, my junk is hardwired - gigabit, and I have an awesome speed from my ISP.

When you stick pictures onto this box, they sometimes come up rotated wrong. They are very slow to appear. The mp3 playing functionality of this box is worthless. There is no "random" or anything. Just thousands of mp3's all over the place. I'm not 'dazzled'.

Ehh... this box is not really worth the money. I thought it would be all glassy smooth. It has a web-based admin page, but, that is kind of blah as well. I will stick with my ROKU box for streaming video. This box is now just a media server. May as well stick it in the closet next to the router. You can only store media files on it. No FTP access. Just flashdrive, or web based uploads. But, no actual creating folders or anything *that I know of yet.
1114241
Update July, 2017: Streaming through this device has gone totally kaput. Our original problems with the remote straightened out, but streaming is bloody awful. Netflix stutters. Hulu just says, "nope!" in the middle of a show and shuts down. We're scrapping this thing ASAP and finding a streaming device that doesn't have to be run through Sony servers. Will keep at two stars because it still plays Blu-ray disks.

***
Updating after six months of use: This unit is okay. It'll still randomly stop working but not with as much frequency as in the beginning. I did follow the recommendations in the comment under this review. Updating to two stars. If the remote were always responsive, it'd be 4 stars as it does what it should, otherwise.

***

Unfortunately, this turned out not to be a great purchase. At first, just the remote would randomly stop working - buttons would not respond and a re-start at the box would get things going again. Now it's pretty constant, and the on/off button on the box won't respond either. After streaming a show on Amazon, for example, the screen goes black, all buttons stop responding, and the box has to be shut down at the power strip. Disappointing waste of money, and I just discovered that I've missed the return window by ONE day. Figures! I've had good luck with refurbished products in the past, but not this time.
2822011
Streaming still skips once in awhile.  Overall much better than the firestick.
1553602
I'm of a mixed opinion with this player. On the one hand, most of the time, it performs well. About 80% of the time, after turning it on, i can flick over to Amazon videos, Youtube, Hulu, etc.

But sometimes it doesn't let me do that, telling me "System time updating, please wait." This is a bad message, because even if you wait an hour, you will get the same message. The only solution is to turn it off, then back on again.

The problem there is, once you turn it off, it seems to ignore the remote for about fifteen minutes. I suppose this may be a feature to prevent children from frying the player by tapping buttons on the remote repeatedly, but it's really annoying when all you want to do at the end of a rough day is watch something from your couch. Nope, you've got to get up and turn it on manually now. And then hopefully it'll work.

So far it works flawlessly as a blu-ray player. I can't argue with that. But it's rather shamefully unreliable as an internet media device. If I'd been able to try this unit out before buying it, I definitely wouldn't buy it.
4053314
Lives up to the specs, but for some reason, any time I use OBS, be it for streaming on PC (completely unrelated to Elgato), the HDMI pass through stops working every time until I unplug the USB and plug it back in. I have come up with a work around for this where the USB is at the front of my case. I also have been getting game cut outs, but that could be because of many other things in my setup, so I'll refrain from giving it a one or two star, but the HDMI pass through thing kind of sucks to the point of giving it a 3 star.
119340
This is a sweet device...haven't found anything about the device...except the non-standard USB connection that I don't like.  However, the cinema plugin that allows you to play DVD VOB files directly works great on the device, but lacks a LOT when you export it to a tv...the music is jumpy and the video is "wavy" for lack of a better term.  The DVR station is a joke.  Without a demodulator...it can't control which station it is on...so if I am passing the video through a VCR or a Cable box...I have to make sure the it is ON and on the right channel or when the 605 goes to record...or it won't record the right program.  So what if in the middle of the night I want to record two shows on different stations...I'm out of luck unless I set my alarm for 5am and get up to change the channel on the VCR...this is so fundamental...why hasn't Archos thought of this...maybe they have and this is their way of pushing purchases through their content portal?  The shoddy Vob playing on tv is the most annoying....to make me pay more for a plugin that doesn't function right really peaves me.  The unit is great...but don't let your expectations get too high when it comes to recording tv shows and such...it lacks some here.
4520589
No audio out and display port make this monitor a bit limited on ports, but the really for people who are running more then one input into this device is where things can get annoying. The clunckly menu and buttons make it a annoying process to switch inputs, which I do frequently. I ended up investing in a switch just because of how annoying it was.
1043814
I purchased this player about 6 months ago mainly to play Blu-rays, DVD's, and Netflix streaming. I didn"t know at the time that it doesn't support Amazon streaming or I might have thought twice about buying it. The setup was super easy and the interface was OK. There are way too many useless apps that the average user probably don't need or want in my opinion. After having the player about 1 month, I noticed a lot of rebuffering and losing connection with Netflix. Very irritating. I was using the wireless connection so I thought maybe something was wrong with my internet speed. I have cable broadband connection. So I ran some tests to verifiy my speed and it was where it was supposed to be. Next I hooked the player up directly to the router using the wired setting. Same rebuffering problems. I have a Sony streaming player in a different room from the router and it works perfectly. Laptop streams perfectly. I did some additional research which I should have done before purchasing this device, a lot of other folks were complaining about freeze ups if you're watching a movie and if you hit the "stop" or "pause" at any time during the movie, the device will start to freeze up at four minute intervals. I tested this out on my device and sure enough that's exactly was happened. You won't get the freezing if you watch a movie all the way through. What the hell is that! Apparently Samsung is aware of the problem but there doesn't seem to be a fix for it. I however have found my own fix by purchasing another Sony brand Blu ray streaming player to replace this junk. I won't be purchasing any Samsung TV's or players in the future. I very strongly recommend that you stay away from this device.
4737849
I bought this device hoping to use it along with two (and probably eventually more) Omni S2 satellite speakers to play music all around my house and for the audio for TV & videos.  My music collection is on a Windows PC.  So I hoped to connect the TV to the soundbar via the optical connection and the Windows PC via the 3.5mm cable.  Internet radio was a tertiary, but useful application.  There are several flaws that prevented this from working and I had to return it.

First the sound quality is pretty good, though I'd have to say it didn't knock my socks off, and I think you could find better sound in other hardware at a better price.

2) The multi-room wifi feature ONLY works when you stream audio from an Android or Apple phone or tablet.  If you play audio via either the optical or wired connections, it ONLY goes to the soundbar and not to the satellite speakers.  So this means that my hope of playing music from my music collection to the Omni S2 speakers was impossible.  So much for "whole house", multi-room sound!

3) There is no Windows app to stream music from a PC.  The closest thing to that would be setting up a DLNA music server on the PC and playing tunes from it on the Polk phone app.  And it HAS to be a DLNA server, not a shared network drive or Amazon music library.

4) So the only way to stream music to all the speakers is from a phone/tablet.  And the app is really weak and clumsy.  You can read what others have to say about it -- no Spotify, crude controls, crashes, it only does the simplest tasks.  And a little side note, if I'm streaming some music from my phone and then go to the grocery store (with my phone), the music stops.  A little annoying to my wife.  I don't think Sonos does this -- I think it continues playing.