Description: The CinemaTube is a basic media player that can play movies and music stored on Networked PCs or connected USB Hard Drives or flash drives on a home theatre via either RCA or HDMI cables. It also has a built-in Torrent client which allows up to 3 simultaneous Torrent downloads. 

Manufacturer Specs: http://www.i-play.com.au/brite-view.php or http://www.brite-view.com/. 

Warranty: 12 months 

Community Support & forums: http://www.brite-viewforum.com/ 

Likes:

• No media server application required on networked PCs. It can browse network shares.
• It can be connected via Cat5 cable to your home network or alternatively wirelessly with the WL-6203 Wireless USB module (not included) or I also found that the Xtreamer XM11N Wireless USB module works fine. 

Dislikes:

• No music navigation such as the ability to search by song title, artist or genre on networked drives. Playlists can be created but only on connected hard drives, not on network drives. 

Bottom Line: Simple and easy to use. The remote control performance is much better than the Xtreamer and it’s cheaper, but it doesn’t do as much stuff as the Xtreamer. This one is the best choice if you’re mainly interested in streaming movies from networked PCs to your home theatre system and don’t need it to do anything else. On that basis it’s fantastic. 

Ensure the latest firmware version available from http://www.brite-view.com/support.php is installed. I did experience some choppiness in the streaming quality with the older firmware version that the unit came with which was fixed with the update.

Price: RRP $145

Where to buy:
ZM5005HD Media Player –  http://shop.ozcableguy.com/detail.asp?product=ZM5005HD.
WL-6203 Wireless USB Module – http://shop.ozcableguy.com/detail.asp?product=WL-6203
Combo – http://shop.ozcableguy.com/detail.asp?product=ZM5005HDC

Description: The XM2500 is a device that can stream media from Networked PCs and Hard Drives, connected USB Hard Drives or flash drives or an internal 2.5” SATA Hard Drive (not included) to a home theatre via either RCA or HDMI cables.

Manufacturer Specs: http://www.i-play.com.au/xtreamer.php or http://www.xtreamer.net/xtreamer/overview.aspx. 

Warranty: 12 months 

Community Support & forums: http://forum.xtreamer.net/ 

Likes:

• No media server application required on networked PCs. It can browse network shares.
• A 2.5” SATA Hard Drive can be fitted inside to use as storage. (Click here for list of compatible drives).
• You can change the skin. Click here for the skin wiki to check them out.
• It can play live internet content.
• It can be connected via Cat5 cable to your home network or alternatively wirelessly with the XM11N Wireless USB module (not included). I used the XM11N module and it performed flawlessly connected to a Draytek 2710Vn. No problems streaming big movies at all.
• When using the fast forward button the sound keeps playing without distortion or changing pitch. This was a huge amount of fun for my pre-teen kids playing music videos at faster speeds until they hyperventilated and collapsed on the floor.

Dislikes:

• No music navigation such as the ability to search by song title, artist or genre on networked drives. Hopefully the Music Jukebox feature to be added in a future firmware release will improve this situation. In the meantime you may need to break music down into smaller folders, perhaps by artist or genre, to make browsing easier. However, if you want to play a particular song, another option is to play it live from Youtube which does have a search feature.
• I’m not stoked with the remote control performance. It works ok but it seems to be very directional. I found I needed to point the remote control directly at the unit for it to work reliably.
• The onscreen keyboard used for Internet searches and entering wireless security settings is in QWERTY format rather than ABCDEF etc. It’s a personal preference I guess but I’d much rather see it in alphabetical order when scrolling and clicking letters onscreen using the remote control’s left, right, up and down buttons.
• Once or twice while I was clicking madly through screens it froze up and/or rebooted. The freezes required pulling the power out of the back or switching it off and back on at the wall because there’s no physical on/off button on the unit.
• There’s no Aussie weather or news available in the Live Internet Content. What is there is extremely cool though and it kept me amused and amazed for many hours.

Bottom Line: It’s cheap as chips and does the job well. Much better in fact than many more expensive media players I’ve tested. 

Price: RRP $165

Where to buy:
XM2500 Media Player – http://shop.ozcableguy.com/detail.asp?product=XM2500.
XM11N Wireless USB Module – http://shop.ozcableguy.com/detail.asp?product=XM11N
Combo – http://shop.ozcableguy.com/detail.asp?product=XM2500C

For alternative products check out the Draytek range, the Billion BiGuard series and Cyberoam and D-Link NetDefend products found in the Security Appliances category in the online shop.

Here’s a quick feature comparison of the main contenders (hopefully reasonably accurate) -

I’m also considering adding IPTV but I think by the time I get to that one it will be a fairly standard feature across the board anyway.

Another one could be IPv6 but because Internode is the only ISP offering it at this stage, the router manufacturers aren’t in a big rush to add it. The only routers I know supporting it so far are higher end products like McAfee, Cisco (not the cheap stuff so far), Nortel etc.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

The main reason behind the change is I feel that the OzTechnologies name is too generic with over 30 other Australian business with similar names including a couple of direct competitors, so I’m often asked about pickups at our shops in other cities. (We only have the one office in Brisbane that ships Australia wide).

I also find a lot of people don’t realise that the two websites are related.

The OzCableguy name on the other hand is unique, has been around for a lot longer and is much better recognised.

The existing OzTechnologies online shopping website will continue to function for a while yet but eventually will change to redirect to the new location at http://shop.ozcableguy.com.

All other details including our ABN, address and telephone numbers remain unchanged.

Possibly the biggest news is a massive price drop in both the SG580 & SG720 models and a new model called the SG560U coming out in the next few weeks with a USB port reported to have the same capabilities as the USB ports on the SG565. This will include support for many USB ADSL modems, hard drives, printers and now also with 3G modem support (although a list of supported modems is yet to be published).

Update:  Correction on the SG560U USB port. Apparently it will only do web caching (for the Squid Proxy) and 3G. No Printer and Hard Drive file sharing.

Support & warranty options: Each router comes with 12 months support and advanced replacement warranty included. This can be extended with the purchase of “1yr Gold Software Support & RMA Hardware Support extension” renewable up to 5 years. For pricing and ordering, type the router name into the search box at OzTechnologies.

Web Filtering Subscription: 12 month web filtering subscriptions (Webwasher) are available for each product. Click here for more information or punch the router name into the search box at OzTechnologies for pricing.

TrustedSource subscription: Enhanced security. Click here for more information or type the router name into the search box at OzTechnologies for pricing or to order.

McAfee UTM Firewall Control Center (Ughh… American spelling): Central management for multiple routers. Licenses are available for 25, 250, 750 or unlimited appliances with optional annual support renewals termed “1yr Gold Software Support extension”.
Click here for more information (PDF).
Click here for pricing from OzTechnologies.

Replacement Power Supplies are also available. Click here for pricing from OzTechnologies.

Click here for McAfee’s product range overview (PDF) with some great feature comparison tables to make product selection easier.
Click here for the OzCableguy review summaries.
Note: I have updated the product images on the websites to show the new McAfee badged versions but most products purchased at the moment will still be wearing the old Snapgear logos.

SMC have been around for as long as I can remember but with limited exposure in Australia since the days of the incredibly popular 7004ABR, which at the time offered an almost unheard of feature set for an amazingly low price. SMC continue that tradition today with some great niche products as well as more popular feature sets at very competitive prices.

Check out the OzCableguy review database for feature summaries of the current routers and ADSL modems.

Click here for case design and physical features.
Click here for some of the configuration menus and software features.

Models will be:

Vigor2710 non-wireless ADSL modem/router. RRP $219.95
Vigor2710n 802.11n wireless ADSL modem/router. RRP $329.95
To be announced yet is the 2710Vn incorporating 802.11n wireless and VoIP hardware.

The 2710n will also be available with 5 & 7 dbi antenna upgrades as well as a combo with an N61 802.11n USB adapter.

Once officially released, this link will show prices and availability at OzTechnologies. (If still not released you’ll just see a message saying “Sorry, we found no text in our product details to match your search”)

Also to be released shortly are non-ADSL modem versions (ie to suit Cable or an external bridged ADSL modem) are the 2110 series.

Vigor2110 non-wireless router. RRP $229.95
Vigor2110n 802.11n wireless router. RRP $319.95
I’d also expect a 2110Vn model with VoIP and 802.11n wireless but there’s no word about that one at this stage.

The wireless models will also be available with the same antenna upgrades and N61 combos as the 2710 series.
 This link will show prices and availability at OzTechnologies as soon as they’re available.

Update: If all goes to plan the ETAs should be as follows -

2110 & 2710 - late January
2110n & 2710n – early Feb
2110Vn & 2710Vn – (hopefully) late Feb

Billion have 4 new models due out December and January. All are new versions of the popular 7404VGPM and 7404VGOM wireless VoIP ADSL modem/routers to include support for USB 3G modems*, and upgrades to giga-switches and 802.11n wireless in the two flagship VNPX & VNOX models.

	Billion 7404VGPX 4 Port 802.11G Wireless ADSL Modem/Router with 3G modem support* & VoIP	RRP $299.00   Click here for my price.
	Billion 7404VGOX 4 Port 802.11G Wireless ADSL Modem/Router with 3G modem support* & VoIP + VPN	RRP $379.00   Click here for my price.
	Billion 7404VNPX 4 x 10/100/1000 Port 802.11N Wireless ADSL Modem/Router with 3G modem support* & VoIP	RRP $479.00   Click here for my price.
	Billion 7404VNOX 4 x 10/100/1000 Port 802.11N Wireless ADSL Modem/Router with 3G modem support* & VoIP + VPN	RRP $529.00   Click here for my price.

* Click here for 3G modem compatibility list (not all 3G modems are compatible)