| | |  | PC-to-TV Converters | Home » » » » D-Link DPG-1200 PC-on-TV 802.11g Media Player | | | | | | | Description: | | D-Link DPG-1200 PC-on-TV 802.11g Media Player | | | Features: | |
• The PC-on-TV takes care of file formats by simply streaming the file playing on your PC to your big screen TV2
• With multiple video outputs to choose from, the PC-on-TV can connect to almost any TV.
• The PC-on-TV allows you to connect to a network- enabled computer located in a different part of the house
• Navigate around your screen with the trackball and get exactly where you want to go on your PC like you would with your mouse
• The D-Link PC-on-TV Media Player lets you use your television to watch movies, view photos and listen to music that are playing on your desktop
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 7.75 inches | | Product Width:
| 4.75 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.25 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.8 pounds | | Package Length:
| 10.8 inches | | Package Width:
| 8.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 11 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 11 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 Doesn't Work w/ Media Center. Failure of a Good Idea.Apr 04, 2008
By P. Colin McGraw
"AV, Computer & EnviroTech Nut"
I have been patiently waiting for this device for about a year and, unfortunately, I came out disappointed. My hope was that I'd finally have a device to stream ripped DVD's (.vob files) and recorded TV shows through the Windows Vista Media Center interface, and this device couldn't cut it.
My experience started out bleakly: the setup wizard didn't work, and I spent about an hour on the phone with (fairly knowledgeable) tech support getting the device to the point that it could connect to my wireless N router. For those who care, the configuration involved switching to WPA TKIP only security. The part that really stings about this is that the router, a DIR-655, is also made by D-Link, the same manufacturer as the DPG-1200. Ironically my other wireless devices (e.g. an Apple TV) had no problem connecting to the network.
After slogging through just connecting to the network, the disappointment really came. When trying to display content from Windows Media Center, I found that if the interface wasn't maximized, the content would play alright for awhile, but when maximized, the TV screen went totally black, with only sound being broadcast.
To top things off, the display was pretty choppy and the thing disconnects every 30 seconds or so and eventually gets to the point where it can't reconnect without closing and reopening the PC-to-TV application on your computer. This last problem could probably be solved after a bit of troubleshooting with tech support, but the incompatibility with Media Center and full-screen video from the Media Center interface is a real deal killer.
Other gripes include the inclusion of only an RCA cable instead of the higher-quality component video, the inability to fully utilize my 52" LCD TV (there's a 6-inch black border around the TV display without fiddling with settings) and the device's maximum output of only SD quality (a bummer for video, and a difficulty when trying to read text, which is important if you're using your TV as a wireless PC monitor).
The bottom line is that if the device worked with Media Center and didn't drop the connection every thirty seconds, the other limitations could be overlooked to make this bleeding-edge device a mild success, but until a PC-to-TV device comes out that meets the basic requirements of working reliably with Windows Media Center and displaying .vob movies full-screen, then my recommendation is to pass on purchasing.
To be fair, though, I ordered the very day this thing came out, so I have v1.0 firmware and such. Hopefully some of the problems I mentioned will improve with time.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Great idea but I would buy something else right nowAug 13, 2009
By Randy K
I've been looking for something to let me watch my mp4 video collection on TV for some time and in the last year there have been a number of products introduced. When I was at Fry's I saw this on sale for $99 so I decided to give it a try.
I was able to get it set up and working with no problems on my wireless network (I work in IT and can generally get stuff working) but I have two major complaints. First, I was using this on an older 32" TV. The PC-on-TV left a 1.5" black band around the picture so I was getting the equivalent of a 28" TV screen. When I checked in the FAQ it said I needed to set my TV to autoscaling to eliminate this. The TV is ~5 years old and doesn't have autoscaling.
The second problem I consider a bigger issue. PC-on-TV only works with a few media players that are based on DirectDraw rather than DirectShow. Since the menu system on the PC-on-TV is pretty poor I wanted to run Windows Media Player or MediaPortal on my PC so my wife and kids would have an elegant, easy to use interface. No such luck. In another generation or two I expect these devices will be much easier to use and have a much better menu systems. For now, the USB hard drive based systems that are coming out are much better (I bought a Western Digital WD TV to replace this ... works much, much better).
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
poor quality, does not work as advertisedMay 22, 2009
By Toby Kehn
I decided to ignore the poor reviews I had read on this product and purchase it anyway. The quick user guide completely skipped the first screens in the install. The image on the TV was not acceptable using the supplied cable, so I used a component cable I had. The image quality still was quite poor. I selected the video mode and attempted to play a video. The player showed but with a black screen although I could hear the audio. I tried all the connections on the device and I was unable to ever produce video on my TV. In short this is a useless product that does not deliver.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 How to use this product correctly.Mar 28, 2011
By Donald J. Murray
I first tried this product using a laptop with 802.11g. I was streaming video from various sites on the internet (watching movies) and then putting them in fullscreen mode. I experimented with photo and video mode. Video mode is lower resolution.
Now, using the 802.11g on my laptop and 802.11g on the device, on an 802.11b/g/n network (My router is a DIR-655).
This resulted in choppy video. The audio was fine, but the video wasn't.
Eventually, I realized that the video streaming to my laptop and then the screen being streamed to the device was just too much bandwidth. This is why the video is choppy (as seen in many reviews).
The solution is to increase the bandwidth of your laptop/PC. So, I hooked up ethernet to my laptop and turned off the wifi card and lo and behold, in video mode only, the quality was quite good. No choppy video. It worked great!!!!
Now, one weird thing that happened is the dlink software turned on the 802.11g card even though I had ethernet installed. I don't know why and have sent an email to them to figure out why. I hope that everything just works through the network and there isn't anything prioritized connecting directly to the DPG box.
Because of the weird thing above, I do not know if replacing my 802.11g card with an 802.11n card will also fix the problem with choppy video. A USB 802.11n card may fix it. So, thats my next experiment when I get a chance.
It isn't convenient for me to hook ethernet directly to my laptop as it isn't normally close to my router.
Note that since the problem is related to bandwidth on the laptop, hooking the DPG to ethernet is unlikely to fix the problem (but you never know).
The second problem with this device is that when the software runs, it redirects the audio to it's own driver, and you lose audio on your PC, but a convenient solution is to install a free utility called STADS that places a widget on the toolbar that allows you to redirect audio to your laptop's speakers. Note that when you do this, you may need to restart your browser as when software runs, it picks it's audio driver at startup, so you need to restart some software (like youtube). I've found that restarting the browser is the easiest solution.
Fortunately, the remote control on this device can select photo or video mode with a single button. This is very convenient. I was able to handle SXGA quite comfortably for non-video work and I suspect with higher bandwidth, if you run a video on your PC (not streaming from the web) that it might even work in photo mode (higher resolution). I don't know yet.
Also note that even when video is jittery, it is watchable. The software seems to skip frames automatically....so rather than jitter, you see bad sync between audio and video and some jerky movements on the screen, but the video itself isn't noisy or anything.
I also have encountered that when you connect and disconnect a bunch of times to the DPG, it can become hung and needs to be power cycled to fix. I can live with that.
For the price (I got it for $72 from Frys), it's pretty darn good.
Note that the remote also has a pop-up keyboard on the screen and can also be used like a phone to enter alphanumerics. There are some other nice features, such as the down arrow will go from one to the next search result on google and hitting enter will select that result....so you can browse the web from your TV.
Is slower than typing, but isn't bad.
I recommend this product. The only other product I've seen kind of like this is made by internetVue, where it uses your existing wireless network (which is the way it should work).
Note that it doesn't support windows 7 yet....or linux.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Dont buy if you run Win 7.Jul 24, 2010
By Cicely Lux
I was all excited when i saw this product. I have a desktop and laptop that have Windows 7 on them and wanted to use the Media Center to watch my stuff on my TV vs the Computers. This device is acentially a wi-fi router for your tv so you can use the wifi sytems to link to it and so you computer stuff on the TV. Problem is when I went to my local Fry's store and bought it they negelected to realize it doesnt work with Widows 7. When i got it all set up and tried to install it on my Laptop and Desktop I couldnt get the software installed. After several calls to the company I finally got fed up and returned it to the store i bought it at and was told by a salesman in a different section of the store that no it would not work for Win 7 and i would have to pay almost $300 for something that would do what i wanted with Win 7. If you have an earlier version of Windows then you might have better luck than i did but if you have Widows 7, Dont bother it wont work and the customer service wont be any better.
See all 11 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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