Rating: 
Summary: It rocks!
Review:
I have the Streamium MC-i250 and people who come over are always amazed at the sound quality. It plays CDs and MP3s and pretty much any streaming radio station straight from the Internet.
Rating: 
Summary: a clarification
Review: ... WEP keys don't have to have letters, they can be all numbers. However, the Streamium DOES allow you to enter WEP keys with letters or even capital letters. (Using your remote, cycle through the first set of letters to see the uppercase set. Unfortunately, its lower case and upper case do look a lot alike.)Also, I will confirm that the initial firmware upgrade seems to abort early. If you retry it, it will get farther into the upgrade before aborting. After a couple of times, it gets the whole thing. Awkward? Yes. But if you know it's coming, you won't panic like I did. Again, this product is a little buggy. But you should be able to work past the bugs quickly if you know what's coming. I'm now enjoying it bug-free. Too bad Philips doesn't have a better support web site. Finally, I do have a 128-bit WEP key working.
Rating:
Summary: only positive impression so far
Review: got this system couple of days ago. didn't have any problems with setting it up. have to note that for now i'm using wired setup with static ip. everything is working as described (except maybe for that internet clock, or at least i wasn't able to find how to set it up) as was mentioned in one of the reviews here, they are using MusicMatch Jukebox as a software that allows you to play music files from you computer. but reviewer complained that it's an older version. i went to musicmatch.com got the latest version (8.2) and there is an option to run it as a server for philips streamium. not sure if this was present in the older versions, but my point is that you don't have to use their older version. so far, i'm very pleased and excited about this product. the idea is great and can't complain much about implementaion. online updates/upgrades is a great feature. the quality of sound for some online radio stations is not very good, but it has more to do with the stations themselves and not with this unit. to sum up: for less then 300$ - you're getting a shelf system that does more then you could wish for.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product but Lousy Support and False Advertising
Review: I always buy products after reading customer reviews. After reading a few reviews and spending a few days weighing price/features, I decided to buy this product. I noticed that you cannot get a better price than what you are getting through Amazon.com I received the unit on Wednesday (02/04/04). Excitedly I opened the box and started setting it up. I have a wireless and wired network at home. First, I tried it with wireless connection through my Microsoft MN-700 802.11G Base Station using 128-bit WEP key. To those who think the key is key sensitive, I am a network engineer and know for a fact that it's NOT. It's a hexadecimal number (not text) and numbers are not case sensitive. (Makes sense?). Also, if you remember entering the long key on the unit, you will know that it doesn't give you any option to change case. To cut the story short, I was not able to get this unit to communicate with my base station wireless and I didn't try without encryption because I don't want to run an unsecured wireless network just for this unit. I connected the RJ-45 and it connected to the network without problem. Here comes the problem: To those who said that it updated software/firmware in a flash, I think my unit was clearly defective. It went into a loop where it would try to upgrade software and would fail sometimes at 0%, other times it would go up to 5% or 15%. I've never seen it go more than 15%. After that it would just give me a message saying "Upgrade Failed" and then tell me "Your set will now reboot". Automatically reboots and then start upgrading all over again - going into an endless loop that can only be stopped by unplugging the power cable from the back because while it upgrades, remote control or buttons won't work. ... If you have basic technical know-how, this product is great. Though I was not able to see how it streams through the Internet, I like the product overall. That's why I am not going to return it for a refund but instead for a replacement. Word of caution for new buyers: User Manual or Guide is useless. You must have basic technical skills to get it working. There is no section that describes how to set up PC-Link or what needs to be checked when it doesn't work. This is high-quality product with low-quality support and documentation. If you can handle the support part yourself, buy it! If not, stay away! -----------------
Update 02/12/2004
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I received my replacement unit from Amazon yesterday which connected to the Internet and updated its software on the first attempt and in less than 1 minute. Clearly the old unit was defective. ... "Automatically sets the clock on the display to the local tima via the internet." Ignore the typos on their website but anyone can clearly understand that what the above statement means is that unit can connect to a time-server and automatically update time (just like Windows XP). User Guide doesn't even talk about anything that comes even close to what the above statement declares. All it shows or is how to set up time manually. This unit has been connected to the Internet for the past 12+ hours and so far the time shows as --:--. It's not a big deal for me but it shows how falsely Philips is trying to sell this product for a high price so people will compare this against other systems and falsely think that it has unearthly features for a boom box which in fact it doesn't. ...
Rating:
Summary: It delivered
Review: I had been waiting a year to buy this, hestitating because I was worried about lack of promotion by Philips and about some mixed consumer reviews. I'm glad to say that while there are some kinks, I'm overwhelmingly pleased with my new stereo. Some comments (sorry if they're cryptic; if you've read other customer comments, you'll probably understand it all): Pros:
-- The sound is great. Bass is surprising, and adding a subwoofer gave me an ever richer sound
-- The internet radio runs smoothly and sounds very good. I use this feature the most. Love the variety.
-- Setup was generally glitch-free, and yes, I got the wireless encryption to work.
-- Yes, you CAN set up more internet radio stations than current Philips providers. They must be MP3 streaming stations, though. Cons:
-- Older version of Musicmatch required. (I haven't checked out another user's claim that you can use a newer version.)
-- The wireless encryption did not work first time around. Customer support suggested I start the setup over. I was skeptical, but it worked. But it shouldn't be like that.
-- No support for rights-managed music (songs you buy and download from the services). Or for wma or aac formats in general.
-- I'm nervous about Philips' commitment to this product. Who should buy it?
-- If you want a new shelf system, go for it. If you have very good stereo equipment already, there may be better alternatives. Although I'm not aware of many that will do a better job with internet radio.
-- You are comfortable with setting up/maintaining a home network or with learning the details of doing so.
-- You are not a mac user. Sorry charlie. No support there. Take solace in the iPod.
Rating:
Summary: Some problems, but worth the money
Review: I just installed this device a few hours ago, and here are my impressions. Cons: Looks that it does not work with Wep, or at least I couldn't figure it out. I am currently connected with no Wep key. I will try to figure out how to make it work next week. Documentation is pretty lame. To connect the device to the network, you need to have some basics in wifi and home networking Pros: Once you have it installed, that baby rocks. I am truly impressed. Sound quality is very good (but I am not an expert). The interface to the streaming music is very intuitive and easy to navigate. You can choose between several online radio services - MP3.com, yahoo, live365, RadioVirgin,... There is no way to listen to real audio or Windows Media streaming radio though (I would love to see this happen). The integration with the my.philips web site adds a lot to the good experience. You go to the site, setup your favorites and automatically they appear on your radio. Very cool. Streaming quality is excellent. My radio is playing for a few hours already, and there was not a single glitch/buffering/hiccup. Overall very happy.
Rating:
Summary: Nice and easy to handle
Review: I just received my MC-i250. The setup was very easy with my WLAN router using the 128-bit WEP encryption key and SSID. The unit immediately connected to my network and downloaded the firmware upgrade. I had some trouble receiving the registration email, but that was just because my email server filtered it out as spam. Once registered, I could enter my personal radio stations on the WEB and update the time setting via the Internet. The unit connected and played the stations properly. Sound quality is excellent, especially the wOOx bass enhancement feature is a great experience. The only unfortunate thing is that the CD player in the unit I received is broken. I called Philips customer service who suggested to return the unit rather than repair it. Very courteous and fast response though. I will now see how well the replacement procedure works. Overall, I can recommend this item.
Rating:
Summary: Best in Class
Review: I looked for quite a while before I leaped and the previous reviews were very helpful. I actually have two MCi250's and they are both working great off the same PC as server. One is ethernet wired to the network, the other off a Netgear b/g WLAN. The wired version was piece of cake to hook up and had no problems with the firmware update or setting the clock. Using Musicmatch 8.2 with the "Streamium" option checked as others described. Did have some problems getting the other hooked up as wireless to work with 128-bit encryption, but after setting it up without any encryption and getting the firmware updated (again no problem) was able to turn back on 128-bit and after the tedious process of entering the key with the remote again got it up first time. Note there ARE both small and capitals of the alphabet when entering the key and despite others on this site swearing it doesn't matter or that Alphanumeric means only numbers, it does matter what case the letters are in. All that being said, these are great little stereos, the WOOX sounds good, the PC-Link and Internet usually works fine and they are a great value.
Rating:
Summary: Great Kitchen Radio
Review: I ordered the Philips MCi250 Micro HiFi System, because my wife wanted to listen to her MP3 playlists in the kitchen, not at the computer. I had a terrible time setting up the wireless network, but after I figured out that the WEP-key is case sensitive, I got everything to work. The system connected via my router to the web and automatically upgraded its firmware. Then I entered my e-mail and got access to my device on the MyPhilips.com website. You can set up multiple users that also appear on the display. In addition, you can select various Internet radio stations per user. Also, if you insert a regular CD, the system goes to the Internet and looks up the Gracenote database to give you all the information about the CD as you are playing it. The Musicmatch based PC-link works great, but there is no way to configure the device from my PC and also the Musicmatch software is a custom version that is several versions behind the current release. The Rockford Omnifi products provide a much better PC Interface and networking setup.
For technology freaks I can certainly recommend this radio, as the firmware can be upgraded and the sound is great.
Rating:
Summary: Works fine, sound is great but poor documentation.
Review: I received my stereo today and I got it working in little under half an hour using WEP encryption. Several people seem to have problems with the WEP key issue. Please keep in mind that the key is case sensitive, meaning that if your wireless router's WEP keys are set using capital letters, you must use captial letters while programming the MC-i250. Unfortunately this is not explained well at all in the instructions. I cannot comment on Philip's tech support as I have not needed to call them yet. Sound is good as far as bookshelf systems go. While the choice of actual internet stations is rather limited, the range of music played within those stations is adequate. As for the MusicMatch software, remember to NOT download the Philips edition of MusicMatch from the Philips website. All you should need is to download the latest version of MusicMatch from the MusicMatch website and you are good to go. For MusicMatch version 8.2 go to the "settings" in the "options" menu, hit the "CD Lookup/Connectivity" tab, then activate "enable music server" and "Philips Streamium". Your PClink should work fine after that. This is where not only the documentation but also support falls short. So to sum it up, this is a great system but the manual is lacking. Just remember those two fixes listed above and all should be well.
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