LocationFree Player Pak for Macintosh

reviewed by Eddie Hargreaves

Sony is not famous for being Macintosh-friendly. Of course, it's not famous for being friendly with hardly anyone, considering it usually tries to force its proprietary formats on everyone (Betamax, MiniDisc, ATRAC, UMD, copy-protected CDs with rootkits) at the expense of consumer ease-of-use. Its latest venture, LocationFree, is no exception.

LocationFree lets you watch the TV, DVDs or DVR in your home entertainment system on your computer or PSP, whether you're at home or away. Of course, by computer Sony means a PC running Windows 2000 or XP. Thankfully, I-O DATA has stepped in to provide a Mac software solution. Their software package sells on its own for $40 or comes bundled with the LocationFree Player Pak for Macintosh, which costs $309.

The Player Pak contains the hardware, the main part of which is the LocationFree base station. It's a stylish hardware device that would look at home in your entertainment center, and can be connected to a variety of audio visual devices -- a set-top TV tuner, DVD player, and digital video recorder (DVR). It streams the audio and video from those devices to your computer via its built-in wireless transmitter, your local area network (LAN), or the Internet.

Networking is probably the most complicated part of computing for average computer users and since the LocationFree base station and software both rely on networking, setup was not simple. The amount of time it takes you to set it up will depend largely on what type of LAN you have and whether or not your router is UPnP compatible. I eventually succeeded in setting up the base station and the software for both local and remote viewing.

The base station has three AV inputs: VHF/UHF, S-Video and RCA. I used the VHF input to connect to cable television and was able to stream the audio and video to an iBook G4 via our wireless network. The base station also creates its own password-protected wireless network, so you can connect directly to it and not clog your home network.

I found the default quality of the video quite compressed, especially compared to the EyeTV EZ and EyeTV 250 I reviewed earlier this year. The quality can be improved using manual adjustment, but it is done using the oddly-named "Rate" menu.

The software in general does not compare well to Elgato's EyeTV. It uses Windows interface elements like the minimize, maximize and close buttons on the right-hand side of the window. And for a program that is most likely to be used on laptops, it has a dearth of keyboard shortcuts. You cannot change the channel nor (even more egregiously) change the volume using the keyboard. In fact, there's a volume display on the interface that is frustratingly unclickable. There is also no channel auto-detect, no closed captioning, no way to pause or record what you are watching, and no program guide.

One area where the LocationFree experience exceeds EyeTV is the inclusion of an IR blaster. This device is placed near the infrared port of your home entertainment devices, such as a cable set-top box, DVD player, or DVR, and sends the appropriate signal. I-O DATA's LocationFree Player Software has an on-screen "Universal Remote," which means that you tell the software what piece of hardware you've connected to the base station and it displays a remote that matches that hardware. A massive number of devices are supported and I was able to control a Motorola-brand cable box and a TiVo.

LocationFree's major differentiation is stated right in its name, the ability to watch your home content regardless of location. It uses DynamicDNS to allow your computer to remotely access your home base station via the Internet and you must have at least 300kbps-upload speed on your home broadband connection.

Because your Internet connection speed is much slower than your home network speed, the video quality is lower when watching remotely than when watching from your local network. I can't fault Sony or I-O DATA for that for the same reason you can't fault a car for not making a cross-country trip in one tank of gas. But it does negatively affect the user experience.

When you send a command (change to channel 46) from the software program, it goes through your remote Internet connection to your home, then travels through your home network into the LocationFree base station, which sends it out through the IR blaster into the set-top box. The set-top box changes the channel, sending the new video and audio to the base station, back through your home network, out your home Internet connection and up to your remote computer. So there's definitely a lag involved.

Considering that most computers have DVD-playing capabilities, it's questionable why anyone would ever stream one across the Internet to their remote computer. Between that and the slow, sometimes stuttery experience of watching compressed TV, using the LocationFree Player for remote viewing is not particularly impressive.

I-O DATA should be applauded for bringing Macintosh compatibility to this Sony product. It's an affordable software solution for Mac users who own a LocationFree base station. But the Player Pak is not a particularly compelling product unless you also own a PSP or a LocationFree TV. It works, but it doesn't wow.