Xtreamer SideWinder3 Review

There’s also an Android app to control the Xtreamer but we faced all sorts of disconnection problems while we used it over WiFi, on a Samsung Galaxy Note. It would connect at times, then disconnect and sometimes not react to the commands and not list folders and files. All other activity over the network seemed fine, on both the Xtreamer and other network devices on the network.

Includes all the features you'd ever need from a media player

The Xtreamer SideWinder3 also has support for Airplay and DLNA, which means you can stream content from a variety of devices. Like other Xtreamer devices, you also get access to a web interface using which you can easily control the player as well as copy content to and from it. There’s even the ability to upload files to the player. So, the Xtreamer also acts as a proper NAS device. Data is also accessible through the Windows shares.

Another feature that is rarely found on other HD media players is the ability to download BitTorrent content directly to the device. There’s a web interface for the transmission as well.

User interface and controls

The Xtreamer SideWinder3 is a feature-rich product with a lot of capabilities, but it’s not very impressive when it comes to the user interface and controls. For one, the controls aren’t very responsive so even basic tasks such as moving from one menu to another takes a second or so. The interface isn’t very intuitive either. For example, the main menu doesn’t have direct links to wide media categories such as movies, music, photos, etc. Instead, there are links to data sources, favourites, apps, etc. To play movies or other media, one needs to browse through a data source (an external drive or an internal one), and then select the folder and click on the media. Within the sources is a seperate option to do this. The simplest way would be to directly jump into videos, music or photos.

Not the best looking home screen, on a media player

Further, all the content, by default, is shown as file names and not by the artist name or the movie name. A media player needs to be really simple and make things as simple as possible. All these small things add up to a bit of a mess. The audio player for example looks like a media player made for a PC screen, a more simplistic interface with visualisations for example would have been better. There are a bunch of spelling mistakes and graphics glitches that are visible too. For example, certain features that need to be installed separately still show up in the navigational menus. We’re not saying it doesn’t work fine, it just doesn't feel and look as nice as it should.

Performance

The Xtreamer SideWinder3 might have its glitches and bugs, but there’s no denying its ability to play pretty much every format in the book. MKV, M2TS, 1080p, 1080p at 60fps is all playable, and very smoothly. We even tried fast-forwarding 720p content and it did it perfectly. Fast-forwarding of 1080p, 60fps content isn’t as smooth though. When it comes to audio, FLAC files aren’t a problem either. 

Various features on the device can be toggled

The product heats up a bit after long hours of usage, but that’s also contributed by the internal hard drive that you install on the player. We did notice some bugs while using the product. The screen for example, would suddenly go blank randomly. Hard reboots were required at times. We upgraded the firmware and that didn’t fix the problems either. 

Verdict

A solid product with a lot of potential

The Xtreamer SideWinder3 is a great product when it comes to features. It has all the ingredients that should ideally make it one of the best multimedia playback solutions around, but the interface, the bugs and the poor implementation don’t let it. It’s priced at Rs. 9,999 in India, which isn’t a lot considering what you get for the price. However, you should be willing to live with some of the annoyances that the product comes with. We’re hoping Xtreamer fixes all of the issues in a major, upcoming software update.