QNAP NMP-1000 media streamer

QNAP's NMP-1000 is a media streamer that benefits from the company’s extensive experience in network-attached storage, offering a variety of backup and archiving options.

Made with the same high quality plastics as QNAP’s TS-439 Pro and TS-809 Pro, the NMP-1000 is both unobtrusive and stylish with a glossy black finish and dark silver accents. The remote control is not as fantastic, though, and its control scheme leaves a little to be desired; the pause button is a fair distance from the OK/play button, for example.

When it comes to connecting to your TV and other devices, the QNAP NMP-1000 covers its bases adequately. An HDMI port is the one you’re most likely to be using to connect to your flat-screen television, but if you’ve got an older screen you’ll be pleased to see composite, component and S-Video connectors; there’s no VGA connector. It has two host USB ports and a Gigabit Ethernet jack. You can also connect it directly to a PC via the third USB port or eSATA (though using these connectors causes the NMP-1000 to function purely as an external hard drive).

The QNAP NMP-1000 has a simple interface. A preview screen takes up most of the interface, and you can browse media files by type (video, music or photos). There’s also a settings menu that lets you adjust video and audio options, along with a series of options that allow connection to remote hard drives and SMB shares over the network for remote file backup. The interface is quick and switching between menus is a breeze.

When it comes down to actually playing media files, the QNAP NMP-1000 acquits itself well. It can function purely as a media streamer grabbing files off the network, but it has a 3.5in hard drive bay that will support a drive of up to 2TB. The NMP-1000 media streamer supports file types ranging from regular MPEG to XviD, H.264 and VC1 high-definition codecs. Audio file support is equally strong, with the player supporting FLAC file playback — so you can enjoy your lossless music collection.

Video playback was as good as from any other media streamer we’ve tested: our high-definition test samples were rendered accurately and displayed plenty of detail when we used the HDMI port. Lower-resolution DVD-quality videos and files tended to be slightly soft; the upside of this is that any compression artefacts in the video won't be as apparent.

If you’re looking for a media player that can also be used to back up files, we're happy to recommend QNAP’s NMP-1000.

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