D-Link DIR-657 is a Media Streaming Router – designed for streaming multiple media content including music, videos and more.

main features:

• Wireless N300 with HD Fuel technology
• Gigabit Ports
• USB port with Shareport technology plus, SDCARD slot
• Green technology and IPv6 ready

Home theater devices including the HDTV (with Ethernet ready), XBOX 360, Blu-Ray player and other streaming adapter (such as Apple TV, Boxee Box and Roku) demand high speed network environment which is capable of providing prioritization for time-sensitive applications traffic over other data traffic. Typically some wireless routers support Wireless Multimedia based Quality of Services (WMM QoS) to provide prioritization for multimedia traffic over the wireless network. D-Link introduces new generation of wireless media streaming router DIR-657 specifically designed for streaming high definition media.

What this Product Does

D-Link DIR-657 wireless media streaming router is powered by the 802.11n technology with single 2.4GHz band. It is powered by the HD Fuel QoS technology to automatically provide bandwidth priority for streaming video traffic, gaming and voice application.

Unfortunately DIR-567 is not designed with dual band technology to include the clean 5GHz band which is less interference than the crowded 2.4GHz band. But D-Link is confident with its HD Fuel QoS technology to assure the jitter-free and lag-free any of HD media streaming, gaming and voice applications. Any streaming media adapter such as Roku XDS, Apple TV and Boxee support 2.4GHz band besides 5GHz band. So the router still supports them all for fast streaming HD media.

Gigabit Ethernet Ports

Click for spec details

For computers with gigabit NIC ready can take advantage of having direct connection to the gigabit port of the router for reliable and high-speed wired connection to support any types of high-speed demand applications. The DIR-567 media streaming router includes four gigabit LAN Ethernet ports as well as gigabit WAN port.

USB & SD-Card Port

Storage is very essential in home theater to storage any types of multimedia data including HD video, music and photos. The DIR-657 streaming router includes one USB port to let you share the storage across the network and ease you stream media from the storage router to the streaming adapter (such as Apple TV, Boxee or Roku), Blu-Ray player or any home theater devices. You can also insert your SD-Card with full images from your camera and stream them to the HDTV.

Not just for shared storage, the USB port can also be used to share the USB printer for accessible by computers on the network eliminating the requirement of wireless print-server.

Connection Diagram

Mostly home wireless network with the wireless router as the center of the network can be setup as shown in the following diagram. DIR-657 streaming media router is connected to the modem to share the internet. With your multiple home theater devices including XBOX, Blu-Ray player with streaming adapter can be connected wirelessly to the network.

DIR-657 Diagram

Pros:

• HD Fuel QoS technology – providing more bandwidth for streaming media and gaming
• Gigabit Ethernet ports for both LAN and WAN Interfaces
• USB port for either shared storage or shared printer

Cons:

• Powered by a single 2.4GHz band

Click here for DIR-567 spec’s details

Alternate Solution

With your existing modem-router, no networking yet – you can implement DAP-1562 HD media streaming kits to connect your home-theater with Ethernet port ready to connect to the network with solid signal. Unfortunately the device only includes one Ethernet port to let you connect a single Ethernet-based device in a time. But this is appropriate since you won’t run multiple streaming in a time to your HDTV.

You can also consider media streaming kits by Netgear WNHDB304 with four 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports to let you connect up to four Ethernet-based devices as the wireless clients to network. Both DAP-1562 and WNHDB3004 are powered by a single 5GHz band for clean network.

See also:

1. DIR-827 N600 HD router with high speed USB 3.0 port
2. New D-link DIR-857 HD Media router
3. Apple TV and Roku Which Wireless Router for Streaming
4. Simultaneous wireless n dual band routers
5. New DGND3700 Wireless ADSL2 N600 dual band router with built-in modemincluding one gigabit WAN port for Cable modem
6. DPR-1260 wireless print server