Sagemcom RM50 Internet Radio Review

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I have been trialling the Sagemcom RM50 Internet Radio since Friday and had mixed success.

Functionality overview

The RM50 enables you to listen to more than 13,000 Internet radio stations around the world, conventional FM stations and audio within your home network via Wifi (in theory).  The “Smart Random” function gives the listener the possibility of random access to other radio stations of the same genre as those most frequently listened to.  There’s also an alarm clock.

RM50

Installation

Getting basic Internet connectivity

The theory is that you turn it on, enter your Wifi information and you’re away.  Well that may work for many people, however I found it not to be as simple, possibly due to:

  1. having a hidden SSID, and
  2. having mixed case in the name of my SSID.

I tried entering in the Wifi SSID and password manually twice with no success (although did note that I could not get lowercase when entering the SSID, it was however there for the password).  I even double checked my TKIP/AES and WPA Personal/WPA2 Personal Wifi setup and tried a few other configurations.

WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) was also an option so I gave that a go, both with and without a PIN and also had no joy with either.

I then published my SSID and found I was able to connect and it all worked fine with lovely crisp sound.

Accessing music on the home network

In theory you should be able to easily access music on your home network.  Well, I haven’t found this to be the case at all.  As a UpnP player I expected that it would just pickup content from Windows Media Player or iTunes running on the network.  I did manage to get it to find an XP-based machine running TVersity media server however it didn’t find any of the other media servers we have running on Windows 7, XP or Vista-based machines.

Upgrading the firmware

Having had mixed results with accessing music on the home network I decided to upgrade the firmware on the device to the latest version.  This was available from the Sagemcom UK website (RM50 wasn’t there for all countries).

A USB to mini-USB cable is required to do a firmware upgrade (not included).  The upgrade would not run on Vista, but on XP was easy enough (although the user interface could be friendlier).

The upgrade enabled mixed case SSID names to be entered but I found Internet Stations were unavailable when I went to use them!  I was wondering if I had broken the device by doing the firmware upgrade, but when I tried the Internet radio several hours later (and having changed nothing else) it was working fine.  Phew!

Accessing music on the home network cont….

I’m still however having challenges trying to access music on the home network. It sometimes finds content on the Windows 7 pc (which has Windows Media Player and iTunes), but it is inconsistent and doesn’t always find the pc at all.  I have also had no joy connecting up with another pc running TVersity.

User Interface, General feel & Missing features

Putting the installation and accessing music woes on the home network aside, the device does look nice and has great sound quality, has RCA outputs for connecting to a stereo, the buttons are quite sturdy and it has a nice finish.

Almost all the buttons however require quite a bit of pressure and due to the shape and size of the device I often find myself holding the radio down as I push a button.

Cycling through the numerous Internet radio stations with the wheel is okay, however not ideal.

When I power on the radio (with the huge button on the back), it does take a while to connect to the network and the first screen that is then presented is the screen to choose a network.  I’m not sure if this happens due to our setup or is normal; regardless I would prefer to go to the “Mode” screen or to continue from where it was when it was powered off.

The device runs on 5V power.  As an alarm clock I would like to have battery backup.

Whilst there is a remote control, it would be nice to able to control the Internet radio from a pc or mobile device.

Conclusion

I’m in mixed minds at the moment whether I would buy this device.  It is nice to stream music from the Internet without requiring a pc to be turned on, but I would prefer a more mature user experience.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2011 at 12:24 PM

    I concur with Simon - The RM50 is a mixed bag.
    I have only had the uPNP Home Music function working from an XP SP3 PC with music files from the local disk. The main music library is stored on a DLINK DNS323 NAS. The RM50 is unable to see any of the music from the DNS323 NAS, either directly or indirectly via the XP PC. It can't see music files on the Windows 7 Ultimate x64 PC although it can see all the accounts that potentially could have music files.
    It's taken to going so deeply to sleep (clock vanishes from the standby mode) that only unplugging the power and plugging it back in again will restore service.
    would I pay for an RM50? Not on your life.
    Will I continue to use the free trial one?
    - FM (works well but there are millions of FM radios about that don't need any farting about on the internet to use).
    - Internet Radio works once you've laboriously selected a couple of Favourite stations.
    - Home Music fails miserably.
    I'll continue to use it so long as it's easier than an FM radio.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 3, 2011 at 5:43 PM

    The situation is the same at me. UPNP function is horrible, it is not working with Win XP SP3 Windows access to Dlink NAS DNS320. Don't buy it if you need these functions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 22, 2011 at 11:13 PM

    I'm succesfully connect my RM50 by USB.
    How can I make the proper uploading of 4 img files to update the firmware?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Latonya RockAugust 16, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    What will be the exact price of this product?
    Looking forward for your reply.

    Latonya
    CTR500

    ReplyDelete
  5. Simon GianoutsosAugust 16, 2011 at 6:57 PM

    Hi Latonya, I was given this to trial. Sorry, but I do not know how much it is selling for.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Online Radio ChannelsOctober 4, 2011 at 12:54 AM

    The new radio devices are really cool and easily portable. RM50 is a mixed bag with unique music function working from an xp sp3 pc.

    ReplyDelete
  7. sableDecember 31, 2011 at 2:22 AM

    mine loses the security key number if there is a glitch in power supply or internet connection. Does anyone know how I can ensure the key is 'saved'? It is v. laborious putting it back in each time. We live in a v. rural area and outages are frequent

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2014 at 10:59 AM

    I had a similar problem. A RM50 unable to connect to my D-Link NAS where I stored all music, The solution were to create playlists (Library from NAS) on Media Center (Not Media Player) running on a Win7 PC. Share the playlists (folder) to "Specific..everyone" and the playlists will pop-up on the RM50. This way the RM50 (with its poor display) wont be crowded with music titles and you can play your favorits.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Samuel T. CumminsJuly 9, 2018 at 7:00 PM

    Hi Simon,
    Nice matter you have shared here. I had similar problem with the RM50. But I was able to connect with USB porter. Thanks for sharing this with us.

    ReplyDelete

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