Hardware Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 Media Player Review

they gave it a thumbs down probably because the firmware wasn't mature enough hence the issues but they've pretty much ironed out almost everything at this point so it might be worth looking into...bit-tech?

 

Damn you for your technicalities!

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/12/03/building-an-ion-powered-linux-media-pc/1

Damn me for forgetting I even did a fear about it.

 

'You people' need to open your eyes, I hope bit-tech can do some 'real world' explanations in the future; you may have "Z-5500" hooked up to your computer (they are PC speakers) but the rest of the world uses a 'receiver' to output sound to their speakers, which will have HDMI inputs if it was built in the last 4/5 years...
For example my ion machine is hooked up to an onkyo sr605; another benefit of HDMI audio is 7.1 and all the higher def audio codecs.

 

Not everyone uses a receiver and not everyone will use this device with their TVs. I know enough people who plug it into a monitor and sit in bed and watch stuff. S/PDIF is still a useful interface for those using other connections and still provides surround at DVD quality which is enough for the vast majority of people. Hell most of us still use Stereo.

 

This O!play media player is really easy to use and fantastic gadget on my living room.
Playing any movie which download from internet.
No error happen like this prejudicial review mentioned above while I using.
Check the ASUS forum for advisory.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=19&model=O!Play+HDP-R1&SLanguage=en-us

 

RCA is ancient. S/PDIF is necessary for those that do not have receivers with HDMI inputs. My old Onkyo TX-SR600 is an example.

The cheapest Ion nettop that I found was the Acer Aspire Revo @ $199 USD. It's still double the $99 USD price I paid for my Western Digital WDTV and requires configuration/installation with XBMC. It doesn't even come with a remote. Sorry, I will take plug and play over something like a HTPC.

 

I didnt see any mention of onboard storage or the ability to add internal storage? can it?

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/media-players/

does not exist.

 

No onboard storage at all, only USB or card reader provides local media. Obviously there's network as well.

Yes you can access it via the storage section, but we have additional ones for SEO.

Which is great for you. I will not ask what movies you "download from the internet". I suspect you are not British so didn't have to pay the extortionate cost of this player and why you wouldn't want the WDTV Live or AC Ryan players which are better and cheaper, I'm unsure. The ASUS O!Play plays most things, sure, but it doesn't do everything - we said this in the review.

 

Okay I wish they would take this O!Play with its Wireless N/Gigabit built and the ability to pull online internet TV with the functionality of the Patriot Box Office or WDtv and I think we would have a perfect set top media player oh and NetFlix. ^_^

 

This market segment is flooded with label printing companies. Alot of these media players are Syabas-based products. I see the trend these days is to use Realtek chipsets instead of those from Sigma. Probably cheaper, but seems picture quality and high-bandwidth media playback get left by the wayside.

I'm not surprised people found this Asus interface to be similar to Patriot's offering. It's probably the very same product.

Check out the forums for Xtreamer or the Syabas NMT and others such as TViX. Lots of issues and even bugs that have been around for forever. I guess alot of them being based on the same firmware would account for that. And even those like Dvico's TViX are not problem free even if they're not Syabas derivatives.

I guess these devices have to try and do so much in such little space and power that they'll never be able to please everyone.

Are there any mediaplayers out there based on NEC chipsets?

 

Gives 404.

 

@pen still learning a bit about XBMC Linux, but how do you rip your blu-ray movies? and can it read back the bluray formats? Im looking for an all in one solution on the PC side of things and so far Windows 7 with Media Browser installed does the trick BUT I was hoping for a free software variant and had high hopes for XBMC does how does it handle blu-ray content?

 

Asus O!Play R3 windows 7 sharing problem

Hello.

I've got a Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 and a computer with windows 7, and I've problems with the sharing folders. I've done everything and I can't get the sharing folders to appear in the asus o!play, it ask me for credential every time.
Here are the steps I've taken so far, with no success:

. I've share some folder in my windows 7 computer, and I've tried to see them on my asus, ask me for credential.
. I've created a user in my windows 7 computer, and give him permissions in the sharing folders, and then try to access the sharing folder from my asus o!play and use the user credentials, didn't work
. I've updated the firmware, still didn't work...

I don't know what else can i do.... Please someone could help me?

Thanks is advanced.

 

you might be having the same issues I had on my Patriot Box Office, so here is a snippet from a Anandtech review that talks about making a few changes to the registry to make the Box Office work on Windows 7, may be the same issues your having..

There are three main registry tweaks required to allow this box to stream on a Windows 7 system. First requires the user to go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\ and double click on “everyoneincludesanonymous” and set the value from 0 to 1. This adds anonymous users to the “Everyone” sharing group in Windows 7, allowing anonymous users, in this case the Box office to access your shared media folders. Now make sure that when you right click a media folder to share with the Box Office, you set the share group to “everyone”. Next double click on NoLmHash and set it from 1 to 0. Windows 7 does not store a LAN Manger Hash of your user password by default, and the absence of said encypted password prevents proper operation of the Box Office. From here, access HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManSe and double click on “restrictnullsessaccess” and change the value from 1 to 0. Left at one, Windows 7 limits the shared folders accessible to unauthorized users, in this case the Box Office. These issues with the Patriot Box office being properly recognized are slated to be addressed in the next firmware update for the unit.

 

Also, make sure the time/dates on your computers match. Windows 7 won't connect to a share if its own date is different from the computer it's trying to connect to.