Hardware Asus O!Play HD2 Review

In a market of many media players, how does Asus stand out from the crowd with its O!Play HD2?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/media-players/2010/12/09/asus-o-play-hd2-media-player-review/1

 

I don't get those media-players tbh. Why not simply buy a miniITX HTPC, which can do so much more then just playback some media, allthough it's more expensive I'll admit.
And where's the optical drive for those who still buy videos on DVD/BluRay ?

 

So it really stutters and corrupts blu ray??...wow that sucks.

 

The benefit from media streamers is a big one over HTPCs. First up, they're low maintenance, and very easy to use. updates are rare, they're quick to turn on. Also, zero moving parts (sometimes) means silent playback, which is tough to get from an HTPC. They're also much cheaper than a media PC, and easier to setup.

If you want to do more than play media, sure, an HTPC is the more flexible solution. But if all you want to do is watch your legally backed up library of DVD ISOs and the like, they're fantastic. Except this one isn't, obviously. Chipsets are pretty varied between players and only a handful can handle Blu-ray ISO.

 

The benefits are so tiny, that they don't have any weight tbh.

My Zotac IONITX-A-E is aswell totally low maintenance and 100% silent, but it can playback every media you throw at it and it can do alot of things ontop of that.

Sorry, but I don't see any point that would justify a pure media-player in the 21st century.

 

There is a slight difference here in price - I just built a very nice XBMC-based HTPC for a friend of mine for about £290 but I couldn't manage that same feat for £100, so its a function of available budget.

However personally I'd much rather chuck a few extra quid at it and get a much more powerful (and versitile) box

D

 

I don't quite understand these either. Why wouldn't you just get a PS3 to be your media server? Seems like my PS3 can do everything this can (sans-nas/torrent) and play games.

 

for a community that prefers to build their own home servers instead of buy NAS boxes, they may seem useless.

i have bought a NAS box, due to low maintaince and that it just works out of the box. and i am also looking at buying a media streamer for simplicity. isn't it nice to be able to take it out of the box, plug it in then just sit back and use it?

sorry, please stop those comments such as "i don't get xyz". we don't care, if so many company are making them, then there must be a market for it, the real niche market is those doing their custom builds.


/rant, fed up seeing these comments in these articles, especially in the fantastic NAS box articles bit-tech as been doing.

 

I have the PlayOn HD Mini and I love it (as do my wife and children). It's as easy to use as the tv. It streams any media from my NAS (Synology DS210J which is an awesome piece of kit). I considered building a HTPC but size, cost, maintenance, noise, power use all stopped me. The OS alone is €100 (and don't suggest Linux, I wanted simplicity )

Media streamers are a fantastic way to get media from your pc/nas to your tv and if you want to watch on another tv just buy a 2nd one. I love it.

 

I want to see something like this WITH the added features of say the Roku box, where you get Hulu, Netflix and so on as well with the prettiness of the QNAP interface.

 

i got an ASUS HDP-R1 OPLAY HD for free x264 can be spoty (no total time shown so fast-forward hangs the box) depending if the encoder did there job correctly Xvids seem to play no problem

not updated the box yet (but unsure as the forums seem to say makes things worse with updates)

 

I bought one if these bricks. Terrible. Freezes, stops, can't use/deletes files. Keeps freezing and losing internal HDD. I've spent more time messing about with this thing than watching anything. ASUS HD2 O!PLAY is a waste of money. You have been warned.