Asus O!Play Product reviews
Ratings
Category: Electronics
Brand: Asus
Model: O!Play
Availability: Online/In-Store
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Asus O!Play Customer reviews
Asus O!Play Review by PIB (Minneapolis, MN United States)
I have been waiting for a media player like this for a long time and this one does not disappoint at all. I was thinking of building my own HTPC; but I am glad I held off and waited. This little box does everything you could hope for and it costs less than one hundred dollars. Here is what is awesome about it:
- I had it out of the box and set up in 5 minutes. I networked it to my Windows XP computer (plugged it into my router). There was not one single issue in getting it set up. It works perfectly and it is easy to get going right out of the box. Just pick the right video and audio setting during the setup and off you go (I used HDMI raw).
- It plays every single file format you could want. I was using my Xbox 360 but I got tired of only being able to play .avi files at low resolutions. Now I can play high def .mkv blueray and .iso files and everything else imaginable.
- The video and sound quality if superb. I have played 13 GB Bluray files without so much as a stutter. I have tried to play the bluray files on my computer (on board graphics only) and it grinds to a halt. But the little O!Play doesn't even break a sweat playing them on my TV. And the digital DTS audio sounds great on my surround sound system.
- No fan noise whatsoever. This thing is silent and it does not get hot at all. Not heat build up.
- Menu is simple and easy to navigate. Not flashy but it works. No complaints here.
- It was easy to program into my logitech remote control. I have set it up already so feel free to go ahead and download it now. Or use the remote that comes with it. It fits in your and nicely and is easy to use.
- I like the option of being able to travel with it and have video content on my flash drive or bring a hard drive (eSATA or USB). Then I could watch my videos anywhere I go. Obviously networking is the way to go at home though, but I really like the versatility. And who knows, maybe someday I will prefer to be able to watch video on my TV without having to boot up my computer.
- Even my wife can figure this thing out and watch content.
- Price is fantastic. It is much cheaper than other players with networking capability. And the Western Digital player cannot be networked so why would you want it -- yet their player costs about the same as the O!Play.
- HDMI output on the O!Play works great.
- I am going to dump my cable subscription now and just pick up the free over the air signal for local channels. I can get whatever I else want to watch on the internet and view it through my O!Play.
If you have been looking for a media player, you have just found it. Don't wait! This thing does everything it promises at an amazing price. And I have had other Asus products and I have come to really like their quality. The only reason to hold off on this (for now) is if you are running Windows 7 as they have not come out with the firmware yet. They will soon enough though.
Seriously, why haven't you ordered this yet? By they way, I don't work for Asus or have any financial interest in the company. I just love this product.
Asus O!Play Review by Robert Nederhorst "throbby throb" (California United States)
I owned this device for a few weeks and then did a little roundup [...] of this and the Seagate Free Agent and WD TD Live. The Asus "works" but is it nice to use? Nope. The interface is unattractive and the response from the device is more sluggish than the other two. I was looking for a device that would rid me of having to use plex on my osx laptop. Plex is a beautiful interface based on XBMC. Asus (and really all these players) should learn a little from plex and XBMC. The Asus had a really ridiculously stupid habit of telling me the connection speed to the media in the top of the interface when I selected a title to view in the list. I don't want to or need to know this information. There were no visible ways to turn this off or to be able to deal with thumbnails of media in a reasonable way.
The remote on the device was the nicest of the ones I tested but it makes no difference to me due to the fact I will be using my Harmony to control everything.
The build quality was reasonable but nothing with a "wow" factor on it.
The WD TV Live has the option for pandora and live365 music streams, which is a huge plus and doesn't do the Asus any favors, since it's $20 more.
Asus gets props for playing every format I could throw at it. Of course none of the players I tested had issues with the media files I tasked them with so it's a level playing field in this area.
I stuck with the WD device in the end. It's the smallest and the nicest looking interface of the 3 players I tried.
Asus O!Play Review by David Hofmann
Update Nov/11/09: I installed the latest firmware and this solved several of the issues I had. I edited a few things I have previously written.
I bought this box based on many positive reviews here. My experiences differ a little though.
Yes this unit plays pretty much anything. That's a big plus. The interface and setup is also very simple and easy. You really don't need a manual for it. The image quality is great, both SD and HD movies look excellent. It even playes ISO files of DVDs or bluray disks! That's a very nice feature as you can dump the whole DVD to disk and get all menus and features. It does not play ISO files from the old HD-DVD disks. That's a bummer as this would give us access to very inexpensive HD movies. There is a fix provided you have a HD-DVD drive. A software called Clown_BD (google it) will create a .ts file from your HD-DVD disk in 20 min. These will play fine on the O!Play.
Even though it's supposed to play ISO images from bluray disk, it still has some issues with that. Transformer 1 for example doesn't have sound (it says 'unsupported audio format').
I have a collection of 400+ movies on my server, in various formats. The O!Play plays them all. The slightly annoying thing is that as you scroll through a list of movie files it tries to instantly play a preview which causes a delay in scrolling through the list. This preview feature can now (new firmware) be turned off in the setup so the annoying delay can now be reduced but not entirely avoided. It still takes two or three seconds before it actually allows you to hit play (using a fast network). :-/
The bigger issue I found was that it stops to play back in the middle of a movie. It happened on every movie I tried it on so far, so it's not a random issue. The new firmware seems to have fixed this issue but I haven't had the time to test this with enough movies to be sure. I will update my review once I have had the chance to test more and confirm it's really fixed.
The O!Play now supports media servers! The firmware that my box came with did not, so you have to upgrade the firmware. (It is very easy though!)
The O!Play uses very little power which I think is a big plus! My PS3 needs 150-200 Watt, the O!Play only 10.
More Reviews...
ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black):: Technical Details
- Simple and fast plug-and-play connectivity (eSATA, USB 2.0)
- Highly compatible device that supports HDMI and composite inputs
- Hassle-free multimedia playback without file conversion
- Full 1080p high-definition video via HDMI output
- High-speed Ethernet LAN connection for easy network streaming
- Item Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 2 inches; 2 pounds
- Brand: Asus
- Model: O!Play
- Product Type: Electronics
Asus O!Play:
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