Introducing The Asus O! Play HD2 For Your Whole Digital Entertainments Needs

Posted by on March 23, 2011. Computer Stuff, USB Gadgets - No Comments

The initial version O! Play arguably newcomer Asus player who has not been perfect. Now in this second series, Asus update his players with better skills and also comes with more complete facilities. O! Play
HD2 now comes with improvements. The design is made with exquisite grooved lengthwise plus LED indicator lights make it look more interesting when juxtaposed with your LCD TV.

In addition to providing a fairly complete output connectors (RCA, USB, HDMI, and LAN), HD2 is also preparing a series of card reader on the front. The goal is that you can directly access data from a memory card for your gadget (CF / SD / MS). A port eSATA / USB Combo also are a bonus draw a pretty rare type of player. Interestingly, the HD2 was also readily available USB 3.0 port for connection to a PC (link).
This connection will be very helpful when you move large multimedia files that are often still a problem on a USB 2.0 connection. Compared with previous series, the reaction rate HD2 has been much better, especially in identifying multimedia files (music, pictures, and video). Ability as a NAS server that supports the functionality to iTunes, Samba, FTP, and the torrent is quite fun, especially if you frequently store data or download files via the Internet. Player is also capable of accepting SATA 3.5 “with a capacity of 2 TB. In order for this player is more optimal performance, we recommend you use the latest firmware provided by the Asus site (www.support.asus.com).

Do not forget to note the firmware update process is in the manual are available so there are no mistakes. In general, the player made by Asus is very suitable data center of your digital entertainment.

Asus O! PLAY HD2 Specifications:

Type storage : External
Interface : USB 3.0/2.0/1.1
Support connections : Composite, HD Component, USB, optical audio, HDMI, LAN
Video Format : MPEG1/2/4, MOV, XviD, ASF, FLV, ISO, MKV AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, DivX, RM), MOV
Audio Format : MP3, WAV, WMA, M4A, OGG, AAC, SF, FLAC
Image formats : JPEG / BMP / PNG / GIF / TIF / TIFF
Subtitle format / playlist : SRT (UTF-8), SMI, SUB, ASS, SSA / PLS, M3U, TXT
Completeness : • Composite Cable
• USB Cable
• Remote + batteries
• Myrrh hard drive
• 12V adapter
• Manual CD
Connectivity : Ethernet
Remote control : Yes
Dimensions : 23 x 17.8 x 6 cm
Weight : 730 grams (without hard drive)
Guarantee : 1 year
Web Site : www.asus.com

Menus and user interface
The Asus has a pretty reasonable user interface. It’s nothing mind-blowing, but it’s functional. The front page is nicely laid out, and finding what you want is perfectly easy. It’s further down the track that things start to go awry. You’ll be presented with a second page if you choose the video, which is much more confusing. There are options to search and select files on the left, and any files appear on the right. You can also choose the device you browse here. None of this is user-friendly, though. It’s confusing, and if you mount more than one device, you’ll quickly get confused about which one is which.
USB and memory cards are assigned drive letters, which serve no purpose and should be referred to as ‘SD card’ instead of ‘G’. Everyone knows what files are on what card, but a drive letter doesn’t tell you which card or USB device you’re accessing. We’re confused just writing it, and you’re probably confused reading it. So, it’s clearly confusing, and that’s a shame.

Codec and file type support
The playback options for the Asus are nothing short of epic. There is almost nothing this device can’t play. The most common codecs found online are all supported with no drama even codecs like RMVB. This
puts the Asus above Western Digital and Popcorn Hour players, both of which have shunned this popular method of encoding Asian animated content, which is enormously popular in the far east and used by anime
fans the world over. On the audio side, OGG, AIFF and FLAC are all supported for lossless audio. For most people, MP3, WAV and AAC support will be sufficient, but once again, the HD2 proves it has the most comprehensive file support of any player. If you’re a lossless-audio lover, rejoice, because the HD2 can pass out untouched DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD via its HDMI socket. The player can also decode Dolby TrueHD on board, which is good news for people without expensive audio receivers, as it opens up even more media-playback doors.

May contain traces of NAS
One of the really cool features of the O!Play is that, if you install an internal hard disk drive, you can run it as a pretty well-specified network-attached storage (NAS) device. It can act as an FTP server, a BitTorrent download client and will also be accessible on your network as a Samba server. There’s also an iTunes server option, should you wish to keep your music on a reasonably low-powered device, rather than leaving your computer on all the time.

Again, these features are in the realm of the enthusiast, but we like the fact Asus has thrown these extras in with the media-playback abilities.

Picture quality
Video from the Asus was decent enough. Our usual test-file rotation looked good. Playing 1080p was a smooth process, and even some of our higher bit rate files played back without problem something not all
media players can claim to achieve. The fact that Dolby TrueHD can be decoded on board also means that copies of Blu-ray discs will play, including sound, which can present other players with problems.

Pros:
• Design attractive
• Player function plus storage
• Supports many formats of audio / video and full-HD resolution
• USB 3.0 port
• Control via the iPhone
• The firmware can be upgraded.

Cons:
• Can’t delete the directory
• Copy / move the file must be one by one.
• Complicated user interface

The Asus O!Play HD2 is technically excellent. The main problems with it are the cheap styling and over-complicated menu system. Both the WD TV Live and Popcorn Hour C-200 are more user-friendly, and have much simpler user interfaces.
The online media service has greatly been improved since the last firmware update, but at best it’s still a token gesture. What it offers is not really diverse enough and you cannot add your own streams. The other services: NAS, bit-torrent, FTP and iTunes, all suffer a similar let down – they work, but as only one can be used at once and the O!Play HD2 doesn’t have a sleep mode where they can be left running either.

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