ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black)

by Asus

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1.8 inches ; 2.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002MCZJ3C
• Item model number: O!Play
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (197 customer reviews)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

These days many of us have a constantly growing media library, with our favorite music, movies, and photos in a variety of formats and locations. The ASUS O!Play is designed to easily bring your media into your living room, without sacrificing quality. Enjoy video in full HD 1080p resolution, full-fidelity audio, and photo slideshows on your HDTV or home theater setup. With impressively wide format support, a wealth of connection options, and playback over a network or directly from USB and eSATA drives, the O!Play is an elegant and modern media solution.

The Easiest Way to Enjoy HD Content in the Living Room Hassle-free multimedia playback without file conversion Full 1080p high-definition video via HDMI output Simple and fast plug-and-play connectivity (eSATA, USB 2.0) High-speed Ethernet LAN connection for easy network streaming Bitstream or decode Dolby Digital and DTS Surround audio Sleek and compact design

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Full HD 1080p Support By connecting the O!Play HD Media Player via HDMI, you can enjoy full 1080p high-definition video and digital audio using over a single cable. The HDP-R1 also features an optical digital audio output for lossless audio transfer to your receiver or TV. If you have yet to jump on the HDTV or digital audio bandwagon, no worries, the O!Play also features composite (RCA) audio and video outputs to ensure compatibility with most any setup.

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Small but Powerful O!Play may be compact, but it's fully equipped to play most formats in your digital library. O!Play supports these formats: Video Compression: MPEG1/2/4, RM/RMVB, VC-1, H.264 Video File Extension: .MP4, .MOV, .XVID, .AVI, .DIVX, .ASF, .WMV, .MKV, .RM, .RMVB, .FLV, .TS, .M2TS, .DAT, .MPG, .VOB Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AIFF Image: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF Subtitle: SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA O!Play can also bitstream Dolby Digital and DTS Surround audio to your receiver to bring realism to the next level. If you plan on plugging the O!Play directly to your TV set, HDP-R1 can decode those formats and provide a stereo output without headache or hassle. With such a wide range of compatibility, you can enjoy your media without waiting for conversion.

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High Speed Connectivity (eSATA and USB 2.0) HD content brings full details to your High Definition TV, but it also requires huge bandwidth to render that detailed content. This is why many consumers have invested in external drives with high-speed USB or eSATA interfaces. HDP-R1 provides an onboard eSATA (external SATA) port that is 6X faster than USB 2.0 for high speed transfer from your portable hard drives. And since the unit features both an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port and a dedicated USB 2.0 port, you can store your media on drives with either interface, and access multiple drives simultaneously.

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Advanced LAN Network Support Those who have their media on network-attached-storage or a networked PC will be delighted to know that the O!Play features an on-board LAN port. With high-speed Ethernet connectivity, you can stream contents directly to the O!Play rather than moving and connecting external drives. No matter your media storage preference, the O!Play's got you covered.

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Easy-to-Use Interface The O!Play features an intuitive user interface that lets you easily access the files on your storage device regardless of your technical know-how. It only takes a few clicks to begin enjoying your media. Plus, with advanced options, you can customize settings such as subtitles, aspect ratio, noise reduction and more, to optimize your viewing experience.

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Music Shuffle and More at Your Fingertips The O!Play features a full-function remote for navigating your media, complete with a unique dedicated button for instantly shuffling your music. Just press the Music Shuffle button, and O!Play accesses all the available music files for random playback. O!Play also works great as a photo viewer to easily share your vacation photos with your family and friends. Use the remote to control the slideshow.

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One-Year Warranty

The O!Play HDP-R1 comes with a one-year limited warranty within North America. Please visit Support.ASUS.com for more details on ASUS multimedia warranty policy.

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What's in the Box

• ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 HD Media Player
• Composite (RCA) Audio/Video Cable
• Remote Control (2x AAA Batteries Included)
• Power Adapter
• Quick Starter Guide
• Complete User Manual (CD)

Product Description

ASUS O!Play is the most convenient way access your media files on your TV. This device is easy to use and highly compatible with many video and audio formats. Equipped with an eSATA, USB, and LAN port, you can access your files from an external hard drive, PC, or NAS. The O!Play even supports HDMI so you can display your content in 1080p.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

263 of 277 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly impressive and versatile media player, with some flaws, October 28, 2009

By 

buru buru piggu (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black) (Electronics)

It's not much to look at coming out of the box, but boy, does the O!Play pack a wallop! It's an outstanding first effort from Taiwan-based Asus, a company known more for Eee Netbook and notebook computers than home entertainment devices. With Asus being a newcomer to the media player field and my having tested so many bad players, I was a bit hesitant to order the O!Play, but now I'm a believer. With its exhaustive list of supported video codecs and network connectivity, it is nearly the perfect player, capable of playing everything from VCD to DVD to Blu-ray/HD DVD rips. Most notably, it supports RMVB, an important feature to fans of Asian shows and one that most of the major-brand players lack, including the otherwise superb WD TV HD Media Player and WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player. ASUS seems to be very actively developing firmwares and I'm impressed by their diligence.

SETUP:
Setup is easy and literally takes 30 seconds. On the side is 1 USB port and 1 eSATA port to connect local hard drives should you need them. HDMI and optical cable (S/PDIF) are not included, so you'll need your own. I really appreciate Asus using a 2-prong power cord instead of a wall-wart that blocks neighboring outlets. True to Asus's PC pedigree, the AC adapter looks like a PC laptop's AC adapter. It's very small (about the size of a Hostess Twinkie) and has a pleasant (and VERY BRIGHT) blue LED. Upon boot-up, the device asks you to configure it with TV settings, network settings, time and date, etc. After plugging in the LAN cable, it found my NAS units (D-Link DNS321 Gigabit Network Storage Enclosure and D-Link DNS323) right away. The O!Play did have a problem interpreting non-Roman characters on my NAS, so folder names and files got garbled. Some files did not show up on the O!Play until I removed the offending non-Western characters (Chinese and Japanese).

With the new firmware, UPnP has been added, along with some slightly improved icons. With UPnP, the O!Play sees Chinese and Japanese filenames properly, but none of my MKV's showed up, a problem I had on all networked players I've tested. Only a fraction of my total library was listed. If you want to see your entire list, don't use UPnP.

INTERFACE AND USABILITY:
From a total off and unplugged state, the O!Play takes 10 seconds to boot to the home screen, compared to as many as 40 seconds for the Iomega ScreenPlay Plus HD Multimedia Player 1 TB. The home screen is bright and attractive, but the folder navigation scheme leaves a bit to be desired. It's spartan, white text on black, and not nearly as attractive as the WDTV or WDTV Live, but it gets the job done. The remote control is big and solid, though the buttons seem to be bizarrely grouped and scattered about, forcing me to look down each time to make sure I'm pushing the right button. The bottom group of buttons is arranged in a circle around the music button for example, mixing different functionality into one area: volume controls (+/-) with subtitle (Aa), audio track (head icon), repeat mode (circular arrows), picture zoom (magnifying glass), file display mode (Mode), and device setup options (Setup). "Mode" is a file listing filter, toggling between Movies, Music, and Pictures. With it, you never need to go back to the home screen. Unfortunately, there's no "Show All" mode which lists every file together at the same time. To PageUp or PageDown long directories, use the |< and >| buttons.


During video or image playback, the picture can be zoomed up to 8x. During video playback, the fast-forward/rewind can go up to 32x. The inclusion of volume control buttons is very thoughtful and useful. You can turn video preview on or off. Pausing over a file for a second will play it in a smaller window on the right (with audio). There is a slight delay of a second or two when reading the file's metadata off a drive or the network, during which time you can't push the play button. This can be a potential problem for people and gets annoying. For music, pausing over the file displays the ID3 info (song name, artist, album name, year, etc).

One cool feature is the ability to adjust the device options while playing back a movie. The menu overlays on top of the movie and you can adjust your settings (Brightness, Contrast, Aspect Ratio, etc) and resume. There's also a Noise Reduction option, but I suggest turning this OFF. It caused strange and distracting frame shimmering in some movies. Lastly, O!Play also remembers where you left off on each movie and can resume the next time you play the file.


FORMAT SUPPORT:
This is where the O!Play really shines. It played all of the 100+ random files I threw at it, except for a few stray (and poor quality) .WMV files I got from the internet. MKV, AVI, MPG, DIVX, RM, TS all played flawlessly, both standard def and hi-def 720p/1080i/p content. It even plays Flash Video (FLV), a feature rarely encountered. DTS and Dolby multi-channel audio is downsampled to stereo, so there's no need for an audio receiver if you just want to output through the TV for convenience.

The Asus also plays .IFO/VOB files with DVD chapters, menus, and all disc features as if it were the original DVD. That's great news for users looking to make a centralized DVD collection on a server or a big hard drive. The only problem is there doesn't seem to be a button to get back to the menu. You have to stop the movie and start it again.

For photos, the ASUS has a problem displaying progressive JPEGs. Images will fit to screen and can zoom up to 8x, but there's no 1x view to see it at the original size.

EXTERNAL SUBTITLES:
I tested external .SRTs and internally embedded subtitles in .MKV's in a number of languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, English, French, and others. All worked when saved as UTF-8. For multilingual families and fans of foreign film, this is great news. You can also set the interface to one of 10 major world languages. Subtitle files can be downloaded from sites like DivxStation.

With firmware 1.11, external and internal subs are both recognized if both types co-exist for a movie. Previously, only embedded subs were seen when a movie had both types. Now, pushing the subtitle button pops up a submenu where you can select the subtitle, change its encoding, font size, position, color, and importantly, syncing (many downloaded subtitles are off by a few seconds). This is very useful! No more re-saving. Just cycle through the available encodings or adjust the timing until the sub looks right (but you should still re-save to avoid doing this every time). Where multiple external subs existed, the O!Play did not recognize their names, showing only a number (like "Subtitle: 2 (SRT)", even when named according to the movie's filename (e.g. "Batman.mkv" -> "Batman - English.srt"). Pushing the info button a second time shows extended info like codec, resolution, and bitrate. It is better to mux the subtitle into the file using something like mkvmerge GUI and metatag the language name onto it. Subtitle line-spacing is a bit of an issue (too much). You can change the font size and color, but not the gap. Lastly, I wish for a thick black outline around the text like the WDTV Live. Sometimes the subtitle blends into the movie, no matter what color you set it to.

10/100 NETWORK INTERFACE:
This is a weak point for the device. With no gigabit Ethernet, it is less future-proof against monster 8GB+ .MKV files and other bandwidth intensive HD content. Also lack of wireless connectivity means I do not have freedom to locate this device wherever I want.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
The O!Play is truly a multimedia beast. It plays nearly everything under the sun and as a WDTV and WDTV live owner, I can safely say that Western Digital has some serious competition here. At $99, it is a very capable device at a fantastic value, and its homely interface is forgivable. It is, however, rather boxy and brick-like, taking up as much space as a 3.5" external hard drive or an average Bible. It's 2x the size of the WDTV. Lastly, WDTV Live has Flickr, YouTube, and Pandora streaming. O!Play has no internet playback capabilities as of the current firmware release, though that can quickly change. ASUS has already added substantial improvements like the subtitle fixes and UPnP.

If wireless connectivity could be added with a firmware update, then this player will be all things to all people. (WDTV Live supports third party WiFi dongles). This is THE player to get if you want MKV, RMVB, and DVD .IFO support and don't care about wireless. Great value coupled with a great firmware support attitude makes this a highly recommended buy, and I hope ASUS surprises us with more software features down the road.


UPDATE #1: Dec 10/09: Firmware 1.17 is now available, which adds BD .iso support and lets you jump forward by 5/10/15/30 mins.

UPDATE #2: Feb 15/10: Firmware 1.21 has just been released. It adds MAJOR internet content connectivity as well as the option to wirelessly connect your R1! This is something users have been clamoring for since this product's release and a giant leap forward. With a compatible USB dongle, this thing does everything the Air does, except the media reader capabilities (which you can add that with an external USB reader). I am upgrading my rating to 5 stars as a result of the... Read more ›

187 of 213 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome, October 3, 2009

By 

mp "mp" (boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black) (Electronics)

asus box
Speaking as someone who really does own this device - this thing rules. It streams easily and quickly from my xp box in my basement over cat5 cable. (or the technologically inept may just hook a USB or esata hard drive direct)

It plays everything so far including ISO (dvd image) files, video_ts rips from dvds (I know someone will ask these questions) but I did it already and it works great.

Other files, MKV, xvid, divx, whatever. PERFECT. 1080P, blue ray quality files look perfect. No blockiness, no hesitation, no problems. And they start IMMEDIATELY.

All you need do is create a share on the server pc, then create a shortcut to it on the asus. (EASY) And off you go. Some files will not easily fastforward/rewind, and that mostly relates to how well the original creator encoded the file. In other words, if they used lousy/cheap software to rip a file, it may not fastforward smoothly, but it will still play.

The other con is no wireless networking. Now, I personally don't care about this because I have cat5 cable already and real wired networking is far more reliable. Also, it probably makes the product cheaper.

If you have a habit of playing huge 1080p files and want to go wireless, you may have to go with 802.11N hardware if you encounter stuttering. If it stutters it's probably not the Asus's fault.

As a sidenote, I have tried other methods of showing movies and such on TV's. Xbox360, PS3, PC. They all have huge disadvantages, mostly relating to codecs and incompatabilities and transcoding and such for the Xbox and PS3. It's just too much trouble. Seriously. I've become somewhat of an expert on the subject and I got really sick of saying "I downloaded this sick video, lets watch it" and then some error message comes on because of some obscure encoding quirk like wmv 8.2jafjSOB352. I wouldn't have bought either game console had I known what a pain it was. Especially the media sharing and transcoding, don't get me started. (I don't play games)

The PC, well, still too darn much trouble - I have to give tech support to every tom, frank, and larry who just want to watch a movie. Log into the computer, start media center, navigate, navigate, navigate. Ugh. Have done XP media center, vista media center, windows 7 ultimate media center. Holy moley, just forget it - I don't want to train people. This Asus thing? Connect and go. No joke. I will not mention macs, because you know what? No matter which way you go with Apple, it's more than $99. (and I don't own one because I don't think different)
I don't work for any of these companies, I'm just happy I can watch a movie. That's all I ever wanted.

Oh, and full subtitles and multiple audiotracks, no problems at all.

Oh, and I own a WD Media TV thing as well. No networking and audio troubles to boot. Blech.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great idea, small issues, October 21, 2009

By 

David Hofmann - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black) (Electronics)

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.