The O!Play HDP-R1 is a new media box from Taiwanese tech giant Asus.
The problem with media players is that many of them aren't very good. Some of them, in fact, are absolutely terrible. The interfaces are often horrible to navigate. They're slow to respond to commands. And they often aren't compatible with all the files you want to play on them.
Is the Asus O!Play HDP-R1 one of these terrible devices? Or does it stand triumphant as one of the best media streamers available?
First impressions
At first glance, the first Asus O!Play has a lot of potential. It plays almost any media format you can imagine, including the Matroska '.mkv' container – the current de facto file format for user-created HD video.
The O!Play plays these files (including the usual MP3, AVI, DivX, Xvid and other formats too) either via a USB storage device or over a wired LAN. Technically this is a media streamer, but the lack of a wireless connection is puzzling to say the least.
The video options include a standard composite connection and also HDMI – an absolute must if you're going to be playing back 1080p video. And there's also a solitary USB port alongside an E-SATA connection for plugging in your storage devices direct.
In the box you get the player itself, as well as an IR remote control, composite video cable and power adapter.
Your comments (6) Click to add a new comment
jazzman143
February 6th 2011
6. I just bought one used. I bought it to replace a $20 player that I was relatively happy with for playing AVIs, but it did not support MP4, MKV or FLV video formats. While this is supposed to support all 3, guess what, it doesn't recognize FLVs and MP4s are jerky after about 30 seconds. I haven't tried MKVs yet, but at this point I already want to throw this in the trash.
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brianbuys
May 25th 2010
5. Guess i'm late to the party but i find this review very lacking. if you had no knowledge of the wireless version of this product (HDP-R3) you should at least update your review to state this fact. Also you can't expect every media player to have wireless - you make it seem like this mediaplayer costs the same as every other mediaplayer. You don't think the customer factors in price in his or her buying decision? You didnt go very DEEP in your review and i wont comment on your netowrk folder sharing problems.
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rice
May 6th 2010
4. Every Windows since Vista requires username and password unless you change it in security policy. It has nothing to do with the media streamer, and it works perfectly with my Win7 (x64). Please, don't make reviews if you have no clue what the F are you talkin about! You just fool unsure people with your incompetence!
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tryptych
January 21st 2010
3. I have had a Helios Media Player for some time now, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. That's got wireless, but i can tell you now that no 56mbps wireless box can cope with 1080p video data, which is probably why ASUS didnt fit it.
As for "Windows XP – an operating system that's completely defunct in all sectors other than the netbook market" You should look again. Not all of us want to be MS guinea pigs, and that's why my media system running on XP64 works, and your's doesn't.
We don't all want nannying software.
"Are you sure?.."
"Are you REALLY sure?.."
Are you REALLY, REALLY.....? etc etc. You get the drift.
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yith
December 10th 2009
2. I am getting one of these for Christmas, but your review concerned me so much I thought I better try it out in case it needed to go back as I had bought this specifically for use with my Vista machine.
After just a couple of minutes tinkering I had it streaming media from 64bit Vista. All I had to do was ensure that password protected file sharing was enabled on windows.
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jacko7
October 31st 2009
1. To stream media via shared folders in windows, u may need to disable a policy in Local Security Policy, Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only.
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