Asus O! Play HD Player The current functionality and general view on the background of other players
What do we do when we choose a phone, player, HD player? That's right, read the reviews. Usually, these reviews appear simultaneously with the start of sales of the device on the market. But is it right?
Popular wisdom says: a new model of a car should be bought only after it has been released for at least a year. During this time, they will get rid of childhood diseases and run in technology. The situation is similar in the gadget market. Manufacturers tend to throw iron on the market and then for a long, long time they polish the functionality with firmware. Therefore, being guided by the first reviews, it is easy to be misled.
')
This post is dedicated to the Asus O! Play multimedia off-road player. He was already considered by the respected Boomburum (actually, it was thanks to him that I paid attention to this player). But, firstly, it was a review of the player on the first firmware, and secondly, this player spent only a couple of weeks at Bumburum. Asus has been on my shelf for about a month now, and I have been closely following all the updates. So, on the current functionality, as well as on the comparison of this player with WD TV Live, and all of the following will be.
So, like many, I have long doubted and chose between Asus and WD TV Live. More precisely, on the sight I had a few players, but in the end I stopped on this pair. Here I explain why from Egreat EG-R1, Seagate FreeAgent Theater +, Asus O! Play HDP-R1 and WD TV Live already mentioned above, I chose Asus. If anyone is interested, welcome to the link .
In order not to repeat I will write brief conclusions. Of all the above, only Asus and WD really interested me. WD looked more interesting for several reasons:
- a little more omnivorous.
- availability of network services (Youtube, Flickr, network radio).
- the prospect of the return of Dolby TrueHD sound.
For all these bells and whistles in the shops of my city they asked for exactly a thousand rubles (the difference between Asus O! Play and WD TV Live). I thought and thought, and decided not to overpay. Actually, why (let's go from the end):
1. I don’t need a Dolby TrueHD sound - I don’t have a receiver that understands it. And in rips with such a track, as a rule, there is always DTS. Again, at WD, he officially disappeared somewhere.
2. Network services - a piece that can be recovered. In the current firmware for Asus (1.21P), support for TV, radio, weather, Flickr has already appeared. Youtube is also there, but more on that below.
3. Pantophagy. Honestly, WD behaves a little better on curved rips. But, during the operation, I got only one film, which Asus could not lose. The remaining files, about a hundred, were played without problems. Again, in order to illustrate the omnivorousness of the player, I’ll give a small table of how different HD test players pass.
As you can see, Asus is not much different from WD. The only film mentioned above, which asus did not eat, turned out to be a crookedly assembled matryoshka. I peremuil it and got a perfectly played file at the output. I do not think that WD would eat it without prior conversion.
Now go straight through the firmware. I will not go round all the points in detail - they did it so many times before me. I will highlight only common things and changes that have appeared with new firmware:
1. The omnivorous video and audio formats.
Here everything remains unchanged:
Containers: vob, .mp4, .mov, .xvid, .avi, .divx, .asf, .wmv, .mkv, .rm, .rmvb, .flv, .ts, .m2ts, .dat, .mpg
Codecs: MPEG1 / 2/4, H.264, VC-1, RM / RMVB
Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AIFF, Dolby Digital AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Digital Surround
Photos: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
Subtitles: SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA (added txt support)
For video codecs - the player is not always friendly with the container mp4 and wmv. But personally, I have no problem files. As already mentioned above, the inedible files of any formats are almost never met.
What really liked it: support for playing DVD and BD. The DVD, if the files are played from the video_ts folder, has menu support. If you play from the iso image - menus, alas, no. If you enter the Video_ts folder, the player will ask whether to play the disc or show the folder structure. It is very convenient. It is not necessary every time to look for the info file to run the DVD.
Immediately make a reservation, an external DVD-drive is not supported, so the files need to write to the screw, or run over the network.
About BD. The menu, naturally, does not show (except for the dune, in general, no one shows it, but the dune is twice as expensive). Video from iso playing. Video from the folder also plays. Moreover, even if the structure is complex (as is the case with the presence on the disc of the usual and directorial version), the playlist clings and shows normally.
By the way, in a discussion about the boomburum post, a certain comrade asmarty blurted out: “I have the latest firmware, DTS HD is coming and DD True HD too.” So, this is all nonsense. Neither Asus nor the other format (as, however, many other players do not understand it). I take this opportunity, I convey asmarty ardent greetings and a huge request - not to mislead people.
2. Convenience of management:
The most important thing is that I am extremely happy in this player: the ability to jump in a movie for a given time period (I have 10 minutes skip setting) and the ability to immediately get from the movie to the settings menu for color, contrast, saturation, etc. of things. On WD, this, if not mistaken, no.
When playing a file with acceleration 1.5-2 player tries to recalculate the audio track. Very convenient, especially when looking for the right time for scenes with long dialogues.
(I apologize for the quality of the photographs - I took pictures at night, and I could not get rid of parasitic movements. If the public asks, I will take pictures of them and fill them in)
Still players on a realtek chip are often blamed for not showing the index of the sound track. On Asus and with it the full order. When switching, you can always see which sound track is playing right now. Management, I believe, at 5.
3. Work on the network.
We turn to the most interesting: since the player itself does not know how to download torrents, the video should be carried to it somehow. You can, of course, write a video on an external screw. But it needs to be pulled out of the player, inserted into the computer, then inserted into the player again. In general, not technologically. Again, the nests are loosened.
It is much easier to either copy the video over the network to the screw (it copies the player itself, and the speed keeps around 20-30Mbit / s), or watch it directly over the network.
In general, the performance is enough to look right on the grid is not too heavy rips. Unfortunately, from the computer to the player can not reach. But on the contrary - easily.
On the forums, people have noted problems with the connection under Windows 7, but most of the latest firmware has been fixed. Under Windows XP, I didn’t have these problems initially.
4. Network services
Support for network services in the player appeared only in the latest firmware. It is not still smooth, but it works more than tolerably.
Go through the points:
Radio. Let's just say, before, in order to listen to something interesting, I had to turn on the desktop and listen to the radio via the Internet. Somehow non-functional. Now I have the function of the radio point assigned to the player. More convenient at times.
Flickr - allows you to view photos with the highest ratings, as well as search by tags. Very comfortably. You know, it's nice sometimes, lying on the couch, to see good photos.
Weather. Well, everything is clear. By the way, it is clear that the firmware is still damp: the forecast for tomorrow, etc. written in English. But the Google map is scaled :)
TV - TV mainly imported.
5. Alternative firmware
Here the situation is poradoksalnaya. As far as I know, asus is the only manufacturer that has laid out the source of the firmware in open access. And O! Play is, again, the only popular player with no alternative firmware. So the torrent rocking asus owners have not yet. But attempts to do something similar are underway. In the latest firmware, for example, it is possible to connect YouTube, but this function is blocked by the developer. Our craftsmen bypassed this ban.
Rumor has it that the Spaniards have managed to plug the PlayOn! HD firmware into the player. True, not everything went smoothly and we need another console.
In general, the work is in full swing.
UPD
According to the request made in the comment, I will tell about adding youtube
Here is a link to the mod firmware from LnrMn. Youtube appears, the ability to add your own radio stations. Also, the Optware mount point has been added to the firmware, which allows you to install your programs on an external USB flash drive (the process is well known to Asus WL500G owners).
Warning: before you install the mod, please read the entire thread on the forum. There are several subtleties, the failure of which is fraught with the death of the player. In addition, the mod author himself notes that youtube works with glitches (perhaps that is why it is not available in the official firmware).
Findings:
Why do I like the player:
1. Picture quality. Very, very pleasant.
2. The presence of eSata connector. Those. problems with speed is not expected in principle. Again, it is convenient to connect an external screw.
3. Easy navigation inside the movie
4. DVD support (including menu)
5. Network copy function. I use constantly.
6. Pantophagy. This omnivorous.
7. Ability to play music without turning on the TV.
What would I change / redo / add
1. Do not really like the text menu. This is still a multimedia player. While we are in the main menu - there is a convenient graphic carousel. It is worth digging a little deeper - endless text items appear. This became especially noticeable when the network stations were connected.
2. (follows from the first) There is no cover-mode for movies, music and radio stations. Selecting the cover would be more convenient than the long list of files.
3. I would replace the regular screensaver. For example, from the photos of the flicker (once added).
4. Added information about the composition played on the radio.
And, in general, that's all :)
And lastly, would I change this player on WD TV Live now? No, the player suits me 100%. And the few shortcomings that I have described are easily corrected by firmware. And most importantly, I like the price. To date, it is kept around 4.5-5 thousand rubles.
All the best…
PS ready in the comments to answer all your questions.
Popular wisdom says: a new model of a car should be bought only after it has been released for at least a year. During this time, they will get rid of childhood diseases and run in technology. The situation is similar in the gadget market. Manufacturers tend to throw iron on the market and then for a long, long time they polish the functionality with firmware. Therefore, being guided by the first reviews, it is easy to be misled.
')
This post is dedicated to the Asus O! Play multimedia off-road player. He was already considered by the respected Boomburum (actually, it was thanks to him that I paid attention to this player). But, firstly, it was a review of the player on the first firmware, and secondly, this player spent only a couple of weeks at Bumburum. Asus has been on my shelf for about a month now, and I have been closely following all the updates. So, on the current functionality, as well as on the comparison of this player with WD TV Live, and all of the following will be.
So, like many, I have long doubted and chose between Asus and WD TV Live. More precisely, on the sight I had a few players, but in the end I stopped on this pair. Here I explain why from Egreat EG-R1, Seagate FreeAgent Theater +, Asus O! Play HDP-R1 and WD TV Live already mentioned above, I chose Asus. If anyone is interested, welcome to the link .
In order not to repeat I will write brief conclusions. Of all the above, only Asus and WD really interested me. WD looked more interesting for several reasons:
- a little more omnivorous.
- availability of network services (Youtube, Flickr, network radio).
- the prospect of the return of Dolby TrueHD sound.
For all these bells and whistles in the shops of my city they asked for exactly a thousand rubles (the difference between Asus O! Play and WD TV Live). I thought and thought, and decided not to overpay. Actually, why (let's go from the end):
1. I don’t need a Dolby TrueHD sound - I don’t have a receiver that understands it. And in rips with such a track, as a rule, there is always DTS. Again, at WD, he officially disappeared somewhere.
2. Network services - a piece that can be recovered. In the current firmware for Asus (1.21P), support for TV, radio, weather, Flickr has already appeared. Youtube is also there, but more on that below.
3. Pantophagy. Honestly, WD behaves a little better on curved rips. But, during the operation, I got only one film, which Asus could not lose. The remaining files, about a hundred, were played without problems. Again, in order to illustrate the omnivorousness of the player, I’ll give a small table of how different HD test players pass.
As you can see, Asus is not much different from WD. The only film mentioned above, which asus did not eat, turned out to be a crookedly assembled matryoshka. I peremuil it and got a perfectly played file at the output. I do not think that WD would eat it without prior conversion.
Now go straight through the firmware. I will not go round all the points in detail - they did it so many times before me. I will highlight only common things and changes that have appeared with new firmware:
1. The omnivorous video and audio formats.
Here everything remains unchanged:
Containers: vob, .mp4, .mov, .xvid, .avi, .divx, .asf, .wmv, .mkv, .rm, .rmvb, .flv, .ts, .m2ts, .dat, .mpg
Codecs: MPEG1 / 2/4, H.264, VC-1, RM / RMVB
Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AIFF, Dolby Digital AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Digital Surround
Photos: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
Subtitles: SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA (added txt support)
For video codecs - the player is not always friendly with the container mp4 and wmv. But personally, I have no problem files. As already mentioned above, the inedible files of any formats are almost never met.
What really liked it: support for playing DVD and BD. The DVD, if the files are played from the video_ts folder, has menu support. If you play from the iso image - menus, alas, no. If you enter the Video_ts folder, the player will ask whether to play the disc or show the folder structure. It is very convenient. It is not necessary every time to look for the info file to run the DVD.
Immediately make a reservation, an external DVD-drive is not supported, so the files need to write to the screw, or run over the network.
About BD. The menu, naturally, does not show (except for the dune, in general, no one shows it, but the dune is twice as expensive). Video from iso playing. Video from the folder also plays. Moreover, even if the structure is complex (as is the case with the presence on the disc of the usual and directorial version), the playlist clings and shows normally.
By the way, in a discussion about the boomburum post, a certain comrade asmarty blurted out: “I have the latest firmware, DTS HD is coming and DD True HD too.” So, this is all nonsense. Neither Asus nor the other format (as, however, many other players do not understand it). I take this opportunity, I convey asmarty ardent greetings and a huge request - not to mislead people.
2. Convenience of management:
The most important thing is that I am extremely happy in this player: the ability to jump in a movie for a given time period (I have 10 minutes skip setting) and the ability to immediately get from the movie to the settings menu for color, contrast, saturation, etc. of things. On WD, this, if not mistaken, no.
When playing a file with acceleration 1.5-2 player tries to recalculate the audio track. Very convenient, especially when looking for the right time for scenes with long dialogues.
(I apologize for the quality of the photographs - I took pictures at night, and I could not get rid of parasitic movements. If the public asks, I will take pictures of them and fill them in)
Still players on a realtek chip are often blamed for not showing the index of the sound track. On Asus and with it the full order. When switching, you can always see which sound track is playing right now. Management, I believe, at 5.
3. Work on the network.
We turn to the most interesting: since the player itself does not know how to download torrents, the video should be carried to it somehow. You can, of course, write a video on an external screw. But it needs to be pulled out of the player, inserted into the computer, then inserted into the player again. In general, not technologically. Again, the nests are loosened.
It is much easier to either copy the video over the network to the screw (it copies the player itself, and the speed keeps around 20-30Mbit / s), or watch it directly over the network.
In general, the performance is enough to look right on the grid is not too heavy rips. Unfortunately, from the computer to the player can not reach. But on the contrary - easily.
On the forums, people have noted problems with the connection under Windows 7, but most of the latest firmware has been fixed. Under Windows XP, I didn’t have these problems initially.
4. Network services
Support for network services in the player appeared only in the latest firmware. It is not still smooth, but it works more than tolerably.
Go through the points:
Radio. Let's just say, before, in order to listen to something interesting, I had to turn on the desktop and listen to the radio via the Internet. Somehow non-functional. Now I have the function of the radio point assigned to the player. More convenient at times.
Flickr - allows you to view photos with the highest ratings, as well as search by tags. Very comfortably. You know, it's nice sometimes, lying on the couch, to see good photos.
Weather. Well, everything is clear. By the way, it is clear that the firmware is still damp: the forecast for tomorrow, etc. written in English. But the Google map is scaled :)
TV - TV mainly imported.
5. Alternative firmware
Here the situation is poradoksalnaya. As far as I know, asus is the only manufacturer that has laid out the source of the firmware in open access. And O! Play is, again, the only popular player with no alternative firmware. So the torrent rocking asus owners have not yet. But attempts to do something similar are underway. In the latest firmware, for example, it is possible to connect YouTube, but this function is blocked by the developer. Our craftsmen bypassed this ban.
Rumor has it that the Spaniards have managed to plug the PlayOn! HD firmware into the player. True, not everything went smoothly and we need another console.
In general, the work is in full swing.
UPD
According to the request made in the comment, I will tell about adding youtube
Here is a link to the mod firmware from LnrMn. Youtube appears, the ability to add your own radio stations. Also, the Optware mount point has been added to the firmware, which allows you to install your programs on an external USB flash drive (the process is well known to Asus WL500G owners).
Warning: before you install the mod, please read the entire thread on the forum. There are several subtleties, the failure of which is fraught with the death of the player. In addition, the mod author himself notes that youtube works with glitches (perhaps that is why it is not available in the official firmware).
Findings:
Why do I like the player:
1. Picture quality. Very, very pleasant.
2. The presence of eSata connector. Those. problems with speed is not expected in principle. Again, it is convenient to connect an external screw.
3. Easy navigation inside the movie
4. DVD support (including menu)
5. Network copy function. I use constantly.
6. Pantophagy. This omnivorous.
7. Ability to play music without turning on the TV.
What would I change / redo / add
1. Do not really like the text menu. This is still a multimedia player. While we are in the main menu - there is a convenient graphic carousel. It is worth digging a little deeper - endless text items appear. This became especially noticeable when the network stations were connected.
2. (follows from the first) There is no cover-mode for movies, music and radio stations. Selecting the cover would be more convenient than the long list of files.
3. I would replace the regular screensaver. For example, from the photos of the flicker (once added).
4. Added information about the composition played on the radio.
And, in general, that's all :)
And lastly, would I change this player on WD TV Live now? No, the player suits me 100%. And the few shortcomings that I have described are easily corrected by firmware. And most importantly, I like the price. To date, it is kept around 4.5-5 thousand rubles.
All the best…
PS ready in the comments to answer all your questions.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/84334/
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