ASUS O!Play PROS and Cons compared to other similar players

ASUS O!Play PROS and Cons compared to other similar players

I have not bought or ordered yet my asus O!Play player, but seems a great player for the price, it comes with ethernet and also it comes with E-Sata as well something that the WD Media player does not, I mean for $ 97.98 free shipping? Can't be wrong when it plays DTS downmix files, yes, it means that you don't need a DTS receiver to decode the audio files DTS downmix to hear them in HD MKV files that's the reason that I returned my WD Media player, it was confirmed by WD that they will not get out the codec certificate for the codec expenses, so I am very dissapointed, also I read that in the next version of the WD will come with the DTS downmix, but right now?

Please share your experience from the ASUS O!Play and compared to other media player as WD Media player, what PROS and Cons do you see in this device for the price?

What PROS and Cons do you see in different devices compared to this ASUS O!Play ?

I believe that Asus is the winner on the functionability, performance and the price, the Menu as I have read seems that is not so good and choppy, but it is the first release and the firmware can be fixed easly, you can't compare a Tvix 6500 that costs between $ 300 to $ 400 with this Asus for the price.

sjetski71,
I totally agree with the support, we need a trust worthy company that give us support with the next coming firmwares it does not matter if it is an asus, WD, Brite-View, etc.

It does not make any sense that we buy something that support will be forgotten!

Guys,
Thanks for the comments, I don't think that the New WD Digital media player will come with e-Sata port and I believe that's a good feature from Asus, Am I wrong? Also on regards Brite-view CinemaTube, don't get me wrong, but who cares about streaming video on a media player box like that? Maybe there are a lot of people out there wanting this feature, but if you have a computer and you can type with a normal keyboard, then why in the world people will like to see stream video in a media player box like that? because they want to see that in the t.v.? it should be a pain in the butt to search fast, I can not imagine trying to search stream videos from those boxes very slow, these boxes are not mean to replace computers, so I will not replace my computer to search and find some videos very quickly instead to do it very slow with those kind of media player boxes out there, I don't know about you, but I think that we just want something easy to watch our videos / movies without converting and in a good quality resolution, that's it!

I can not imagine converting from DTS downmix to AC3 to watch movies the aim of everything is lost doing that kind of conversion.

What could be the benefit from WD Media player against the Asus that's my question?,

Is there any benefit? support? I did not see any support when many people was begging for the DTS Downmix, WD answered that it will not be released for license stuff, so they are being greedy to get a new version and earn more $$$$ to give the DTS downmix feature, actually I see this like a drawback compared to ASUS O!Play when asus device out of the box plays DTS downmix that's what most of the .MKV files out there have and many people like us we don't want to buy an Onkyo or a good one receiver to heard just on normal HDMI TV.

We are looking here affordability, performance and functionability and support for me is very important for just the price of $ 99.99.

So more pros and cons, advantages or disavantages comparing the rest of the media players with ASUS O!Play?

Here is a great link for people interested in the Asus player to know how it looks like
ASUS O!Play Part 1

ASUS O!Play Part 2

The Asus O!Play is a small, low cost media streaming device. It's not a full fledged computer, but here's what it can do: You place it next to your TV and plug in a hard drive or flash card with media on it and you can watch video, listen to music, or view pictures on your TV. But there are two reasons that I'm particularly excited about this device:

1. It also features an Ethernet jack so you can connect it to your home network and stream content from your PC.
2. It costs just $100.

Sure, WiFi support would be nice. But if you don't feel like stringing Ethernet cables throughout the house, you can always pick up a cheap Powerline Ethernet adapter from eBay which will let you turn your home's electrical wiring into one big Ethernet network.

Asus has put together a little video showing the O!Play in action. You can check it out after the page break.

While the software interface is pretty basic looking, the device supports a wide range of formats including MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, MP4, MOV, WMV, XViD, VOB, and FLV. It doesn't look like you'll be able to watch web video on the device at this point, but thanks to that Ethernet jack, I wouldn't be surprised if a future software updated added support for YouTube and other online video sites.

Of course, if you want a more full featured media player with support for online video you could pick up a Neuros Link, but that costs twice as much.
Source from this Blog / Website

Here you can find the Ethernet wireless connectors for cheap.

Ethernet wireless adaptors - connectors

Rick,
that's really good news that will be very interesting ! so good developers can make their own firmware and add codecs etc

pmcd,
I agree with you, also it's not appealing for people who lives in USA or Mexico when it becomes the conversion from EUROs to USA dollars or Mexican Pesos, for instance.

Xtreamer 99.00 Euros = $ 144.357
Shipping 27 Euros = $ 39.37 = $ 183.727 as today

Does it make this appealing compared to the $ 99.99 products selling in USA?

Not all people needs the uPnP and Wireless stuff.

What we really need it is the support for the codecs / new firmwares and who knows if Asus will do it or Western digital in the near future.

Great info guys,

I am thinking that I will wait until next year to see who is going to be the winner on support and price, right now, I am seeing that a lot of companies / developers are starting a war between these media player devices.

I can handle with my HDMI computers to connect them to the t.v for now

Thanks

That's a good idea, what about the xbox 360? I know that it does not come with a blue ray dvd player, but at least with the rest of the files format do you think that handle them? that's a big question

The little that I have read about sigma and realtek is that realtek it's faster than sigma and it will have more support, so I don't know exactly we need to read more.

Hey Derelict,
Maybe you're right, but as I have read before, could be a matter of tweaks between the brightness, also please remember that this was release in Oct 1 2009, so there is a lot of work to do in firmware updates, so I don't think that it's hardware the problem that you noticed, lets see and wait.