Asus O!Play HD2 HD Media Player - USB 3.0 & Internal 3.5" SATA Bay for Hard drive with NAS function

Well, I've had this device for a number of days now. Here's my view -

Cons:
no gig ethernet (only 10/100)
system clock doesn't seem to recognise BST (only GMT +/- zones)
no ability to subscribe to a flickr account (not even my own)
annoying front light that even when you disable seems to come back on after restart
The printed manual is only a quickstart guide and the real manual is on cd
Seems poor for internet TV
If you add a hard disk to the device you can't play from it and use it as a NAS at the same time, so poor for sharing media.

Pros:
Plays EVERY media type I have (music and video)
Easy to use GUI - simple and functional. No rocket science.
Loads of output interfaces
Good with internet radio

While I have listed more cons than pros, I actually love the device. Nice overall design/layout. Good connections at the back for output to devices. It comes with a hdmi cable plus other cables.

I installed a 2TB Seagate HD inside. The device is fairly silent. If you're playing sound/music, you won't hear the internal fan.

The quality of audio and video output is top class. Most of my music is MP3, so no issues there, but I haven't had a problem yet with any of my video files (avi, mov, mpg)

This device does exactly what I want, so I can't fault it that. I knew many of the cons before I bought the device, so wasn't disappointed at all. It's great value for the functions it provides. I wouldn't have a problem recommending this to others.

I've just purchased this player after being recommended by a friend who also has the same player.

So where do I start?
The box and packaging is a good place as this is where the initial experience comes from and I'm glad to say all is positive.
# Quick Start Guide (small leaflet but very clear pictures on how to remove under tray and attach internal hard drive (this is not supplied)
# Remote Control
# Power Adaptor (both Euro and UK)
# Power Lead
# HDMI Lead
# A/V Lead
It also comes with a CD with full Manuel.

No USB 3.0 lead which is a little disappointing as this is a major selling point for all those looking to buy this on its future proof USB 3.0.
This is only a minor niggle though as the HDMI lead is a bonus.

As this does not come with a Hard Drive I would recommend buying Western Digital Caviar 2TB SATAII 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Green Internal Hard Drive OEM
WD 2 TB drive that fits perfectly in the drive bay.
This is the perfect dirve hard drive and ultra quiet so ideal if you want this in your main living room.

Removing the back is a small Phillips screw to undo the box both followed by 4 more to attach the hard drive to the metal hard drive holder then another 4 to secure this to the unit, this is of high quality and secures this to the box with ease.
The box itself if of premium quality with a nice 'night rider' style blue light on the front along with media inputs for your flash memory.
On the back there are more inputs, and thankfully with so many they have one labelled 'pc link' so anyone can see without using instructions where to put your USB cable as there is more than one USB port on the back.

Once loaded and powered up you have to format the Hard Drive, before it will be seen in your main 'my computer' folder. I didn't realise this and had to phone a friend :-(

The system itself will play just about anything you want it to from MP3, MP4, FLV, MKV and most others, the range is as good as anything on the market.

The menu is not the best on the market and looks like it was rushed, but your buying this not for the menu but what this player can do and it does everything simple and quick.
You can sort through Pictures, Video, Music with ease as well as having the option to search independently using its own file manager which is a dream to use.
The options and set up are enough to give you what you need without giving you more options than you know what do with with so full marks there.

Music playback is brilliant and no lag using the menu, I have over 100gig of music spanning 20 years of CD collection and this slows my ps3 down trying to index it all, but this player does this will ease.
Please not moving this amount of data does take a while using standard USB 2 so I would recommend upgrading to USB 3.0 to use the full potential of this fantastic device.
Oh and buy it on Amazon, because you will be charged £19.99 for a USB 3.0 cable at a popular high street PC chain.

The pictures work well, my TV is 46" so its massive and you will soon see the difference between a 2mega pixel photo and those of higher resolution and O!player shows them brilliantly with pictures displayed like they were designed for the player with superb detail and options to view over set times like 10,30 second intervals and also have you move from one picture to another by fading out options can leave you just sitting there watching picture after thinking times gone by.

The Video is also very well done with clear playback and good use of the remote control, and the ability to play just about every type of movie file and plays files taken from my SLR in HD better than my PC.

There are many other options for this including using it as a NAS drive and online connections for the likes of Youtube, but as yet I have yet to connect this to the net so have no experience of this.

Overall this is a fantastic bit of kit.
Dabs price is as good as you will find on the net and so is this player without spending £200.
The Lack of a USB 3.0 cable lets its down but as I write this (December 2010) USB 3.0 is not common. If you can upgrade your PC or Laptop to Upgrade then I would as transferring using USB 2 is slow in comparison.
Otherwise this is a great bit of kit that will keep you going for years because of USB 3.0 being the next generation of USB, amongst other things.

Ratings out of 10

Value 9
Performance 9
Quality 9
Durability 9
menu 7

Overall 9

In relation to the reviews where folks had problems with the system hanging - these have now been resolved with firmware updates. At the time of writing this review, the latest firmware update is 2.04. I have never had my system crash.

Now for a quick review:

Pros:
The system plays virtually every format of media. Of all the media types I have, it has been able to play all of them.
It has a good full size remote control.
You can connect up to 4 hard drives (1 internally and 3 externally via usb)

Cons:
The blue/orange led light on the front is over-bearing. You can turn it off but then you don't know if your system is on or off when you are not using it.
The user interface could be better designed. It defaults to a textual format for searching through one's collection. You can change it manually so that you can review your movie/music collection as images but the images are so small it's not worthwhile.

For the price, I think it is value for money. If you do buy one, make sure you update the firmware straight away. You can do that here:

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