REVIEWS / HD MEDIA PLAYERS / ASUS

Value For MoneyAsus O!Play HDP2 - Well Played

03 Mar, 2011, 9:29 am IST | by Siddharth Basrur | HD Media Players HD Media Players

The Asus O!Play - the ugly duckling

The Asus O!Play - the ugly duckling
Screw open the bottom and you have place for  3.5-inch hard drive
The front view of the Asus O!Play
The back view of the Asus O!Play
The O!Play has a  fully functional remote

PRICE IN INDIA

8,000

TECH2 RATING

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

How we test

CONTACT

ASUS

The Asus O!Play is a little black box that has a lot of functionality. It plays out a whole lot of file types in HD and does so with ease. Sure, it’s not unlike most other media players, but it is pretty darn good for what it does.

The front view of the Asus O!Play

The front view of the Asus O!Play

 

 

Design and Features
The O!Play isn’t much to look at, and the designs that look a little like musical notes on the top don’t add much to the aesthetics. One nice touch Asus has added is the thin blue LED line that lights up at the front. The rest of it is strictly business with the front and back connections. The box is also really light, so I actually wondered if it would be able to live up to its word. The reason that the O!Play is so light is actually because Asus has left space for a 3.5-inch hard drive inside. All you have to do is unscrew the bottom of the player and screw the drive in with the drive mounting kit provided.

Screw open the bottom and you have place for  3.5-inch hard drive

Screw open the bottom and you have place for 3.5-inch hard drive

 

 

The O!Play supports a whole lot of files, and if I start listing them, I’ll probably take up an entire page. Let me put it this way – this player can play almost anything you throw at it including less popular formats like RMVB. And if you’re an audiophile, you’ll be happy to know that the O!Play supports OGG, AIFF and FLAC for lossless audio. And that’s not it, because it even plays back DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD via its HDMI socket.

As far as connectivity goes, the O!Play has it all covered. It supports USB 3.0, has HDMI, Component video output, Ethernet connectivity, a PC link, eSATA input and it reads a bunch of memory cards as well. Total win.

The Asus O!Play - the ugly duckling

The Asus O!Play - the ugly duckling

 

 

The O!Play HD2 also has some other interesting features such as NAS support. The interesting functions include an iTunes server to access your music collection, BitTorrent for file sharing, FTP Server functionality and SAMBA server, which allows you to create Windows accessible file shared folders. The O!Play also has some other apps you can use like Flickr, Picasa and internet radio. Sadly, they’ve not included YouTube.

Performance
The Menu is easy to use, but looks terrible, as if some cheap company made it. However, everything is laid out pretty well, and it’s pretty intuitive. The only problem is when you connect more than one device, as it gets a little confusing. Instead of being represented by what type it is, each device is denoted by an alphabet, so its easy to lose track of which is which.

The back view of the Asus O!Play

The back view of the Asus O!Play

 

 

The picture quality all depends on what kind of files you try and play off of the O!Play. I tried a bunch, right from Full HD MKV files to regular AVI and there were no hitches in playback. However, I did have a problem when I tried to rewind stuff, as I experienced a lag here. This problem occurred even with a regular AVI file, and this does cause a little concern.

The O!Play has a  fully functional remote

The O!Play has a fully functional remote

 

 

Verdict
I have to say that this is, indeed an excellent media player if you can get past the ugly exterior and menu. It also has a slightly user interface. Despite these problems, I still love it and I think it’s a steal at Rs. 8000. I give the O!Play 3 ½ stars as it plays back almost every format known to man and has online functionality as well. It’s a pity that they didn’t include YouTube, but maybe they’ll include it with an update. So yes! Go ahead and buy this product as I definitely would love to.

Tags: Asus , O!Play , Media Player , HDMI , USB 3.0 , NAS , Full HD , 1080p

Would you buy it?




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The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

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We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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