ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 HD Media Player Review - PAGE 1

Introduction

The market for media players has really exploded over the past half-year. By 'media player' I do not mean DVD or music players; I mean the ones with all these wicked features like accessing shared media via a LAN connection, from a USB and even an eSATA external storage device -- the ones that usually set on top of a HDTV. HD media players can output video and sound through to the most advanced home theaters, up to a 1080p definition. These functions are what I discovered when first reading about the O!Play HDP-R1 on ASUS' website late last year, and I tend to think that today there are still plenty of people who are not aware that such devices exist.

Since the ASUS O!Play is the first media player to enter Neoseeker's labs, I will see how it stands compared to other typical setups, either based on a traditional DVD player, or a HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer). I'll also take a brief look at what competition is currently offered on the market.

Specifications

This table is the one from ASUS' website. However I added the three last lines about the actual hardware inside the O!Play. What system can manage 1080P video playback for a power consumption less than 10W? Not that many. It also turns out the operating system powering the O!Play is based on Linux, as can be seen in the download section; the source code is available for free. This is what is installed on the 256MB flash memory.