ASUS O!Play Air Media Player

Rob Williams · 08-10-2010, 11:21 PM

Have media on your PC, but want to watch it on anything but the PC? With ASUS' O!Play, getting that job done is simple. Take 30 seconds to hook it up to a TV, and you can stream media through a network, or via external storage, such as eSATA or USB. It's simple, and at $100, it's not too hard on your pocketbook, either.

You can read our full review of ASUS' O!Play Air here and discuss it here!

Greg King · 08-11-2010, 12:04 AM

Good looking product.

You mentioned a few times throughout the review of firmware updates. Will those be from the cloud or will you have to have direct input with a USB stick or memory card? If they can push updates via the web, like XBOX Live or the Playstation, it's a lot better looking device in my opinion.

Rob Williams · 08-11-2010, 07:03 PM

Unfortunately, no. That's a good point though... because it WOULD be a cool feature to have. I don't think it could have this feature at the moment though, simply because the device has no internal storage. Hopefully they implement something like that for the next iteration of the O!Play.

I did mean to touch up on the updating process though, because it blew my mind by how easy it was. Like a BIOS, you simply download the file off of the ASUS Support Site, copy it over to a thumb drive, and then plug it into the O!Play. From there, you go to the setup portion and click on Update, and it will detect the latest version of the firmware on the external storage. From there, you can just go ahead and proceed to let it update. Entire process took about a minute, even though I was multiple versions behind (I received one of the launch units... yes, it took me a long while to tackle!).

08-18-2010, 05:04 AM

Hi Rob,

nice test, thank you! Would you mind telling us which firmware version you used?

[I am asking because my O!Play R1 doesn't show the All Media entry which would be very useful to have. Also mine does not seem to play .mts (from an AVCHD Sony NEX-5 off an SMB network share, only accepts it from TwonkyMedia 5.1.6 on a QNAP TS-110.]

thanks!!

Steve

Rob Williams · 08-19-2010, 09:48 PM

I am using the latest firmware (1.17)... I believe that the same is available for the R1. Your problem is a little strange... I'm not quite sure why something would work on one NAS box and not the other. This is the first media player I've reviewed, but I have more en route (and a WD Live here), so once I get more experience in, I should understand what's a little odd about one player and not another.

Do you mean .m2ts or .mts? I have only played .m2ts... but I couldn't imagine that .mts would be a problem either.

11-12-2010, 06:09 PM

any ideas on connecting to an NDAS drive. I also do not have the all media option.

08-10-2010, 11:21 PM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	ASUS O!Play Air Media Player Have media on your PC, but want to watch it on anything but the PC? With ASUS' O!Play, getting that job done is simple. Take 30 seconds to hook it up to a TV, and you can stream media through a network, or via external storage, such as eSATA or USB. It's simple, and at $100, it's not too hard on your pocketbook, either. You can read our full review of ASUS' O!Play Air here and discuss it here! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

08-11-2010, 12:04 AM	#2
Greg King I just kinda show up... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 2,081	Good looking product. You mentioned a few times throughout the review of firmware updates. Will those be from the cloud or will you have to have direct input with a USB stick or memory card? If they can push updates via the web, like XBOX Live or the Playstation, it's a lot better looking device in my opinion. __________________ "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan System: Intel i5 2500K \| Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 \| 16GB G.Skill DDR3 \| Crucial M4 128GB SSD WD 1TB Black x1 \| WD 2TB Green x 1 \| XFX Radeonn HD 6850 \| Corsair H80 Water Cooler Fractal Design R3 \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 \| Dell 2410 x 3 @ 1920x1200 ESXi Host: Intel i7 920 @ 3.0 GHz \| Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P \| 24GB Patriot DDR3 \| WD 1TB Black x 2

08-11-2010, 07:03 PM	#3
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	Unfortunately, no. That's a good point though... because it WOULD be a cool feature to have. I don't think it could have this feature at the moment though, simply because the device has no internal storage. Hopefully they implement something like that for the next iteration of the O!Play. I did mean to touch up on the updating process though, because it blew my mind by how easy it was. Like a BIOS, you simply download the file off of the ASUS Support Site, copy it over to a thumb drive, and then plug it into the O!Play. From there, you go to the setup portion and click on Update, and it will detect the latest version of the firmware on the external storage. From there, you can just go ahead and proceed to let it update. Entire process took about a minute, even though I was multiple versions behind (I received one of the launch units... yes, it took me a long while to tackle!). __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

08-18-2010, 05:04 AM	#4
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	Which firmware did you use for your test? Hi Rob, nice test, thank you! Would you mind telling us which firmware version you used? [I am asking because my O!Play R1 doesn't show the All Media entry which would be very useful to have. Also mine does not seem to play .mts (from an AVCHD Sony NEX-5 off an SMB network share, only accepts it from TwonkyMedia 5.1.6 on a QNAP TS-110.] thanks!! Steve

08-19-2010, 09:48 PM	#5
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	I am using the latest firmware (1.17)... I believe that the same is available for the R1. Your problem is a little strange... I'm not quite sure why something would work on one NAS box and not the other. This is the first media player I've reviewed, but I have more en route (and a WD Live here), so once I get more experience in, I should understand what's a little odd about one player and not another. Do you mean .m2ts or .mts? I have only played .m2ts... but I couldn't imagine that .mts would be a problem either. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

11-12-2010, 06:09 PM	#6
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	ndas any ideas on connecting to an NDAS drive. I also do not have the all media option.

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