A.C Ryan Playon!HD Mini

[McBunny]

My Mini arrived last friday so i though id just write a little about it

The device is small aparantly slightly bigger than the WD media player it measures 151 x 102 x 42 mm so its not exactly huge.
It has only one button on the front and the name glows red in standbye and blue when operating(it also flashes when you press the remote)

its an attractive looking unit imho much nicer than the WD player.

Best bit is its totally silent as its passively cooled.

connectivity wise it has HDMI (1080p 24 support), component and composite with optical output too.

also it has 2 usb ports that you can connect hard drives, pen drives or memory card readers to but also you can connect it to a pc to transfer data to its connected devices

it has a 100Mb network port and also supports a variety of wireless dongles unfortunately not included.


Video containers it supports
AVI / MKV / TS / TP / TRP / M2TS / MPG / MP4 / MOV / M4V / VOB / ISO / IFO / DAT / WMV / ASF / RM / RMVB / FLV resolution up to 720p / 1080i / 1080p

video codecs
MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 SP/ASP/AVC (H.264) / XviD / DivX / WMV9 (VC-1) / RealVideo 8/9/10 (up to 720P)

video output modes
PAL / NTSC / 480p / 576 / 720p / 1080i 50Hz / 1080i 60Hz / 1080p 50Hz / 1080p 60Hz / 1080p 24


Audio ssupport
MP3 / MP2 / WMA / AAC / FLAC / WAV / OGG Vorbis / PCM / LPCM / MS-ADPCM / LC-AAC / HE-AAC / COOK / RA-Lossless

Stereo
AC3 Dolby Digital 5.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
DTS (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
DTS Master Audio (passthrough core stream & downmix to stereo)



So far my experiences with it have been nothing but positive regarding it handling of media its handled all my hd and sd mkv h.264 media flawlessly and has done a decent job of legacy divx and xvid content although i havent spent much time on it yet.

It handles subtitles well and multiple audio streams not tried a straight bluray rip yet though to see how it copes with the highest bitrate media but supposedly it will handle it fine.

The interface is fairly intuitive but some of the boxes arnt worded wonderfully for connecting to shares and the manual is out of date as soon as you update the firmware

the remote is a decent unit i think lots of buttons though but it responds very well. biggest downside is teh location of the play button and its size its very small and in-between much larger chapter skip and volume buttons.

also it has a very active support program with dev's that actually listen to the users wishes and criticisms.currently they are trying to get YAMJ to work with the mini as well as the full sized unit this shouldnt be far off.

all in all for £87 inc a free hdmi cable its really not bad value at all !




if you want any more info let me know

 

[David]

looks nicer than the wd tv live, but it's bigger. wd is slightly more aswell. looks like a nice buy, i mean it's basically identical in terms of format compatibility and outputs.

whats the interface like? the wd, is 'ok', my mum can just about work it, after 3 tutorials...

 

[Rasclart]

I bought one of these a few weeks back for the Bedroom. I have a Popcorn Hour C-200 downstairs and wanted something cheap upstairs. The menu is clunky compared to the C200 but that is to be expected.

Looking forward to YAMJ though. It will transform it!

 

[Munson]

Looks quite cool. Definitely more funky than the WDTV Live (which is also silent btw). Doesn't appear to offer anything over the WD besides component. Looks like a good alternative though, and is cheaper. Win.

 

[McBunny]

from what i gather the wd seems to be going down hill regarding firmware development eg too many features that dont work properly

as for the size its only
2.5 cm wider and about 2mm deeper and longer than the wd

 

[McBunny]

pic of the remote too

 

[Revels]

Quite cheap. Was expecting you to say it was a lot more than that.

This is the future of things in your lounge. Bluray is great but it wont last.

Whats the interface like? Covers? Synopsis etc?

 

[David]

Looks quite cool. Definitely more funky than the WDTV Live (which is also silent btw). Doesn't appear to offer anything over the WD besides component. Looks like a good alternative though, and is cheaper. Win.

wd has component?

 

[McBunny]

interface is all right nowt special at the moment just a simple icon home screen that then drops you into basically file lists once you select where you want your info from

looks like this at the mo

it works thats about it but they are developing a yamj interface for the mini and full size

that will have covers meta data etc just like other media jukeboxes

 

[richy22]

I know im being lazy but what is it?? a streaming media server or something?

edit and where did u purchase from.

 

[McBunny]

its from scan


it basically allows you to watch all your media on another tv in the house either over cables or wireless

 

[Mark One]

very nice.

what happens when a new divx codec comes out? Are they ever going to offer updates or would you have to buy another?

 

[Revels]

With YAMJ I think I might get one.

 

[richy22]

its from scan


it basically allows you to watch all your media on another tv in the house either over cables or wireless

Hmmm interesting. So you hook it up to say your PC and let it stream stuff to other more then one TV??

 

[McBunny]

its updated through firmware so it wouldnt be an issue regarding new divx

 

[McBunny]

no connect it to other tv and it pulls it from your pc over wireless or ethernet

 

[cadab]

Looks good tbh, might invest in one. Now on the site it says there is a wifi option, is this just a dongle and if so can you buy your own dongle?

 

[richy22]

Ahh right so you would have one of these per TV so if you had a TV downstairs and one upstairs you would get 2.

 

[McBunny]

yup you would


cadab they do their own N dongle but others do work look on the forum i think there is a list

 

[cadab]

Found the list, i think, tbh i might just get one try my dongles out, if they dont work then buy one from them. I love the idea of bittorrent support tho I take it they'll just download a torrent then save it to an attached usb device?

 

[McBunny]

yep

 

[cadab]

SCWEEET, was there any codes floating about for scan?

 

[McBunny]

if you use avforum or hexus you get free delivery think its over 50 posts though

 

[Griff]

from what i gather the wd seems to be going down hill regarding firmware development eg too many features that dont work properly

lol... Absolute rubbish.

Which features don't work exactly?

 

[McBunny]

just bits i have been reading thats all they seemed to be saying that they were adding stuff without really testing it first

 

[Munson]

There's no features on mine that don't work TBH.

 

[Griff]

There's no features on mine that don't work TBH.

Or mine. To be fair there's not exactly a lot of features anyway. So to say there's "too many" that don't work is way off the mark.

 

[cadab]

Does the WD have bit torrent support? i'm still debating whether to buy the Playon or not, it does look much nicer than the WD.

 

[McBunny]

Or mine. To be fair there's not exactly a lot of features anyway. So to say there's "too many" that don't work is way off the mark.

im not saying there is my self just what i read in a few comparisons reason i whent with the one i did is because it handles dts master audio as far as i know the wd doesnt

 

[McBunny]

Does the WD have bit torrent support? i'm still debating whether to buy the Playon or not, it does look much nicer than the WD.

i havent used torrents for years


they playon is much better looking and does have yamj in the future. teh wd doesnt seem to be doing any sort of jukebox front end

 

[cadab]

i havent used torrents for years


they playon is much better looking and does have yamj in the future. teh wd doesnt seem to be doing any sort of jukebox front end

Whats the alternatives? newsgroups?

 

[McBunny]

yup newsgroups FTW

 

[cadab]

hmm, they really that good? Looked into it a bit when i read someones review about them on here, might have been griffs? But never bothered trying it. Whats the advantages of them?

 

[McBunny]

yep that good

whats good about them the content is properly catalogued usually so you know what your getting rather than just going on what they stick in the file name. faster more secure for me ssl through a secure vpn

 

[ChrisR]

I keep meaning to pickup one of these media boxes, was going to just go for the WD live but now I'm not too sure...

 

[McBunny]

I keep meaning to pickup one of these media boxes, was going to just go for the WD live but now I'm not too sure...

if you want me to try anything let me know

 

[ChrisR]

tbh I'm not fussy with these things, if it plays stuff then that's all I need lol.

Only thing that'd annoy me is if the menus are sluggish to browse through.

Also once powered up is it pretty simple to use?

I know the interface on these standalone boxes will never be great, they just don't have the processing power to rival a HTPC and fancy interface.

For £20 or so cheaper than the WDTV I might give it a shot.

 

[McBunny]

its not sluggish for me or the mrs

 

[cadab]

Now by the looks of things i can connect it up to my network, plug in a usb pendrive and then copy files, say off my NAS box onto the usb pendrive? If so this would be ideal, i cant imagine the streaming will be that good over wifi so would be nice to have the option to copy locally using the device.

Can i ask what your set up is and whether you've experienced any lag when streaming?

 

[PinkoCommie]

I know the interface on these standalone boxes will never be great, they just don't have the processing power to rival a HTPC and fancy interface.

That'll change when the Boxee Box comes out.

Uses the same interface as Boxee which is pretty stunning (it'll automatically collate all your TV shows and group them by series/episode etc, it also grabs all the covers for DV rips etc from IMDB and adds a description to them.

http://vimeo.com/8599559

I'm either going to wait for the Boxee Box to come out, or I might buy a nettop like the Acer R3610 and run Boxee on that (then I can use that for playing the occasional game on as well).