I was making a HTPC for an old Sony LCD TV located in the guest room after i had finished my work on the DLNA server for the 3D Samsung TV and the other Sony LCD but the problem with the LCD in the guest room was that it does not support DLNA not to mention other fancy things. The LCD is quite old and i found Sony Bravia KDL-S32A12U which is similar but it lacks WEGA which my LCD has but other than that they are similar.
There does not seem to be any reason to update the TV since the ones that can play 1080p MKV formats are in the more expensive range. Instead i was making a HTPC for the LCD but it turned out to be a very expensive idea reason being HDMI and support for 1080p mkv.
A media box was the way forward and I shortlisted a few which had Wifi N supported since i will be streaming across using DLNA over Wifi.
Asus O!Play Mini Plus
Asus O!Play Gallery
Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3
Western Digital WDBGXT0000NBK
After reading online forums and reviews Western Digital WDBGXT0000NBK was rejected due to format playback problems.
Other three had very good reviews and long term reviews. I went to the local market trying to find any of them for a demo found only the Asus O!Play Mini Plus mind you this is not the Asus O!Play Mini it has more features such as Wifi N but because it was laggy when i tried it and also looked like it was not worth the 9.5K the shop keeper was asking online the prices are around 9K.
Came home searched online and almost ordered Asus O!Play Gallery but the rear fan spoiled it all. Dust would accumulate the fan would run slower make more noise the thing will heat up and die prematurely.
The only choices left were Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 and Asus O!Play Mini Plus out of which the Mini Plus was not worth the extra money it demanded unlike the Asus O!Play Galler. I ended up buying the Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 from shopclues for around 6K but that was not the end of it the seller (i planet) at first did not ship the item then when he did it came with a fake bill "No watermark, No ink impressions, not a thing". All this time the courier guy was standing and i was talking to the dealer he told me sorry but no other bill's will be issued and since i got it in discount i should be happy. When asked about the warranty he said "serial mei hoga" so i called up Asus Chd and made them check and guess what if you don't have a proper bill with a correct seller/shop code the product warranty starts when its connected and the one i got was already out of the 1 year warranty.
So i refused to take the courier and asked for a refund.
Searching around i found the same thing on theitdepot they are reputable and i have bought a PSU from them. I bought the Asus Digital Media Player O Play Air (HDP-R3) from them which put me back around 7K but after 2-3 phone calls the item was delivered with a proper bill and support from Asus.
Now about the product its just awesome for 7K i mean i could not have build a HTPC around 7K that supports what this can. I have used a loop so that i can not access the net and slow my speed down. The movie performance is just great plays 1080p mkv/mp4 over Wifi N very well but is a little bandwidth starved if the signal is less the movie will hang for a couple of seconds so good strength is needed.
The Wifi N is also single band i think because my router Belkin Play Max does not become as hot as it does when streaming to the dual band laptop.
The movie sample is 1080p MP4 a direct convert from a Blu-ray using a i7 3770's HD4000 and badaboom so you can see the format is supported fine.
The interface while not as pretty as the Asus Gallery is fine after i switch off preview mode "Wifi is not the method you should use if you want preview to be enabled since high bit rate movies take time to show up and then you need to click again for full screen"
The Wifi is a bit tricky to setup but its only of you are not running DHCP.
The online services are worth less if you want to use them you can but they dont matter much at all, use your computer to watch youtube.
I am using SPDIF out which works fine and supports pass through for AC3/DTS. I have a 2.5inch 750GB USB3.0 harddrive that is picked up and recog. by the box just fine.
DLNA Streaming via WiFi N is the best feature and i use it for the whole house no one can copy movies which results in network degraded performance. Streaming 1080p content in three TV's does not over power the server or the network its just great. Also as a note i have tried a DLNA server cum router from Netgear it was awful a waste if you are getting it for DLNA server capabilities.
upnp = dlna
Now for what are its short cummings first of all the device gets hot while streaming 1080p stuff. The device has to rediscover old tree when u back up in a folder using DLNA. There are problems playing weird code combos like H263 with DTS. The volume level which has good quality does not have good quantity i have to raise the volume of the TV compared to tatasky.
Overall its a very good buy with 7K i think i would be able to get a decent spec AMD fusion board but thats about it. No fan, no HDD, no moving parts really take the cake here. I would think it will last for another 2-3 years. The other alternative would be the new DELL Project Ophelia USB Android stick but its less expandable than this and is still priced at $100, other Chinese sticks lack quality i had one i bought from ebay India which has a rockchip heart but it freezes all the time now even with a full re-flash with a different ROM
EDIT: An additional note on the Amkette EvoTV XL, Apple TV and Akai Smart Box which i had the pleasure to try out intensively with my USB drive and DLNA network. The Akai Smart Box is very sluggish it did not navigate properly not worth the asking price, it does support DLNA and works fine. The Apple TV is around 8K but does not support DLNA instead Airplay is used i found a way to stream Airplay from the DLNA server but Apple TV only supports H264@ 1080p no MP4, AVI, MKV, FLV, etc @ 1080P or DTS pass through so with a heavy heart left it alone. Last is the Amkette EvoTV XL which is an excellent device better than even the Apple TV its fanless and a very good performer, everything from UI to playback is just great. I will not become a smaller man to confess that i did not buy the EvoTV XL because of the Amkette badge had it been MSI/ASUS/Gigabyte/Asrock or even ECS i would have bought it.
There does not seem to be any reason to update the TV since the ones that can play 1080p MKV formats are in the more expensive range. Instead i was making a HTPC for the LCD but it turned out to be a very expensive idea reason being HDMI and support for 1080p mkv.
A media box was the way forward and I shortlisted a few which had Wifi N supported since i will be streaming across using DLNA over Wifi.
Asus O!Play Mini Plus
Asus O!Play Gallery
Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3
Western Digital WDBGXT0000NBK
After reading online forums and reviews Western Digital WDBGXT0000NBK was rejected due to format playback problems.
Other three had very good reviews and long term reviews. I went to the local market trying to find any of them for a demo found only the Asus O!Play Mini Plus mind you this is not the Asus O!Play Mini it has more features such as Wifi N but because it was laggy when i tried it and also looked like it was not worth the 9.5K the shop keeper was asking online the prices are around 9K.
Came home searched online and almost ordered Asus O!Play Gallery but the rear fan spoiled it all. Dust would accumulate the fan would run slower make more noise the thing will heat up and die prematurely.
The only choices left were Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 and Asus O!Play Mini Plus out of which the Mini Plus was not worth the extra money it demanded unlike the Asus O!Play Galler. I ended up buying the Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 from shopclues for around 6K but that was not the end of it the seller (i planet) at first did not ship the item then when he did it came with a fake bill "No watermark, No ink impressions, not a thing". All this time the courier guy was standing and i was talking to the dealer he told me sorry but no other bill's will be issued and since i got it in discount i should be happy. When asked about the warranty he said "serial mei hoga" so i called up Asus Chd and made them check and guess what if you don't have a proper bill with a correct seller/shop code the product warranty starts when its connected and the one i got was already out of the 1 year warranty.
So i refused to take the courier and asked for a refund.
Searching around i found the same thing on theitdepot they are reputable and i have bought a PSU from them. I bought the Asus Digital Media Player O Play Air (HDP-R3) from them which put me back around 7K but after 2-3 phone calls the item was delivered with a proper bill and support from Asus.
Now about the product its just awesome for 7K i mean i could not have build a HTPC around 7K that supports what this can. I have used a loop so that i can not access the net and slow my speed down. The movie performance is just great plays 1080p mkv/mp4 over Wifi N very well but is a little bandwidth starved if the signal is less the movie will hang for a couple of seconds so good strength is needed.
The Wifi N is also single band i think because my router Belkin Play Max does not become as hot as it does when streaming to the dual band laptop.
The movie sample is 1080p MP4 a direct convert from a Blu-ray using a i7 3770's HD4000 and badaboom so you can see the format is supported fine.
The interface while not as pretty as the Asus Gallery is fine after i switch off preview mode "Wifi is not the method you should use if you want preview to be enabled since high bit rate movies take time to show up and then you need to click again for full screen"
The Wifi is a bit tricky to setup but its only of you are not running DHCP.
The online services are worth less if you want to use them you can but they dont matter much at all, use your computer to watch youtube.
I am using SPDIF out which works fine and supports pass through for AC3/DTS. I have a 2.5inch 750GB USB3.0 harddrive that is picked up and recog. by the box just fine.
DLNA Streaming via WiFi N is the best feature and i use it for the whole house no one can copy movies which results in network degraded performance. Streaming 1080p content in three TV's does not over power the server or the network its just great. Also as a note i have tried a DLNA server cum router from Netgear it was awful a waste if you are getting it for DLNA server capabilities.
upnp = dlna
Now for what are its short cummings first of all the device gets hot while streaming 1080p stuff. The device has to rediscover old tree when u back up in a folder using DLNA. There are problems playing weird code combos like H263 with DTS. The volume level which has good quality does not have good quantity i have to raise the volume of the TV compared to tatasky.
Overall its a very good buy with 7K i think i would be able to get a decent spec AMD fusion board but thats about it. No fan, no HDD, no moving parts really take the cake here. I would think it will last for another 2-3 years. The other alternative would be the new DELL Project Ophelia USB Android stick but its less expandable than this and is still priced at $100, other Chinese sticks lack quality i had one i bought from ebay India which has a rockchip heart but it freezes all the time now even with a full re-flash with a different ROM
EDIT: An additional note on the Amkette EvoTV XL, Apple TV and Akai Smart Box which i had the pleasure to try out intensively with my USB drive and DLNA network. The Akai Smart Box is very sluggish it did not navigate properly not worth the asking price, it does support DLNA and works fine. The Apple TV is around 8K but does not support DLNA instead Airplay is used i found a way to stream Airplay from the DLNA server but Apple TV only supports H264@ 1080p no MP4, AVI, MKV, FLV, etc @ 1080P or DTS pass through so with a heavy heart left it alone. Last is the Amkette EvoTV XL which is an excellent device better than even the Apple TV its fanless and a very good performer, everything from UI to playback is just great. I will not become a smaller man to confess that i did not buy the EvoTV XL because of the Amkette badge had it been MSI/ASUS/Gigabyte/Asrock or even ECS i would have bought it.
