Asus O!Play - €119

I could be wrong, but if it doesn't then there isn't much use (aside from additional methods of conectivity) to the Esata port.

Agreed, unless it helps the devices speed in its interface!?
 
RTD128X I've seen elsewhere...

Yes but what is a RTD128X? it is not shown anywhere on the site of Realtek and not mentioned anywhere on the internet. If you look under Digital media processors on Realtek website you are directed to these two models, The X stands for nothing, but the RTD128 must be the begining of the RTD1282 series.
 
Yes but what is a RTD128X? it is not shown anywhere on the site of Realtek and not mentioned anywhere on the internet. If you look under Digital media processors on Realtek website you are directed to these two models, The X stands for nothing, but the RTD128 must be the begining of the RTD1282 series.

Probably...

So clearly it's new, but at least two manufacturers have chosen it over the existing Sigma chips... One of whom is a big name in electronics (Asus), so you'd assume they know what they're doing :)
 
Either that or realtek are flogging them cheap (hence the price of the finished player).
 
Either that or realtek are flogging them cheap (hence the price of the finished player).

I wouldn't see Asus cutting corners. They'd want to be competetive functionally, so I can't see them buying into a solution that makes them weaker than all the existing solutions. ie: They're more expensive than the comparible WDTV, so they have to earn that extra cost!

Again, if the unit itself is just more nippy in navigation, especially photos, I'm very interested!
 
Probably...

So clearly it's new, but at least two manufacturers have chosen it over the existing Sigma chips... One of whom is a big name in electronics (Asus), so you'd assume they know what they're doing :)

I am not saying the chip is bad, I just would like to know how you could test it like the Intel/AMD benchmarks. I.e HD performance etc. It is nice to see the producers using new chips, and there is a whole market out there from both Intel and Broadcom and Texas , but so far it has only been Sigma, now Realtek is there and I cant wait to see how it perfoms on HD video and also the user inerafce and maybe jpeg as you mention. But stating theat it is much faster than Sigma is just not an argument.
 
I am not saying the chip is bad, I just would like to know how you could test it like the Intel/AMD benchmarks. I.e HD performance etc. It is nice to see the producers using new chips, and there is a whole market out there from both Intel and Broadcom and Texas , but so far it has only been Sigma, now Realtek is there and I cant wait to see how it perfoms on HD video and also the user inerafce and maybe jpeg as you mention. But stating theat it is much faster than Sigma is just not an argument.

Well, the most promising thing mentioned so far (if it's genuine) is the faster interface, which implies generally more horsepower. This on my personal requirement, might mean faster jpgs/photos!

Guess we need some reviews... Hopefully in the month or two!?
 
Support and firmware updates are paramount here!

We'll have to see to wait and see what this is like for both the Asus and the XStreamer.

Syabas have decent track record with the Popcorn which will bode well for their next-gen NMT.

We just don't know about the others yet. Although I'm sure some will be prepared to take a punt for a 100 quid.

I'm still waiting for those bloody native Blu-ray subtitles to be supported. You wouldn't have thought it would be that hard, really.
 
Who cares about Blu-ray anymore? It's MKV all the way

Those of us who don't download and want to use our legitimately owned films in HD over a network! ;)

Yes, I can easily make a mkv (or m2ts) file without mucking about with the audio and video.

But there's no easy way to get the subtitles working.

And you try watching "Mongol" or even hollywood films where the bad guys start plotting in Johnny Foreign without subs.
 
Those of us who don't download and want to use our legitimately owned films in HD over a network! ;)

Yes, I can easily make a mkv (or m2ts) file without mucking about with the audio and video.

But there's no easy way to get the subtitles working.

And you try watching "Mongol" or even hollywood films where the bad guys start plotting in Johnny Foreign without subs.

So sorry, being new to all this, you're saying when watching a bluray film, you can't get subtitles? Does this depend on its exact format?
 
Yes, I can easily make a mkv (or m2ts) file without mucking about with the audio and video.

But there's no easy way to get the subtitles working.
make no mistake i love subtitles too also on English language movies.

So You cannot extract the subtitles from the blu-ray disc when encoding?
 
Interesting screenshots of their jukebox section, wonder how much their IMDB licence cost.
 
make no mistake i love subtitles too also on English language movies.

So You cannot extract the subtitles from the blu-ray disc when encoding?

You can extract the subtitles into a seperate file with the extension .SUP (not to be confused with .SUB). No media player that I'm aware of supports .SUP as an external subtitle file type.

Blu-ray subtitles aren't text based like .srt subtitles. They are basically graphics on a transparent background (hence the term Presentational Graphics Stream). You can convert them into text using an Optical Character Regonition process in something like SUPrip but it's all a bit long winded and a pain in the arse.

The best solution for me would be to leave the original subtitles muxed in a m2ts file, untouched and unconverted, together with the original unaltered video and soundtrack.

Any forced subtitles should then just pop up as required.

But again, nothing out there supports this at the moment. It's pretty much the only thing that's stopped me buying a NMT to date.

I don't know if there are any technical or licencing issues that have stopped this from happening but it seems like such an obvious, almost required feature to me.
 
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right guys The Asus O!Play is nearly here - Asus are shipping 1st week July into the UK.

now i have the pdf and spec is basically same as on the news update on there site

i have questioned them regarding the missing .ISO support and they said - hmmm nobody wanted that feature so we left it out, and i asked them to add .ISO support they said ahh cant due to chipset its not supported.

Hmmm i got one of the sales reps to leave a message with Asus head quarters to -

A) Give details on which realtek chipset they are using
B) are they going to add .ISO support (who knows maybe it will just play .ISO's)

hmm i will update this post on monday when im back at a work

Also BTW the UK esitmate price is about £5 to £10 higher than WD-TV so say about £75 ex vat (there or there abouts)
 
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right guys The Asus O!Play is nearly here - Asus are shipping 1st week July into the UK.

now i have the pdf and spec is basically same as on the news update on there site

i have questioned them regarding the missing .ISO support and they said - hmmm nobody wanted that feature so we left it out, and i asked them to add .ISO support they said ahh cant due to chipset its not supported.

Hmmm i dont think they know what they are talking about anyhow i left a message with Asus head quarters to -

A) Give details on which realtek chipset they are using
B) are they going to add .ISO support (who knows maybe it will just play .ISO's)

hmm i will update this post on monday when im back at a work

Also BTW the UK esitmate price is about £5 to £10 higher than WD-TV so say about £75 ex vat (there or there abouts)

Am I not right in saying the chip in the XTreamer and Ryan is superior to the one in the Asus? These other two support ISO don't they?
 
Am I not right in saying the chip in the XTreamer and Ryan is superior to the one in the Asus? These other two support ISO don't they?

well its sounds that way for now - and yes the A.C.Ryan supports .ISO, but....hmmm maybe asus dont know what they are selling and what it can do

As it seems strange to me that -

a) they dont say it supports ISO when just about everything else released within the last year does

b) Its using a realtek chipset which supports H.264 and is known to support .ISO

This tends to give me the impression they have just jumped onto the media steamer band wagon without checking it out properly

I just hope on monday when i get back to work i can get a bit more info for you. - Also i can test one on next friday to get some proper answers.

P.S.
Oh yeh i forget to tell you i did ask about DTS to stereo and they said it would support it but only via the HMDI and not left/right audio outs ( so i better test this out too as that seems a bit mean )
 
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b) Its using a realtek chipset which supports H.264 and is known to support .ISO

Well, from what I've heard, the Ryan isn't using the same chip as the XTreamer. The XTreamer isn't using the same chip as the Asus... So maybe they're all different versions, and just maybe the Asus one is the weakest?
 
Well, from what I've heard, the Ryan isn't using the same chip as the XTreamer. The XTreamer isn't using the same chip as the Asus... So maybe they're all different versions, and just maybe the Asus one is the weakest?

Ryan PlayonHD = Realtek RTD1073
Xtreamer = Realtex RTD128x

Difficult to determine what the exact differences are and how and if this boils down to noticeable performance differences.
We are only a couple of weeks away from the reviews, I guess we'll better hang in there for another while ;)
 
we have a update - hmm still no news on the chipset number - but !! ive just been told this over MSN

Asus UK - says (16:46):
O play has been delayed
i will update u as to when we get stock asap

Pete Scan says (16:47):
lol
why becuase i said about .ISO support

Asus UK - says (16:47):
maybe....
they are doing FW upgrade

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So looks like they *might be* quickly adding .ISO support as i gave them a proper telling on friday on how important it is and showed them a link to the WDTV support forum with everyone asking for better .ISO support so you can play with the menu+extras

which is good news :)
 
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