WD Media player vs Asus O! player..which one?

[yearoftherat]

Just picked up a HDTV and looking at getting a media player. I've done some research and have narrowed it down to the following:

WD TV Live

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/


Asus O!Play Air

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=aLsLIiFYl0Jw0H9Q


Just wondering if anyone has these (or any other suggestions) and what your opinion is ...thx!!

[SilentJay]

I have the Oplay air - pretty good product if you want to stream from something hard wired/connected, but that sing sucks arse when it comes to anything wifi. I've confirmed this with several guys in the office who own the unit, and are all running the latest firmwares. Tiny bit of lag when you scroll through the UI, but otherwise an ok product if you get a deal on it.

[JayJay18]

Just picked up a HDTV and looking at getting a media player. I've done some research and have narrowed it down to the following:

WD TV Live

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/


Asus O!Play Air

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=aLsLIiFYl0Jw0H9Q


Just wondering if anyone has these (or any other suggestions) and what your opinion is ...thx!!

I have the WD HD TV Plus and it is great. very simple. just make sure you get an HD capable wireless usb card, and check the compatible list aswell

[bubba1983]

i have to wait for the oplay for christmas....its a gift from my 'rents...but from what ive read oplay is the way to go

[Slade]

I would just build a Mini HTPC :), have you considered Boxee Box?

[SilentJay]

^^^ Boxee has it's own graphics processor, so that should make things a whole lot smoother. That said, it's a d-link product, and i've been exposed to their shoddy products and service.

[yearoftherat]

Reviews for Boxee have been mixed and its almost double the price of the WD and Asus products.

[Olestra]

There are rumours that support is ending for WDTV Live (EOL). This has not been confirmed yet. Regardless, it's still a good product. My dad has the regular WDTV media player.
I also bought the Asus O!Play for a friend and it's fantastic.

If you're plugged in with external HD through USB, there is no difference between products. I find navigation capabilities are about the same.

For myself, I built an atom ION 330, which allows you to do anything you want. XBMC Live is the way to go.

[S.F.W.]

Have a look at the Patriot Box office. Everyone I know says it's a great system.

[Fish]

I've actually owned and operated all 3 media players: WD TV Live, Asus O!Play and the Patriot Box Office. Here are some points to consider.

WDTV Live
Pros
- Excellent interface
- Small and compact
- can use Netflix
- Popular with 'non-techies'

Cons
- need external drive
- no official wi-fi support (it's all use-at-your-own-risk)
- remote is terrible (no volume control, few other controls)
- firmware updates aren't as robust as Asus or Patriot
- sometimes has a stutter with DTS encoded MKV files
- sometimes the unit 'freaks out' if you move from an HDMI connection to an analog connection

Best For
- someone afraid of gadgets
- someone who needs netflix in a box



Asus O!Play

Pros
- Excellent responsiveness (plays MKV files without a problem)
- regular firmware updates for bug fixes and new features
- box runs cool to the touch
- remote is decent and has volume control
- can move from an HDMI to analog connection without crashing the system
- comes in a wi-fi model (as well as a regular model)

Cons
- Unit is somewhat large (about 1.5 times the size of the WD)
- Menus can be complicated to a non-techie
- requires external drive or network connection to video files
- Internet TV is a bit wonky
- no Netflix
- will not play HD movies well over wi-fi

Best For
- someone who is a bit familiar with technology
- people who want the best out of their MKV collection



Patriot Box Office

Pros
- uses the same processor as the Asus O!Play
- remote is amazing
- room for an internal hard drive
- on/off switch at back
- wonderful metal casing (solid)
- small size (About 10% larger than the WDTV)
- constant firmware updates for new features
- Patriot supported wi-fi USB attachment is available for the base model.
- can connect device directly to computer to copy files to and from internal drive.

Cons
- will not play HD movies well over wi-fi
- menus are better than the Asus, but still a little intimidating
- internal hard drive needs to be formatted BEFORE inserting it into unit



Hope this helps. I personally still own the Asus O!Play for my bedroom and I'm giving my parents the Patriot Box Office with an internal HD full of media. I sold the WDTV a while ago. If I had to buy something new for myself today, the Patriot box office would win hands down. Especially with the prices at Canada Computers and NCIX. I purchased the one for my parents for $50 after a MIR....AND it came with the wifi adapter!

[yearoftherat]

Thx for the info !!!

The Patriot Box Office and the Assus units seem to be the way to go. My brother mentioned aTV Flash by FireCore http://firecore.com/atvflash. Looks pretty good. The only downfallis tha tyou have to have AppleTV and then dish out another $50...

[Fish]

Thx for the info !!!

The Patriot Box Office and the Assus units seem to be the way to go. My brother mentioned aTV Flash by FireCore http://firecore.com/atvflash. Looks pretty good. The only downfallis tha tyou have to have AppleTV and then dish out another $50...

I actually owned an old AppleTV for a while and messed around with that software. It's not great. The problem with the AppleTV is that it's rated to play 720p video, not 1080 (at least that's the way it was with the old version). 1080p files had a LOT of stuttering. The other issue is that even with the hacked software, you couldn't play MKV files properly. You're better off with the Asus or Patriot Box :)

[yearoftherat]

According the review, the patriot has issues: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=patriot+box+office&cid=15463258783262010302&os=reviews

Even the latest Apple TV, version 2 will not play 1080p files :(

[Fish]

According the review, the patriot has issues: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=patriot+box+office&cid=15463258783262010302&os=reviews

Even the latest Apple TV, version 2 will not play 1080p files :(

If you want to point me to a specific issue(s), I can help you out. Just like any product, you will see bad reviews depending on the person, the issue and their level of patience.

[gabbygenier]

i had the original WDTV. it was pretty good. a bit buggy but i had the first version ever. i now have the box office. love the thing. i have a HDD in it and only used it once, havent tried the torrent download client for it though. the only thing is if you want to stream BD rips on it. not sure how good the wireless is good for it but i know the lan, i had it plugged with a 10/100 switch and it didnt like that, 12gb file was laggy a lot. but i got a 5port gigabit and hooked the necessary components to it and then it was perfect.

ive played around with all of them at work and i prefer the WD and the patriot. didnt like the OS of the Asus. havent tried the boxxee yet but you can get 2 or 3 of the other ones for the price of that one. its a bit better for things but still.

the WD can be unlocked to do various things and so can the patriot one. although i havent done it since i dont have the use for it.

[ds2chan]

I have the WDTV Live. No problems with it. It updates fine without any issues. I have it streaming BR rips from a D-Link NAS (DNS-323) via a wireless N connection and the movies play fine. FYI, I have it connected to a D-Link DAP-1522.

After being on the market for a while now the device is still rather pricey. I suppose for that price you might want to consider the Apple TV.

[laksman91]

My roommate has the original WD it has occasional bugs where you have to restart it, but thats so minor. My main gripe is that it doesnt play dts audio, which alot of BDRips online are saved as and afaik that isn't supported in the new one either.

[yearoftherat]

Just curious if anyone has a viewsonic dm player

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/digital-media-devices/vmp75.htm

Spec's aren't bad..plays almost everything.

[laksman91]

grab something with a 30 day return policy and see what you like lol

the viewsonic looks good tho

[gabbygenier]

My roommate has the original WD it has occasional bugs where you have to restart it, but thats so minor. My main gripe is that it doesnt play dts audio, which alot of BDRips online are saved as and afaik that isn't supported in the new one either.

the new live and live plus do play DTS. and the older one did after a firmware upgrade but only through the optical out, was not supported through HDMI. i had mine going through optical since my amp isnt hdmi 1.3 and it worked fine.

[thekid]

I've got two WDTV Live's, one in the bedroom and one in the rec room. One connected wirelessly using a Linksys Wireless N USB adaptor, the other is connected via POE (85Mbps max). I have a NAS connected to the network, and I've been able to stream 1080p content without any issues using the Wireless Adaptor. The only time I've run in to an issue with 1080p, was trying to stream an Pixar Animation to the TV with the POE connection.

I've had absolutely no other issues with the unit with the last few versions of firmware (in the early going I'd run in to the occasional freeze). I've been running my units for about a year now.

[Ogata]

I am using the patiot box with no issues. You can even hack the firmware too. The GUI does looks kind of crappy but it does what it does especially with the rebates most stores are giving.

[ZeroChalk]

I have the asus and it does the job. Couldn't get streaming function to work because for some odd reason I couldn't get it to connect with my wifi signal. Gave up and have been using the hd to play the movie.

[zoso]

I personally had a Egreat m34a but gave it away,

Now i'm looking at this http://thepcreport.net/reviews/hardware/egreat-eg-m32b/

Offers A disk drive and an actually hdd dock I can slide a HDD in.

[undftd]

I've used the Asus O! Player, WDTV Live and Patriot box Office, my favourite would be the Asus because it plays pretty much all files (WDTV Live does not play rmvb that's its main drawback) and its a quiet machine (the PBO is a bit noisy, I keep hearing a buzzing sound coming from the unit). One problem I do have with the Asus is, for some reason it cannot connect with mine or my brother's Macbooks (keep getting a login issue, I've played around with the file sharing settings and nothing seems to work) but it works fine with my iMac (that's where all my video files are anyways). On the other hand, the WDTV Live was very easy to setup and share/stream files from all my Mac computers, generally the wdtv live is a more Mac friendly player, I haven't tried streaming with the Patriot Box Office but I'm guessing it's much like the Asus.

[crono06]

I had the WDTV Live before, but I sold it off for the Asus O!Play. Main reason was because I'm Chinese, and all Chinese dramas and movies are .rmvb. I was getting tired of converting the files, so I decided to just go for a player that can play it out of the box.

[m_bisson]

I'm surprised there's a market for these when the PS3 will do blurays AND all of the other things that these little boxes do...

[gabbygenier]

I'm surprised there's a market for these when the PS3 will do blurays AND all of the other things that these little boxes do...

but hte PS3 is a pain in the ass to set up and if you look at reviews for it, lots of ppl have issues with certain files and setting it up to use it as a media player

[Walrus]

WDTV Live here, with the B.Rad firmware. Moviesheets are great.