# ASUS HD Media Player O!Play HDP-R1



## trunks9_us (Oct 25, 2007)

OK so here is the review on the ASUS HD Media Player O!Play HDP-R1 

You can also find this player for reviews on 

Newegg.com - ASUS HD Media Player O!Play HDP-R1 HDMI Interface - TV Tuners & Video Devices

If you guys are wandering why this is under review here the reason is this. 

I have been looking for a media player that will play all sorts of files while being able to use the digital output and also control volume with something other than a drc controller so this is what I had found. Now the biggest killer for me was that I wanted to be able to control volume better when using digital out I don’t like drc controllers they take up more space when we have so little as it is. I bought this for the purpose of using in my bed room at first then realized what all it had and could do. So my mind was set to try it out for sq purposes. I hooked up the optical toslink from the player to the home rcvr and I ran a test and to my pleasant surprise the remote worked with the volume the actual unit itself has volume control built in which means anyone who wants to use this player as a source instead of a cd player can do so and can control volume with the remote while using optical out. The only thing that is required is that you have to have a screen in the car to be able to see what you are doing. To let you guys know this has a esata and a usb port on here. This unit is great for the fact that it can run a ssd hard drive or a usb flash drive. You don’t want to buy a regular external hard drive because all the moving in the car will make the platters in the hard drive itself die eventually faster while the ssd and flash drives don’t have these moving parts. Here are some of the Specs of the unit.

Specifications
Video Format MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, RM/RMVB
Audio MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, WAV, FLAC, AIFF
Image Format JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
Ports In USB2.0 x1
eSATA/USB2.0 combo port x1
RJ-45 LAN port x1
DC Power In
Ports Out HDMI 1.3
Composite Audio/Video
Optical Digital Audio
Specifications Supported Video file extension:
.mp4, .mov, .xvid., .avi., .dvix., .asf, .wmv, .mkv, .rm, .rmvb, .flv, .ts, .m2ts, .dat, .mpg, .vob

Supported sub-title formats:
SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA

Power Source:
12V DC, 2A, 24W Power Adapter

Power Consumption:
<10W

Operating Temperature:
5C(41F)~35C(95F)

Ok so I been messing around with this player for a few weeks now and this is what I have gathered.

I have 2 ways to hook up video thru composite cables or thru hdmi. I can also use the hdmi cable to hook up to the tv and the run the rcas from the player to my older stereo and sound will also work which means it can work sound thru rcas while hooked up thru hdmi how ever the sound from the hdmi does not work.

There is 3 ways really to hook up audio hdmi, optical out, and rcas. Now most of us who are into sound quality like to use either high quality rcas or some even take it as far as to go to optical toslink or digital coax. Now on this player there is a option to chose which is in setup it is under audio and is called digital output. With this option you have the choice to choose between hdmi or spdif. Now the cool feature you have here is this It gives you the option while under the digital output to chose LPCM or RAW. I was a little confused at first and was wandering why would this even matter in a digital output since your alrdy running a digital signal and it is suppose to bypass the d/a converter when running hdmi or toslink. So I went ahead and decided to put it to the test and see what the difference in sound is. I ran 3 tests I ran the spdif raw, spdif lpcm and I also ran the sound form my computer which is also hooked up thru optical out. Note the volume on the remote will not work when using in Raw mode. 

So I tried out Triple XXX for the first few min on this 720p blu ray rip and I would listen to it in raw and in lpcm. To my ears I can hear a difference in the raw vs lpcm. Now for the computer sound it sounds the same as the raw. Now I must say I did not like the sound form the raw as I did with the pcm. My reason is that on the movie I was hearing alot more bass then mids and highs more like a movie theatre. Now we can all control our bass with a bass knob so no problem right. Well I notice on the lpcm there was a slightly degradation on the sound quality compared to the raw then again it could of just been all that over whelming low - mid bass so I decided to run another movie. But overall the lpcm was a better choice except when getting at really high volumes into distortion then it doesn’t sound good.

The 2nd movie I tried out was Iron Man I did a listening test on the first few min as well since it play ac/dc vs rammenstein in the triple xxx movie. So I had the same except issue with the iron man like the triple xxx so I came to know that lpcm sound was better to my ear in all ways.

Just to let you guys know I was using a decent home audio setup nothing super expensive.

For the money it was worth I would definitely buy this just for the fact that it can be used for all the other formats and be able to do other things in the house if you don’t like it in the car use it in your home. I think it is a great unit it is a lil buggy on some movies but firmware updates will fix this mainly it’s the fast forwarding it doesn’t seem to want to stop when you tell it to right away. But I am doing a review on sound quality of this unit and not the unit itself but overall It’s a great buy for $100 bucks. The only other down side to this will be that you will have to have this mounted some where the remote can be pointed at since it uses infrared.

This is just something else you can try out if you want to go digital have a infinite amount of music and movies to watch on a screen without losing your sound quality cause alot of people like to have a screen and good sound quality and those 2 things aren’t usually around.

For all of those who would want to know how this looks picture quality wise its great it plays my 1080p rips fine and this unit will run in 1080p.


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## TREETOP (Feb 11, 2009)

It controls volume through the optical output??? Interesting!


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Interesting little product... I'm always interested in the latest of these media player devices because A.I am a tech freak and B. I hated toting around CDs as much as you apparently hate DRCs =) 

Just noticed a couple things up front. One, laptop hard drives - 2.5inchers - work fine in a car environment. I've been using on in my car for 1.5years with no issues at all andtoting around 500 gb of movies and music in lossless format is nice! It spent one summer in Texas heat and one winter in MI cold and saw daily use for about 1.5 hours per day. Don't sell them short my friend... as they are very convenient and quite durable =)

Also, from the first little bit, it sounds like the Sarotech media player I posted here a long time ago would have met most of your needs. The X model allows digital volume control - although at least one person was concerned that the fact that it did so potentially could mess with the sound quality. My personal experience between the S model and the X model is that I was able to make both sound great - cd quality.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

Nice find. I think you will need a regulated 12 volt power supply for car use though.


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