ASUS O!Play Air HDP-R3 Media Player Review

Legit Mods and Ends Reviews

Manufacturer:	ASUS
Product:	O!Play Air HDP-R3
Date:	Mon, Jun 28, 2010 - 12:00 AM
Written By:	Ken Brown -
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A Closer Look at the O!Play Air

The O!Play Air comes bundled with a Remote Control and batteries, Composite A/V cable, an AC Adapter, Quick Start Manual, and a CD with a digital copy of the manual and ASUS’s O!Link Network Connection Utility.

Notably missing from this bundle, however, are Ethernet and HDMI cables. If you want to run high-definition straight away, you will need to make sure you have an extra HDMI cable around to hook the O!Play Air to. We can forgive the lack of an Ethernet cable since the O!Play Air is designed to work wirelessly.

The ASUS O!Player Air can connect to your television or receiver in a couple of different ways. There is an HDMI port and a composite audio and video port but since we are mainly interested in high-definition multimedia, we are only concerned with HDMI. There is also a S/PDIF Audio Out and Ethernet LAN Port.

On one side of the Air unit, you have the two USB ports and a reset button.

You can see that one of the USB ports doubles as an eSATA port so that you can connect even more external storage.

On the other side you will find the Card reader I/O port where you can use your CF, SD, or Memory Stick/Memory Stick Duo.

The front of the player is clean with no frills. The Air’s body is matte black and should fit well in any home theater set up. Unlike the QNAP NMP-1000, this media player doesn’t have a scrolling informational display on the front. The front of the player has a “tinted glass” look with just three LED indicators for Power, Wi-Fi use, and external Storage usage.

This "minimalist" front face is fine as far as we are concerned. As long as the player can pick up the commands from the remote control, we will be happy.

Speaking of the remote, let’s take a look at what ASUS has shipped with the O!Play Air. Now I wouldn’t call this a full sized remote, but it is larger than what come shipped with a Western Digital Live! or Seagate FreeAgent Theater.

The 24-button remote control has everything you need for a modern media player. Besides the Power and Home buttons and standard Play, Pause, FF, RW, ASUS has also included DVR-inspired buttons such as Step Forward, Step Backward, Instant Replay, Skip Ahead (kind of like commercial skip) and a couple of other quick keys to get you to your favorite music source.

The remote fits pretty well in your hand and is on the light side when it comes to weight. There is no indicator on the remote however to let the user know that the remote is actually working. What looks like the indicator light towards the top of the remote’s layout, between the Power Button and Display Button is decorative only.

Let’s see how this player functions in the real world!

Next Page - Setting up the O!Play Air

Review Index

Page 1 - ASUS Upgrades the Original 2009 O!Play
Page 2 - Inside the ASUS O!Play Air
Page 3 - A Closer Look at the O!Play Air
Page 4 - Setting up the O!Play Air
Page 5 - ASUS O!Play Air Performance
Page 6 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions

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