Easyrider's Playon HD mini review thread.

easyrider said:
I don't think the GIGABIT is that much of a big deal tbh.

I have not noticed any problems with mine at all. The rest of my network is GIGABIT
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Exactly it isnt a huge issue....i havent seen or had any issues whilst streaming from my NAS box...just thinking about making my whole network gigabit...definitely need a gigabit enabled laptop as at the moment...transferring 7gb+ files takes almost 10 mins from my lappy to my NAS box, seeing as my laptop is only connect at 100mb/sec to the gigabit switch....so thats my main priority at the moment.
 
Is there much point waiting for the mini 2? From my (limited) comparison the only real diffrence is gigabit - anything else worth the wait?
 
alx said:
Is there much point waiting for the mini 2? From my (limited) comparison the only real diffrence is gigabit - anything else worth the wait?
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Latest Realtek 1185 chip
USB 3.0
New GUI
WePlayon! web portal

and as you say the gigabit networking with the option of going wireless via a dongle (maybe) at a later date.
 
easyrider said:
The 1 has that.
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It does indeed...works perfectly well with my Synology ds211J NAS box with 3tb of hd space....thank god i got rid of my ext hd as it was a pain in the backside connecting from my laptop to the playon.


easyrider said:
Is USB 3.0 really needed when playing from an external hardrive though?

NOPE!
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I suppose not unless you have ext hds that are USB 3 enabled.

Still waiting on the new GUI to make itself public...would be nice to have a different, better looking layout.
 
Are these pretty easy to use?
Thinking of getting one for the old man, he is not technically savvy at all, so need it to be nice and simple. Just going to connect an external hard drive with some .iso's on, easy enough to use?
 
Clipsey said:
Are these pretty easy to use?
Thinking of getting one for the old man, he is not technically savvy at all, so need it to be nice and simple. Just going to connect an external hard drive with some .iso's on, easy enough to use?
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Yep pretty much...connect ext hd...turn player on...then use the file browser within the player to browse to your ext hd and just press ok and away you go.
 
Spawn said:
It does indeed...works perfectly well with my Synology ds211J NAS box with 3tb of hd space....thank god i got rid of my ext hd as it was a pain in the backside connecting from my laptop to the playon.
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May seem like a stupid question, but should there be much performance difference if you're streaming video from a NAS compared to shared files/folders on a pc? (assuming both are suing a wired network)

Would it make any difference to the ff/rw capability?
 
Spawn said:
Yep pretty much...connect ext hd...turn player on...then use the file browser within the player to browse to your ext hd and just press ok and away you go.
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Sweet thanks, however just looked and didn't realize you can simply add your own 2tb hard drive :)
Next question, if you were to load a bunch of .iso (dvd's and BR) in a folder onto the internal h/d would the movie jukebox work (where you have all the movie titles & pictures like posters) straight out of the box - or is this something that has to be configured like adding the pics separately?
 
Whats the general consensus with this vs Western Digital TV vs Apple TV 2G with Plex or nivoTV installed on it?

I was hoping my PS3 would transcode mkvs from my NAS but it's not happening and I don't mind buying one of the above to get it sorted this weekend!

edit:

Looking around it does seem the best option! Might just grab one online today if they aren't sold anywhere in the highstreet.
Found one in Manchester for £80!
 
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alx said:
May seem like a stupid question, but should there be much performance difference if you're streaming video from a NAS compared to shared files/folders on a pc? (assuming both are suing a wired network)

Would it make any difference to the ff/rw capability?
Click to expand...

Nope...doesnt make a bit of difference...i stream Blu ray rips from my NAS box which is connected to a gigabit switch...i have my playon mini connected to the gigabit switch...but only the NAS is gigabit whereas the playon is only 100mb connected....blu rays stream perfectly fine with no stutters or slowdowns that i can see....this wired though, cant say anything about wireless as i dont use it.

Absolutely perfect for my needs....ff/rwd capability on mine is near enough perfect really as well.

Clipsey said:
Sweet thanks, however just looked and didn't realize you can simply add your own 2tb hard drive :)
Next question, if you were to load a bunch of .iso (dvd's and BR) in a folder onto the internal h/d would the movie jukebox work (where you have all the movie titles & pictures like posters) straight out of the box - or is this something that has to be configured like adding the pics separately?
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Well the playon mini hd doesnt have an option for internal hds:confused:...you must be talking about the other playon models....the playon mini has usb connections at the back so you attach an external hd or attach a NAS box like i have.

The movie jukebox is a separate program that you download from the ac ryan site...you install it on your pc...set it up ie browse to where your movies are and save the jukebox file there then run it and it gets the info from the net and loads up the pics etc. How i have mine set up is by using EMM aka ember media manager...load up all my movies through there and scrape the data ie movie info...once thats done then i run the movie jukebox program on my desktop and let it do its own thing till its finished...saves the file and then turn on my playon...browse to my movie jukebox then open and load it up and voila it shows up on the screen.
 
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Spawn said:
Well the playon mini hd doesnt have an option for internal hds:confused:...you must be talking about the other playon models....the playon mini has usb connections at the back so you attach an external hd or attach a NAS box like i have.

The movie jukebox is a separate program that you download from the ac ryan site...you install it on your pc...set it up ie browse to where your movies are and save the jukebox file there then run it and it gets the info from the net and loads up the pics etc. How i have mine set up is by using EMM aka ember media manager...load up all my movies through there and scrape the data ie movie info...once thats done then i run the movie jukebox program on my desktop and let it do its own thing till its finished...saves the file and then turn on my playon...browse to my movie jukebox then open and load it up and voila it shows up on the screen.
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Thanks for that Spawn, yeah I'm thinking of getting the standard Playon as I can then put a 2TB drive in it and be down with it (as it's for my dad I'm trying to make it as simple as possible).
Sounds fairly straight forward.
 
Clipsey said:
Thanks for that Spawn, yeah I'm thinking of getting the standard Playon as I can then put a 2TB drive in it and be down with it (as it's for my dad I'm trying to make it as simple as possible).
Sounds fairly straight forward.
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No worries mate...pretty straight forward really....there are instructions regarding movie jukebox and EMM a few pages back in this thread.
 
Does the Playon transcode video files? I was streaming 720p mkvs yesterday over wireless which prior to getting the Playon have always stuttered over the network. Wasn't sure if the quality was being compressed by it or not?
 
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