ASUS O!Play Mini - Value for Money

In an already crowded HD media player market, ASUS has chosen to launch yet another player. The new ASUS O!Play Mini is a simple, but powerful full HD multimedia playback device, which would make a great addition to your home entertainment setup. Features Apart from watching high definition videos on an LCD television using the HDMI interface, the media player can also be used on regular LCD and CRT TVs using the composite A/V output. The O`Play Mini supports full HD 1080p resolution videos in a variety of file extensions, including TRP, MP4, MOV, XVID, AVI, ASF, WMV, MKV, RMVB, FLV, TS, MTS, M2TS, DAT, MPG, VOB, ISO, IFO and M4V. Audio support for formats such as MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AIFF is also included. USB and memory card reader at the front JPEG, BMP, PNG and GIF image playback is also supported. You can also have subtitles in SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA, ASS, IDX and TXT formats. File system support for external storage drives includes FAT16/32, NTFS, HFS and EXT3. It additionally features Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel surround sound for a complete theater-like experience. Design and Build Quality The O`Play Mini is as small as a 2.5-inch portable storage drive and boasts great build quality. The shell is made of a dual-tone matte and glossy finish. The front panel sports inputs such as a USB 2.0 port and a card reader, which supports SD, MMC, MS and xD flash cards. The rear features HDMI and composite audio and video interfaces and an optical S/PDIF port. What the O!Play Mini lacks is an Ethernet port, which could support media streaming over the Internet or media servers on the local network. Basic, compact remote control Also, an additional USB port would have been beneficial for external 2.5-inch storage drives that require a Y-cable for additional power. The player has absolutely no control panel whatsoever, so you have to rely on the bundled IR remote, which supports all the functionality. So in case you lose or damage the remote, the media player would be almost useless, unless you acquire another remote controller from the manufacturer.  Performance We found the interface very user friendly, easy to navigate and quite swift while changing between screens, but it can be a little sluggish if the list of movies is too long. The video playback was almost flawless. Connectivity options The indexing feature is beneficial, especially when you plug in a fairly large storage drive with lots of video, music and photos. The lack of USB 3.0 port, which is present in the HD2, was a little disappointing, but since the requirements of speed are not as high, it could be ignored.  Verdict Priced at Rs. 4,400, the O!Play Mini is one of the cheapest media out there. Other than missing Ethernet connectivity, it’s got most of the features that you expect from a media player. The O!Play Mini offers great value for money and is the cheapest HD media player you can buy with these features.