The KitGuru review of the A.C. Media devices was a popular read and today AC Ryan are pleased to announce a new official firmware release for both the Playon!
After CES 2011, we had written about A.C.Ryan trying to get into the US market with their new product lineup. One of the products we covered in the write up was the second generation PlayOn!HD2, an updated version of their flagship product from last year. While the first generation product was based on the Realtek 1073DD chipset, the second generation is based on the Realtek 1185DD. In order to provide A.C.Ryan with feedback prior to the units reaching the hands of the consumers, we opted to go in for a prototype review unit. A.C.Ryan sent us their top configuration, the ACR-PV73700-2TB.
This model has a 2 TB Samsung hard drive bundled with the base unit, and will have a suggested retail price of $289 when it launches later this month. A.C.Ryan warned us that the unit we were receiving was a prototype and even though the hardware was final, the firmware bundled with the unit was not. We weren't expecting the streamer to work wonder right off the box, but that didn't prevent us from connecting the unit to our streamer test bed. One of the main concerns with the PlayOn!HD2 platform's specifications was the absence of any mention of DTS-HD audio downmix or bitstreaming. Also, we were suspicious of the claimed BD-ISO playback. Right after hooking up the box, I tried to playback some MKV and M2TS files with DTS-HD MA audio.
Bitstreaming of the HD audio worked without a hitch! Like many other media streamers, there is no official support for DTS-HD audio. However, that doesn't prevent the streamer from handling it within the constraints placed by the user's setup and the licensing agreements in place.
In this context, the WDTV lineup is the odd one out, refusing to support DTS-HD bitstreaming. Other licensees feel that a license is necessary only for decode and downmix of the HD audio and not for bitstreaming. We feel this is correct, since the end user has already paid the licensing fees for the decoding of DTS-HD audio when purchasing the AV receiver. Anyway, getting back to the PlayOn!HD2, we tried to look into the claimed BD-ISO support. While both BD-ISOs and folder structures played the movie, the support is still in the form of BD-Lite, i.e, A.C.Ryan's own menu instead of the BD-J enabled one. There are still some tweaks necessary for titles with branched structures, and other areas where the firmware could use some improvement.
We have informed A.C.Ryan of the same. A detailed review of the functionality enabled by the firmware will come later.
However, being given an exclusive, we couldn't resist publishing a overview of the hardware platform right away. First, we will have a look at the unboxing experience, following which we will cover the internal hardware platform in detail. Monday, February 14, 2011 - My WDLive HD does do DTS HD, My reciever sees it as a DTS stream, so unless its encoding a DTS ( Doesn't support DTS MA) stream from a DTS MA stream ( highly unlikely, na impossible) It does support DTS MA It just sends the core audio(DTS. In fact its the Dolby True that I cannot play back. My Receiver only supports Dolby Digital and DTS, Its a harman Kardon from about 2004. My Files are MKV remuxes of full Bluray ( no re-encoding) movies.
I use DVDFab, ClownBD,MKVMerge, and ANYDVD HD. Software I use Twonky Media center in Virtualbox ( It didn't play nice with my Windows 7).
The WDLive is connected though component to the TV and through Fiber for Audio.
Originally Posted by jakmal It was the AMD Embedded Solutions (eBrazos), unfortunately, even though AMD suggested it could be used for media players, I am not seeing any design wins for AMD over there. Anyways, back to the topic, there is a first look at the PlayOn!HD2 here: Nice write-up. Looking forward to your review with final specifications/features. I was actually interested in seeing a screen shot of the GUI of that AC Ryan unit. I saw some RealTek 1185 media players at CES 2011 and one of them had a dual boot OS/GUI.
They first showed me a generic GUI on the RealTek 1185 that I saw on two other previous media players using the 1055 chipsets and they look exactly the same - but then the rep showed me another GUI on the same 1185 player and it was night and day - that GUI was finished though. Originally Posted by Falhawk I have what might be a dumb question, but does this device use the playon.tv software? Meaning I can get tv websites like cbs etc as well as netflix?
Sorry for such a noob question, just trying to find the right device for me. To Clarify what you are asking - you are wondering if this has the PlayOn.TV software in it. The answer would be maybe no.
The name of the product can be confusing because it has PlayOn!HD in it. Then again it PlayOn!HD could be a play on on PlayOn.TV.but it supports UPnP so I think it can use PlayOn.TV. As my neighbour bought a playon HD2 (Firmware version v9.5.3.r1731) i asked if i could test the network speed at my own Gigabit network using Windows Explorer to copy a file to the HD2, the speed was max 7.3MB/sec (58.4Mbit) That is enough to stream Full HD and HD Audio, talking in streaming rates.
Talking in File tranfer its not Gigabit worthy. When transfering from PC to PC or NAS to PC the person had much faster file transfering rates. So there is an actually difference between PC gigabit and media player gigabit?
Originally Posted by Falhawk I have what might be a dumb question, but does this device use the playon.tv software? Meaning I can get tv websites like cbs etc as well as netflix? Sorry for such a noob question, just trying to find the right device for me. Has anyone checked this to see if dlna server will stream from a PC to the HD2. I tried it with HD1 SDK4, but couldn't get it to work. I installed the Realtek UPnP driver, and can navigate through the folders, but when I get to a video, it won't play. I thought I read in the forums that is does work with the newer 1185 chip.
They have a free trial, if someone could test this.
Comments are closed.
|
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |