Conclusion
The ASUS O!Play HD2 is definitely a godsend that will soon replace how we watch tv and interact with TV. In fact, a local ISP is also having somewhat similar kind of box just that it delivers their own set of paid contents.
With this device, most users would be playing ripped contents from their own BD, DVDs etc. With the ASUS O!Play HD2, this is further enhance with the thousands of radio stations and TV stations (firmware 1.11 onwards). Although the picture quality is debatable, you will be surprise to find some interesting channels. Some streams (>600K) looks perfectly all right on a 42″ TV screen, probably as good as broadcast quality in 4:3 aspect ratio.
The addition of USB 3.0 support on the backplane eases trasfers of large contents from external storage. Of course, if you prefer you can still stick to eSATA or the NAS feature inside it. I like the integration of Flickr and Picasa but the stocks might need to include more international stock exchanges data.
In Conclusion, the ASUS O Play HD2 is definitely a step forward but has room for improvement in terms of documentation and the layout of the ports. The product will go on sale at SITEX 2010 on 25th Nov 2010.
I give the ASUS O! Play HD2 our Gold Award.
Pros :
USB 3.0 support
iPhone remote control
NAS
Dolby 7 channel surround
Cons:
Opera browser is missing from the firmware
Documentation lacking in terms of NAS setup
Wired network required