ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 media player won't likely get an O-face

We knew it was coming, now the ASUS O!Play is official. The HDP-R1 HD Media Player supports HD video playback in a variety of codecs including MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, and RM/RMVB in a multitude of packages including .mp4, .mov, .avi, .divx, and .mkv just to name a few. FLAC and OGG audio? Yup, no problem. The box connects to your display over HDMI or composite A/V with an option for optical digital audio for multi-channel setups. Media can be slung off a single USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, second vanilla USB 2.0 jack, or streamed over fixed Ethernet if you prefer to keep your content on the other side of the house. Sorry, no 802.11n because, you know, everyone's home is wired with Cat 5 (riiiight). No price or release date given; but it would have to be cheap and soon for us to be even remotely interested.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 7:09AM]

Why the negative write up?
This seems like a sweet box. I am tired of Engadget's condescending, spoiled tone in 95% of their articles.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 1:52PM]

Well, it isn't Media Center... What do you expect? I'll give this one my "Oh face."

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 7:33AM]

Can't wait for a review.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 11:03AM]

If you can live without the network connectivity just get the Western Digital TV.. Same thing.. In fact there are even modified firmwares where you can hook up network connectivity to it as well, and it's only 99 bucks..

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 10:26PM]

It seems to have potential. I Maybe it will be a suitable replacement for the the aging Hauppauge MediaMVP. Gigabit network connection, DIVX decoder and a nice interface with a low price could make it a hot seller.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 7th 2009 11:31PM]

unless it is priced competitively against the WDTV (USD99 www.buy.com) or EG-M34A (popcorn clone selling at USD139 @ www.egreathd.com ), it is hard for Asus to compete.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 7:46AM]

Just got my HDP-R1 a few minutes ago.
looks very nice.... any way.

Did my fisrt play from manually selection from a Windows-shared-directory.
A little bit too simple interface, when having several GB's of music.

What about that streaming part, any body any idea how to set this up ??

There is een kind of source package available. But for me that looks like abrakadakr :)