AC Ryan PlayOn!HD2 Review 2

AC Ryan PlayOn!HD2 Review

by
crmaris
,
on ,
Manufacturer: AC Ryan
Packaging, Contents & Exterior »

Specifications

AC Ryan PlayOn!HD2 (ACR-PV73700) Features & Specs
ChipsetRealtek RTD1185DD
Memory256ΜΒ DDR2
Storage Supported

Storage Supported:
Internal hard disk drive
External USB mass storage devices(hard drives, flash drives)s
Media Cards
USB sticks and other USB mass storage devices

BUILT-IN Storage Supported:
EZ-Drive slot - 3.5" SATA/SATA2 HDD up to 2TB
2.5" HDD support via adaptor frame

Audio/Video outputs
HDMI 1.3 interface up to 1080p
Composite Audio / Video
Y/ Pb / Pr Video
SPDIF coaxial (digital audio)
SPDIF Optical TOSLink (digital audio)
Interface
2 x USB 2.0 Host Ports (USB-A)
1 x USB 3.0 Slave Port (USB-B)
Network
Ethernet 10/100/1000 RJ-45

Wireless WLAN 802.11b/g/n 300Mbps via USB WLAN
adaptor (optional, not incl.)
Supports WLAN security WEP, WPA
Supports WLAN Peer-to-Peer (connects wireless without router)
Network - Wireless Bult-In
(Selected models only)
Wireless-N via a PCI-e port with dual antenna
Power
DC-IN 12V
Standby: 1,5 W / Active: 10 W
Cooling
40mm Low-Noise Fan (for HDD Cooling)
Web services

*Social Media / Transmission/ Internet Radio / Internet Feeds
(Picassa, Flickr, News Feeds)

Media files supported

Video Formats Supported:
AVI / MKV / TS / TP / TRP / M2TS / MPG / MP4 / MOV / M4V / VOB / ISO / DVD-ISO / IFO / DAT / WMV / ASF / RM / RMVB / / BD-ISO FLV resolution up to 720p / 1080i / 1080p

Video Codecs Supported:
MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 SP/ASP/AVC (H.264 | x264) / XviD / DivX / WMV9 (VC-1) / RealVideo 8/9/10 (up to 720P)

Video Output Supported:
PAL / NTSC / 480p / 576p / 720p / 1080i 50Hz / 1080i 60Hz / 1080p 50Hz / 1080p 60Hz / 1080p 24FPS

Subtitles Format Supported:
SRT / SMI / SSA / IDX-SUB / SUB

Character Sets Supported
(Needed for Subtitles):
Unicode (UTF8), BIG5 (Traditional Chinese), Western, Turkish, Central European, Greek, Cyrillic, SE European, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Thai

Audio output supported:
Stereo / Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo) / Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 (passthrough) / Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)*/ DTS Digital Surround 5.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)*/ AAC 7.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)*/ FLAC

Audio formats supported:
MP3 / MP2 / WMA / AAC / FLAC / WAV / OGG Vorbis / PCM / LPCM / MS-ADPCM / LC-AAC / HE-AAC / COOK / RA-Lossless

Image formats supported:
JPEG, HD JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, PNG

Image formats supported:
JPEG, HD JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, PNG

Media Support
BluRay BD-ISO with LPCM Multi-Channel, DD Plus and DTS-HD Master Audio passthrough
Weight
1 Kg (w/o hdd) and 1.6Kg incl. hard drive
Dimensions
227mm(W) x 165mm(D) x 60mm(H)
Warranty
2 years
MSRP Prices

Playon!HD2 barebone $169, Playon!HD2 1TB $229, Playon!HD2 1.5TB $259, Playon!HD2 2TB $289 (+Wireless-N 300mbps $29.95)

Besides the new CPU the updated model has twice the memory compared to the old Playon!HD. The new EZ-Drive slot along with the Gigabit Ethernet and the USB 3.0 port are also noteworthy. Speaking of gigabit, we noticed that some users at AC Ryan's official support forum complain about the poor performance of the supposed Gigabit interface and an explanation that was given is that gigabit speeds are achieved only when data is streamed. For local network traffic (e.g. while copying data to the player's HDD) speed comes down to 100 Mbps (theoretically of course). This sounds really weird and in our tests we will find the truth!

The dimensions of the new unit remain exactly the same with the ones of the older model. What we didn't like so much is the short, two-year, warranty. In Europe two years is the minimal warranty period that a manufacturer must provide for its products. Regarding the prices, the MSRPs are quite high but usually stores sell way lower so most likely you will find much better prices. Unfortunately we were unable to find all prices (barebone, with 1 TB, 1.5TB etc.) from U.S. online stores, so we used the MSRP ones.
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Jan 13th, 2025 15:32 EST change timezone

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