Performance

In the following tests at first we will play some high bit rate video clips from a Corsair Voyager USB stick with over 20 MB/s read and afterwards from the internal HDD of the PlayOn!HD2. Next we will stream the same video clips through a wired gigabit network which uses a Dlink DGS-1008D switch and through a wireless 802.11n network which uses a TP-LINK TL-WA901ND as Access Point (AP) with transmission power set to high. In the wireless network the media player will be connected first through the optional USB WiFi dongle (ACR-WN10002) and next through a TP-LINK TL-WA901ND in client role. The AP is located in a different room about 5 meters away, in straight line, from the player.
All tests include playback of videos from 20 mbps to 90 mbps bit rate and M2TS files, too. The results can be found in the table below.

The performance while reading from the USB and the HDD is very good. Especially while utilizing the latter the player managed to play even the 80 mbps MKV file, the highest bit rate video we use for testing purposes. However, the results when using wireless connections are not good at all. While utilizing the ACR-WN10002 the player failed to play any high bit rate file we tried. Thankfully with a TL-WA901N in client role we were able to watch the 24 mbps test video without broken frames but all higher bit rate MKV files were still unwatchable. Here we must note that we didn't expect much from wireless connections and it's a common truth that you can watch such high-bitrate content only through a real gigabit Ethernet connection, or from the internal HDD and possible a USB 3.0 disk.

Regarding network speed while streaming data from a network share, the maximum speed we saw was 107,976 kbit/sec and the most common was around 74,000 kbit/sec, so even while streaming movie files, data transfer speed does not even come close to gigabit so we seriously doubt the claim of the gigabit streaming speeds of the equipped LAN port.

Wired Network Data Transfer Speeds

We copied one large file from a network share to the PlayOn!HD2 utilizing a gigabit network. The maximum transfer speed we saw was 8.39 MB/s so indeed the LAN port works in 100 mbit mode.

Power Consumption

We used a Prova WM-02 power analyzer to measure the power consumption of PlayOn!HD2 in various operation modes.


Power consumption in almost all cases is amazing low. Even at worst case it doesn't exceed 12.1 W. This is the main reason that many users prefer media players instead of HTPCs. However standby power consumption could be less since nowadays even PSUs with monstrous capacity feature less than 0.5W vampire power.

Noise Level

We measured the noise level of PlayOn!HD2 with a CEM-8852 sound level meter at 50 cm distance, 25.5°C ambient and in various modes of operation: idle, AVI playback, high bit rate (80 mbps MKV) video playback etc.

The noise level remained the same in all cases, at 34.8 dBA meaning that the fan, which is responsible to handle the heat of the internal, works at a fixed speed. We think that a temperature controlled fan would be a more appropriate choice for this unit.