XBMC Application

Asustor's 2 and 3 Series utilize XBMC for their multimedia features, while the high-end 6 Series uses Boxee, which isn't a problem since we highly prefer XBMC, although it requires a strong enough CPU, which will probably have the low-clocked Atom that equips the AS-204TE struggle to cope with the task.


Along with XBMC, the X.Org application, Remote Center, ASUSTOR portal, and Chrome applications will also install automatically.


Installing XBMC turns this NAS into a fully featured media player. Since Asustor has equipped its 2 Series with an HDMI port, you can connect the NAS to any HDMI-ready monitor or TV to reproduce all the multimedia content on the NAS with XBMC.


Once you install XBMC, you can control the NAS through the following methods:

1. ASUSTOR Remote
2. USB keyboard and mouse
3. Official XBMC Remote App (iOS & Android)

We tried all of the above and all worked flawlessly.


With the XBMC player at idle, not playing any media files, CPU utilization is low; however, RAM usage is not.


The CPU show first signs of struggle with a 50 MBPS MKV file.


CPU and memory utilization took another turn for the worse with a 70 MBPS MKV file, although playback of the files we tested was perfect and worked. However, the NAS refused to play any of the M2TS files we tried and hung once we switched to extra-high bitrate files. The XBMC interface also wasn't as snappy as with NAS servers with stronger hardware, which is due to the weaker Atom CPU. While it may have two cores, or four with Hyper-Threading, they are, to be as energy efficient as possible, clocked rather low.


The remote control Asustor provides with the bundle made controlling XBMC a breeze, and we liked its small dimensions a lot. It only has the essential buttons, which won't have you run into any problem as you play your favorite multimedia content off the NAS.