Confused between WD LIVE and Asus Oplay and Himedia

[gurujee]

After much research and suggestions, i zeroed down

WD live series (wd live tv, plus or hub)
Asus oplay series
and Himedia series

But i am afraid to buy Himedia as it is Chinese and availability issue (detna not responding).

WD live seems to be good, most of the guys recommending it. I am not sure which model has DLNA capability.

Asus looks good and vfm according to thinkdigit mag.

pls suggest, i want the best this time...already fooled to buy logitech z906 speakers

 

[baijuxavior]

I will recommend himedia. Just because it is chinese doesn't mean the quality is low or it is bad. Infact the players are build of high quality material and features the latest chipset, playback capability etc. What is your budget?

 

[haisaikat]

I still use OPlay Air and in my opinion the advantage is the regular firmware updates from ASUS. Mine is 2 yrs back so did not have HD Audio support but the Oplay Mini has all.

 

[gurujee]

I will recommend himedia. Just because it is chinese doesn't mean the quality is low or it is bad. Infact the players are build of high quality material and features the latest chipset, playback capability etc. What is your budget?

My budget is up to 10k.

I still use OPlay Air and in my opinion the advantage is the regular firmware updates from ASUS. Mine is 2 yrs back so did not have HD Audio support but the Oplay Mini has all.

oplay mini seems not to have dlna. but oplayair hr3 specifies to have, but not sure of its 'play to' feature ...

 

[baijuxavior]

If you are looking for DLNA, then himedia has it. Models to look for are the 600 series and the newer 900 series with 3D.

 

[adie]

Am using O Play mini for some time. It amazingly plays what ever is fed to it (except *.dts) . Supports most of the formats in audio or video. Am satisfied of its performance. Hence higher model should out-perform mini. I had gone for Wd TV live but because of Floods in Bangkok and irregular supplies its prices have steeped upwards to 9000 INR. Now same model was available for 6000 INR before this flood thing. HDMI cable came free with this device.

 

[gurujee]

If you are looking for DLNA, then himedia has it. Models to look for are the 600 series and the newer 900 series with 3D.

Where i can get it other than Detna ?

 

[gurujee]

@adie
which model do u have of WD ? does it support DLNA ? how much is it now ?

 

[adie]

guruji I had initially decided for wd. but cos of unreasonable costs i bought Asus O play mini. It costed me 3700 INR.

 

[haisaikat]

Unless you want to control your playback from laptop or DLNA mobile with individual's locally stored media playback the Play To will not yield much benefit in longer run since you will anyway get a remote with whatever media player you decide.

 

[gurujee]

guruji I had initially decided for wd. but cos of unreasonable costs i bought Asus O play mini. It costed me 3700 INR.

asus oplay is great vfm. WD hub has 1tb hd, but other models doesnt have. why they hiked their price. i think only HD price hiked for flood..

Unless you want to control your playback from laptop or DLNA mobile with individual's locally stored media playback the Play To will not yield much benefit in longer run since you will anyway get a remote with whatever media player you decide.

I want to play music from my laptop. and would be great if i can stream radio(sky.fm) also.

so yes want to control the playback from my lappy..

 

[baijuxavior]

I want to play music from my laptop. and would be great if i can stream radio(sky.fm) also.

so yes want to control the playback from my lappy..

Using DLNA you can playback music or videos to your player. But please note you will need Windows 7 and time slider won't work. Play/Pause, Next/Previous and Stop are the only commands that work.

 

[siva1306]

Guys, Does the oplay mini plays files from a 2.5 TB WD HDD?
Any body tried with larger than 1Tb HDD's?

 

[TheSeeker]

Hello gurujee ! on a side note, would you mind telling us why you think you were 'fooled' by buying the logitech Z906 ? have seen people recommending this set to others. would be interesting to know some flaws too from your point of view. hope you dont mind.

 

[gurujee]

Using DLNA you can playback music or videos to your player. But please note you will need Windows 7 and time slider won't work. Play/Pause, Next/Previous and Stop are the only commands that work.

no, prob i have windows 7 on my laptop. and i want to just stream music and, if it supports, radio. i use sky.fm' radio playlist.

Hello gurujee ! on a side note, would you mind telling us why you think you were 'fooled' by buying the logitech Z906 ? have seen people recommending this set to others. would be interesting to know some flaws too from your point of view. hope you dont mind.

actually, i fool myself. i was in a tight budget.

the movie experience is fine, though not great.
but playing music on it is a bit let down. i was using altec lansing atp3 previously and music sounds better on atp3 than z906.

the main problem to me with z906 is its muddy and aggressive bass, which lacks depth, clarity and naturalness. it's more or less fine during movie's sound effects like explosion, but once extended background music starts, it starts to produce that 'drrrrrr' sound.

i am not audiophile, but some difference i can perceive clearly. i should have gone with a low end analogue 5.1 or avr+spkr..

 

[Ben10]

Guys, Does the oplay mini plays files from a 2.5 TB WD HDD?
Any body tried with larger than 1Tb HDD's?

Hi Guys can anybody advise,
I also have 2 TB Go flex which i want to connect to Oplay mini , If it support 2TB then Oplay is in for me ,
I was also considering DLNA support but realized it is not much of a use for me.

Oplay mini seems to be best VFM (if it supports 2 TB hardisk).

What are the audio output option in Oplay mini apart from optical out.

I am using Edifier 5.1 system connected to my PC sound card, edifer also has support for second 2.1 input , Would i be able to use Oplay in my existing setup.

In terms of picture quality which other media player is better than mini , Plz don't include popcornhour and other high end players here.

my budjet is 10000-12000 , Is any other play better than mini in terms of picture and sound quality in simliar budjet

 

[dazoy]

You might want to try boxee box. It works pretty well and has scrapping capabilities as well.

The only downside is that it is not really too good as a music player. You can select music by artist or albums, but there is no playlist feature etc. But you can use differnet apps - last.fm, pandora and many other apps are there to listen to music from.

I also believe that it is under Rs 10,000 now. Amazon.com: The Boxee Box by D-Link HD Streaming Media Player: Electronics

I use this more than WD player.

Cheers,

Saurabh

 

[haisaikat]

Guys, Does the oplay mini plays files from a 2.5 TB WD HDD?
Any body tried with larger than 1Tb HDD's?

Check this amazon.com review, someone has confirmed 2TB support
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: ASUS OPLAY_MINI/1A/NTSC/AS Media Player - Black

Aslo another one from Asus forum where there are mixed feedbacks
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- do 3tb external hard drives work on the asus oplay ?

However I remember checking mine with a 3TB Seagate Fre-Agent HDD but OPlay Air did not recognise. However note that OPlay Mini is a more recent version hence not sure if it will support 3TB.

 

[haisaikat]

Hi Guys can anybody advise,
I also have 2 TB Go flex which i want to connect to Oplay mini , If it support 2TB then Oplay is in for me ,
I was also considering DLNA support but realized it is not much of a use for me.

Oplay mini seems to be best VFM (if it supports 2 TB hardisk).

What are the audio output option in Oplay mini apart from optical out.

I am using Edifier 5.1 system connected to my PC sound card, edifer also has support for second 2.1 input , Would i be able to use Oplay in my existing setup.

In terms of picture quality which other media player is better than mini , Plz don't include popcornhour and other high end players here.

my budjet is 10000-12000 , Is any other play better than mini in terms of picture and sound quality in simliar budjet

Check this amazon.com review, someone has confirmed 2TB support
http://www.amazon.com/OPLAY_MINI-1A-NTSC-AS-Player/product-reviews/B004Z0S6WK

However if your budget is around 12K why not try popcorn hour media players?

 

[buxx]

which is the cheapest branded media player supporting HD bitstreaming?