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The AC Ryan PlayOn! HD Mini 2 is extremely simple to set up. Simply plug in the AC adapter and hook up the HDMI and Ethernet cables and it's ready to go. When the power is plugged in the AC Ryan logo on the front is illuminated red to signify that the unit is in standby. Once the unit is powered on this turns white.
It's clear that AC Ryan have spent a lot of time working on their user interface since the first PlayOn! HD products we saw a while back. It certainly looks a lot prettier and is much more intuitive. From the home screen we have seven options; Movies, Music, Photo, Files Manager, Internet Media, Jukebox and setup. Those who want to connect the unit to a wireless network will need to go into ‘Setup' first and configure this. Below this menu there are two areas which display recently added music and movies.
Accessing the File Manager gives us access to all the connected storage devices and network drives. When you connect devices to either of the USB ports on the rear, the PlayOn! HD Mini 2 automatically scans for media files and allocates them to the appropriate library depending on their file type.
So when you select the ‘Movies' option you are greeted by a folder filled with all your video files. The files are displayed as thumbnails although we found that the thumbnails didn't come up with some video formats. By pressing the ‘Menu' button, you can change the layout either to a standard list or to a preview list which will play the videos in a small window when they are highlighted. The Photo and Music libraries operate very similarly to the Movie library.
Nice products, I like the interface.
I bought this a few weeks ago and its great, I find however sometimes it ‘hard locks’ when im moving between menus across the network. Any ideas?
These are great for a living room or for lying in bed, but im still not sold on replacing a proper media center, even in those situations. AC Ryan are a good company, they seem to support their customers well, looking at their forums anyway
Excellent. should be popular
DO hard core enthusiast users really buy these and not make a cool custom media center?
I think these are cool devices, but I dont think id buy one, mainly because I like more control having a full media center. The IQ always concerns me as you have no play with it really. ATI and NVidia offer a lot in their panels.
They need to start offering a lot more options IMO before id even be remotely interested.
They are ideal for low power drain users who want a tiny box in a cabinet under the TV. I think there is a place for them. Not for me either im afraid
My friend has another one of these media players, cant remember the name of the company, but it looks very like this. The networking speeds are terrible. streaming is a disaster. I would be surprised if this could handle a high bitrate 1080p file probably ober a network.
So many of these for sale now, what do AC ryan do differently from the others on scans store?
bought their last generation player and I dont see any need to change tbh. good products, people are being a bit hard,. they arent meant to replace a media center, more to suit people who cant be bothered with windows and want an easy to use remote.
Hi just look at the comments on amazon about this product
a night mare.
As a satisfied user of the old AC Ryan Playon! HD MINI1 “I wanted to buy new equipment because the gigabit data stream over my gigabit network, and thus the ‘heavy’ files to my TV set could stream without faltering.
But what happens is that a downgrade rather than purchasing an upgrade.
The menu where you must scroll through file consists of large icons, which only 8 fit on your screen.
So, if you have many files in a folder, it may leave you a long scroll until you have found the correct file.
(There is a ‘list’ button on the remote, but this is a detour, and not at all practical)
Also it goes very wrong with the subtitles of mkv video files.
The unit takes the first .srt-file from the folder, regardless of the video file. So you should always manually add your subtitle manually via the configuration sub-menu. (The name of video and subtitle are always identical, with no spaces or dots)
The previous ‘Playon! HD MINI1 “I had it two years in my possession, I’ve never had this problem.
Also the sound goes mute, and you can hit a few times forward and backward, to get the sound back.
At first I thought it were beginners flaws of a new device, but these problems have existed since February 2010, and AC Ryan has still not be able to correct these problems through firmware updates.
I’m looking for another media-player, because this unit is a bad buy overall. This unit has won prizes, but many buyers experiencing the same problems as me.