October 1st, 2009
Asus, QNAP release new 1080p HD media streamers
Home theaters are still waiting for the killer device that will run away with the market for streaming media to your HDTV. How do we know? More and more companies are jumping into the “network media player” game—a dominant device (whether a networked TV or super set-top box) would start weeding weaker offerings out, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Instead, it seems like new products are shipping every week that promise to deliver media files from your home network and the Internet to your set. This week alone, Asus and NAS darling QNAP bowed with their first forays into living room streamers. The company that built a brand around the Eee name will have a harder time repeating that success with the O!Play HDP-R1—”Eee” is cute, but “O!Play” is a little more, um, awkward. Nonetheless, you can’t argue with the price at Amazon.com: $99.99. It offers the usual specs you’d expect for a 2009 streaming device: 1080p HD playback via HDMI, support for DivX and Xvid video formats (among many others), and an eSATA port for connecting an external drive. Unfortunately, network connectivity is limited to an Ethernet port. In addition to lacking a Wi-Fi option, the O!Play doesn’t support any streaming services like Netflix or Amazon’s on-demand video offerings. Still, it is only $100.
QNAP is best known for its enthusiast-level network storage products, so it’s a bit ironic that its NMP-1000 network media player (pictured above) doesn’t come with any storage save 64MB of flash memory. The unit, larger than the O!Play, has room for an internal hard drive that you can install. Like the Asus, it comes with an eSATA port, along with a pair of USB ports and a few more video connections: While both players have HDMI and composite video, the QNAP also has component-video and S-video outputs. It does support compatible USB-based Wi-Fi adapters in addition to sporting an Ethernet jack, though you’ll have to pay for the wireless adapter as well. Unlike the Asus, the NMP-1000 doesn’t support DivX, though it does handle Xvid files and can output Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD surround sound.
The device can also work as a NAS unit when a hard drive is installed in it, offering features like a backup utility, BitTorrent downloading, and remote file access. The QNAP comes with a few Internet services—like YouTube and Flickr—though the lineup is nothing earth-shattering. Though the company says the NMP-1000 is available now in the U.S., I wasn’t able to locate a price for it online. You can be sure, however, that it’ll be more than $99.99.
Sean Portnoy spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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