Black Magic

Thanks to broadband access, we’re now enjoying a whole lot more music, video and other social network-based activities quite unlike the ways we communicated just a decade or two ago. The almost instantaneous connection to your favourite online music and/or video stores is a given, and downloading the latest games to your computer is just a breeze.

But as you accumulate all these stuff, sooner or later, you’d be complaining about having to be sitting in front of your PC or laptop computer all the time to enjoy a moment of reprieve. And what about the tons of digital images and videos you’ve collected over the past few years?

Sometimes, you’d just wish for that one device to meet all your needs to keep your valuable digital assets in one location – for easy storage and easy retrieval. But you have seen such devices before – clunky PC-based storage devices that are slow, unwieldy to wire up, and not entirely friendly to use. These so-called media centres were a letdown, chiefly because of poor connectivity to the one major device at home for entertainment – the TV – and ease of use.

The ASUS O!Play HD2 aims to change all that. It is the world’s first USB3.0 multimedia centre, enabling you to transfer high definition video and sound at higher speeds than the ubiquitous USB2.0 counterparts. With transfer speeds of up to 10 times faster, it is able to transfer a HD movie in only around 70 seconds, provided the other end too is USB3.0-compliant. Acting as an external hard drive too, it expands the amount of content users can keep with support for 3.5-inch hard drives.

The O!Play HD2 can also be configured as a network attached storage (NAS) device for seamless network integration. Pre-setup with popular software programs like the iTunes and Samba, users are able to manage their content with speed and great accessibility. It also works as a jukebox, allowing users to store music files and browse them on-demand.

Now, iPhone users will love this: Special enhancements allow them to use their iPhones as a remote control for the device. It also features access to live streaming radio of over 20,000 stations, Picasa and Flickr, including weather and stock updates. Infotainment and Entertainment? You’ve got it all in one box.

Excited already? Well, the good news is that the device can store various formats including MPEG2 (AVI/VOB), MPEG4 (AVO/Xvid), M2TS (Blu-ray), MKV (H.264), rmvb and DVD functional navigation of ISO and IFO. Moreover, constant online updates to O!Play firmware and drivers will be provided.

If you are looking for an intelligent, multi-functional media storage device, this Asus product seems promising.

For more product information, please click here.