ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 1080p HD Media Player
Primary need was the ability to play my existing library of ISO DVD’s. Each time we purchase a DVD, I make an ISO of it so that I can play it from a main server on any of the computers in the house. We also make a no nonsense copy of the DVD and store the original using only the backup copy to play so that if it gets damaged we can rebuild a new backup etc… This eliminates the annoying previews and removes all the menus etc..
Anyway, I wanted a way to be able to access the ISO library on the main HDTV. I played with Xbox360 and Microsoft Media player, but the speed and access was terrible and to get Media Player to actually be able to serve ISO movies was even more work. So I looked for better solution.
Once I had a good network connection near the TV, I picked up the ASUS O!Play Media Player. Needed to do a firmware upgrade and setup a new regular user on my primary Windows 7 workstation and then I could access the hard drive share on the box that contains the ISO library. Now I can play the ISO DVD movies, access Images and music and play just about any media on the main HDTV in the family room.
I had looked at the new HDP-R3 which is just being released which has a wireless network capability, but since I already had put in the DAP wireless bridge, it wasn’t necessary. Turns out the DAP makes a faster connection anyway.
I also looked at the Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player which is very popular… but it does not support ISO movie’s…
D-Link DAP-1522 Xtreme N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point
Really needed to get a good fast network connection over where there main HDTV is located so that we can hookup things like an XBox360, media player etc…
I was using a powerline network connection but it was not making a fast enough connection.
I picked up a DAP-1522 to setup a bridge so that I could then use it’s 4 available Ethernet ports to connect the Xbox and media player into and anything else we end up over there. The wireless signal only had to go about 12 ft through two light indoor walls to get to the main cable router I am using (LinkSys WRT150N which is running DD-WRT firmware). Configuration was fairly easy once I did a firmware upgrade and switched to MSIE to access it (FF, Opera, etc do not work well in the configuration modes).
I had to change the default IP of the device to match my internal network first and then configured it to use the WPA2/AES setup for a secure connection. Hard to see what type of signal strength you get with the DAP but the LinkSys shows a good solid connection and the speed has been great.
Note that this device can be a bridge or Access Point. As a bridge, it provides a wireless connection to an existing high speed Wireless router and provides Ethernet ports that can then be used to access that same network. As an Access Point, you would add this to a wired network so that you could then access that network via a wireless connection.
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