Comments on: A.C. RYAN PlayON! HD & MINI Media Player Review

By: Glynn

Glynn — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:03:07 +0000

Ah well, didn’t get a reply but bought one anyway. First to answer my own questions – yes, external HDD works well, no, unless wireless is v. fast streaming directly isn’t going to work. Now my impressions; overall am very pleased with it, the interface is distinctly ‘clunky’ and not something I’d recommend to someone with no computer expertise at all (not at the iPod/iTunes stage yet. The player locks up sometimes, or crashes, and it’s a shame there’s no reset/reboot button. I installed a 2Tb WD Green drive, works very well and formatted without problem. Now about to look at options to install media jukebox.

By: Glynn

Glynn — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:52:05 +0000

Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but can a further external HDD be added via the USB port? And if I had 2+ of these machines, would it be possible to stream to them wirelessly (with the optional adaptor) from my router’s HDD port? Many thanks.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 22:03:29 +0000

We’re looking at getting one of these, full version, 1 or 2 TB, but I just saw a comment by ACRyan above stating that media streamers do not play commercial DVD’s/bluray disks. Does that mean that I cannot stream something running from my laptop to the streamer then? What if I want to watch something online such as on 4OD (channel 4′s on demand site) or if I run a DVD on my laptop – I cannot stream these to the tv or would I then just have t plug the TV into my laptop & bypass the streamer? Sorry I’ve got no experience with these things as yet!
Looks like the Playon is by far the best media streamer around though.

By: Setetik

Setetik — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:24:54 +0000

Great review thanks for explaining it all well. ordered one yesterday

By: Forest

Forest — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:54:51 +0000

I stumbled upon this after searching on google for a media player. I am stunned I have never heard of this company and did some research. followed up over on their site and asked some questions which got answered within a couple of hours.

I am voting with my wallet. these people need to do well in the market, with such a focused grasp of what WE want. Shall order one when I get paid.

By: Ronin McDougle

Ronin McDougle — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:53:20 +0000

I am really tempted myself to get one now after reading all this, my media PC is a mess and its noisy. this is ideal. now to work out how to get the money !

By: Eric K

Eric K — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:52:13 +0000

Fantastic to see AC RYAN staff over here, this seems to be one of the most exciting companies on the market. I have never seen any other company offer ISO support. I wasnt expecting t his.

By: Flo

Flo — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:50:35 +0000

Mikael, you sold me, going to order one. might even go for the 1TB version as I only have a small nas

By: Marcus

Marcus — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:49:34 +0000

What a great review and what a fanastic product, I went and ordered the 1TB version after reading this. Love the site too. nice to see a company with active support forums.

By: Mikael

Mikael — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:13:01 +0000

Yes, the players support ISO files and Bluray ‘light menu’. That means you can’t have the java menus that Bluray’s normally have, since we currently don’t have java support. But you will be able to play the folders with a ‘light’ version of the original menu for now.

We do put a lot of effort into developing new firmware to open new functions, but also to maintain the current ones. I’m not sure if or when java support could be possible on our players, but we have a ‘features and future request’ section in our forums if you would like to see something in particular in our future firmware release you can always give your input to us.

By: Flo

Flo — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:43:38 +0000

It supports ISO files? holy crap, thats wicked. I loved this review, I think ill get one when im paid, probably with the 500GB hd.

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:41:37 +0000

Mikael, I bought one last week and it arrived, it really is a brilliant player, I cant believe how many formats it supports,. even ISO’s and Bluray folders (well some of them).

What a great product.

By: Mikael

Mikael — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:55:08 +0000

Hey everyone,

I’m glad you seem to like our product.

To dlb: You cannot play DVD or Bluray’s over network attached players or PC. You would have to rip your dics to a network or local storage in order for our player to play them.

If you got any other questions I’m glad to answer them.

Br,
A.C Ryan Mikael

By: dlb

dlb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:51:17 +0000

Great of review of what appears to be a great product!

However, I read this near the bottom of page 4:
>> ….. the unit cannot play regular DVD discs from an external optical drive due to CSS protection ….. <<
So, if an external optical drive (like a USB DVDRW drive) was plugged in, the ACRyan unit will not play store-bought movies? What if the movie was in the PC DVD drive, would it stream the movie over the network and play it?

By: Ronin McDougle

Ronin McDougle — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:23:11 +0000

Found this review on Google, cant believe ive never been here before, spent the last hour reading other reviews. brilliant site.

By: Terrance Triblet

Terrance Triblet — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:22:14 +0000

Never heard of this company but loved the review KitGuru, these are really good products and I like the idea of being able to turn off the hot running PC when I want to casually watch my media files

By: Fuad

Fuad — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:21:16 +0000

I have one already, but I would buy another, they are that good

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:14:23 +0000

I love these units. they look stunning in design and the interface while a little chunky offers a lot of functionality. I NEED to get one of these soon. probably the bigger model without a drive in it. (as I just bought a 2TB drive!)

By: OCZ fanatic

OCZ fanatic — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:03:20 +0000

I need to get one of these. I have a great gaming pc, but its quite loud and its annoying at night, id love one of these for watching media so I could turn the PC off.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:58:38 +0000

I wish to god I had seen this review before I bought the ASUS unit I have, bought it 9 months ago and it wont play about 1/3 of the files I download. Seems its time for some ebaying now.

By: Riyad Dejarim

Riyad Dejarim — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:54:35 +0000

AC Ryan are brilliant, I love them, I already have the mini but I was going to sell it to my friend last week to buy the 1TB unit as I want the storage now. This has just reminded me I need to sell mine and buy the bigger one!

By: Robert McMahon

Robert McMahon — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:53:24 +0000

1TB looks the best deal, I would never need more than than. and it seems more than enough for this device.

By: Tech Heads

Tech Heads — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:52:30 +0000

The REaltek chip is very good for a product like this, and I really rate these products, my friend has the mini version and I was always looking at getting the 1TB version as I only have a 500GB nas which I use for downloads, but im running low. Spending 300 quid on a NAS system seems pointless when this would work just as well, for 175 and treble my storage capacity while able to be used in my living room as a media player. my wife wont have ANY pc in this room so its the best I can do

By: Terry Highlander

Terry Highlander — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:50:40 +0000

The 500GB version suits me, seems £22 is a good deal for 500gb of storage. and id like the option of being able to move files over to this device in case my network over wireless cant handle streaming for playback.

By: Bill Smith

Bill Smith — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:49:14 +0000

The pricing is really rather great ! didnt know abou this company, but I will be getting one of these at some stage. just funds are tight right now.

By: Derek Munado

Derek Munado — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:47:39 +0000

They make very good products, I have one of their older media players which is pretty good, but I think its time for an upgrade, nice review thank you.

By: Toby

Toby — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:46:29 +0000

The interface is absolutely awful looking to be fair – but I hear they change it regularly so its hard to nail it down to a specific look and feel. At least it works which is important, some of those media players have dreadful support for codecs.

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:44:45 +0000

Scan will be getting some sales today from KG, just ordered the mini unit

By: Tri Color

Tri Color — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:44:03 +0000

Well I feel rather stupid cause id never heard of AC RYAN, sounds like the guy from Bioshock ! Its a terrible product name, sounds like a far east product brought over to the UK. surprised a european company didnt come up with something more attractive than PLAYON! However, side issue of crap naming aside, the products seem well made.

By: Zardon

Zardon — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:42:28 +0000

Not at all, but I like to try and cover the issue of noise as I know some people have really sensitive hearing. I would say ive good hearing myself but noise within limits is fine in certain situations. As Eric said above however when watching movies or TV shows, the fan noise will not annoy, but for those people in a bedroom who want to leave it on all the time, it would be noticeable.