I plan to get a Playon!HD Essential as a standalone media player. Most of my video files are MKV and AVI for movie, RMVB for animation. Can it passthrough DTS-HDMA and Dolby TrueHD to AV receiver?

So, DTS-HDMA will downmix to stereo or downmix to DTS??

Can these connection work?
PlayOn!HD Essential --> HDMI --> AV receiver (Onkyo)--> HDMI --> LCD

What's the current price range of PlayOn!HD 2 and PlayOn!HD Mini 2. Thank you.

This post has been edited by pc-ox: Dec 20 2011, 08:27 PM

Thanks a lot. Good to hear that it downmix to DTS, then fine for me because not much my movies in DTS-HDMA.
I think I will stick to PlayOn!HD Essential.

Just bought Playon!HD Mini2 from Digital Match, Queensbay Mall. I went to Jusco Aeon Seberang Perai branch first, but they out of stock, so bought from Queensbay branch. Too bad, they not offer promotion price for Mini2.

I saw this model (Veolo) at both branch and price around RM8++.

Just tested some movies. Every format run fine except RMVB type file, when play the video, the screen black out, but can hear sound. Then, the player no function at all, no respond when press any button at controller, need force to switch off power supply. My current firmware is V9.5.5r2988. Download the latest firmware (V9.5.5r5440) now, hopefully can resolve the black out problem.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE:

After updated to latest firmware, the black out problem remain same.
Found out not all RMVB files can't play, those video files with aspect ratio 16:9 can play with no problem, those ratio 4:3 video files can't play at all. Setting problem?? Anyone can help?

This post has been edited by pc-ox: Dec 22 2011, 05:50 PM

I played around settings, still no luck. I already gave up to try those RMVB video files because those video files not my main reason bought this player, is mainly use for HD movies. I still can use laptop watch those RMVB video, so not a big issue. I afraid if I try more, will bring more harm to the player and HDD because when black out problem happen, I can't stop or turn off the player. I need directly switch off power in order to stop the player.

Overall, I'm happy with this player. Still no have time play with network thingy.

I do played with those aspect ration, tried all options, not succeed. I also change TV resolution from 480P to 1080P, still no luck. I already ignored those video files, I can watch those files on laptop with no problem.

Anyway, thanks for suggestion.

Q1 - Yes, it resume where it was stopped.

Q2 - fastest speed is 32X.

Q3 - So far, I no encountered any audio/video sync issue with my movie files.

No problem. It can resume as long as you not delete these two files ".Theater" & ".part" in HDD. These 2 files automatically created by media player after scan HDD finished.

NEW official firmware released (31-Jan-2012).

For Playon!HD:
http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=18238

For Playon!HD2:
http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=168&t=18242

For Playon!HD Mini:
http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=18239

For Playon!HD Mini2:
http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php...afa1f8e6b8048d4

For Playon!DVR-HD:
http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=132&t=18241

If you have decent AVR set, I think better passthrough audio to AVR. Nice to see "Dolby Digital", "dts" etc pop up at AVR rather than "stereo".

Due to bandwidth requirement, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA can passthrough via HDMI cable.

If your avr has HDMI IN, you can passthrough all HD sound to avr.

Correct. ONLY HMDI cable can carry Dobly TrueHD and DTS-HD MA to avr.

Subtitle can't display and no sound in fast mode.

Cable play important role regarding this matter.

For composite A/V Cable (normally white, red and yellow color), player will downmix all surround sound to stereo.

For SPDIF optical cable and HDMI cable, either player decode the audio and send it as PCM to AVR (amplifier) or passthrough audio signal to AVR (amplifier) and make amplifier to decode codec.

There are limitation in passthrough mode using SPDIF optical cable, ONLY Dolby Digital and DTS sound can be bypassed to amplifier. Due to bandwidth requirement, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA can be bypassed through HDMI cable.

I not sure currently you connect your player to LCD/LED/plasma TV or computer monitor. I think it should a bit better than TV speaker or monitor speaker since S330D included subwoofer (how much better? I don't know because I don't have S330D). But you still can't fully enjoy the surround sound since S330D is 2.1 system only.

This post has been edited by pc-ox: Apr 18 2012, 11:04 AM

You can google "DTS vs Dolby", it show you a lot of articles. There are many factors; bit rate, compression level etc. Some say DTS better and some say Dolby better.

But for me, I prefer to select DTS if there are 2 codec in same movie or game. I feel more surround effect compared to Dolby. Dolby a bit soft, I need to raise up few volume level in order to get same "satisfaction" as DTS.

If you check the mini2 website:-
http://www.acryan.com/product/playonhdmini2/specifications/

It stated as:-

Audio Output Supported

Stereo
Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 (passthrough)
Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
DTS Digital Surround 5.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
AAC 7.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
FLAC

You can passthrough Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA via HDMI cable only, it will passthrough core stream (DTS 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1) if you use optical cable.

What's your AC Ryan model? Firmware version?

You can set "aspect ratio" under "video setting" (in setup menu). There are 2 types of ratio for standard 4:3 TV:-
1) Pan Scan 4:3
2) Letter Box 4:3

If you set to "Pan Scan 4:3", when play widescreen movie, it will cropping the image and result in a loss of at least 30% of the original image (refer photo below).

If you set to "Letter Box 4:3", when play widescreen movie, it will presence black bars at top and bottom of the movie.

Another setting is "TV System", should set to "PAL".

This post has been edited by pc-ox: May 7 2012, 02:29 PM


Attached image(s)

This is normal for CRT TV, can't clearly see the tiny text due to low resolution. Nothing you can do to improve the clarity unless upgrade to HDTV.

The main issue is CRT TV resolution, not the media player. If you can hook to same screen size of CRT monitor (computer monitor), you will see the different of text clarity. This is because monitor resolution higher than TV resolution.

The big different between HD2 and mini2 are:-

Playon!HD2
- can add 3.5" SATA/SATA2 HDD up to 2TB for internal HDD
- 1x USB 3.0
- BitTorrent

Playon! HD mini 2
- Silent during turn on because don't have fan (no noise)

Other functions quite similar between both.