Good morning,

One of Germany’s top hardware news & reviews website, TweakPC, has just completed a double-review for the Playon!HD and Playon!HD Mini.
Both units impressed, with the Mini getting the edge on price/performance.
Here is a summary in English.


"Offers a chic all-you-need solution"

The Playon! HD mini has no fan and is completely passively cooled and therefore generates no noise, a significant advantage over the Playon!HD, if one is sensitive about things such as quiet operation. Otherwise, it is virtually the same as the Playon!HD, with the processing consistently good and the device fits into the living room even better due to its reduced size.

The remote control of Playon! HD Mini is identical to the Playon! HD. Despite the lower price of the Mini, savings over quality did not happen here either. It has proper dimensions, fits well in hand and the keys have a proper pressure point...the remote control deserves praise.

A media player stands or falls with the software which is installed. This separates the wheat from the chaff, good or terrible. In practice, the Playon! proves to be very simple to use. The menu is easy to understand so that the file browser quickly finds and accesses the files. Similarly with the media library, even here, the operation is quite intuitive. Fortunately, the software in operation is almost self-explanatory. The Playon! is generally very reliable. Especially the fast switch is fun. In about 10 seconds the Playon! is in operation. The progress which the Playon! has had with two firmware updates is quite remarkable, both for functionally and the user interface.

Both the Playon!HD and PlayonHD Mini are great players mainly due to their simplicity. They really can play almost any format. The processing of the devices is high and even the remote control deserves praise. During our testing period, three fimware releases were made to ensure the Playon! is completely reliable. The strengths of the Playon!HD models are clearly in the rapid reproduction of the individual movie files. Within a few seconds the player is ready, it zaps through the network or a connected USB device; select an appropriate file from the movie library and you're off. Although the interface is quite sparse when compared to real HTPCs, you should not forget these players cost less than a single Windows license!

The software is continually developed and currently makes great leaps forward. AC Ryan is, with their software, as open source as much as possible. One point that should not be underestimated in a media player.

Against the background of the total functionality and price, our favourite of the two players is the Playon!HD Mini. This little box offers a chic all-you -need solution and is completely silent. Who is network equipped and wants an easy to use and reliable streamer, the Playon!HD Mini is just right"

Entire Review:
http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/tests/ne ... ni/s01.php