thanks looks very nice.

What the hell is this? I want that. If it works as well as it looks then you guys may have a winner here.

Definintely one of the best, if not THE BEST looking firmware I've seen on any Realtek based player.(that is if the Essential is Realtek based)

The music support would be a massive + for me.

If this makes it to the PLAYON!HD it could really turn things around.

Very excited about this... hope I won't be dissapointed

Based on this article http://playonhd.wordpress.com/2010/11/0 ... ertaining/ it has no network port. But I'm curious what semiconductor brand is this player based on - there's no info about it.

Seems to be confirmed that this will come to our original playonhd's and mini's!
1055 chip, same as 1073 but without network functions posted someone of ACR on tweakers

Hi,

Actually, this posting does not belong in this thread, but anyway...

I couldn't find much differences between the POHD and the "Essential" version of it. I couldn't find an Ethernet connector on the device and there's no standard wireless interface. Also the component video is absent. Looks like a stripped down version of the PV73100.

Improvements could be that the PV73500 uses a faster processor, making the device respond snappier. Possibly it's cheaper than the PV73100. However, I can't find a real revolution...

Adrie Koolen

Finaly a first glimps of the SDK4.0 based firmware...(?)

Many rumors on this SDK which has been rewritten from scratch (for a good part) and it would support more codecs etc...

I'm curious when we can expect some of this on our noble PV73100's.....

There is a topic about the new SDK, we should continue this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9416&start=0

http://tweakers.net/nieuws/70692/ac-rya ... 3#reacties

Google translated post Door AC Ryan, woensdag 10 november 2010 13:33:

"What is beautiful is to announce that the new GUI, where the last few months we have worked hard for the end of this month a firmware update will be available for the current Playon! HD Playon! HD Mini. It is not that we only firmware for the new products have been developed. One of the technical improvements in existing POHD firmware is also the play of the new MKV files (MKV Toolnix / MKV Merge / compressed headers)."


WOOOOOOAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

The forum for the POHD Essential not open, so posting here....

Saw the specs for the POHD Essential. I think that AC Ryan did not quite "get it right" for this product. Without network and touting as a "the Playon!HD Essential plays media files from external drives (USB disks, USB hard disks, and media cards such as SD Cards)" (this quote taken from their blog). Would have thought that it would have been equipped with USB 3.0 or E-SATA. Note that BD-ISO with HD audio can quickly exceed the USB2.0 bandwidth that the Essential has. Some media player like the Asus O!Play HD2 already has USB 3.0.

Looking to move up from my current POHD as it only has the very first 1073DA chip, to take advantage of HD audio and BD-ISO playback. Looks like POHD Essential does not fit the bill .

Of course, the next best is to fit it with an internal HDD but hey, even 2TB storage can be quickly exhausted given BD-ISO can reach 30 - 50GB each.

See the essential as a external drive with media options

It has no yamj no Thumbgen no Internet radio but pure for playing (hd)video and music files.