As it had happened with the original PlayOnHD! series, ACRyan has released the mini version of the popular PlayOnHD2! network media player, based on the same engine and a better firmware that keeps our interest got the device high.

The PlayOnHD! Mini 2 is a trimmed-down version of the AC Ryan PlayOn! HD2 network media player - a pure streaming device almost identical in terms of specs with one obvious exception: there's no internal hard drive.

As a streaming device, the player finds videos and music from local computers and NAS boxes via UPnP, network shares or from a selection of internet sources, and puts them on your TV.

The Playon!HD2 and PlayonlHD Mini 2 are the first media players that feature the latest 1185 media player chipset from Realtek. The new 1185 series feature a 25% faster processor (500MHz vs 400MHz of older platform) and higher built-in memory for adding more applications.

Another new feature is the new Facebook, Twitter, MSN and YouTube XL internet apps, which can be conveniently accessed using an external USB keyboard/mouse! The intuitive Playon!GUI2.0 allows users to navigate through all the features with ease. The Gigabit Wired Networking helps to view Full HD streaming, while wireless networking is also provided using the optional Wireless-N external adapter.

Comparing the PlayOnHD! Mini 2 with the larger PlayOnHD2!, the latter has:

• Internal HDD
• SPDIF coaxial (digital audio) output
• USB 3.0 host
• Memory Card reader support
• Higher size and weight
• An internal fan (to cool down HDD)
• 600gr (mini) vs 1.6kg (incl. HDD)

- PlayOnHD2! mini specifications

A/V Out
HDMI 1.3 interface up to 1080p
Composite Audio / Video
Y/ Pb / Pr Video
SPDIF Optical TOSLink (digital audio)

USB Supported
USB HDD, USB sticks and other USB Mass Storage Devices
File Systems: FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXT3
Network drives: USB2.0 PORTS: 2 x USB 2.0 (USB-A)
Add ports with USB hubs, USB card readers
2x USB 2.0 (USB-A)

Network - Wireless (Optional)
Wireless WLAN 802.11b/g/n 300Mbps via USB WLAN adaptor (optional, not incl.)
Supports WLAN security WEP, WPA
Supports WLAN Peer-to-Peer (connects wireless without router)

Network - Wireless Built-In (selected models only)
Wireless-N via a PCI-e port with dual antenna

Network - Wired
Gigabit

Video Formats Supported
AVI / MKV / TS / TP / TRP / M2TS / MPG / MP4 / MOV / M4V / VOB / ISO / DVD-ISO / IFO / DAT / WMV / ASF / RM / RMVB / FLV resolution up to 720p / 1080i / 1080p / BD-ISO

Video Codecs Supported
MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 SP/ASP/AVC (H.264 | x264) / XviD / DivX / WMV9 (VC-1) / RealVideo 8/9/10 (up to 720P)

Video Output Supported
PAL / NTSC / 480p / 576p / 720p / 1080i
50Hz / 1080i 60Hz / 1080p 50Hz / 1080p
60Hz / 1080p 24FPS

Audio Formats Supported
MP3 / MP2 / WMA / AAC / FLAC / WAV / OGG Vorbis / PCM / LPCM / MS-ADPCM / LC-AAC / HE-AAC / COOK / RA-Lossless

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

Image Formats Supported
JPEG, HD JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, PNG

Character Sets Supported (Needed for Subtitles)
Unicode (UTF8), BIG5 (Traditional Chinese), Western, Turkish, Central European, Greek, Cyrillic, SE European, Russian,
Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Thai

External File System Supported
FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXT3, HFS+ w/out Journaling

Subtitles Format Supported
SRT, SMI, SSA, IDX/SUB, SUB

Cooling
No Fan (Advanced Fanless Cooling for processor)