It's time to examine what files can and cannot be played with the AC Ryan PlayOnHD! Mini player. For our testing, we used a Panasonic Plasma 50S20 TV set.

The mini has a new chip since it managed to playback more content than the the PlayOnHD! sample we tested some time ago. The good news is that via the HDMI cable we could play 7.1 HD Audio. In short, the player will output Dolby Digital + 5.1/7.1 but not TrueHD 7.1 content ( 'unknown audio codec' message returned). On the video part, the player will playback almost anything you can imagine: Mpeg 1, 2, 3, 4 and full HD files, even with DTS soundtrack. We only found one Matroska (MKV) file with AVC High@L5.1 profile that was partial playable, with blocks of pixels to appear on the screen. However it should be noted that the most popular matroska files used by most users (movies, TV Shows) are not using the High@5.1 but mostly the High@4.1 profile, so you will be most probably covered.

It seems that the AC Ryan Playon!HD Mini is a very capable player. So what we didn't like about it? I assume this would be the GUI. Although the latest firmware improves it, we feel that it needs some more work in order to compete the interfaces of other players. Upcoming firmware and the YAMJ firmware could partially make things better. Continuing with the weak points, we would like to see more Internet services beyond the "basic" provided now.

AC Ryan is back with the Playon!HD Mini, a fully-featured, quiet and compact in size player. Aside from the menu and its its basic internet features we previously described, , the Playon!HD Mini is a pleasure to use. With constant software improvements and great format and feature support, this is the media player to go.

Don't forget that the player retails for less than €100, so it's A.C. Ryan’s most affordable media player yet. Adding to that its numerous features and abilities, the player offers a great value compared to the competition.

Positive

- Full retail package - comes with HDMI v1.3 cable
- Can playback almost anything from mpeg1,2,4 ASP & AVC formats
- Can playback almost all audio formats (mp3, AAC, Flac, Ogg, WMA, RA)
- Can playback DTS HD+ 7.1 soundtracks
- 1080p and DTS soundtracks are not a problem for this player
- Supports both Wifi and wired lan connection
- Generally stable playback
- Supports playback of DVD-Video and Blu-Ray ISOs with menu support
- Support for UPnP streaming
- Remote control layout is good
- Subtitles working very good, even with Eastern European/Asia languages
- Zero noise
- Very small dimensions
- Several Internet Widgets, that however need further tuning
- Many firmware releases both for European/Asian users
- Support for Yet Another Music Jukebox (YAMJ) with separate firmware build
- Good price considering the features/performance

Negative

- Menus and overall graphics could have better design
- Wifi requires extra USB dongle (+29 Euro)
- Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtracks still unplayable
- AVC High@5.1 profiles are partially playable