First Look at the O!Play Gallery

Matt Black
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Hot out the box (figuratively speaking), we’ve just been given the very latest O!Play Gallery – an iPod, iPad or iPhone enabled version of the HD2. Oh, and it’s now got a gold logo too. Bling-Bling!

ASUS O!Play Gallery

Here it is in all its bling, the ASUS O!Play Gallery

Unboxing the ASUS O!Play Gallery

OK let’s rip this baby open like it was 5am on Christmas morn:

Inside the box we get plenty of extras; including a HDMI cable, iPod adapter cable, IR remote control with a new, rotating (iPod like) media control, hard drive mounting bracket and screws, and finally plenty of manuals for some bedtime/toilet reading. Or maybe that’s that just me?

It’s a similar in size to the HD2 and still supports the same huge variety of audio and video codecs as well, which means it’ll play pretty much anything you can throw at it.

The O!Play Gallery, like the HD2, can house a 3.5″ hard drive within its belly. This gives plenty of extra space locally if you’re not interested in connecting it up to your network via Ethernet. It can also be connected to external  flash drives or hard drives via the USB ports, and it’ll also accept a range of camera flash cards in the front too. The video output is ‘limited’ to HDMI, but that’s standard on every HDTV these days, while audio can either be pushed out over the same cable or via RCA or Toslink S/PDIF to a separate decoder.

The Gallery also has USB 3, but this is to directly connect it up to a PC with USB 3 to transfer files even faster than Ethernet or a USB 2 drive. If you’re filling a huge 1-2TB hard drive inside the O!Play Gallery, this is definitely a time saver!

O!Play Gallery rear HDHTV connections

O!Play Gallery rear HDHTV connections

As you can see in the remote control below, it’s now got a central control wheel to make it easier to scroll through the options on the screen. It’s also got a love button in the corner. Unfortunately this doesn’t make you into cupid, we’ve tried it.

O!Play Gallery Remote Control

The Remote Control with rotating navigation in the middle

We’ll be back soon showing how to connect up your iPod, iPad or iPhone to the O!Play Gallery. In the meantime though, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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  • Hubert Cordonnier

    Hi,

    I have few questions, and i did not find the answer up to now:

    - is there a full shuffle mode, to play the music files in a random
    order on the entire disk (ie not only on just one directory or based on a
    playing list, but using the full disk automatically) ?
    It seems that
    this special feature already exists on your old O!Play HD2 player.

    - how can an iPod “classic” could be plugged on your product ? Do we
    use the docking station from Apple (ie use an Apple port on your
    product) or just the orginal cable from Apple ?
    Do we need to purchase a dedicated docking station from Asus for that connection ?

    - can we parametrize the list of internet radios that can be listened on the product ?

    - what is the maximum number of caracters that are displayed on the TV for the file names (8+3 or more) ?

    - is there a “goto” function, which allows to move to any instant in an audio or video file ?

    Thanks and regars.

  • Angel Dominguez

    Are subtitles easier to read with this model?

  • himanshu dave

    Please don’t buy asus OPlay Gallery it is dame slow and hangs some times when you put 1.5 TB hdd inside the OPlay gallery. Be Careful Asus support people does not help on this issue. they say that there is some problem in HDD.

  • Anonymous

    Have you tried a different HDD though? What HDD are you using?