It has been SO much fun playing around with the ASUS O!Play BDS-700 media player over the past few weeks and in the process I’ve discovered some really cool tricks that make its performance that much more fun.
The first of these I discovered purely by accident. I was prowling through the instruction manual, looking for a solution to my tricksy streaming issue, when I found that I could use my iPhone as a remote control for the BDS-700. Oh yes, a smartphone remote control.
Your smartphone does need a web browser, has to be connected to a wired or wireless router (the same router that your BDS-700 is connected to), and then you are away. To do this, just turn your ASUS O!Play BDS-700 media player on, then use the arrow keys on your remote control (the one included in the box) to navigate to the setup menu.
Once you’re in there go to Network and then select Connection Status. The player’s IP address will now be displayed. Next you need to enter this IP address into the URL of the web browser on the smartphone and then the application of the player’s remote control will appear. Ta da!
This is particularly brilliant for things like listening to audio CDs without having to turn on the TV first and navigate to the various menus. Just use your smartphone to do the hard work for you. I rather enjoyed the fact that I was in the kitchen making Christmas cakes when a hankering for some Christmas music hit me. Instead of having to beetle into the lounge to set everything up, all I had to do was tap the preset settings in my iPhone and the O!Play BDS-700 started playing the disc in the drive.
Fortunately that disc happened to me my Christmas music disc. Brilliant.
Another fabulous trick that I discovered isn’t really a trick at all, certainly not like the smarphone remote control factor. This was just the rather happy enjoyment of the intelligence built into the ASUS O!Play BDS-700. I tend to turn off everything every night. It’s all about the environment and green tech management here at Mrs Mario HQ.
So, when I had turned it all off and on again the first time, I was delighted to see that the ASUS O!Play BDS-700 not only immediately asked me if I wanted to watch the DVD in the drive, but also offered to restart from the same place that I had left off the night before.
When you are watching a TV series (as I am), having to go through the security warnings every single time you want to watch is extremely tedious. I know that this feature is common to many media players, but it isn’t generic so the O!Play gets some extra points for this fab feature.
Right, so I have managed to answer most of the questions I’ve been asked so far but if you have any more, please fire away. I’m only going to have my mitts on this tasty tech for another week before I move onto my next project…
Tamsin