Friday, June 26, 2009

PlayonHD.com new look 7 July 2009

ACR-PV73100-newsiteYes, PlayonHD.com will be officially launched on 7 July with a new look. While we’ve been busy shipping the Playon!HD to happy new owners, we’ve also been busy working on new firmware and a new website too!

The current site you are seeing is a pre-launch site with essential information. Come 7 July, the site will be “upgraded”, not only cosmetically. The new site will have more “rich media”, screenshots, video reviews, user experience, where to buy and new announcements. Watch out for it.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Playon!HD FAQ published

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We have published a FAQ document using google docs. The document can be found via this shortcut www.playonhd.com/faq

It is a compilation of frequently asked questions and will be kept updated with more questions. We hope this will let you understand the Playon!HD, its features, functions and cool abilities. Naturally you are welcome to speak to us whether in person or online via email and forums. We understand that every individual will have different needs and we look forward to answer all your questions.

Questions can be emailed to rotterdam@acryan.com or simply drop your questions here on the comments of this blog.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

AC Ryan Playon!HD launched to a flying start at PC SHOW SINGAPORE

PCSHOWSINGAPORE2009-PV73100-PV72100TV Just a week before the PC SHOW 2009 in Singapore, AC Ryan announced an addition to their Playon! productline – the Playon!HD FullHD Network Mediaplayer. While it is known that AC Ryan will be launching a player-only model to go alongside its Playon!DVR TV (a recorder-player model), the early release of the Playon!HD caught everyone by surprise. The first Full HD Network mediaplayer shipping with a consumer-friendly new price level. Initially greeted with a small dose of skepticism whether it could be too good to be true, any doubts were immediately wiped away on the first day of the show as AC Ryan presented the Playon!HD not only as demo but also “first release” stock – not a vaporware but an actual product you can try, and when you like, buy it! Users were invited to bring their harddisk, usbsticks, memory cards with their media files to test and play with Playon!HD. Once word got out, there was no stopping. Originally planned with stock for the full 4-day exhibition, the Playon!HD were totally sold out 2nd day into the show. Users came, tested, bought and went home happy. Those who came too late were equally excited and a queue of reservations has now formed in Singapore for these Playon!HD, doubling what was sold on the first 2 days. AC Ryan staff in Singapore would like to thank all supporters for your understanding and appreciate your enthusiasm.

The Playon!DVR TV also continued its run of success, achieving BESTSELLING DVR at PC SHOW 2009.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Playon!HD shipping to happy new owners

PV73100-shippinganim_400x300 Yes, the Playon!HD is here in Rotterdam! Today we saw a constant stream of users picking up their pre-reserved Playon!HD – nice talking with you, as you can see we’re product people and do enjoy a chat :) Thanks too for supporting our new Playon!HD launch. For those having it delivered to you, packages are also going out today and the coming days. Limited stock, hurry if you have not reserved it with the reservation form on www.playonhd.com “where to buy” section.

Congratulations – you’re the proud new owners of the first in a new generation of Full HD Network Mediaplayers affordable for everyone :)

Friday, June 12, 2009

Have you reserved and not heard back from us?

ACR-PV73100_missedreservations We received a few emails from users that they have made a reservation in the past few days but have not yet heard back from us. We checked our servers and noticed in the past few days this week, there was a huge surge in the traffic load… don’t worry our servers are totally capable of handling traffic. But our reservation form script was not perfect and it could have dropped a few reservation form submissions. Sorry. We have re-written the reservation forms and they work perfect now.

We reply requests for Playon!HD information and reservations within 1 working day.

So if you have made a reservation in the past few days this week and have not heard from us, please do it again, or contact rotterdam@acryan.com directly. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.

Playon!HD pre-shipment in Rotterdam on Wed 17 June 2009

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Already launched and shipping in Singapore with a hot welcome (thanks, guys), and expected to launch in Europe in July, a shipment of Playon!HD arrives in Rotterdam on Wed 17 June 2009. Priority will be first given to reviewers and press, and also our dear friends and fans of AC Ryan who has made reservations. Seeing the surge of reservations we have been receiving, we expect to ship the Playon!HD by mainly reservations until demand “normalises”.

How to reserve? Reservations : http://www.playonhd.com/wheretobuy.php

Should you be interested in seeing the Playon!HD for yourself, make an appointment with us to come by our showroom in Rotterdam – rotterdam@acryan.com – we are cool with your questions.

Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic response – gives us an added drive, feeds our development souls and puts a smile on our faces :)

StorVision.nl’s first look at the Playon!HD

storvision-firstlook Storvision.nl, community and news site specialising in storage related (mediaplayers, network storage etc), also got a chance to have a first look at the Playon!HD. They tried out the Playon!HD and this is what they have to say:

“Gisteren hebben wij de kans gehad om het apparaat te proberen, en de indruk was zeker zeer positief. Niet alleen konden we geen bestanden vinden die NIET werden afgespeeld, maar daarnaast was de beeldkwaliteit bijzonder goed, en de interface zeer gelikt. Dit in tegenstelling tot bijvoorbeeld de wat ouderwets ogende interface van de NMT’s.

Wat opviel is dat de A.C.Ryan als een van de weinig spelers ook bestanden van en naar een netwerkshare kan kopieren. Zonder hulp van een PC dus. Ook kan hij downloaden via Bittorrent. Als met al een apparaat dat zeer veel kan en goed presteert. En dat voor maar €149,- voor de 0GB versie.”

English translation:
Yesterday we’ve had a chance to try out the device, and the impression is very positive. We could not find ANY files that cannot be played, also the video quality was especially good and the interface nice. This in comparison with the older looking interface of NMT’s.

What stands out is that AC Ryan’s player is one of the few players that can copy files to and from a network share, without doing it from a PC. It can also download via Bittorrent. Already a good device that does much and performs well, and that for only 149 euro for the 0GB model.

Link to original article (Dutch) : http://www.storvision.nl/2009/06/12/nieuw-van-a-c-ryan-playonhd-full-hd-mediaplayer/#more-346

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Hardware.info takes a First Look hands-on with Playon!HD

HWI-PlayonHD Hardware.info a leading magazine and online community in The Netherlands for digital / computer product news makes a scoop with the first hands-on look at the Playon!HD. They had the opportunity to have a brief hands-on with Playon!HD and immediately grabbed the chance. Hardware.info is very experienced with testing mediaplayers and has extensively reviewed many players online, in print magazine as well as video reviews in their Hardware.info TV. We are excited about what they have to say about the Playon!HD,

Hardware.Info liet de PlayOn!HD alvast eens het standaard testtraject doorlopen, en de speler geeft een positieve indruk: de meeste bestandstypes en codecs worden probleemloos afgespeeld, inclusief lastige H.264 en VC-1 bestanden. Net zoals we zagen bij de O!Play is de chip in deze speler duidelijk sneller dan we tot dusver gewend waren, het menu reageert vlotter en bestanden worden sneller geladen.

English translation:
Hardware.info first puts the Playon!HD through a series of tests and the player makes a positive impression: most file formats and codecs are played without any problems, including “troublesome” H.264 and VC-1 files. Just as we have seen with the O!Play, the chip in this player is clearly faster than what we’ve been used to so far, the menu reacts faster and the files are loaded faster.

Link to original article (Dutch) : http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/news/ymiclpqXwpyabJY/AC_Ryans_nieuwe_Full_HD_mediaspeler/

Playon!HD walkthrough

This is the first walkthrough for our brand new and spectacular Playon!HD. Equipped to be the best full HD mediaplayer out there, we will run you through it’s main features!
On the picture below you see the remote and main device. The remote in the actual product will have the logo printed on it instead of a sticker. This was only done to illustrate there will be a logo.

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First off, the menu screen:

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Looks HD already huh! Here you can select File Copy, Browser, Setup and Internet Radio.  Of course, when properly set up you will mostly use Browse to explore your multimedia files. The File Copy and Setup can also be accessed with a push on the button on the remote. So you don’t necessarily have to go back to the main menu for those.

Next up, some Setup screens:

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In the last picture you see a completely new thing. Extensions! Yes, the applications are now in the form of add-on apps. By default the Playon!HD is shipped with seen applications. This means you will have a webbased Bittorrent client and a NAS client (Samba) that you can use to access the Playon from your PC.

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And the last one i wanted to point out is that there is another added extra which allows you to stop watching a video, and at a later time, resume it again. The timeline data is automatically stored. Nice! Oh and you can also switch off the preview of each file while browsing.

Now, let’s see the Browser!

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As you can see, some things have been added like the Cardreader and UPnP is there by default. As we have the 500GB model here, i will go to Local HDD to see what we’ve got there. See the BT folder? That is the folder which is automatically created when you start using the Bittorrent client. Here all files will be downloaded to. When completely finished they will show up here, so in the meantime you won’t have files which you cannot play (yet).

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Going through our Video folder, of course we are watching MKV files, this one in particular is nearly 7GB.

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Needless to say, the movie quality is excellent. But it does show that the Playon!HD has no problems whatsoever to process these big files. No glitches, no artifacts, just smooth playback and razorsharp images. By the way, the skip ahead button now acts as a chapter skip as well. You need to know this but actually it works pretty well!

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Of course you can also play Apple HD files like MP4. These are sometimes smaller in size but still pretty darn sharp on screen.

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Well that concludes this walkthrough, i hope you enjoyed it and i am sure you cannot wait to get your hands on one now!

Introducing the new Playon!HD with Contest The Price is Right

psssst... we've got a new product and you're the 1st to know! PlayonDVR TV gets a new brother – Playon!HD

The newest Playon!HD FullHD Network MediaPlayer.
Together with the new release, comes a new contest "The Price is Right".

As a friend of AC Ryan, we're inviting you to give it a go at winning this hot new Playon!HD. Click on the picture to be taken to the Playon!HD site and contest.

More news about this new Full HD player follows soon. TIP: PC Show 2009 (Singapore) | Dreamhack Summer 200 (Sweden).