Packaging

The unit comes in a small but quite heavy, for its footprint, package. On the front we find a photo of the unit itself and a small badge that informs about the two years warranty. On the front top-right corner we are also informed that a green 1 TB hdd is included in the bundle. On the one of the two sides of the box we find a photo of the unit's rear side where most of the I/O connections reside while on the back side of the box we find brief information about the features/characteristics of the media player.

Contents

The PlayOn!HD2 is well protected by two pieces of packing foam and a synthetic bag, so even if it has a rough trip till it falls into your hands, it won't likely end up with a scratch. In the packaging there is a smaller box where all accessories are stored. Inside you will find a good quality HDMI cable, an AC adapter (12V/2A), a remote control along with two AA batteries, a component and a composite cable, a USB 3.0 cable and a quick guide. We would prefer to see a full manual included but with the recent software updates of the GUI this would be rendered outdated very quickly.


The remote control that comes with the new PlayOn!HD2 is a little longer but has smaller width than the one that equipped the previous PlayOn!HD, so it feels more comfortable in the hand. Also its response is a little faster than the old one.


Besides the standard bundle inside the packaging we also found an optional accessory, the essential Wireless-N USB adapter (ACR-WN10002) which allows the PlayOn!HD2 to connect to 802.11n networks.

Exterior

When we first saw the PlayOn!HD2 we thought that AC Ryan had made a mistake and sent us the older model. The two units are almost identical, only the glossy finish of the new PlayOn!HD2 distinguishes it somewhat from its predecessor. To tell you the truth we wanted to see a new design, not because we didn't like the old one, but just for facechange.

The front of the unit follows a minimalistic design so you will find only the power button which uses LED lighting, red when the unit is in standby and bright white while it's active. On the rear side we find the grill of the 40 mm fan, the power input and most of the I/O connections. Namely the latter are two S/PDIF sound outputs (coaxial and optical), a gigabit LAN port, an HDMI 1.3 video/sound out, a composite audio/video out and a component video out. On the one side of the player we also find a USB 3.0 slave port, two USB 2.0 host ports and a memory card slot which accepts SD/SDHC/MMC/MS/MSPro cards. The inclusion of USB 3.0 along with the Gigabit Ethernet port are the two major upgrades of the new player, compared to the old one. Finally, on the other side of the player we find the Ez Drive Slot which allows you to easily install/remove the HDD. However if you attempt to remove the HDD for the first time you need to apply excessive force. After several in and outs the mechanism softens and the drive is removed easier.