AC Ryan Veolo (Android-Powered Media Player)

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drjay

104 posts

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#94337 8-Dec-2011 12:12

Has anyone got any experience with the new AC Ryan product VEOLO?
http://www.acryan.com/product/veolo/

It's an Android 2.2-powered media center, looks pretty cool and it's DROID!
I have an AC Ryan PlayonHD at the moment, and it's aweful. Rubbish product.
Based on some Realtek chip, there's forever problems with the closed-source Realtek SDK, and as one of AC Ryan's older products its not getting a lot of love.

But the VEOLO looks promising, and there's mention in one of their forums that thhey are looking at releasing an official ICS/Android 4.0 ROM.

Can anyone comment on reliability, performance, or alternative products?

Cheers..

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garvani

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#555421 8-Dec-2011 12:35

It all depends what you want to do with it? Yes the realtek SDK is closed but as long as the developer puts in the time then you will get good results out of the chipset. I have to say upon looking at that VEOLO im not all that impressed, its a pretty bad front end to a media player (i realise its vanilla android, they could have customised it). And for $350+gst you could do a lot better!

Have a look at the xtreamer products, they have some awesome players with 6 different models in total (most are based on aforementioned realtek chipsets however but they keep updating features) Plus the prodigy model dualboots android so you could get the market apps on your tv.

http://xtreamer.net

drjay

104 posts

Master Geek

#555432 8-Dec-2011 13:03

Not sure if its just me but that Xtreamer website is hard to follow.
So, Prodigy is dual-boot android? What's the other OS? Does the Android side do all the media playing and streaming too? Access a NAS? I'm really struggling to figure their products out.

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garvani

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#555441 8-Dec-2011 13:14

The prodigy will dualboot with there front end or android. There front end will be where all the media gets played, but also has a browser and apps etc. Then you can dual boot into android for a bunch of other things, and possibly play media from there as well (not sure, i dont have one, the forums would clear that up). You can connect any of them to a NAS to play your media if its stored on there, or browse to a network pc etc. They obviously have usb ports as well for hard drives.

drjay

104 posts

Master Geek

#555446 8-Dec-2011 13:22

Thanks garvani, got to say it seems pricey and with no NZ reseller my missus would hurt me if it was remotely problematic.

I see you're an XBMC junkie? I might do some reading up on that... Could you recommend some good hardware to run it? Small, quiet, wife-friendly remote, maybe even integration with my Logitec Harmony? Qwerty keyboard somehow would be awesome..

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trig42

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#555453 8-Dec-2011 13:33

drjay: Thanks garvani, got to say it seems pricey and with no NZ reseller my missus would hurt me if it was remotely problematic.

I see you're an XBMC junkie? I might do some reading up on that... Could you recommend some good hardware to run it? Small, quiet, wife-friendly remote, maybe even integration with my Logitec Harmony? Qwerty keyboard somehow would be awesome..

Jailbroken AppleTV2 will do what you want, not a bad piece of kit for $179.

garvani

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#555460 8-Dec-2011 13:43

I can understand the missus factor

. I cant say i had any problems with the one i had though, they were looking at getting a NZ reseller but i don't know why they havn't yet. They are priced around the same as the AC Ryan you mentioned in the O.P. of roughly $400nz, some cheaper some a little more expensive.

Theres several ways of doing xbmc, basically any reasonable dualcore with a cheap graphics card will surfice, or you can go the Nettop route.
If you have a look at the xtreamer ultra that is about the spec you want for a XBMC nettop machine (the ultra has xbmc preloaded) basically any with an ION2 chipset will be easy to get up and running and will handle 1080p. Zotac, viewsonic, acer they all make them. Heres a video of an older zotac with xbmc. The benefit of these are the small size, low power and quiteness of the device.
I had my logitech harmony working with xbmc, it took 20 mins to get up and running but i beleive they have it down to a 2 minute job now, you just need a compatible IR reciever plugged into the front of the pc. If you have an iOs device or android phone the supplied APP remotes are 1000% better than a logitech.

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drjay

104 posts

Master Geek

#555461 8-Dec-2011 13:44

@trig42 I see you recently had a similar dilemma - your WDTV died? Can I assume your raising of an ATV now means you did go down that path?

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drjay

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#555466 8-Dec-2011 13:47

@garvani the ACR device is under $300+GST if you can find a reseller with an account at CDL.

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garvani

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#555468 8-Dec-2011 13:50

Beware of the limitations of an ATV2 with xbmc. Don't expect the performance to be equivalent to a nettop, it's simply not as powerful, it can't handle 1080p for instance.

garvani

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#555470 8-Dec-2011 13:51

drjay: @garvani the ACR device is under $300+GST if you can find a reseller with an account at CDL.

I just went off there main site to NZ resellers and landed here and assumed that would be the NZ rrp which is a joke, and the cheapest on trademe is $370, so to anyone that dosn't have such connections its not so cheap

drjay

104 posts

Master Geek

#555476 8-Dec-2011 13:58

Agreed. I flicked a price request at my friendly account manager at Lexel Systems.

I'm considering XBMC hard-out - looking at the Viewsonic Mini-PC 132. But I can't get my head around the pricing

Can't justify >$600 for a machine that plays downloaded reruns of Buffy the vampire Slayer

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garvani

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#555494 8-Dec-2011 14:26

Its definetly getting up there in price! As stated, you dont need to go out and buy a nettop you can use an old pc, it just wont be as small etc.

I just checked trademe and this is going for a good price link (i would check on the xbmc forums as to its abilities first)

reven

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#555511 8-Dec-2011 15:02

the xtremer ultra looks really cool, wheres the best place to buy it? would it come with a NZ power plug?

also this thing is just running linux but it can run windows and it will work with the pulse eight CEC adapter for xbmc correctly?

ive been looking for cheap frontends for xbmc that i could use the cec adapter and this might be what ive been looking for :)

garvani

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#555532 8-Dec-2011 15:39

You have to order it off there website and its shipped from hongkong (my xtreamer sidewinder took a week to arrive), and yes i believe it will come with an nz plug (if not its probably just a typical jug cord or figure 8 connector). Theres no reason why that adapter won't work. The ultra can run linux, windows 7 and comes with a usb stick for a live version of xbmc. It pretty much does it all, when i get sick of lugging my desktop pc around ill look at getting one myself.