Astone Media Gear MP-310DT - Review and Information
I purchased this media player from www.i-tech.com.au just the other day, I am slowly playing with it to set it all up learn to navigate and use the features of this wonderful little media player, don't let the size fool you this unit packs a lot of features into one small box.
The first thing I did was remove it from the box and check out any accessories, cables and instructions etc. It was easy to hook up and it came with everything I needed, I have a MythTV box in my TV room (nothing compares to it) I mainly bought this because it was cheap and had some decent early reviews, with a view to setting it all up become knowledgable in it's use and hopefully pass it one to my mother to use. The first thing I wanted to get going was the Television so I scanned for the channels which didn't take to long to find and voila I could watch the TV. (Problem with television reception, more later)
Then I thought I better install a Harddrive so I could see how the TV record function worked, I had to scrounge a harddrive from an USB external 3.5 drive, by chance it was an Astone unit, pure coincidence of course. There was no problem installing and formatting this drive I had removed all partitions from the drive and then installed it and formatted it, this went without a hitch. I have tried recording a few tv shows and so far it appears to handle the job just fine. The Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is reported to have a glitch in that it only shows about twenty four hours of programs. there is talk of this being fixed in a future firmware upgrade, let's hope so.
The things I definitely need to work out how to do are delete recorded tv files, I want to get a 5 metre netowrk cable, my mother will mainly use the TV and recording feature and probably plug in a flash drive filled with goodies occasionally for her to peruse and listen to at her leisure. I want to see what it can do when attached to the LAN and Internet, before it is retired with my mother. Oh and just a word about a reception issue from the DTV signal, all those Channel ten channels and a few others ceased to tune, Even though they were working something had happened, which meant they could not find, ten, eleven, one, onehd etc.
TIP:-
I had read that these Astone units seemed to have a very sensitive tuner, in this case if you had a very good, or even not bad signal, that could have problems like what I was having so I went and found a quite new but very cheap "two dollar type shop" aerial cable, it was very cheap but in good condition, you wouldn't believe it the tv reception is now excellent ;o)
I will add to this article in the future, so bookmark it if you like.
Firmware Update Download
This is the latest firmware update file, it includes some much wanted fixes.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2183178/MP-310DT%20Firmware%20v9.5.45.r6230.rar
1080p Media Player Dual DVB-T HDMI/H.264/MKV/RMVB/VC-1/LAN/DTS Downmix/WiFi(Optional)
Detailed Product Description
Astone Media Gear MP-310DT 1080p Media Player & Dual DVB-T Recorder
The Astone MP-310DT Network Media Player with dual DVB-T tuner rocks all the cutting-edge technology you would expect in a state-of-the-art media player, but it??s also packing first-to-market technology you didn??t even think was possible. Now this latest model equipped with USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet and Dual DVB-T tuner.
The Astone MP-310DT Network Media Player contains latest USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, which fulfills your need for speed, the real proof is in the playback, and this revolutionary media player delivers the smoothest HD playback on the market. Experience the pure performance of Gigabit Wired Networking for the very best in media streaming. Wireless networking is also supported with optional Wireless-N via an external USB adapter.
You also get instant access and flawless support of all your top internet content including YouTube, Yahoo Weather, Stock information, FlickrFacebook and more.
So don't be jealous of the Astone MP-310DT Media Player. All its envy-inspiring traits only exist to take your media entertainment experience to a whole new level.
Features
Decode and output High Definition 1080p video
Built-in Dual Tuner enable watch and record of different channels simultaneously
Support Mainstream formats of HD video including MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264/AVC and RMVB HD.
EPG support with schedule recording
Internal HDD capability, support 1x 3.5?¡À SATA HDD
HDMI, YPbPr and AV Output
USB 3.0 support for lightning fast file transfers
Gigabit Ethernet Network for smooth HD playback
LED light and text indicator
Easy to use and intuitive control. Change to setup menu at any time even in media playing to provide the fluent control
Internet channels and web browser
Support USB mouse and keyboard
Optional Wireless N connection via External USB wifi adapter
Specifications
Model name: Astone Media Gear MP-310DT
HDD Support: 3.5"" SATA hard drive up to 3.0TB
Disc format: FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXT3
Subtitle: Chinese Traditional/Chinese Simplified/UTF8/Europe/Korean/Japanese
Resolution: 1080p HD decoding & output, upscaling, CVBS & YPbPr & HDMI output simultaneously
Aspect ratio: Pan Scan 4:3 / Letterbox 4:3 /16:9
Video Interface: CVBS composite RCA Video, YPbPr RCA, HDMI 1.3
Analog Audio: RCA AUDIO L/R
Digital Audio: SPDIF, TOSLINK & Coaxial, HDMI
Ethernet: Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000Mbps (for high performance Full HD streaming)
Optional Wi-Fi dongle: Astone AW-N290 USB 802.11n Wi-Fi Dongle
DTV Support: DVB-T, DTV EPG (7 Days)
DTV Record: DTV EPG (7 Days) / Timer Recording, Pause Live TV, one-touch recording
Movie Video: MPEG-1 (DAT / MPG / MPEG); MPEG-2 (MPG / MPEG / VOB / ISO / IFO / TS / TP) MPEG-4 (MP4 / AVI / MOV); DivX 3/4/5/6, Xvid (AVI / MKV) H.264 AVC (TS / AVI / MKV / MOV) VC-1 (TS / AVI / MKV / WMV); WMV 9 (WMV); Real Video HD 8/9/10 (RM / RMVB); FLV (FLV)
Movie Audio: Dolby Digital AC3/Plus/TrueHD, DTS/HD Master Audio/LBR, LPCM, MPEG-I Layer 1/2/3, MPEG-II Layer 1/2 multichannel, MPEG-4 HE AACv2, Real Audio
Movie Subtitle: srt, sub, smi, idx+sub**, ssa, DVD subtitle, DivX subtitle
Music: MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, AAC, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, iTune, M4A(AAC), M3U(Playlist)
Photo: JPG (40-mega pixel without limitation of resolution, Baseline), BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF, TIFF
Power rating: +12V 2A
Power consumption: Operation: 7 W (USB device/HDD consumption not included)
Standby: 0.5 W
Video Support
Video Feature Others File Container
MPEG-1 - up to 1920x1080x30p DAT TP MPG TRP MPEG TS
MPEG-2 Up to MP@HL 1080p 1080p, 80 Mbit/s DVD-ISO MPEG IFO TP M2TS TRP MKV TS MPG VOB
MPEG-4 SP/ASP DivX 3.11
DivX 4.12
DivX 5
DivX 6
DivX HD Xvid 1080p, Xvid: GMC function not support DIVX AVI MKV
Real Video Real Video 8, 9, 10 Up to 720@30P RM RMVB
AVC H.264 BP@L3
H.264 MP@L4.1
H.264 HP@L4.1 480p, 10 Mbit/s
720p, 50 Mbit/s
1080p, 62.5 Mbit/s AVI MP4 FLV MTS M2TS TP MKV TRP MOV TS
WMV/VC-1 WMV9
VC-1, AP@L3 VC-1 1080p, 45 Mbit/s ASF TP AVI TRP M2TS TS MKV WMV MTS
Quick Time MPEG-4 Visual
AVC/H.264 1080p MOV
Flash Video H.264, Sorenson H.263 352x288 FLV
Motion JPEG M-JPEG 640x480x30p AVI MP4 MOV
Audio Support
Audio Feature Others File Container
Dolby Digital AC3, DD Plus, TrueHD 7.1 down-mix
Digital pass-through Audio Track in movie
DTS DTS, LBR
7.1 down-mix
Digital pass-through Audio Track in movie
MPEG I MPEG I Layer 1,2,3 (2CH) - Audio Track in movie
MPEG II MPEG II Layer 1,2 (Multi-Channel) - Audio Track in movie
Real Audio RA1/RA-cook/RA-lossless - Audio Track in movie
MPEG-4 HE AACv2 - - Audio Track in movie
LPCM - 7.1 audio channel Audio Track in movie
MP3 MPEG-1 Layer 3 2 channels, 8-320kbps, VBR, M3U (MP3 list) supported MP3
WMA WMA ver. 9.1 (2 CH)
WMA Pro 9.1 (Multi-CH)
WMA ver. 9.1, CBR up to 320kbps, VBR up to 256kbps ASF WMA
WAV LPCM, ADPCM - WAV
AAC MPEG-2/4 LC/HE profile
AAC+ ver 1/2
iTune M4A UP to 288 kbps AAC MP4 M4A
OGG Vorbis - Sampling rate: 32K, 44.1K, 48K, 64K, 88.2K, 96K, 176K, 192K OGG
FLAC - 2 channels, VBR FLAC
Photo Support
Photos Feature Others File Container
JPEG Baseline JPEG Up to 40 M-pixel with unlimited resolution JPG JPEG
BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF, TIFF - Width
Product Details
Product Name: Media Gear MP-310DT
Manufacture Code: MP-310DT
Brand: Astone
Category: HDD Media Player
Achieva Code: HMPSTONMP310
Warranty: 1 Year
Astone Media Gear MP-310DT - Forum Discussions
http://www.astone.com.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=27&sid=852511f35a3605343d...
