The A200 is the newest media player offered by KDLinks, the company which had previously generated good reviews with its HD720 media player. I had been using the WD TV live and Roku before this. While WD TV was awesome at playing almost every type of media from the hard drive, it sucked when it came to streaming media services, for which I had to use Roku. This player tries to fill in the gap between these two categories.
The unique thing about this media player is that it comes preloaded with Android and XBMC, plus it also has ability to load bare 3.5” drives (upto 4TB I believe) so you can load tons of offline content as well. I would try to review all the features that I liked and the ones I did not.
Main Features
• Android and XBMC out of the box along with excellent hardware codec playback ability
• Cortex A9 with Mali-400MP2 GPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 4GB T-Flash
• Supports 3D playback
• Supports Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1, TrueHD 5.1/7.1, DTS-MA and DTS-HD
• Ability to do Skype after attaching USB webcam
• Local network streaming
• Comes with a motion control QWERTY remote
Design and Build
Player
The box comes with almost everything you need to setup including a standard HDMI cable. The design looks similar to the previous HD720 player. However, there are a few changes with the addition of micro-USB port in the back. Also you get a motion controlled QWERTY remote with it. The actual built feels pretty solid. It’s kind of big compared to the other streaming media players but that’s because of the 3.5” HDD bay. The front panel has LED display which gives it a nice retro look. It has two USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port in the side. The rear panel has HDMI and standard video output along with SPDIF outputs and a wireless antenna. The one drawback I found in the build was that there is no standard USB port on the back of the player, so the USB receiver for the remote protrudes from the side. I probably would have to get a micro USB to USB adapter to conceal it.
Remote
It comes with two remotes one is a standard IR remote which can be used for controlling the media. The other one is a QWERTY remote with motion control (the kind that comes with some high end smart TVs) which works with the supplied USB receiver. The standard IR remote is not that impressive as you have to point it at the player every time you have to use it. However, the QWERTY remote is pretty responsive and does the job well for android as well as XBMC. The IR remote uses 2 AAA batteries (not included) and the QWERTY remote is rechargeable with a micro-USB cable (included). Plus if you like you can also add a full size keyboard/mouse like Logitech K400 by hooking its receiver to the USB port.
Streaming and Local Media playback
The player comes preloaded with Android OS, which means whatever apps you can use on your android phone/tablet, you can use them on this player. The interface is not as polished as Apple TV or Roku but still it’s not dreadful either (at-least with the motion sensor remote). The appearance is similar to a nexus tablet. So if you are comfortable using android, you will have no issues setting up the player and apps. The performance may not be similar to tablet since the apps are not customized for media player but it’s not bad nevertheless. For example it did a good job with NETFLIX, Xfinitygo and a couple of live Indian TV streaming apps. The HD playback was smooth with not buffering or playback lag issues (On 50mbps Xfinity). The ESPN app is awesome on the android as well as XBMC interface. Plus I could also load the willow TV app which plays seamlessly on this player (means a lot more cricket streaming this year). However, I was not able to load the HBOGo app with Xfinity (it works with several other carriers though), but then again HBO works fine with Xfinity go app, so not a deal-breaker. It also has a capability of doing WiDi and Airplay (with XBMC), I was not able to test this feature though, because of the lack of setup.
The XBMC interface extends the media player’s ability to play tons of online content which is available as XBMC streaming apps. One thing to note here is that it only supports upto 720p with the XBMC somehow. It may be a firmware issue that may be addressed in the future updates, but don’t take my word for it. Also I have noticed that you get lag when playing 1080p files on XBMC but if you turn the hardware acceleration to Libstagefright only (default is libstagefright+mediacodec) this issue goes away. I can write a whole page about XBMC and its extreme customization ability but that’s beyond the scope of this review. One more thing I would like to point is that I prefer wired connections for 1080p streaming media as it gives more stable and faster connection with any of my media players. I hope we start getting wifi b/g/n/ac on media players soon.
When it comes to playing media files this player handles almost every format that I threw at including 1080p MKVs and BD ISOs. It does a great job at playing the 3D files if you are into that. The frame transition was silky smooth in 1080p videos as you would expect from such strong hardware profile with no lags whatsoever. You can save all your media on the HDD using the USB 3.0 cable or play your external HDD through USB port and even your SD cards with the provided slot.
Apart from the media playback capabilities this player also does a good job with skype too. All you need is a USB plug and play webcam and you are good to go. Skype does look good on big screen.
Verdict
If you are looking for a player that does a good job in streaming media as well as playing local content, you have a very few options to choose from. This player is an excellent start for how such hybrid players should be. That being said, it does come with a few flaws but none of them are major as far as I could experience. Overall, I would rank the player 8 out of 10.
P.S: I am not a professional reviewer but just an end user, so please excuse my writing skills. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
The unique thing about this media player is that it comes preloaded with Android and XBMC, plus it also has ability to load bare 3.5” drives (upto 4TB I believe) so you can load tons of offline content as well. I would try to review all the features that I liked and the ones I did not.
Main Features
• Android and XBMC out of the box along with excellent hardware codec playback ability
• Cortex A9 with Mali-400MP2 GPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 4GB T-Flash
• Supports 3D playback
• Supports Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1, TrueHD 5.1/7.1, DTS-MA and DTS-HD
• Ability to do Skype after attaching USB webcam
• Local network streaming
• Comes with a motion control QWERTY remote
Design and Build
Player
The box comes with almost everything you need to setup including a standard HDMI cable. The design looks similar to the previous HD720 player. However, there are a few changes with the addition of micro-USB port in the back. Also you get a motion controlled QWERTY remote with it. The actual built feels pretty solid. It’s kind of big compared to the other streaming media players but that’s because of the 3.5” HDD bay. The front panel has LED display which gives it a nice retro look. It has two USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port in the side. The rear panel has HDMI and standard video output along with SPDIF outputs and a wireless antenna. The one drawback I found in the build was that there is no standard USB port on the back of the player, so the USB receiver for the remote protrudes from the side. I probably would have to get a micro USB to USB adapter to conceal it.
Remote
It comes with two remotes one is a standard IR remote which can be used for controlling the media. The other one is a QWERTY remote with motion control (the kind that comes with some high end smart TVs) which works with the supplied USB receiver. The standard IR remote is not that impressive as you have to point it at the player every time you have to use it. However, the QWERTY remote is pretty responsive and does the job well for android as well as XBMC. The IR remote uses 2 AAA batteries (not included) and the QWERTY remote is rechargeable with a micro-USB cable (included). Plus if you like you can also add a full size keyboard/mouse like Logitech K400 by hooking its receiver to the USB port.
Streaming and Local Media playback
The player comes preloaded with Android OS, which means whatever apps you can use on your android phone/tablet, you can use them on this player. The interface is not as polished as Apple TV or Roku but still it’s not dreadful either (at-least with the motion sensor remote). The appearance is similar to a nexus tablet. So if you are comfortable using android, you will have no issues setting up the player and apps. The performance may not be similar to tablet since the apps are not customized for media player but it’s not bad nevertheless. For example it did a good job with NETFLIX, Xfinitygo and a couple of live Indian TV streaming apps. The HD playback was smooth with not buffering or playback lag issues (On 50mbps Xfinity). The ESPN app is awesome on the android as well as XBMC interface. Plus I could also load the willow TV app which plays seamlessly on this player (means a lot more cricket streaming this year). However, I was not able to load the HBOGo app with Xfinity (it works with several other carriers though), but then again HBO works fine with Xfinity go app, so not a deal-breaker. It also has a capability of doing WiDi and Airplay (with XBMC), I was not able to test this feature though, because of the lack of setup.
The XBMC interface extends the media player’s ability to play tons of online content which is available as XBMC streaming apps. One thing to note here is that it only supports upto 720p with the XBMC somehow. It may be a firmware issue that may be addressed in the future updates, but don’t take my word for it. Also I have noticed that you get lag when playing 1080p files on XBMC but if you turn the hardware acceleration to Libstagefright only (default is libstagefright+mediacodec) this issue goes away. I can write a whole page about XBMC and its extreme customization ability but that’s beyond the scope of this review. One more thing I would like to point is that I prefer wired connections for 1080p streaming media as it gives more stable and faster connection with any of my media players. I hope we start getting wifi b/g/n/ac on media players soon.
When it comes to playing media files this player handles almost every format that I threw at including 1080p MKVs and BD ISOs. It does a great job at playing the 3D files if you are into that. The frame transition was silky smooth in 1080p videos as you would expect from such strong hardware profile with no lags whatsoever. You can save all your media on the HDD using the USB 3.0 cable or play your external HDD through USB port and even your SD cards with the provided slot.
Apart from the media playback capabilities this player also does a good job with skype too. All you need is a USB plug and play webcam and you are good to go. Skype does look good on big screen.
Verdict
If you are looking for a player that does a good job in streaming media as well as playing local content, you have a very few options to choose from. This player is an excellent start for how such hybrid players should be. That being said, it does come with a few flaws but none of them are major as far as I could experience. Overall, I would rank the player 8 out of 10.
P.S: I am not a professional reviewer but just an end user, so please excuse my writing skills. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
