• expired

Astone AP-300 $179.00 ($199 Minus $20 for Code below) (1.5tb Hard Drive) $6.95 Postage. COTD

261
20more

See qqq…catchofthedays post to receive an extra $20 off………

use coupon code 20more to receive the discount!!!!!!! For those who've already bought this follow the instructions to get a credit :)

this might be more to your liking compared to the apple tv??

Would appreciate feedback if this is a good bargain as I missed out on the apple tv for $129

Some replies said that static ice etc were cheaper however none of these come with the hard drive and the closest price I could find was $290 with a 1TB hdd

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  • +1

    Dunno if it's a bargain or not, but a Media center with a 1.5TB HDD for $199 sounds good to me, plays basically everything, has network play to.

    I bought one. :)

  • +1

    omg it plays mkv with h.264 and rmvb

    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)

    it's only around $100 on staticice http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=Astone+Media+Ge…

    • that's right mate but no hard drive…….

  • Umart have the AP-300 for $100. [edit; as uraha points out]

    • But those don't have the 1.5TB HDD inside em do they ;)

  • with the 1.5tb hard drive guys??

  • Checked those deals for $100 etc and neither of these come with the 1.5tb hdd

    $290 with 1tb from Umart bargainhunter..

  • +1

    The media centre itself cost around $100, a WD 1.5TB cost $90 and the remote cost $10 so $199 is about the right price to pay for this package and not really a bargain. If you have a spare hard disk lying around, then you can save youself $90.

    • fair point camry

      Can never have enough hard drives and it's inbuilt meaning more room for the ps3 and less grief from the minister of finance :)

    • +2

      Yeah, I keep tripping over all those pesky old 1.5tb drives I've got lying all over the joint! :p

      • see camry……… stewballs gets where I'm coming from haha

    • +2

      could you please link me to a WD 1.5TB for $90 ???

  • tempting…

    op… it also might be worth mentioning the $6.95 shipping cost somewhere in the post…

  • I got this from CoTD last time, but with the 1tb HD for $180. It is a great media player that has played everything I have tried so far. Would recommend. Also the Astone support forums for their media players is extensive, so if you have any problems it probably is not too hard to resolve.

    • Also the Astone support forums for their media players is extensive, so if you have any problems it probably is not too hard to resolve.

      There is little or no official Astone support whatsoever from the forums…..

      Having said that…..if you can put up with it's niggles, it's not a bad player

      • I actually read that as meaning the support forums themselves were extensive!

        However, you are right, Astone's official input there is minimal; lucky there's some fairly knowledgable end users there to lend a hand! ;)

      • the forums are filled with irate customers

        • +1

          Support forums usually are! ;)

    • +1

      yeah I got one last time for that price too, I agree its a great media player that plays everything and I've had no problems with it,
      Astone do release firmware updates reguarly which improve the product and fix flaws = customer support

  • Thanks Chux updated……

  • Aarrgh! Bought one! Curse myself for my itchy finger! :P

    Now I can offload all my movies and animation on to the device and watch it on my TV instead of my monitor…

    • Apologies savememoney…. I'm still resisting haha

      • No worries markybee, my fault, I gave in too easily… lol

  • +12

    Not convinced?

    Use coupon code "20more" for $20 more discount.

    Already purchased? E-mail [email protected] with your order number, OZB username and Catch e-mail address for a store credit of $20. Allow a couple of weeks for processing.

    • thanks qqq.

    • Great offer made even better! Thanks QQQ!

      Email on its way!

      Cheers!

    • Damm I just purchased one for my Mum 5 minutes ago :(

      • mate read qqq's post to get a credit :)

        • I did read that and I think its great that he made the offer for store credit

      • I'm keeping this, giving my mom my WD Media Player instead…

        • HaHaHa……

    • Thanks QQQ, I'll shoot off an e-mail now. :)

    • Thanks QQQ, Awesone deal, just bought it but forgot to put in discount code!! Will send email now instead.

  • WANT

  • This is great price - I got one about 1yr ago for same price but 1/2 the HD. But I suggest before you make a purchase have a look at the AP-300 (and AP-360) forums for the issues :

    http://www.astone.com.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=21

    Especially the HD files lost

    http://www.astone.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=662&sid=…

    This is a great little (and cheap) unit and virtually can play anything you throw at. The interface is not great. Torrent feature is totally crap. If only Astone can really polish their firmware - or release it for Opensource to fix it, after all it's running on Linux.

  • I would prefer Noontec V8 over Astone. It costs about $145 + $90 for 1.5 TB hard drive. Better configuration and better build quality. Have one and no complaints.

    • +4

      Noontec eh? More expensive+noisy fan+reduced codec support = FAIL! :p

      Better configuration and better build quality, seriously dude, where did you pluck that one from??? I'm pleased for you that your happy with your player, but don't just make shit up, you only make yourself look silly! ;)

  • Great price, great player, great deal - I wouldn't hesitate if I didn't have two already! :)

  • Can you copy files from the front USB into the HDD?

  • Anything else out there like thus but with a tv tuner built in or video inputs.

    I need something that does all same formats but also record tv.

    • Mate if you have a ps3 buy play T.V… chuck in a huge hard drive and hey presto

      • Yeah but found my ps3 doesn't read TS files that record on my Divco pvr.

        And my divco pvr didn't read MKV files

      • If QQQ can get one of those bad boys next time with the inbuilt TV tuner for a decent price, I'm sold!

        • yeah I would buy the Astone 360T as well if you had it on sale this week.

          • @lucyr: i highly recommend you check the Astone forums before purchasing the 360

            • @ywpn: I have two family members and a friend who all purchased early model 360T's; all had the tuners fail, and one lost everything on the HDD; but all were replaced with new updated units without a qualm by Astone themselves! :)

              The replacements have; however, all performed flawlessly in the months since they've been back! ;)

              • @StewBalls: Hmm…don't suppose you would know the model numbers of the earlier and later units?
                Was this to do with hardware or firmware issues?

                • @ywpn: No, sorry we didn't record them, Astone were so good about replacing them we didn't see a need; but IIRC there was a list of affected serial/versions on WP & the Astone forums at one stage.

                  I know Astone kept citing firmware issues, but no firmware even looked like it was gonna address the issue; so IMHO the tuners themselves in those versions were sketchy; I've lost a few devices over the years to dodgy tuners, it looked a pretty clear-cut case to me! ;)

                  To their credit though, one phone call to Astone tech support & they didn't quibble over new for old replacment; and as I said, they're all still working perfectly since! :)

            • @ywpn: hmm maybe i will do some reading first. thanks

  • +1

    If you do not want the frills then you can by a $99 Soniq Blu-ray player from JBHifi that plays all format and has USB input.

  • Wireless is very flakey on these so be careful.
    I gave up after 6 mnths and ended up building a proper pc for media etc.

  • I've got one of these units that streams movies and music from a D-Link DNS323 NAS box. The interface is pretty crude but it works well enough and it'll play almost anything. They are great for movies, but so far I havej't found any brand that is much good for music… the quality is great, but the interface is not much good (compared to something like iTunes or even WMP).

    Wireless hasn't really got enough bandwidth to stream reliably on any of these devices (esp. at FullHD), especially if there are other devices on the network, walls in the way, and/or microwave ovens, cordless phones etc. Either wire it using Cat5, or use wireless to copy the movie to the HDD then play it from there.

    • +1

      Dunno whats going on with your network dude, but I was streaming a movie with these specs wirelessly from my PC using the Astone dongle earlier this evening:

      RELEASE SiZE………: 12.32 GB
      ViDEO CODEC……….: x264L4.1 @ 12410 Kbps
      RESOLUTiON…………: 1920 x 816
      FRAMERATE………….: 23.976 fps
      AUDiO CODEC……….: English DTS 5.1 @ 1.5 Mbps

      No freezing, no skipping or dropped frames etc. My router, Open824RLW is only 802.11g (54Mbps) too! You might wanna check your network settings! ;)

      • Can I just confirm with you if this was:

        PC—-(wired)—->Router—-(wireless)—->AP-300 —>

        or

        PC—-(wireless)—->Router—-(wireless)—->AP-300

        If it was the latter I may need to look into one of these bad boys too.

        • +1

          It is indeed the latter; PC(D-Link DWA-110 wireless)>>>Router(Open824RLW wireless)>>>AP-300(Astone AW-N290 wireless). :)

          FWIW, when I'm doing this sort of thing, I do take the precaution of making sure there's absolutely no other network traffic going on at the time!!! ;)

        • A wireless N router capable at 300Mbps also helps with streaming video, if other devices are also connecting at the same time

          • @skinny: Yep, I suspect you're right…as soon as someone gives me one, or my G router dies, I'll be movin' on up! ;)

            Of course, then I suppose I'll have to pony up for a wireless N dongle for the PC too! :o

            • @StewBalls: Try finding out if you have Quality of Service and enable it for the ip that does the video

  • +1

    I was about to buy this, but the coupon says expired. Please fix.

    • +1

      same here, qqq can we still use the credit please?

  • Ok, I'll buy anyways and get that $20 store credit.

    How long is the credit valid for?

  • Code didn't work at checkout. Guess I will be alright with the store credit but this post needs to be updated

  • +1

    Coupon fixed

    • many thanks qqq. you're the best.
      I've just bought one with the coupon code, as well as the HDMI cable.

      hopefully it will be a good media player. I was considering buying WD TV before, but can't resist not buying this one instead at this price.

    • Does this mean I will still get store credit and not money back to my account as it was a coupon issue?

      • Email them with your details

  • thanks bought one at the last minute

  • Any way the coupon can be reactivated QQQ? It's available to buy today and I would really buy it with the $20 off. Thanks

  • -2

    This product has a fault which causes the loss of all the files in the internal hard drive. According to a comapny representative, the units are not designed for storing data, only for playing media.

    • Troll much?

  • For those who ordered early and missed the coupon code, and also emailed in for the store credit, have you got any replies yet?

    • check your account for the store credit - that's what happened to me with my previous purchase - no e-mail, but credit appeared.

      • I've checked under all sub-headings but none of them shows anything about a credit.

        I've emailed QQQ, waiting for his/her reply.

        • Same here, I can't see any store credit on my account.
          Awaiting reply form QQQ

          • @smarter_fool: If QQQ is reading this, it has now been 3 weeks to the day and still no response, not even an email acknowledging they have received it…

            This was before the 'Catcha Don't Tuesday', surely you must be able to reply by now…

            Very poor form indeed…

            • @savememoney: Okay here is my update. Received no response from QQQ emailed again on 26th Sept. On 28th logged on COTD and emailed using the feedback form
              received response and $20 were credited to my account the next day ( it appears as a link under your account information).
              Purchased Astone dongle on 30th Sept with the credit. AP-300 on FW 1.92 will soon be complete.
              I think QQQ is on a break :)

              • @smarter_fool: I had a reply from Anees L. Sabet, Head of Buying & Sales, two days ago saying it will be done shortly, still waiting… as the Yellow Pages (tm) ad goes… >:(

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