Pivos Aios Network Media Player 3.5IN HDD HDMI LAN SDHC USB3 UPnP P2P MKV Blu-Ray ISO Support

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The hardware in this little box is top quality. Video quality is excellent, even at 1920x1080. The analog audio output is also very good and it also handles HDMI audio/video well. The biggest drawback is the software. Functionality and customization are limited. It might be more versatile with a UPnP server (not tested) but the interface is quite weak otherwise. This review was modfied by poster @ 03-10-12 06:37 AM

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For the price you cant find a better unit. Setup was easy and it had no problem connecting to my network(I am using a wired connection). Plays all my files without any issues. Browser and apps are kind of clunky to run but thats not what I bought it for.

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I've tried a few media centers and as far as video playback this is solid. setting up movie jukebox was a pain, remote seems sluggish. if your not familiar with linux code and want to setup some more advance features this box isn't for you.

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This is a very solid unit when it comes to playback. I love that it will play blu-ray and DVD ISOs to perfection, as well as MKV and almost every other media file type.The internal 3.5" hdd bay is great addition and allows you to use cheap hard drives with large capacity. Currently using a 3TB hard drive with the unit.I have never tried the wireless USB network interface, because I can't find a compatible type, so I am only using a wired LAN interface. Unfortunately, despite the player having 1 GBPS LAN port, it transfers files VERY slowly over FTP: it will max out at about 50 MBPS, so around 6-7 megabyte/sec. This means that transferring large files takes forever, although I see this as a relatively minor issue.It also seems that the internal HDD is interfaced over USB and not over SATA, a weird design choice. Although this is more than enough for smooth media playback, at the same time it severely affects the internal HDD transfer rate.Oddly enough, the hardware of the player has a USB 3.0 interface but it does not appear to support connection of external hard drives over it. I tried connecting it to my USB3 enabled PC, but it simply locks the PC up, so that doesn't seem to be working.While the files are being transferred over FTP to the unit's internal HDD, the unit is not usable: it does not have enough CPU power to play media and transfer files at the same time.I have not tried the bit-torrent functionality as I don't really need it.The Samba interface is functional but subject to same speed limits as the FTP. The user interface is pretty ugly but it works and responds quickly.All in all, the strong points of this device are: 3.5" HDD bay, wide media files support range, built in FTP server, composite and HDMI ports. Solid operating system software (it's based on linux. It very rarely crashes during regular usage, and it's frequently updated). But the hardware design on which the entire platform seems to be deployed is indeed very cheap, so it should probably retail for less than it currently does.

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Wait.... These cheapo Chinese media players are not ready for sale. They are very poorly worked out, the interface is majorly flawed. Half the features do not work and they are abysmally designed when it comes to interface design. Perhaps in a year or two. Its a real shame because we need this type of box if we are to get rid of our cable suppliers (Rogers and Shaw). The interface is designed by people who should not be doing that job. Even simple printed documentation is poorly done. The remote buttons are poorly picked. Surely there are remote control suppliers that can provide a better designed remote?The market for such a device is big enough that the smarter companies should farm out the software development to a western source. The Chinese market just does not have the skills to do this sort of task. Much better to farm out for 200-250 thousand the task to a small firm in Western N America. I know it could be done in Vancouver, as I am sure it could be done in Seattle Portland, Sacramento LA San Fran....etcIt does play movies and I am impressed it plays ISO files. but other than that there is little to no improvement over the Patriot box. These boxes have soooo much potential it is a shame they are being developed by firms that have not enough skills in house to pull it off.My recommendation is to wait. till they mature. Or perhaps wait till the third party software people can offer a mature product and you can erase the junk installed for a better interface and more capable machine.One thing I do like over the Patriot box is the simple and elegant 3.5 inch drive bay making large drives available in 3.5 inch format. Rather than the Patriot box 2.5 inch. The interface for simple apps like the MP3 player are completely missing and unintuitive. Again ... Unless you have the patience of Job, stay away from these media boxes... The exception being if you only want to use the very simplest functions like watching torrent downloaded movies. Even in that area the interface for movies of more than a few dozen in number are poorly done. My library now numbers over 500 movies. The interface is not laid out nicely, and it could be done soo much better.

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The owner's manual was obviously written by someone with rudimentary English skills and a penchant for using tiny fonts.Not only was it lacking a lot of information, but a lot of what is there is gibberish - for instance: the "options" button opens the "options menu". WOW, cool, but WTF is in the "options menu"? You wouldn't know unless you pushed the button.The only way I could get any half-decent information on operating the AIOS was to go to several AIOS user-forums, where other bewildered AIOS owners were also trying to figure out how to use this media player.Once most of the initial problems were solved, I found that the player works pretty well, as long as I'm willing to tolerate the primitive, somewhat clunky UI.Pivos really needs to provide AIOS owners with a better remote - one that is properly designed and one that works. The stock remote is flaky, sometimes not responding to keys and other times jumping past menu items. The key layout is the most non-intuitive of any remote I've ever seen. The keys themselves are tiny and very poorly labeled, some only with tiny, cryptic icons. Off-axis to the player, the remote most often doesn't work. Pathetic!There is an LED display on the front of the AIOS, but it is so tiny that it's unreadable from more than 6 feet away. Why did they bother?There's lots of connectivity - component, HDMI usb 2 &3, toslink audio etc.I also like the SD card slot being located just behind the left side of the face plate - very handy.The internal HD bay is a nice touch, except that it only will accommodate 3.5" drives, not 2.5" ones.The fan seems to be fairly quiet, but I've only had this unit for several days.Overall, this is a pretty good machine for under $100 (I got mine for $78.99 including the WiFi dongle).

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Bought this to replace the popular Patriot Box Office. This plays everything in my collection fine and supports IMS streams as well. Firmware releases seems frequent so I'm hopeful minor bugs will be addressed (such as subtitle settings not being saved).The only real negatives are:- UI is quite ugly. Yes, there are 3rd party firmware available but the stock one is quite lacking. If you change the background it only changes it at the main screen and not any of the other screens.- the power led light is quite bright from certain angles and can be a bother to some. I wish there is an option to disable it or at least lower the intensity...Note that I do not use any of the browser/NAS/BT features, as I have a dedicated NAS for that stuff. So I cannot comment on those features. As a pure media player though, can't complain too much.

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I probably have to fool around with custom firmware, but the firmware that comes stock isn't so hot. Def look into other firmwares.

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Love it, plays everything I have. Bought it on sale so it was a great deal.

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Bought this for Blue Ray rips video!!! Im satisfied with the free Wi-fi that includes with it!! Pivos Group Did their best to successfully 100% Guarantee xD

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Hidden system files show up along with your media menu files, regardless of how you have windows configured. Yes you can delete  some of the file types in windows so they do not show, but then as soon as windows is rebooted it will recreate  these files. Western Digital Live, as bad as it was didn't have this issue.Main entrance menu colour can be changed to grey, however all of the subsequent menus cannot be changed and are still bright orange-yellow. Most TV's, BluRay players, media players etc can update  their firmware directly if networked. This cannot. Seems odd this isn't capable. Not that it's a big deal to do this manually. It's just easier when hardware lets you know new firmware is available rather than having to check out their website.In spite of the hidden files showing, crappy bright menu background and no automatic firmware updating, this unit is the cats ass compared to the Western Digital Live. I'm no networking expert, but I have a little tech savvy, and the WD dropped connections (LAN), stalled, locked, would not reconnect until modem, router and main computer were rebooted. No firmware update s, windows and router tweaking, or hours looking for answers in WD forums ever did correct any of the constant issues with the WD.Aios is a snap, quick to boot, quick to load media, easy to use and responsive interface. There are no issues playing any of the file types, including high bitrate HD material, lossless Flac files, ISO's MKV's etc. Highly recommend to anyone with a library of different media they want easily streamed to their TV and audio system. One star off for lack of automatic firmware updating, hidden system files showing, and garish background colour.

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Pour ma part le lecteur Pivos AIOS a un très bon hardware par contre son firmware n'est pas assez mature pour lancer ce produit sur le marché. Avec tous les problèmes que j'ai remarqués sur ce lecteur (voir cons), je n'ai pas eut le choix que de demander un RMA pour son retour. Pour mon utilisation (films BD ISO à 90%), mon lecteur actuel Cinematube est pour ma part bien mieux et plus stable même si son manufacturier d'origine ne le supporte plus. Je un score de trois étoiles parce que NCIX doit valider mon review si je met deux étoile et il pourrait être rejeté mais en fait ce serait deux étoiles que je donnerais.

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Great media player, so happy with it and recommend to anyone from one month owner.

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bought this to replace my htpc, and its done the job perfectly. can't complain about anything except, the non customisable back ground color. seriously its orange not even a nice orange. how about orange icons on a black background?

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Picked up this unit a couple of weeks ago and it's been great. It's definitely faster than the PBO and OPlay though it's bigger and has a small fan in it. The default firmware was a bit old so check yours before using. The update  was about 150MB but installed pretty fast.Setup was easy though it had a manual IP set out of the box. I couldn't connect to my network shares by IP but once I set it to DHCP, I easily found my samba shares.

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I have used many of the media players out. I recently was using a self-made HTPC and a WD TV Live Plus. The WD was too slow, most youtube content did not play at all, using a USB WiFi Adapter on it slowed it down and made it impossible to use/surf. I switched to the Pivos Aios player, put in my own 750GB SATA Drive. This thing is AMAZING, plays all video and audio formats, and outputs video in 1080p (HDMI) properly. I am using a Pivos USB WiFi Adapter on it and the internet connection on it is amazing and stable. The connection does not drop, ALL youtube and youtubeXL content play properly without fail. All of the Apps that come with it work smoothly. I have not had a single issue with this unit. I love this thing. The UI is also relaly nice (compared to WD). If you want an all in one complete multimedia player that also lets you surf the web on your TV, this thing is the one. 100% happy with it.

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Overall I fell in love with this device. Plays all my videos like a charm. Internet access sucks! Internet access is slow and wen using just the remote, it's not a simple task. More likely to be try and error to find good buttons to move with the webpage. Mouse does help a lot but when it comes time to type, it's not straight forward. My wife watches programs over the WEBTV option and it's simple. With this device you have to try a few things in order to find out how it works. Not much in documentation.

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Just purchased this gem to replace my patriot box. Its a vast improvement compared to PBOX once you update  to the latest firmware. Theres a few kinks that need to be worked out but it seems like the Pivos team is dedicated to listening to its customers and making it better.The remote control is bulky and annoying, the box itself is more responsive than others but powercycling is a little slow. Hard to read text if you set a custom background (specially a black background). The menu sometimes for me randomly goes back to the main screen (specially if you're in wireless settings with no AP). Still experimenting with the box.I already love this product compared to the others I have used. I cannot wait until the kinks have been ironed out and I hope the Pivos group will continue to add new features and listen to its fanbase. If they do, they have just acquired a family of new longterm customers

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I just purchased this media streamer and could not get any networking to connect. No internet or local networking was possible with new out of the box unit. Yes Samba was set on and a network cable connected directly to the unit. It also had the proper default gateway and valid IP addresses. So this is how a new product is shipped out! Shame. Shame. Shame. After downloading firmware update  2.8.0.5 and updating from 2.1.5.1 the unit started to work as expected. Although after the update  it was still useless until I selected factory defaults and restarted it.For those who found this forum you may be the few that don't actually return this product. Also I hope your a technical person because the manual does not mention much about the settings. Best of luck! Maybe there should be a global "don't care " setting.I'll check it out see if it is worth keeping. I have a few Blu-Ray and DVD iso's to try. So far 1 out of 10 BD.iso caused the box to reset!

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I used PC as HTPC and PS3 as media center so I am not very familiar with other types of the similar devices on the market as PBO, WDTV, Asus player etc (I am familiar what they do and their capabilities and interfaces). I got tired of managing HTPC. I like PS3 playback (for me this is one of the best players and it does amazing upconverting job) but I cannot play all type of files and latest sony updates introduced additional protection in playing BD rips (it's sufficient to say that is limiting me a lot as a user and I am not fond of Sony policy and limitations).I think that this unit is better than any other similar device on the market. A lot of options and it's SIMPLE - plays video/music/pictures, allows streaming (of course limited so for example Netflix is not supported due to the licensing - it cost s a lot to get certified to support such services) etc.The FW is still buggy but Pivos is committed to fix it (they already have a couple of releases). I don't agree with many of the comments in official Aios thread about limitations - this is not HTPC but darn good media player with possibility to add internal 3,5' SATA HDD and to connect other storage over USB port ,network or to stream. I am happy user and I recommend it (if you are concern about specific function please do your research - my main requirements were internal HDD support, connections and video support/playback).If Pivos continues to improve FW I am sure that this device will make many people happy. Good job Pivos!

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While it is an upgrade from my 2 year old Asus O!Play HDP-R1, the firmware has a lot of bugs.Lots of potential, but it will need a few new firmware releases.The included applications are pretty weak, and some do not work properly.It works, but I would wait for new firmware before purchasing.Addendum; I have had time to dismantle the unit. There are no ports to add RAM or make any internal modifications. This review was modfied by poster @ 10-07-11 07:30 PM

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My first unit never worked properly - erratic HDMI connection and it would keep losing connection with attached USB and SD cards.Replacement unit works great. A nice big remote with lots of features not available on my WDTV Live +. It has a really nice aluminum case with tons of inputs (4 USB ports!) I hooked up a cheap Belkin WiFi dongle F7D1101 v1 and it was found and started working right away after entering the Password. Same with my cordless Logitech mouse. I especially love that you can pop in a 3.5" hard drive and use that for your main media storage. It's not perfect but it's pretty close. It has played everything I've tried, so far and the firmware update  was a piece of cake although it was pretty big at 137MB in size. All in all, I am really happy with this unit from this new company and think it is a remarkable value.