Exterior Design

With all its rich functionality, the player is small, comparable to a regular single-disk NAS. It is also light. I would even say the HD360W seems heavier than it really is. With the hard disk installed, the player stands firmly on its rubber feet and can hardly be toppled over accidentally.

The HD360W is pretty, its case made from white glossy plastic with translucent front and top panels and a metallic back. The case widens towards the bottom, forming a rounded large base. Overall, it has an appearance of a solid and well-made device and will fit perfectly into any modern interior. The assembly quality is high, all the details are neatly fitted together.

The player developer didn’t limit the user’s choice of the hard disk to use. You can easily install any disk you like. Just unlock the cover at the bottom of the case and you will see a compartment for a HDD with a SATA interface.

The HDD is inserted with the connectors facing outwards and then you attach the cables that go out of the case. The interface cable is rather short, barely enough to connect the drive.

As soon as the hard disk is installed, the player is ready to serve its purpose. But you can use the player even without it because the HD360W offers an abundance of I/O interfaces and the integrated software doesn’t depend on the HDD.

As for the noise factor, the HDD is nearly silent (although I used a rather noisy model from Seagate). The small cooling fan (3x3cm) inside the case is silent, too.

On the other hand, the thermal conditions inside the player are far from comfortable. The HDD becomes as hot as to scorch your fingers. It means the ventilation system is no good at all.

The above-mentioned fan is too weak to produce a strong airflow, and the HDD compartment has almost no holes for the hot air to go out. So, the ventilation system is the first serious drawback of the HD360W.

As opposed to it, the indication and control system is good. The front and top panels of the case contain everything necessary for you to interact with the player. Nearly all of the controls can be found on the top panel (from top to bottom and from left to right):

• Power button
• OK button (to confirm your choice in the menu and to select files)
• Setup (opens the player’s settings menu)
• Play (to start playing a file or pause playback)
• Stop (to stop playback)
• Joystick (for navigating the menu and for fast rewind/forward during playback)