Review: Archos TV+
Posted on February 27, 2008
Filed Under Vnunet |
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Will Stapley, Personal Computer
World, Wednesday 27 February 2008 at 00:00:00
Access movies, music and photos from your PC, the internet or the
built-in hard drive
We recently looked at the Linksys DMA2200 a media streamer with excellent
usability, but one that also required a Vista PC with Media Center to be
running. The TV+ from Archos is similar as it can act just like a standard
media streamer, grabbing content off PCs and UPnP Nas devices on your network.
But thanks to the internal hard drive (80GB and 250GB versions are available)
you can also load content directly onto the TV+ and use it as a standalone
media jukebox. The advantage of this is there’s no need to have a PC or Nas
device on your network switched on and the problems caused by wireless
communication are removed. Archos also has its online Content Portal, which
lets you stream movies, TV shows and music, but there wasn’t a great selection
of movies. Archos says a new Media Club service will soon be available in the
UK, offering a better selection of content and, if you don’t already have one,
the TV+ will function as a DVR (digital video recorder), using an online EPG
and built-in IR blaster to change channels on your set-top box. Web surfing is
also possible (for a fee), but it isn’t a very enjoyable experience. Pages take
a frustratingly long time to load and using the remote to move the mouse
pointer can be awkward. However, viewing clips on sites such as Youtube works
well. The interface is taken straight from Archos’ 605 Wifi. It’s uncluttered
but Archos could have put a bit of effort into redesigning it. The small remote
control squeezes in a Qwerty keyboard along with various navigation buttons,
some of which are a little cryptic. The startup time from cold is impressive.
There are no fans whirring away so the only noise you’ll hear will be the hard
disk. During testing we found the first few seconds of audio and video playback
were interrupted by a short pause, but this is only a small niggle. There’s a
big selection of ports to hook the TV+ up to your home entertainment equipment
and the only noticeable omission is optical audio, but coaxial digital is
provided. Despite its HDMI interface, the TV+ can’t handle high-definition
video. Archos argues that there isn’t enough HD content to warrant it, but with
Apple and Microsoft both offering HD movies through iTunes and the Xbox Live
Marketplace respectively, it is a strange omission….
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