Archos TV+ review

Archos TV+ Review

Reviewed by: Ian Morris

Reviewed on: 19 February 2008

Archos has produced some of the best quality portable media players we've ever seen. As you can imagine, when it announced it would be making a TV streaming product, we hoped its excellent work would continue.

We've had time to look over Archos TV+, which comes in a 80GB version and a 250GB version, which we've reviewed. Is this product the one we've all been waiting for or is it another example of a media streamer that just doesn't live up to the hype?

The 250GB version is available to order from expansys from £250.

Design
The TV+ is a tidy unit. It would be hard not to draw comparisons between the styling of it and Apple TV. It has a white top with a silver bezel around the sides. On the front is a white window that has a status LED behind it, as well as the remote receiver.

At the back, there are both inputs and outputs. Archos TV+ has HDMI out, and component, composite and S-Video inputs and outputs. There is also a coaxial digital audio output as well as analogue audio inputs and outputs.

The remote control is a unique feature. It's a small square affair with a Qwerty keypad and directional buttons for navigating menus and Web pages. It's comfortable enough to hold, but really needs two hands to operate properly.

Features
At least on paper, the Archos has a very good selection of features. Indeed, it's just possible that it has too many features and doesn't really know what it's trying to be.

The main advertised feature is its ability to stream media from a variety of sources. It has a built-in hard drive, and you can drop files on to it directly through USB. It can also connect to computers via wired or wireless networks.

The most interesting feature is the ability to record TV, but because the Archos TV+ doesn't contain a TV tuner, you have to hook it up to your existing machine. This is clumsy, and we can't help feel that for £250, Archos could have included a Freeview tuner chip.

Archos provides a service called Archos Content Portal, which offers access to free video, including some news from EuroNews and short clips from other providers. There's even the facility to rent movies. Prices are around £2.99 and are valid for 7 days after download and last 24 or 48 hours from the first time you view them. Video files can also be played while they are downloading, which is a nice feature.

Our biggest gripe with the Archos TV+ is its lack of HD support. For a product this expensive, and one that competes with HD media streamers like the Xbox 360, Apple TV and the DivX Connected streamers, we think this is a huge mistake.

At the press launch, Archos said that the lack of HD support was because there was virtually no legal HD material, and that Archos was trying to prevent piracy. Now, we call shenanigans here -- the Archos TV+ allows you to record content from both DVD and TV onto its hard drive. From there, you can copy it to your PC and freely distribute it in anyway you like.

This makes us think that rather than being the bastions of legal content, Archos is simply planning to launch an HD-capable product next year. You might like to consider that before going out and buying one.