Apple has Apple TV.. so naturally ARCHOS will have.. the ARCHOS TV+. Yup.. they couldn’t simply have ARCHOS TV – they just had to tack on a plus symbol at the end didn’t they? In many ways, the ARCHOS TV+ is much more than what Apple has with the Apple TV device. The ARCHOS TV+ is a full featured Wi-Fi supporting Digital Video Recorder which also provides access to multimedia content such as movies, music, photos, podcasts, as well as Internet based content such as Internet videos and online email. The full feature list includes:

• Record your favorite TV shows with support for a TV Program Guide
• Record from most any video source in MPEG-4 format
• Wi-Fi connection provides access to your home digital media library as well as the Internet
• Remote control with integrated keyboard and mouse pointer
• Download content via Wi-Fi to the ARCHOS TV+ via ARCHOS Content Portal
• Optional web browser plug-in
• Store and play videos and recorded TV shows with support for MPEG-4, WMV, protected WMV, MPEG2 (via optional plug-in), VOB (optional plugin), and H.264 (optional plugin)
• Store and view photos
• Store and listen to music

The tech specs include the following:

• 80 or 250GB HDD
• MPEG-4, WMV support
• MP3, WMA, Protected WMA, WAV support
• JPEG, BMP, PNG support
• PDF support
• Records to MPEG-4 SP format with ADPCM stereo sound at VGA resolution and 30 or 25 f/s
• USB 2.0 support
• Wi-Fi support
• Composite, S-Video, RGB, Component, Ethernet, USB, HDMI ports
• Measures 250 x 164 x 37 mm and weighs 1294 grams

While the features and technical specifications look good on paper, ARCHOS typically suffers from poor product execution in user interfaces and product designs. The ARCHOS TV+ looks nice from afar but one wonders if the GUI will be simple enough for the common consumer. While Apple TV may be lacking in specifications and file format support, the device has an incredibly simple user interface. Heck, look at Windows Media Center based computers. The MCE interface is just astonishingly simple. Yes.. I’m just a little dubious about the ARCHOS TV+.

Oh yes.. one more gripe about ARCHOS. What’s up with all of these optional plugins. Why make consumers pay additional cash for file format support which should naturally come with the player? Sheesh.

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