Take It To The Limit
Great, now we’ll have the stinking Eagles in our head all day
There are lots of nice things a person can say about the Archos TV+ WiFi 250GB Digital Video Recorder. True things. Two of them are right there in the full product name. One: It’s got WiFi. Two: And a 250-gig hard drive.
Also you can say that the Archos “Content Portal” gives you easy access to the latest media—movies, TV, music—from your choice of content providers. You can point out that it does some download-management stuff, so you can resume interrupted downloads over its wireless connection.
As it streams content from your home computer, you could say it’s perfect for the habitual downloader who doesn’t want to dedicate a media PC or keep his computer in the home entertainment rack. You could say it subs for xBox or PS3, in some of their non-gaming applications.
You could even say, to people who consider buying the optional (45-dollar) web plug-in, that the remote control has a pretty nice qwerty keyboard for that. Oh, and you can say that it isn’t hideously ugly, which isn’t a given with home entertainment stuff.
But what you can’t say—or at least what you can’t really say _truthfully—is what Archos says on their site: That the Archos TV+ lets you “play and store nearly limitless content—up to 300 movies.”
What? That doesn’t make basic sense.
Sure, 300 movies is a lot of movies. That’s enough movies to watch one every night for about ten months without repeating. We don’t know about you, but 300 movies is more movies than we own on DVD. It’s more movies than we have in our rental queue. It’s probably more movies than we’ll see in the next five years.
But “nearly limitless?”
Come on, that’s just stupid. It’s wrong. There’s a limit. The limit is plenty high. Probably high enough that most people won’t run up against it. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. We can’t say “you can kill a nearly limitless number of people before you’re considered a mass murderer” just because most people won’t reach the number, whatever it is. (Three? Four?)
Anyway, let’s just put it like this: You can play and store a whole lot of movies, which is impressive enough without overselling the thing, sheesh.
Authorized for SquareTrade Extended Warranty
Warranty: 90 Day Archos
Features:
- Combines a WiFi Media Player with a high-capacity DVR for enjoying movies, music, photos, podcasts, Web video, the full Internet and more right on your TV
- 250GB of capacity on a multimedia hard drive, you can record hundreds of hours of video and transfer content via high speed to your ARCHOS Portable Media Players
- Record and schedule your favorite TV shows and movies in high quality with the TV program Guide
- Download movies, TV shows and music wirelessly from the ARCHOS Content Portal for playing on your TV
- Stream digital entertainment content from your PC to your TV
- Surf the Web1, access online email, and enjoy Web video from sites like YouTube® and Dailymotion®
- Sync your recorded TV shows to your ARCHOS portable media player at high speed, and take your home theatre wherever you go (a 2-hour movie syncs in only 10 minutes)
- Personalized TV Program Guide, elect your local channels and favorite programs on the registration page, view all programs on the grid on the device and schedule recordings with a click of the ARCHOS remote control on the selected program
Archos Content Portal:
- ARCHOS Content Portal provides quick and easy access to the latest movies, TV shows and music directly to your ARCHOS device
- Partnership with top-tier content companies to bring movies, TV shows and music downloads directly to the ARCHOS PMP or TV - without a PC
- Integrated WiFi to download the latest entertainment content from Archos partner’s online stores directly to the TV+
- Gives you the choice of content providers, so you’re not forced to use just one
- Content is downloaded wirelessly and resumed from that point if connection is interrupted
TV Features:
- Record your favorite TV shows or series directly on your ARCHOS TV+
- Easy programming with the TV Program Guide
- Record from most any video sources (satellite/cable box, VCR, DVD player1) in MPEG-4 format
Easy Navigation:
- Through your home WiFi connection, you can enjoy the entire shared digital media library of your home PC in your living room, not just in your office
- Easily navigate using the remote control with an integrated keyboard and mouse pointer
WiFi Features:
- Download content wirelessly and directly to your ARCHOS TV+ via the ARCHOS Content Portal and online stores
- Stream movies, TV shows and music that are stored on your computer
- Optional Web browser plug-in, allows you to surf the Web and enjoy videos from DailyMotion or YouTube
Movies, and Videos:
- Store and play your videos and recorded TV shows
- Play the most popular video formats: MPEG-43, WMV3, protected WMV3,
- Also plays MPEG-2, VOB, H. 264 video files with additional purchase
Photos:
- Store and view up thousands of photos (JPEG, PNG and BMP formats)
- Transfer your photos from a PC or most mass storage devices via the USB 2.0 high speed interface
- Display slideshows with music and transition effect
- Manage your files and folders directly on the device
Music:
- Store and listen to more than 100,000 songs
- Play the most popular music files such as MP3, WAV, WMA and protected WMA, AAC* and AC3* (*with optional plug ins)
- Your music is automatically organized with the enhanced ARCLibrary
- View by artist, album, type of music, title and create your own playlists
Additional Photos:
Specifications:
- Capacity: 250GB hard drive
- Photo viewer: JPEG, BMP, PNG
- PDF viewer: Reads PDF documents (may not implement all PDF features)
- Video recording: Records NTSC/PAL/SECAM to MPEG-4 SP files with ADPCM stereo sound, VGA resolution (640×480)@ 30 or 25 f/s, in AVI format
- Audio recording: In WAV (IMA ADPCM or PCM) format
- Power source: External: Power supply
- Scalability: Device automatically downloads latest firmware updates
- Dimensions & weight: 250×164x37mm, 1294 g
Video playback:
- MPEG-4 (ASP@L5 AVI, up to DVD resolution)
- WMV (MP@ML, up to DVD resolution)
- With optional software plug-ins (available for purchase on www.archos.com):
- Podcast plug-in: H.264 up to DVD resolution and AAC sound.
- Cinema Plug-in: MPEG-2 MP@ML up to 10 Mbps (up to DVD resolution) and AC3 stereo sound
Audio playback:
- Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR, WMA, Protected WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM)
- With optional software plug-ins (available on www.archos.com)
- AAC stereo audio files
- AC3 stereo audio and 5.1 sound files
Interfaces:
- USB 2.0 High-Speed Device (compatible USB 1.1): Mass Storage Class (MSC) and Media Transport
- USB 2.0 High-Speed Device, Mass Storage Class (MSC) and Media Transport Protocol (MTP)
- USB 2.0 Host : Mass Storage Class (MSC) and Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP)
Connections:
- WiFi (802.11g) connection. Optional Web Browser plug-ins for web browsing (available on www.archos.com)
Inputs:
- Audio: stereo analog
- Video: composite, S-video, RGB, YPbPr (component)
- Miscellaneous: Ethernet, USB slave (USB B), USB host ( USB A), infrared receptor for remote control, and DC-in
Outputs:
- Audio: stereo analog, SPDIF (RCA type)
- Video: composite, S-video, RGB, YPbPr, and HDMI
- Miscellaneous: infrared emitter, AV Switch
In the box:
- Archos TV+
- Remote control
- Power supply (US plug)
- 2 audio RCA/RCA cables
- 2 x S-Video cables
