Here's a French take on the AppleTV - a '
PommeTV', if you will. The Archos TV+ certainly does a lot; features include multimedia playback (from the internal HDD or network), web-browsing, simple games, internet streaming and podcasts, an integrated tunerless PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and the ability to 'synchronise' content with an Archos portable media player (PMP). Some of its functionality has to be 'unlocked' through the use of plug-ins - which adds a little to the cost. Although it has an HDMI output, the Archos TV+ doesn't support high-definition video.
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Price: £180 (80GB); £250 (250GB). Plug-ins £15 (H.264); £15 (MPEG); £20 (web browser)
More info: Archos
Size: 250x164x37mm
Weight: 1294g
Multimedia playback: From hard drive or uPnP network
Hard drive: 80GB or 250GB versions available (80GB - up to 100 movies, 800,000 photos or 45,000 songs)
PVR: Personal video recording (PVR) with your existing set-top box
Internet: TV web-browsing (Flash and Javascript supported) with optional plug-in
Online content: Yes, including on-line movie rentals
Connections: Wi-Fi (802.11g) and wired Ethernet, HDMI and Dolby Digital-compatible coaxial digital audio outputs, composite/S-video/component/RGB Scart and stereo audio analogue input/output
Formats: Compatible with DivX/XviD/WMV (video), MP3/WMA/WAV (audio) and JPEG/BMP/PNG (photos), plus H.264 and MPEG support with optional plug-ins
Other features: Support for simple games, calendars, calculators and other 'widgets'
Plus points:
Sound and vision quality can be good; good-looking EPG, dedicated online content
Minus points:
Usability and bugs need attention, charge for EPG after first year, plug-ins should be included as standard
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The TV+ is essentially one of Archos's highly-regarded Generation-5 PMPs with its screen lopped off, a DVRstation (AV connectivity) plus Ethernet welded on and some additional software added. Great in theory - but in practice, the result is something of a limon. Ease of use could certainly be improved for one thing; the small but exceptionally-busy handset doesn't belong to a product that's been designed primarily for AV use, but that's just part of a woefully inconsistent user interface, which uses several disciplines.
Some functions require the 'joypad', which moves a pointer around the screen. Others use the navigation button, which basically steps through lists. The remote's tiny keyboard probably won't bother those used to getting their email through a BlackBerry, but it can be tricky if you're more accustomed to standard-size keyboards. You can send emails with the TV+ incidentally, so long as you've bought the Opera browser-plug-in needed for webmail (or any other website for that matter) and are happy to view websites designed for full-screen PC desktops on a TV set.
Criticisms can also be levelled at the device's multimedia playback capabilities. Your photos, video and music can either be on the TV+'s internal hard drive or a network - it supports uPnP PC media servers, including Windows Media Connect and many NAS drives. For a start, you'll only get MPEG support (digital TV, DVD) and H.264 (podcasts and internet streams) if you buy the appropriate plug-ins. To get files into the player, you have to physically transport the device to your PC and plug it into a USB port. But given that the TV+ has both Ethernet and Wi-Fi - both of which are easy to get going - why can't you transfer files via the network?
If video content is played off the hard drive, you can visually-search in either direction. But this is impossible, even with the same file, if it's being streamed over a network. The TV+ does a bad job of scaling video to fit the screen. There are four display modes, but none are particularly effective even if you have specified the correct aspect ratio for your TV. Either the picture is surrounded by a border, or it's cropped. This aside however, picture and sound quality are both very good indeed. Sadly, some files wouldn't play - and indeed shut the TV+ down, its green front-panel LED winking in defeat.
Online
Currently, there's little online content, although Archos told us that it hopes to support internet radio, iPlayer and 4oD soon. What's offered is vaguely AppleTV-like; you can rent movies, for £2.99 a pop, from the Vizumi portal. Then there's YouTube-like user-generated content from DailyMotion, an Archos accessory store, and clips from satellite channel Euronews. Using ArchosLink, a free Windows application, you can subscribe to a selection of podcasts. Presently, though, the choice available to TV+ users won't give Apple any sleepless nights.
Low-bitrate content (like Euronews) may look okay in a PC window, but blown up to TV magnitudes the resulting quality would make a cameraphone wince with embarrassment. Euronews kept me waiting for five minutes before I was even given an opportunity to select clips - with the aforementioned cumbersome 'mouse/pointer' arrangement. TV viewers expect instant push-button or 'list' access to clips and programmes. This would be possible with the TV+ were Archos' content-partners to standardise on page layout.
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Finally, we have the PVR. There's no on-board tuner, and so your own set-top box is essential. Many varieties are catered for, including my Sky Digibox and Thomson Freeview receiver. It connects to the TV+ via a Scart adaptor - the alternatives are component, composite and S-video. But you're forced to choose the same connectivity for the output if you want sound and vision from the set-top box when the TV+ is in standby - which rules out HDMI. The TV+ takes control of your set-top box via an infrared emitter that is - foolishly - built into the unit itself, thereby restricting the positioning of your equipment.
Channels are selected for recording and viewing by means of a pleasantly-designed EPG, which is sourced from tvtv and needs a subscription if you choose to use it beyond the first 'free' year. Before you get this far, some awkward manual configuration is needed. But it shouldn't be like this; the system is location-aware because your postcode is specified during registration, and TV+ should thus know what TV services are available in your area! Recording quality is fair, although Archos insists in using the obsolete ADPCM codec (rather than MP3) for audio.
I get the impression that the TV+ was rushed to market - any decent beta-testing phase would have identified its many obvious eccentricities. Which is a pity, because the underlying concept is interesting. Its obvious competitor - the AppleTV - may not have the TV+'s on-board DVR, connectivity or format compatibility, but it supports 720p hi-def and is much easier to 'drive'. 
