The Archos TV+ is the first media extender since the Apple TV to attempt to be both useful and user-friendly, and it achieves mixed results. The problems with most media extenders—devices designed to get content from your PC to your TV, often wirelessly—have so far been easy to pinpoint: They are hard to set up, and they don't always work very well. The Apple TV is an exception, but it's also limited in its abilities (even with the new updates, file support is still restricted to iTunes-friendly videos). The Archos TV+ has far more features than the Apple TV—an Internet browser and a DVR for recording TV, for instance—but its user interface, which will be familiar to Archos users, is outdated and not much fun to navigate. Also, without purchasing plug-ins for extra video and audio codec support, the TV+ has limited file support regardless of whether it is streaming or playing a file downloaded to its hard drive. The $350 TV+ is definitely innovative, however, since it combines the functions of a DVR and media extender, and has 250 gigabytes of storage to boot (or 80GB, in the $250 version). It may not be as graceful as the Apple TV, but it works, and it offers more features.

The physical design here is pretty similar to the Apple TV's—a flat box with some connections on the rear panel (stereo audio RCA in and out; composite, S-Video, component video ins and outs; HDMI-out; Ethernet) and USB A and B jacks on the side. The box is powered by a 12-volt adaptor, and has no buttons—all operation is done via the IR remote, which features a full QWERTY keypad, a nine-point mouse, and navigation buttons (it is the anti-Apple remote), and yet manages be lightweight and to work quite well. It's easy to enter information into a search field on the Web browser, for instance. The mouse may be a tad slow and limited in its direction, but it gets the job done. The remote is a crude replacement for an actual keyboard and mouse, however, making the Internet browser (Opera) seem more a reference tool for occasionally checking e-mail or news on your TV and less an easy-to-operate feature you'll likely use often.

Easily the best feature of the TV+ is its integrated DVR function. Archos users may be familiar with the DVR functionality—formerly only available in the form of a dock for portable media players like the Archos 605 WiFi. Once you have provided information about your particular cable box to Archos, via your account on the company's Web site, the TV+ should be ready to record shows. (NOTE: We use Dish Network in the PC Mag Labs, which requires a free plug-in from Archos—the downloading and installation of which was a quick, though slightly confusing, process.) Programming is a snap—Archos provides a guide to the week's shows on all available channels, and you just select an upcoming show and follow simple steps to schedule recording. It's also quite easy to copy a recorded file from the TV+ to another Archos player, or to a thumb drive or laptop, via the USB connection. Once a device is connected via USB, the TV+ goes into split-screen mode, showing all available files on both devices. Selecting a file and choosing Copy after pressing the menu button will transfer a file to the other hard drive, so it's simple to record a show on Monday night, transfer it, and watch it on, say, your Archos 605 the next morning on the train to work.

The Archos TV+, however, had problems displaying the correct aspect ratio on my television. Theoretically, when playing video over the device's HDMI port, the TV+ should automatically choose the correct ratio for you. Unfortunately, at 576p, the highest resolution the TV+ offers at an aspect ratio of 16:9, the picture did not fill my widescreen set. Of course, this resolution is technically standard definition, not HD video. Even so, it's an annoying problem, especially with an HDMI output, the connection of choice for carrying an HD signal. We are awaiting a response concerning the aspect ratio, and the company claims to be developing a 720p plug-in for the TV+, but there's no word on when that will be available. Until then, the HDMI connection is not living up to its HD potential.

Wireless streaming from a computer on your network is fairly seamless. The main issues users will run into here are file support and navigation of the user interface. The TV+ just doesn't support that many file types—only MPEG-4 and WMV, in fact—until it's been enhanced with plug-ins that cost extra. If you want to watch H.264 (popular for video podcasts) or MPEG-2 files, for instance, you'll need to purchase separate plug-ins for both, at $20 a piece. Again, given the inclusion of an HDMI output, the lack of WMV HD support is a surprising disappointment. (For kicks, I tried several different resolutions and sizes, but always got the same "this file is too big" error message, whether streaming or playing off the hard drive.) The new Apple TV update supports HD, so Apple, though also limited in file support, has the edge here.

Audio support is limited to MP3 (all bit rates, including VBR), WMA, and WAV, unless you buy plug-ins to accommodate AAC and AC3 files. As with most Archos devices, finding and playing a single file is usually a slow process involving many submenus, and this can get old pretty quick. Once a supported file is streaming, however, the quality is excellent. I rarely observed any stuttering on video or audio streams, and the few hiccups that happened were caused by me fiddling with the volume.

The TV+'s Content Portal feature is, in my opinion, a bit limited. CinemaNow is Archos's movie provider, and you have to have a CinemaNow account to download movies. This is not unlike iPods/the Apple TV requiring users to have iTunes accounts, but navigating the iTunes Store is a much easier, faster experience than choosing movies from CinemaNow's site. The Content Portal also has access to the Archos Store, EuroNews (which offers film shorts with YouTube-esque resolution—not beautiful on a large television), and Daily Motion. (Daily Motion is Web video site, à la You Tube, which in addition to traditional Web video fare, has several shocking options readily available under the "Popular" tab— "Rich Girl Tied Up," for example. NSFW, and definitely not safe for the kids.)

To stream content from a PC that is connected to the same Wi-Fi network, users must follow a quick set-up process in Windows Media Player on the PC—essentially telling the computer to allow the TV+ to stream its shared files. Music and video playback are virtually identical to the Archos 605's playback. The user interface also resembles that of the 605—it's a bit outdated, in other words—but the actual video playback is excellent, and as always, there are useful adjustable settings, like EQ.

Basically, the TV+ is a large, stationary Archos PMP, but with a remote and a built-in DVR. That's pretty much what Apple TV is, as well: a big, immobile iPod. So in a head-to-head who wins? Well, if your entire music and movie collection is rooted in iTunes, Apple TV is pretty much the only media extender for you. Of course, you will have no Internet browser or DVR capabilities, but with the inclusion of the former on the iPod touch and the iPhone, it's possible that may change some day. Also, with the exclusion of the recording from any Apple product (they want you to buy and rent, not record), it's something you're no doubt used to by now.

As for the rest of you—the cable TV fiends with too many demands on your time to be home at 8 p.m. every Wednesday, the Windows Media Player users who want to free their music from their PC wirelessly—the TV+ is actually a great option. It certainly takes some effort to set up, and extra money to customize with plug-ins you may want, but the bottom line is: It works. Is it always a seamless process? No. Is there HD support? Not yet. Is the user interface a bit annoying? Yes. Is there another DVR-media extender combo on the market that could be described as reliable? No. So, get over the drawbacks and embrace a feature set that Apple fanboys can only dream of.

For tech support, visit: http://www.archos.com/support/support_tech/index.html

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