Beyonwiz DP-S1 personal video recorder - REVIEW

by Adam Turner

Monday, 21 May 2007

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Disappointingly the slideshow option is also very rough around the edges. You can vary the speed between 1 and 60 seconds per image, but you can't have any background music. While the next image is loading the screen goes blank for up to 10 seconds and you're faced with an ugly "Loading..." message. It also refused to display portrait pictures, but we suspect this is because the player was trying to automatically rotate them to landscape which it obviously can't do yet.

Patchy format support and a dearth of advanced features means the Beyonwiz's media player is rather disappointing, although it still does the job. While the Apple TV may offer less features and connectivity, it's certainly a more elegant solution than this player.

The biggest disappointment is that you can't copy between the Beyonwiz and other devices on your network. We were prepared to overlook the lack of DVD burning in return for this feature, but it won't be enabled until an upcoming firmware update, which will hopefully also address many of the media player's other shortcomings. Beyonwiz's Australian distributor assures us this firmware update is due by the end of June.

We're also hoping for a built-in HTTP and/or FTP server, as with Topfield's wireless-enabled TF6000PVRt, but there's no sign of anything like that at this stage. You can't even connect the player to a PC via USB for file transfers, and it's looks unlikely Beyonwiz intends to enable this considering it only features USB Type A connectors.

Beyonwiz's DP-S1 personal video recorder is an unfinished masterpiece. The company's Topfield heritage means it's built an excellent personal video recorder, but the media player features lack polish and the file-sharing features are a work in progress. The upcoming firmware update may resolve many of these problems but, even with the Beyonwiz's amazing potential, it's a big leap of faith to spend so much on a device before it delivers the goods. If you're primarily after a PVR the Beyonwiz won't disappoint, but we're reserving our final judgement until Beyonwiz delivers on all of its promises.

UPDATE: Beyonwiz DP-S1 firmware update short on new features

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