Archos challenges Apple TV

Adam Turner
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 08:13

Your IT - Entertainment

Portable media player giant Archos is venturing into the digital lounge room, announcing a set top box style media player/PVR to challenge both TiVo and the Apple TV's grab for the home entertainment market.

While the Apple TV only plays files through iTunes, the Archos TV Plus is also a TiVo-like Personal Video Recorder able to record television shows using onboard analogue and digital TV tuners. It can also download an Electronic Program Guide to search the week's schedule for your favourite shows.

It also syncs with Archos' range of Portable Media Players, letting you carry recorded TV shows in your pocket. You can also automatically download videos from the internet and transfer them to the player, with Archos unveiling a new range of Portable Media Players featuring flash video and YouTube support.

The Archos TV Plus sports an internal hard disk drive, up to 250GB, along with USB2.0, wifi and Ethernet ports - letting you download from the internet and play files stored on other devices around the home. The player links to your television via HDMI or RGB component outputs, offering high definition 720p video. Supported video formats including MPEG2 and Real Video.

Other features include a web browser, an SD memory card slot and a remote control featuring an integrated keyboard. The Archos TV Plus is expected to sell for between $US220 and $US300.