The Best Choice Right Now in a Relatively New and Limited Field
Written: Aug 17 '09 (Updated Aug 17 '09)
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Pros: Extremely small, low price, highly compatible, many output choices, 720p HD
Cons: Some file format incompatibilities, clunky user interface, flimsy remote, 1080i HD (not 1080p)
The Bottom Line: The best choice out there for getting digital entertainment media off your drive and into your living room.
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| mithril's Full Review: Argosy HV675 MediaPlay (512 MB) Digital Media Play... |
What is it?
The Argosy HV675 MediaPlay is NOT a portable mp3player. It is NOT battery-powered. It does NOT have a headphone jack.
Then what is it? The Argosy HV675 MediaPlay is an amazing little black box without a single button that is about the size of two packs of cigarettes (and a bit thinner and lighter!). The MediaPlay helps you watch movies, listen to music, or look at photos. It does this by allowing you to plug in any USB-based media with FAT-32 or NTFS format (like an external hard drive or a USB flash drive that works with your Windows-based PC or laptop) and then will play the media files on it (photos, dvd movies, mp3's, etc.) back on whatever other devices you have hooked up to the MediaPlay. And you can hook up almost anything to the MediaPlay as it has built-in outputs (and comes with proprietary cables) that work will send High Definition output and HiFi sound to most televisions and stereo equipment.
Argosy used to package their media player software inside a standalone hard drive. In producing the HV675, they have uncoupled the interface from the storage so that you can use any FAT-32 or NTFS format external USB device or devices as input sources for media files.
Outputs Galore
The Argosy MediaPlay comes with proprietary cables that can hook up output to your television's component video or composite RCA jacks and to your home theater/home stereo via the composite RCA output. It even has digital audio out and an HDMI output for pure digital HD playback on HD televisions, up-converting all video signals to 720p or 1080i. You must purchase the digital cables for digital audio and HDMI yourself as they are not included.
How does it work?
The Argosy comes with a power brick that plugs into the wall (a blue light will come on the Argosy when it is plugged in) and the power adapter is almost bigger than the Argosy itself! Plug in any FAT-32 or NTFS external USB drive with media files, connect the Argosy outputs to a tv and/or audio receiver, turn on your television or stereo, select the media files to play and this device produces HD playback for amazing sound and vision. I use this for HD television and music playback on a home stereo and am extremely pleased with the quality of the sound and video.
File Formats
All of the media players out there have some limitations in terms of the files they support for playback. Having tried (and returned) the Western Digital Media Player because it was incapable of playing DVD files seamlessly (it made you pick each VOB file directly!), I was so very pleased to find that when you playback a DVD file directory on the Argosy it brings up the DVD menu EXACTLY as if you are playing the DVD. Argosy seems to offer the best file support.
The player comes with Windows-compatible software that will convert unsupported file formats to formats supported by the player but in the year I have owned this item I have never used the software so can't comment on it.
According to Argosy's website, the MediaPlay is compatible (and thus, will play) the following file formats:
Media Type: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Xvid, JPEG, MP3, WAV
File Extension: dat, mpg, mpe, mpeg, vob, m2p, avi, xvid, jpg, jpe, jpeg, mp3, wav
DVD Folder: DVD Menu/Audio/Subtitle/Angle Selection
Xvid Subtitle Format: IDX / SUB, SRT, SSA, SUB (type II), SMI, PSB
Don't Lose the Remote
The Argosy MediaPlay, like the Western Digital Media Player it competes with, has no buttons on it and all functions are solely accessible through the small remote. Don't lose the remote or break it or the device is useless.
The remote is limited in range and must be pointed directly at the player's front end or will not register. This can be frustrating and it all feels a bit cheaper than it could be but I have not yet had the remote break or stop working altogether.
Ugly User Interface
The one grave downside of Argosy's player is the ugly user interface. When you turn on your television and point it to the input connected to the Argosy, you get a blue screen with graphics that then give a very DOS-like directory structure. You have to click on the directory you want to get to the files you want to play.
Playback of the first file found in any folder is automatic and this can be a good thing or a drag. For DVD directories, it means good things: the DVD menu begins to play automatically as if you had inserted a DVD. For music, that means that the first song in the directory begins playing even if you didn't want it to. There does not seem to be a way to turn this feature off.
The setup interface is likewise clunky and uninspired but fully functional. This is in direct contrast to the lovely (if somewhat slow) graphical user interface of the Western Digital device that may be configured to show thumbnails of all files. If the Argosy, with its vastly superior playback compatibility and output jacks had a better interface, it would blow Western Digital completely out of the water.
Built-in Slideshows
With its built-in slideshows of any directory with photos (the Argosy even allows you to play back music at the same time), the Argosy MediaPlay turns any television into a digital picture frame. I have two of these devices doing just that in the homes of elderly relatives -- I scanned in all their photos and have this device showing them on their television to both reduce clutter of all those pictures in their houses and to give them larger images to view of the pix on television instead of on their wall or in a small digital picture frame.
All You Own on the Road
The Argosy MediaPlay, hooked up to a large portable hard drive containing DVDs and/or music and/or pictures, can connect to pretty much any television out there and allow you to very easily take all your digital entertainment with you for playback in your living room, hotel room, or vacation home. You can swap out and connect whatever USB devices you want. For example, I use different external USB hard drives to hold movies, pictures, and music. They are powered by the USB port on the Argosy so I don't even need a power cord for the drives! When I want to listen to music, I plug the music drive into the Argosy. I swap it out for the movie drive when I want to watch movies. You can only plug one device into the Argosy at one time.
Won't Break the Bank
Despite imperfections, you are not paying a very high price for the MediaPlay, and last I looked it was almost $50 less than the Western Digital option. I paid $59 with a $10 rebate from an online retailer and even $80 would not be too much for this equipment.
Highly Recommended With The Understanding This Field is Evolving
I highly recommend the Argosy HV675 MediaPlay but with the caveat that this field is evolving and your mileage may vary. If you only play youtube videos, then you will have to convert them to another format as this can't natively play them. If you mostly play xvid or dvd format movies, this is the player for you. Similarly, photo and music playback are flawless and simple. The Argosy MediaPlay will get your digital entertainment files off your computer and into your living room.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 59
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
mithril
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Location: Hollywood, FL USA
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
I was raised a 20th century American consumer.
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