Setup
When booting the T1000W, there's a distinct delay before the startup menu is displayed. We've found that restoring the device from standby is near instant, but booting up from a complete power down can take up to two minutes.
At first boot, a setup wizard cycles through a bunch of options to get the T1000W up and running. We've collected a selection of screen-grabs highlighting the T1000W's configuration options.
The System Setup page allows for the user to set time and date - both of which, sadly, aren't automatically updated via the Web - and there's the option to format any installed hard drive, as well as the ability to load new firmware. Once again, firmware upgrades can only be performed via physical media. We found inserting a USB flash drive with the firmware pre-loaded to be the easiest method, but we'd like to see an over-the-air, Web-based firmware upgrade option.
Digital TV is easily configured, but there's no way to manually re-arrange channels - and, more importantly, there's no support for favourites functionality.
The T1000W supports a number of video output resolutions - including 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p and 1080p at 24fps.
What's useful here is the "Light Dimmer" option, allowing for the user to disable the LED-lit Compro Technology logo on the T1000W's front face. Essential if you prefer to do your viewing in a darkened room without distractions.
Whilst setup has been straightforward thus far, we found networking to be a little troublesome. When configured wirelessly, the T1000W supports WEP and WPA security, but we found signal strength to be comparatively poor - a laptop in the same room connected up just fine. In the end, we reverted to tried-and-trusted Cat5.
In general terms, the T1000W is fairly simple to setup, but Compro's menu and interface can often prove to be counterintuitive. For example, text entry via the remote control can be tiresome as Compro's implementation results in each number-key cycling through four characters (i.e. 2, A, B, C). The preferred format would be to have each key cycle through three alphabetic characters, with a prolonged button press providing access to numbers.
Furthermore, the interface itself can feel a little sluggish, and a complete lack of on-screen tool tips/help - coupled with a frankly awful user manual - could result in a steep learning curve for the tech illiterate.
