Review: Evesham iplayer - Freeview PVR, network media player & more

by Bob Crabtree on 22 February 2007, 04:57

Final thoughts, links & HEXUS.right2reply

We typically begin the final page of a HEXUS.lifestyle review's final-thoughts page with an at-a-glance summary that lets readers easily see the pros and cons of the product under consideration.

But we're making an exception for the iplayer.

That's because we struggled to find anything to put into the Pros section and also didn't have the willpower to list out once again all the iplayer's many failings.

We may feel differently a week or three down the line but don't bet on it because the iplayer has been one of the biggest disappointments of any product we've gone hands on with over the last 10 years.

Like most of the journos who left Evesham's November 2006 press briefing with an iplayer tucked under their arms, we really did believe we'd have the opportunity to write a glowing review of a ground-breaking product.

Instead, what we discovered is that iplayer wasn't fit for sale during the first two months of its life and still hasn't reached a stage where it does many of the things claimed for it in anything approaching a quality way.

We've long harboured doubts about what would happen as the buggy world of computer technology met the "it must work out of the box" world of consumer electronics and iplayer brings our worst fears to life.

The Evesham iplayer is not suitable for use by ordinary human beings and nowhere on Evesham or LOW sites are you told the truth - that this is in fact a half-complete, over-priced, techie-toy aimed at highly-computer-literate geeks who enjoy a never-ending challenge.

Quite possibly, in six months time, Netgem will have wrought a huge series of changes via software upgrades that will make iplayer something approaching to fit for sale - and we've been told by owners of earlier Netgem products that massive improvements have been carried out this way.

But, sadly, we can't help thinking that iplayer will turn out to be a dead end and that the only people who'll get anything like value for money from it will be those who pick it up for fifty quid after it's been consigned to the specials bin having gone end of line.

Thoughts? Share them with us in the HEXUS.community.

HEXUS.links

HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this article

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LOW - iplayer buying page

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Things to test: formats - can it play Xvid, Divx, wmv, mpeg 1 & 2, mp4s from iTunes, mov, realplayer video. Can it handle HD videos like the HD trailers? What audio formats: only mp3, or does it handle things like flac (Ok, maybe that's asking too much of it, I know).
If you're prepared to void the warranty, how easy is it to upgrade the hard disc yourself?
Compare the upscaler to the one built-in to whatever TV you use to test it. Could do this by ripping a DVD to computer and then comparing the picture from a good-quality non-upscaling DVD player to that produced when you play back the same mpeg2 upscaled from the computer.

looks nice, would be great if you could find out if files recorded with this device will be accessible on the pc (for editing etc), and if you can add extra HD space (i.e through a usb HD)

At the moment i'm thinking of buying an Xbox360 to act as the media terminal in my living room, but this looks like it could be another option - especially as it has an internet browser

Cant see it playing Mp4 from iTunes due to the licencing thing…

On the downside, the unit isn't cheap - £300 - and has an 80GB built-in hard-disk. That's said to be good for 70 hours of recordings but is rather smaller than we'd like.

Defeinately.

I would accept an 80Gb drive on a budget PVR box that might only get used for live pause and the odd time shifted soap. On an high end box the minimum should be 160Gb. Seeing as how cheap hard drives are these dayse, and this is supposed to support HD content, It ought to have 300Gb or more like Sky's curent HD box.

'[GSV
Trig;923739']Cant see it playing Mp4 from iTunes due to the licencing thing…

Bleh, you're right of course, wasn't thinking. But it would be interesting to know if it could handle self-made mp4s formatted for the iPod (h.264 simple profile).