A couple of days ago I brought you my written review of the Seagate portable hard drives in the GoFlex range. It seems many of you liked my writing style, so thanks for the positive feedback. I also mentioned in that review that Seagate had developed this new GoFlex system which allows their devices to work together. The GoFlex TV is just one of those devices that I was lucky enough to test.
If you are familiar with myself and what I love, you will know I am an Apple fanboy. Owning the likes of an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac Pro and Apple TV speaks for itself. That last mention there, of the Apple TV, is exactly what the GoFlex TV aims itself at, directly! Opening up the unit presents you with a very nice looking box of tricks, all the cables you need and good instructions. The unit feels very well made and sports composite, component and HDMI outputs. As you can guess, I went with the highest quality HDMI straight to my TV. You can run the audio through an optical output or indeed through the HDMI along the same cable as the picture.
There is also an ethernet network connection for streaming content. I was up and running with that one in a few minutes. Plus you will find a USB connection for flash drives and external hard drives. The last type of connection is a door that opens, into which you can slide the GoFlex Ultra-portable hard drive (that I reviewed a couple of days back). From the hard drive or flash drive you connect it is possible to play back a whole host of formats (listed below) in up to 1080P HD resolution.
Formats Supported
MPEG–1, MPEG–2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG–4 (Xvid), DivX Plus™ HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB Real Media, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC–1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T
Picture quality is very good indeed, very detailed and smooth. Sound is equally impressive, so nowt to disappoint there either. I suppose my only disappointment was that the menu, although pretty, is still quite sluggish. I have experienced this with other media players (not the Apple TV) and I think that many manufacturers neglect the performance to combat manufacturing costs. It is not abysmal, but could just be a bit more responsive.
The icing on the cake is online services… you get Netflix (US only), YouTube, Paramount, Mediafly and Flickr to name just a few. They all work well and serve up added value to an already keenly priced piece of kit.
Would I buy one? At the asking price yes, if I didn't already have internet in my TV and streaming to my PS3. Even though I have what I personally need in terms of streaming content, the GoFlex TV certainly is a very neat solution and is well worth checking out.
Product: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV
Supplied by: Seagate
Price: Expect to pay around £70