Evesham releases iPlayer IPTV set-top box
The iPlayer comes in a small densely packed box, containing the iplayer itself along with the remote, RF cable, Scart cable, a long network cable, power cable, quick start instruction sheet and the CD containing the user manual in PDF format and Microsoft's Windows Media Connect software. The lack of HDMI cable is somewhat perplexing given that the high definition output is a major draw-card for this device.
The unit itself comes housed in fairly stylish silver and gray plastic. On the front you'll find three small LED's that indicate power, and data activity. On one side is a slot for a Smartcard and a USB 2.0 socket to allow you connect a portable data source or a USB keyboard. The back of the iplayer is bristling with plugs and sockets, along with the power socket and network port there are two Scart plugs, an HDMI jack RF in and out and an optical SP/DIF socket. For solitary listening the iplayer also has a standard 3.5mm headphone socket at the back.
Recording is about as easy as it get, you can either just skim through the electronic program guide and then just hit the record button for any program you want to record, or you can go into the recording menu to and set up recordings from there, including repeat recordings. When the hard drive fills up there you can just delete old recordings or simply export to a bigger drive on the network. Bear in mind that because there is only one tuner built into the box if something is being recorded the box needs to be on and stay on that channel. You can however use most of the other functions while recording, but things do seem to be a bit slower.
Accessing PCs that are running the connect software, on the network is as simple as selecting them from the menu, then up comes the folders you've chosen to share, and from those you just click the file you want to stream across and it will load in the relevant player. Evesham have included support for the majority of media codecs, so you should find most of the files you have squirreled away will work just fine.
The video output is impressive, especially on a good quality HDTV. Evesham have even thrown in some funky trickery that upscales a standard definition picture to 1080i, which means that even your regular TV looks a bit better. Of course the market for HD content is still very limited, but it coming and Evesham are marketing this device as 'futureproof', in the hopes of catching early adopters as more and more HD content is becoming available.
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