Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV HD Media Player Review
GoFlex TV Versus Apple TV Versus the World!
We really didnt know what to expect from this 3rd-Generation media player from Seagate, but the FreeAgent GoFlex TV performed above our expectations. Even though this player is based on a chipset that is a year old (as are most HD Media Players on the market), the GoFlex TV was actually faster and snappier than its older brother, the FreeAgent Theater+. We have to give it up to the Seagate programmers for making a firmware that unleashes more speed. Browsing through long files is not a big of a hassle as it once used to be. When you compare this incarnation of the Realtek chipset to that of the popular Sigma, the Realtek with Seagate firmware comes out on top.
Having done a number of hands-on reviews on a variety of set-top boxes, I am constantly asked which media player I think is the best on the market. My answer has been consistent, It depends. It really depends on what the user is looking for. With all the various form factors, features and amenities that hardware developers keep throwing at us, we can get lost in all the bells and whistles and forget why we picked up the box in the first place to play our files.
The GoFlex has an incredible feature set that included Netflix and YouTube streaming. I have never been a true fan of Netflix, but I have to admit, unlimited streaming of movies for $9.99 a month isnt bad. I really wish the quality of streamed video from Netflix was better though. In our tests of the Seagate GoFlex TV, the Netflix picture quality was outdone by our tried and true PlayStation 3 gaming console even though command response for searching and selecting movies was equally as fast as the Western Digital Live Plus that we tested recently.
When we went online to check out how YouTube looked we were very disappointed. Even on “high quality” the videos were extremely hard to watch from a picture quality perspective.
Of course there are those that will be perfectly fine with how the YouTube videos of their grand kids look, so including this feature is a good thing for Seagate. We were hoping for a debut for the player from either Pandora or Slacker. I would love to use one of these media servers to tune into a ‘genre station’.
The pink elephant in the room for Seagate is its unique fitting hard drive. Being able to transport media on a fast portable drive is an excellent idea. Locking a user into a particular form factor isnt the best thing. Even though you can use virtually any external USB drive with the GoFlex TV, its more than clunky when you have extra wires and dongles all over the place. We found the GoFlex Hard Drive to under-perform as a stand-alone USB 3.0 hard drive. I believe Seagate has priced these drives pretty competitively – the 500GB drive we had retails for $119 which makes its price well aligned to others on the market. However, if you want to use the drive in all of its “Flex” modes you need additional cables or kits to ‘convert’ the drive. These cables cost anywhere from $20 – $40.
The Seagate FreeAgent Theater and 2nd-Gen Theater+ was unique and original it was a very nice all-in-one package based on the Realtek 1073 chipset that could play almost any multimedia file. With the GoFlex TV, Seagate is trying to keep the momentum with a truly solid player and worthy successor to the Theater+. Time will tell how well the GoFlex form factor will take off and if the GoFlex TV will suffer or thrive as a result.
The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB 2.0 HD Media Player can be found online for $109.99 at Newegg and that is for the bare player itself. You can pick up Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex hard drives in 320GB, 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities for $69.99, $89.99, $109.99 and $139.99, respectively. As you can see you’ll be close to $200 into the media player if you want to add storage to it right away.
For those looking to purchase their first media player and arent ‘locked into’ a form factor, you need to take a close look at one of the best media players on the market – the Seagate GoFlex TV.
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