TechoLiO
A plethora of all things technical.

Video

Playback

Two encoded samples come with it, and both are not great quality (I confirmed this by trying them on my computer). When I figure out how to make a really good sample off a dvd I can say more.

One thing I notice is the interlace flicker when things move. The screen is apparently interlaced, but turned so the lines of interlace are vertical (does that make sense?). It's not too bad and actually maybe noticeable because it is vertical.

What encoder formats work? Check out the chart, I'll fill it in as users report what works.

Recording

Like a vcr, you can record tv by using the composite video/stereo audio cable. All you do right now is set the quality to low medium or high in the main setup. You can't change this in the menu to start recording, which is a pain.

Until you start recording, you can't see the video. It would be nice if they change it so you could be in monitor mode. You can start record and press pause to do that though.

I tried a quick test in medium and high settings, viewing the playback on my TV. Playback is done with that switch on the bottom, it shuts off the lcd and tv has the output. The interface is really nice and clear, and makes me wonder why they didn't think of a remote control option! And also why not an s-video output? Oh well.

Playback of high seemed smooth and looked like vhs quality with some noise on the TV. Medium however got jerky, and I don't know if that's in the recording or the playback (will test and find out). But at one point I tried to fast-reverse (which is buggy anyway) and the unit hung, had to use the reset button (a very tiny hole in the bottom). The color was a little soft, and there is no way to adjust the recording or playback levels... yet.

Overall it looks like the high setting would be ok for normal TV sets and medium if watching on the built in (assuming those glitches are fixed!). It is a shame there is no timer function! It is such an obvious feature, and I don't even see it mentioned as coming soon. All you can do is set how long it will record when manually starting it.

Not acceptable yet

My video source was my vcr cable, so it wasn't very clean. I haven't tried a DVD or clean source yet. Some have reported copy protection will stop DVD recording, so I am curious to try. Anyway, a cleaner source may yield better results.

Since it can't fast forward/rewind very well or adjust any of the picture, and has made me reset the unit, I can't say the video is very useful yet even on the lcd. I think firmware probably will get better for this. Also lacking is inclusion of a way to encode your own computer files to the mpeg-4 that it plays. Not good for joe sixpack!

Pictures

I put some of my own 3 megapixel images on there, and they displayed fine. Fine details made that interlace flicker stand out though. It's too bad they have to interlace the display! I think photos would do a lot better. However they looked ok to me. Again, without much ability other than flipping through them, I had no way to do onscreen color/brite adjustments while viewing, or zoom etc. Even in the main setup menu color/brightness are not implemented!

Somewhat acceptable

Picture mode is ok then, since it does show hi rez scaled down ok. No thumbnails and slow navigation make it a pain to use, but the promise of enhancements should remedy the thumbnails. It is a bit slow in that the disk thrashes when first going into large directories.

Conclusion

I like the potential for this unit. But I say potential because it's like buying beta. I can see that RCA wanted to get the thing finally out and did this. It's a bit nasty that they would have so much missing without telling you on the box. The more I kept it the more that upset me. Nothing really posted from RCA, not much response from the RCA rep on the features. The return level will be the ultimate gauge for RCA I suppose. It seems like a lot of people may be willing to just wait and see though.

As I mentioned, the poor mp3 performance and distortion for quieter music was the biggest stopper for me. If you are not willing to gamble on improvements, wait for software updates before you buy. I did return mine so I won't be able to directly tell you if things get better, but will attempt to reflect feedback from others here. We've got one user that is going to throw in an 80 gig drive, and will have pictures of that when he does.

Email me so I know what to add next that you may be curious about.