After updating to the latest firmware this is the screen we were met with. This uses a simple cyclic menu with 5 different options; Video, Music, Apps, Photo and Setup.
We started with the System menu, and as you can see this uses a cyclic pattern as well, with the current page always being listed first. Each page has all the options you would expect, with System and Audio having more options available below. The pages didn't seem that quick to load and there was an obvious lag between pressing the button and the next page loading.
We then went back to the main menu and selected Apps to see what came pre-installed. There are several key ones to note, Youtube, Facebook, Picasa, Web Browser and ‘3rd Party Apps' which will allow access to lots more apps after registration with Eminent.
Loading up the Youtube app gave us plenty of options, with spotlight videos, top rated, most viewed etc. The navigation around this app was fairly simple, and videos played nearly instantaneously. You do however have to press the ‘Zoom' button at the bottom of the remote to get the videos to play in fullscreen mode however. The videos were also being played at what seemed to be the highest quality available, and we were quite impressed.
Clicking on a video link opens it up in a small window, just like that of the online version. The quality is certainly a bit grainy but we found this to be the video, more often than not.
Going back to the main menu and loading up ‘Photo' gave us three options. It is a shame they didn't add an overall gallery/library as this means you have to find the right folder each time you want to look at some pictures.
Opening up ‘HDD' presented us with the internal file system of the Eminent HD 7280 Media Player. Once you have found a photo you want to view, you can click to open.
Each of these pages has the ‘operation' option which allows a few different view options to be selected.
The ‘Movie' page is much the same as the ‘Photo' and still unfortunately doesn't have a library. This means it might take you a while to find the film you want.
After searching through the network we were able to play an ISO directly off our computer and it loaded nearly instantly. In fact, quicker than the menu system.
The ‘Music' menu is slightly different, but only with regards to the thumbnails.
Nice looking device, but its quite costly and I think they might have a hard time against AC RYan who seem to dominate this market. shame about the processing power on the interface, but it might be code issues, rather than weak hardware. why no shot of insides?
£200 is a bit steep, no? The Veolo looks much nicer, and its cheaper. no hard drive, but its a network device, no real need for that IMO