Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV HD Media Player Review

Setting Up the Seagate GoFlex TV

Set up for the Seagate GoFlex TV is as easy as taking it out of the box and plugging it in. Seagate provides a Composite and Component Audio/Video Cables, an Ethernet Cable, AC Power Adapter, an Installation CD (including Seagate Media software for Windows and Mac OS), a Remote Control wither two AAA batteries. Notably missing from this bundle was an HDMI cable.

Seagate was kind enough to send along a 500GB GoFlex drive that we could experiment with for this review. We can see from the picture below that the newer hard drive is slightly smaller than the older FreeAgent HDD (on right). You can also purchase a wireless adapter to make the GoFlex system wirelessly connect to your home network.

We mentioned earlier that the GoFlex TV media player is based on the Realtek 1073DD chipset. This chip runs at 400MHz and has the exact same stats as the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+. Nothing really surprising or new here as the chip supports a number of different multimedia files and has support for 10/100 Fast Ethernet supporting up to 100Mbit/s. We would have loved to see Gigabit network speeds supported, but truthfully, we have never needed that kind of speed in a set-top media box. The 1073DD chip also supports HDMI 1.3 as well as eSATA and Wireless-N WiFi. All in all a pretty robust chipset used in a number of media players. Even compared to the equally popular Sigma 8654 which runs slightly faster (500MHz) in players such as the Western Digital WDTV Live Plus, the Realtek 1073 is probably our favorite chipset because of the near flawless compatibility with files and codecs.

On the outside of the GoFlex, we see a perfect model of simplicity. Unlike other players and electronic devices, Seagate has chosen the minimalist approach and not include a display screen, nor control buttons anywhere on the unit. They instead rely on the users remote control to control the action via the graphic user interface. For most, this is not a problem at all, but for those who like to walk up to their home theater devices and control the action, this might be a major problem. If you have small kids or animals who like to hide the remote control from you, it might be a problem as well!

The GoFlex has onlyl a media player door and Status LED on the front. When you arent using a FreeeAgent GoFlex Drive, you simply close the door and go about your business. The LED is a multi color LED letting you know if an external drive is being accessed or that the media player has received a command.

On the right side, there is a USB port and Reset Button. You need to use a small pin or paperclip to activate the Reset button so dont worry about mistakenly rubbing against it or even setting the unit on its side for storage.

Over on the back youll find most of the goodies: Next to the Power plug, there is an AV Out connector, Component Video plug, Optical/Toslink out, HDMI, LAN, and another USB connector.

The remote is the same exact remote from the earlier Seagate FreeAgent Theater +. The half sized remote has 21 buttons on it. The remote has a Power Button, Navigation and Confirmation keys, and a Back button to help navigate around the GoFlexs GUI.

Seagate has provided everything you need to get up and running in a very short time. It literally took us three minutes to open the box, connect the unit to the HDMI on our receiver and see the Seagate splash screen.
Configuration of the unit included setting the clock, and..well, thats it. The GoFlex was already configured to display 1080p and audio over HDMI. Very nice.

Now let’s get to how the GoFlex TV actually performed!