![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , December 26, 2011
- Author:
- Steve Lynch
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Pivos AIOS HD Media Player Review
HardOCP readers have been building and placing PCs in their living rooms for many years now to serve up entertainment media. Manufacturers have been trying to push into this market for some time now with some success. Today we see a new media unit from Pivos and see how it works out.
The AIOS remote is a rather generic looking unit with an odd design that is borderline frustrating to use. Looking at the photo below and you will see that, for a media player remote, this thing is poorly laid out. For reasons unknown to me, the fast forward, rewind, next / previous buttons are located in the upper portion of the remote while the play / pause and stop buttons are at the bottom.
Complicating matters further, the AIOS remote doesn't have back lit buttons so using it while watching a movie at night is a bit of a chore as well. The multi-function, color coded buttons at the base of the remote that aren't labeled have different features depending on the application you are using. The red button pops up a file list menu and the green button lists file options like copy, rename, move, and delete. The yellow and blue buttons are for cover art and poster mode but, depending on firmware version you have, they do / do not work. (More on that later.)
Inside the AIOS:
As stated earlier, the AIOS is built from high quality material and very well constructed. For the purpose of this review, we have taken the AIOS apart to show you what's inside. Obviously disassembling the unit voids your warranty and we do not recommend doing so.
The process is pretty straight forward, after removing the hard drive tray, simply remove the seven screws located in the back of the unit and slide the case off . Remove the SATA adapter and the spring mechanism and handful of mainboard screws and that's it, the AIOS is disassembled.
What you'll find inside the AIOS is your standard Realtek RTD1185DD, a 2GB Hynix memory chip and two Nanya DDR2 800 BGA chips. The good thing is that this is the same basic hardware configuration used in many other HD media players (A.C. Ryan PlayOn! Mini 2, Kaiboer K360i, IconBIT XDA100GL, etc.). The Realtek RTD1185DD is a highly integrated system on a chip with a rather impressive spec list:
CPU: 500MHz
HD MPEG 1/2/4 & HD JPEG Decoder
HD H.264, VC1, RM/RMVB, AVS Decoder
AV Streaming/Transmission via Ethernet & WiFi
TV Encoder with CVBS/S-Video/YPbPr/SCART Out
HDMI v1.3 with CEC
I2S, SPDIF Out
USB2.0 Host & PHY
USB2.0 Device & PHY
SATA
10/100 Ethernet MAC & PHY
Gigabit Ethernet MAC
PCI-Express
Card Reader (SD/MMC)
DTV Recording & Time-Shifting
The use of industry standard hardware like the Realtek RTD1185DD means that the AIOS has the all the hardware capabilities it needs to power a great HD media player, it is up to the company to take full advantage of that hardware. Quite simply, the hardware is there, so it is the software that will make or break a product like this.
While we are on the subject of software, let's take a look at the AIOS user interface. Setting up the AIOS is a relatively painless process. Connect the unit to your TV, plug in the power cord and network cable and power it up.
After a brief loading screen the bright yellow home screen pops up displaying two groups of generic white icons. The icons in the middle of the screen indicate which peripheral is plugged in to the AIOS (black for on / white for off). From left to right, we have wired networking, WiFi, USB, HDD, SD card slot, HDMI and sound.
The row of larger white icons down the left hand side of your screen are, from top to bottom: File manager, video, music, photos, apps, browser, bookmark and setup. Selecting the set-up icon brings up the options menu where you can adjust system, video, audio, network and other system settings.
The initial impression of the AIOS user interface is "amateurish." The icons are low res, small and look remarkably similar to other company's logos (photo icon - Picasa). The background is bland and the majority of the desktop real estate is wasted. To be honest, I've seen motherboard BIOS screens that are more intuitive, have mouse support, and are just plain better looking. To be quite honest, the overall look of the AIOS user interface is very disappointing.
Making matters worse, if you look at the slide above, you will notice that the company's penchant for typos extends to the UI menus as well. Again, this is something we will touch on later in this review.
This brings us to the "optional" components like wireless adapters, keyboards, mice, and hard drives. With no official list of compatible WiFi adapters, keyboards, or mice, it is basically a crap-shoot trying to find products that will work with the AIOS. While the website says the AIOS supports Realtek RTL8191SU based wireless adapters, the average person isn't going to know what chipset is inside a wireless USB adapter.
The good news is that, after trying adapters from Linksys, Netgear, Buffalo, and Sony, we found that Belkin's Basic USB WiFi adapter worked and was immediately recognized by the AIOS and we were able to connect to our wireless network immediately.
The same goes for keyboards and mice, after a lot of trial and error, we ended up using a Microsoft keyboard and a Logitech mouse...both wired. Unfortunately, we soon found out that our search was in vain because the keyboard and mouse can only be used in certain apps. (Mainly the browser.) You heard me right, there is no mouse / keyboard support for the UI, menus, file navigation, etc., so save yourself the hassle and don't bother wasting your time looking for compatible input devices.