In this day and age it seems we all carry our media with us in some form or another. The iPod has spanned the generation divide and has a significant amount of us carrying our music libraries with us. Our mobile phones have the capacity to carry a selection of photographic moments in our pockets and now if we find ourselves away from home for any longer than planned then the option of TV and film is at our fingertips.

The Archos DVR 700 is not the only media player on the market but on paper it does look like one of the strongest contenders. Unpacking the device reveals something that looks like it should be in a science fiction film. A baby slab of brushed aluminium finished in a white surround that allows the DVR points in the styling stakes.

Of course that’s not all you get in the box, a weighty manual on paper (necessary) and a somewhat daunting array of leads and wires all greet you and all serve a purpose for this device. Oh and there’s a remote which is ironically as big as the player itself, but we’ll get to that in a while.

The DVR is essentially a cosmetically dressed hard drive with a nifty screen bolted to the front and a suite of in’s and out’s for the all important transfer of data. A funky A/V port enables connection to your TV/Cable/Satellite box. An obligatory charging port and a couple of mini USB ports for linking to your PC or Macintosh (there’s even Linux support on this model if you go to the website, kudos!).

Plugging the DVR into your computer of choice is reliant on setting up the machine in the options menu. Windows users get a slightly better sync option while a Mac sees the device as a plain vanilla mass storage device. Not a problem though, the folders are already in place and marked for pictures, video, music etc.

From that point onwards you’re a drag and drop away from watching/listening on the go. I dragged a few episodes of Lost in a quick and dirty avi format down on to the device as well as a folder of pictures and a little chunk of my iTunes library. Ejected the drive from my desktop (tidying up takes a while) and retreated back to the menu screen to see what would happen.

The DVR is a bit cocky in the file format department, it felt like everything I could sling at it would play. I could mention a number of popular software based media players for the Mac and Windows that are less friendly out of the box.

The file sizes being used were a modest 350Mb each so I hadn’t done much damage to the storage side of things, they showed up in the right place as you’d expect and one click later I was watching an episode.

In playback the screen does rather come into its own, shaped in a “baby” letterbox format, I didn’t feel I was losing anything from the edges of the screen and the colours were very rich (at times a little bit too candy coated, but you can really tweak the screen to your personal tastes). Sometimes screens of this nature can suffer with motion blur when there’s plenty going on but the DVR tolerated this all pretty well. Sound quality was OK but nothing special (once again you can tweak to your heart’s content, didn’t seem to make much difference though). The included set of headphones improved things though and I suspect in regular use they’d be essential.

I watched three episodes of Lost back to back but I think the experience would be pushing it a little for many people (I was in bed which made things easier). The screen size didn’t feel too restrictive initially but I couldn’t get immersed in the viewing experience (which I can with the laptop). Battery life was as good as the box claimed and I can’t remember a device which clung on when it’s power levels were this low. I kept expecting the device to die before the end of the last episode but in fairness the DVR held out admirably.

The second trumpeted option on the device was the photo viewing option, essentially you select your library via a menu driven system (hierarchical, if you’ve used Windows you know what you’re doing). Pick out your folder and click, the viewer comes with all the stock features you would expect such as zoom, rotate and a preview tab down the right hand side of the screen. Alas the screen which did such a tidy job of playing the films didn’t shape up so good with the pictures. Despite the resolution of some of the shots, I was still picking up some pixilation on the images way before I should have been during zooming. There was something about the display that didn’t do natural shots/colours any favours either. So nature shots looked a little blanched at times.

Music was the third option on the device, and was probably the most disappointing. The hierarchical interface doesn’t do itself any favours when you’ve been around some of the alternative players on the market, coupled with the fact that the form factor and relative vulnerability of the screen means this doesn’t lend itself to rough and tumble role of music player. Sound quality was decent through the headphones but again lack lustre through the built in speakers

Before I start looking at the way the unit interacts with your TV it’s worth mentioning some of the other little features DVR incorporates. An audio recording application is built into the unit and with a decent mic hooked up I got some pretty nifty results, of course having oodles of storage means that you can keep bringing in audio without having to worry about running out. There is also the facility to bring audio in through a line in style recording so you can import any vinyl that’s been mustering a layer of dust in the loft if that takes your fancy (that is actually a decent little feature, I haven’t encountered anyone who supplies an “on the fly” vinyl to mp3 function without the need for a laptop).

Then there are also games, but in this instance…forget it. They look and play like an afterthought. A crude levels and ladders affair, a golf sim and in all honesty I gave up at this point. Graphics are dated (almost 8 bit), playability uninspired etc. Note to Sony, don’t lose sleep. Note to Archos, nice try, but you don’t need to cover every base on the diamond.

Using the Archos as a video player is of course only half of the device’s capability. The DVR has the ability to record from pretty much any kind of video source. That’s the theory of course but as is the case with so many things the thought is often more graceful than the deed. You connect the DVR to a “pass through box” which in turn is connected to your VCR/Satellite/Cable/Freeview box and your TV. In essence the Archos is hijacking the signal on the way from your satellite box to your TV and making it available to record. At the same time this setup also allows you to throw the image on the DVR screen over to your television.

It’s a nice idea, although for some reason it didn’t like my Freeview box and proved to be a pain in the arse to get working. With the Archos placed in the hub of your existing setup you suddenly find yourself with a whole host of additional wiring to contend with (you ditch your old SCART lead and connect a couple of new ones which have adapters for the old style A/V wires etc….). How difficult completing the setup will I strongly believe depend on what kit you are using but I sincerely hope it’s easier than it was for me (and yes I did read the manual, you cannot wing it with this thing).

Once you get everything connected, recording is thankfully a piece of cake. Select the video recording option and click and you can pull in the signal from the television. Timer recording options exist so the Archos will kick in and record at a time of your choosing. The fact that in most cases the device will be connected to a digital source means that you should cop for a crystal clean picture. Using the included remote means setting up additional cabling for the infra red receiver which you mount on your TV or nearby, it all works as you would expect but for me just smacked of overkill.

So there you have it, a device that throws its cap in the ring and bids to provide something of a complete digital media solution. Great idea but flawed in a number of ways, with laptops being as cheap and essentially as light as they are nowadays is the Archos going to have a fighting chance in a crowded marketplace. Price for starters works against it (?442 for the 100Gb version on Kelkoo), for a little extra you are going to get the added functionality of a laptop (yes, yes I know there is the size issue to consider but when we are talking something in this cash range that argument starts to go out of the window). It’s not competitive enough to consider it as a mass storage device (and the screen even when its cased up feels too vulnerable).

The fact is, there are simply too many other devices on the market that cover the range of features the DVR embraces., they might not do all the things the Archos does, but there is a lot to be said for not trying to spread yourself too thin. Perhaps if the DVR 700 had come to the market a couple of years earlier then I might be whistling a more positive tune. However for now this device will more than likely be one for those with a surfeit of cash and a penchant for seriously niche technology.