DViCO Xroid A1

With the Xroid A1, Dvico has chosen to dip its toe into the market for media centres running on Android (version 2.2 here). The Google OS is accompanied by an applications market specially set up by Dvico for this machine. Here then is a product that seems to offer the necessary tools to bring together media centres with TVs and Android.

A not particularly innovative casing

With respect to the casing, Dvico hasn’t taken any risks and has simply used the one it created for the Tvix S1, changing just one or two minor details. This isn’t really an issue however as the casing has a very nice finish and uses good quality materials (plastic and metal). The system for inserting the hard drive is still as practical as ever (no screws!) and the fan is pretty quiet.

A familiar remote

There’s been no innovation when it comes to the remote either. The one used here is the one Dvico has been using for years now. It’s of decent quality but is nowhere near as good as the one you get with the Popcorn Hour A-300 or Popbox V8. The plastic is cheaper and there’s no backlighting ( just a few phosphorescent buttons).

A familiar interface too

Navigation round the interface is in the same vein as on the Tvix 6632N, S1 Duo and N1. It’s not a carbon copy as, yes, the design is in a different (better, we reckon) colour. All the same, the browsing experience is pretty much the same, with three display modes: file list, file view and thumbnails.

Widgets and shortcuts can be moved around
on the home screen.

Thumbnail mode is by far the best as, for example, it allows you to display all the photos in a folder in miniature format. For music it displays album covers, as long as they're external (file image in same folder).

Film posters are displayed for films (video jukebox) with, in addition, a full file with summary, list of actors and illustration. As with previous generations however, you have to use a piece of software on computer to generate the video jukebox.

Standard display in list format

While this system might have been acceptable a few months ago, since then several products with an automatic retrieval system for film information have come onto the market. We’re thinking, for example, of the Popcorn Hour A-300, the Popbox V8, the TizzBird F30 and the D-Link Boxee Box.

The system used here seems even more dated due to its incapacity to manage series properly. Whatever the software used, none of the applications available on the community allow you to display details on episodes, summaries and so on. This isn’t down to the enthusiastic developers – Dvico doesn’t supply any appropriate software itself! – but simply because the system isn’t designed to work in a way that would allow this.

Photo miniatures are a plus,
but they can take quite some time to create.
Display is then instantaneous.

Dvico has also taken a step backwards when it comes to piloting the media centre via smartphone. On previous products you could source the thumbnail display from any smartphone, which is pretty practical for launching music without turning your TV on. For the Xroid A1, the application on offer simply displays a reproduction of the remote and doesn’t even support haptics.

 
A video jukebox display is available for films with utilities such as Yadis.

Album covers are displayed as long as
you place an image in each folder.

Media compatibility: nothing new

Media compatibility hasn’t moved on much either. It’s still at a very good level and allows you to play high throughput HD video no problem. Decoding and stereo downmix for DTS and Dolby are included with the exception of Dolby TrueHD which gives no sound. For this you need a compatible external audio amp (bitstream signal) to which everything can be sent, including DTS HD MA and Dolby TrueHD.

There's nothing new either when it comes to Blu-ray backups. The Xroid A1 simply starts the film and all you get is a generic menu (the real menus are lost). 3D Blu-ray rips are displayed in 2D because of a lack of compatibility with the MVC format. Still in 3D, MKV3D side-by-side and top-and-bottom videos aren’t supported in full definition (3840 x 1080 and 1920 x 2160) but only at 1920 x 1080 pixels. This means that the image is then two times less well defined, or even more if the 3D TV used is passive or if it is not full-HD 3D.

Connectivity and network: a hint of innovation

The connectivity is pretty much the same as on previous products: HDMI 1.3, composite, component and optical. There’s still an SDHC reader and four USB 2.0 Host ports allowing you to link up external peripherals. There is however an addition in the form of a USB 3.0 port designed to link the media centre up to a computer. This is practical for transferring large volumes of files as it gives a speed of more than 100 MB/s – depending on the hard drive used.

Find all our readings in the media centre face-off

The network socket is a 100 Mbps one and only gives an average speed of just 7.4 MB/s when transferring files from a computer. This is however enough to play very high throughput HD videos without any jumpiness. We also like the fact that Dvico hasn’t included a pseudo-Gigabit socket as the competition does all too often. None of those who’ve tried have succeeded in bettering the rate you get with 100 Mbps sockets.

Finally, Dvico has also introduced a file sharing facility with Tvix Share. This is an application which allows you to draw up a list of fellow Xroid A1 users and share files with them.