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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 02-03/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
Multimedia Box
TV, Internet and Multimedia
Meld Together to Become One
Together with the compa-
nies Google, Sony and Intel,
Logitech is one of the com-
panies that has recognized
the trend towards the si-
multaneous use of multiple
transmission paths and has
addressed it with the Logi-
tech Revue Box. Google TV
is the software platform that
acts as the interface be-
tween the hardware and the
end user.
Thanks to this unique in-
terface that is compatible
with a variety of different de-
vices, the user will instantly
feel at home regardless of
whether Google TV runs on
a TV, a blue-ray player or,
as we will show here in this
test report, on the multime-
dia box Logitech Revue. Cur-
rently, the Logitech Revue is
only available in the USA.
So, what is it that differ-
entiates the Logitech Revue
from other media players
that have been on the mar-
ket for some time now?
With the Revue, Logitech,
thanks to Google TV, has
not only brought together an
immense flood of Internet
media content but has also
integrated the interaction
between other media such
as TV and radio via cable
or satellite. This is possible
through the HDMI input with
which the existing cable or
satellite receiver is connect-
ed to the box allowing you
to take full control over the
external satellite or cable re-
ceiver, the TV as well as the
audio/video system.
The Logitech Revue is en-
closed in an elegant black
box that at only 3.5cm high is
especially flat. Two LEDs can
be found on the front; they
indicate the current status of
the box as well as optically
confirm the reception of a
remote control signal.
It gets especially exciting
when you have a look at the
rear panel: there you‘ll find
an HDMI output, an HDMI
input, two jacks for the in-
frared transmitters, two USB
2.0 ports, an RJ45 network
interface, an optical S/PDIF
digital audio output as well
as a jack to connect the ex-
ternal power supply that is
used to power the box.
The Logitech Revue is not
controlled and operated the
way you might think; instead
of a standard remote control
there‘s an extremely light-
weight and easy to handle
keyboard that is supple-
mented by several extra but-
tons as well as a track pad
(takes the place of a typical
mouse) on the right side.
At first the idea of control-
ling a set top box from your
couch via a keyboard and
trackpad might seem unusu-
al, but in the end we were
quite surprised at how easy
and comfortable this con-
cept really was. Using a real
keyboard to enter characters
is definitely advantageous
over a virtual OSD keyboard,
especially in any case where
the Internet is involved.
The Logitech Revue is
backed by a 1.2 GHz Intel
CE4100 chip, 1GB RAM and
5GB of memory. Video and
audio quality throughout our
tests was top notch but we
really didn‘t expect any dif-
ferent thanks to the 1080p
output resolution.
When the box is turned
on for the first time, the In-
stallation Assistant appears.
And it‘s right there in the
first step where the output
signal is matched to the TV
that is being used. The pic-
ture can also be expanded or
reduced in size in each direc-
tion with the help of the ar-
row buttons until the optimal
setting has been found. The
output resolution can be set
to 1080i, 1080p or 720p.
In the case of the Logitech
Revue, a connection to the
Internet is an absolute must
and for that there‘s an RJ45
jack for a wired connection
as well as a WiFi interface for
a wireless link.
The Logitech Revue easily
recognized our test center‘s
WiFi network; even the se-
cure WPA2 encryption did
not pose any problems. Un-
fortunately, we determined
that the IP address alloca-
tion only takes place via
DHCP; a manual entry of the
necessary data by the user
is not possible.
Once the Internet con-
nection has been properly
set up, the box immediately
checks to see if a software
update is available and then
downloads and installs it au-
tomatically.
TEST REPORT