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Seagate's GoFlex TV has changed little from its previous incarnation -- the FreeAgent Theater+ network media player. It has the same menu and features. The only change is the redesign of the player's housing. Now it is a small rectangular unit with a door that opens to accommodate an optional Seagate GoFlex portable hard drive. The GoFlex drive can sync with your computer's media library and be docked to the GoFlex TV using a SATA connection.

The GoFlex TV is a solid performer. It can stream from basic online services — Netflix, Pandora, Flickr and Picasa and play most media file formats from your home network.

Pros and Cons

PROS

• It plays iTunes and most file formats.
• It has a dock slide in and connect the GoFlex portable hard drive.
• There is an iPhone GoFlex remote control app that also transfers photos directly from the phone's photo library.
• The menus are easy to use.
• It plays 1080p full high definition video. 
• Both photos and video have excellent picture quality.
• It can play music over a slideshow.
• The included sync software for PCs keeps your GoFlex portable hard drive updated with additions to your media library.

CONS

• It has only Netflix, Pandora, Picasa, and Flickr, and does not have a video on demand movie service. 
• It re-indexes the files on the attached hard drive every time you power on.
• It can't connect to your personal Flickr account.
• It takes a minute to connect to the media servers on your home network once you click on the icon

• It can only manually sync media files from a Mac to GoFlex external hard drive.
• It can't copy a file over the network from other media libraries to the attached GoFlex external hard drive.
• It is not a Digital Media Renderer; as a result, you cannot send files to it from DLNA controllers like Twonky Beam or mobile media sharing apps.

GoFlex TV Is Different On the Outside but is the Same Inside as the FreeAgent+

At first glance, the GoFlex TV appears to be completely redesigned.  This new model is rectangular with a trap door into which the GoFlex external hard drive slides and connects.  The FreeAgent Theater+ was a flat unit with a space into which fit a FreeAgent portable hard drive. 

"GoFlex" is Seagate's current line of products. The drives have a sleek, rectangular shape and use a SATA connection.  SATA connections are faster and better suited to playing high definition video — though you probably wouldn't notice a difference — and loading thumbnails from large photo libraries.  Seagate redesigned the GoFlex TV almost solely to fit its new line of portable drives.

The differences start and end with the GoFlex TV's outward appearance. The home screen and menus look and act the same.  Firmware upgrades have brought the Pandora music streaming service to both the FreeAgent Theater+ and the GoFlex TV.  You still cannot access your personal Flickr account, although you can access your personal Picasa Photos. The Netflix app still only lets you access your Instant Queue and does not offer access to add new movies from the app, nor does it show suggested titles to play instantly or add to your queue.

Seagate's Media Sync Software Is Convenient but Only Works With PCs

To take advantage of instant access to your media on an optional GoFlex portable hard drive, GoFlex TV comes with "Seagate Media" computer software.  The software will copy the photos, music and movies on your computer to an attached GoFlex drive.   Once you tell the software where to find your media, it can be set to automatically sync when it detects the drive attached to the computer.  The Seagate Media searches for and copies new media on your computer each time you connect the GoFlex portable drive.  Automatic sync eliminates the need to remember what files you have added since the last time you synced, and ensures that all of the files on your computer are also on the GoFlex portable hard drive.

The GoFlex TV user manual states that you can automatically sync on a Mac as well as on a PC. GoFlex portable hard drives can be recognized by a Mac using the NTFS driver included on the drive.  Although the software could be installed on a Mac, and it could see other Seagate hard drives, the customer support team informed me that the auto sync feature does not work on Macs. It seemed to work occasionally if I left the software program open for a long period of time. However, when I clicked on the "sync now" button, it would take hours and never complete the sync.  

Seagate's customer support team recommends that Mac users drag and drop the media files they want to save to the GoFlex portable drive.  This defeats the purpose of automatic "sync" because manual copying means you must go through all of the files to see which files have not yet been copied to the drive.

Seagate Technology's iPhone Remote App for GoFlex TV and the FreeAgent Theater +

Seagate has released a remote control app for the iPhone that works with both the FreeAgent Theater+ and the GoFlex TV network media players. You'll want to use the iPhone app as the small remotes that come with the media players are finicky and must be pointed straight at the player. The iPhone app works over your home's wifi network and does not need line of sight, so you can now control the player from anywhere in your home.  

The app is easy to use.  Press "search" on its home screen for a list of available Seagate network media players on your home network. Choose the player listed. 

The app is can perform most, but not all functions. It cannot power on the player. As there is no power button on the GoFlex TV, this means you will need to keep the original remote control nearby or never turn off the player.  

The second consideration happens when you do turn off the unit. If you have a number of computers, media servers, NAS drive(s) and other network devices on your home network that turn on and off, your home router may reassign IP addresses. The app will have to search for the player the next time you use it.  

Seagate's remote control app is a definite plus. You can access a touchscreen keyboard to type in login info or search terms for YouTube, Flickr or Pandora. 

The remote app is also supposed to be able to find files on an attached drive.  In my tests, this feature never worked with the connected GoFlex drive yet would display media on a flash drive that was attached to the GoFlexTV. Perhaps the search feature will work in future updates to the remote app.

Proceed to Page 2: Seagate GoFlex TV Review -- iPhone Remote Control App and iTunes Capabilities