In Use:
I first powered up the Argosy HV675 with no media connected. Simply the device plugged in to the wall and in to a 32" LCD TV via HDMI. The device booted up quickly with a splash screen much like a DVD player, and then it sat there waiting for me to do something about the lack of files to play. I hit the "setup" button on the remote control and browsed through a bunch of the sub-menus to see how many configuration options were available.
The below left screen shows the main page of the setup menu where it can be seen that the layout is simple in terms of style and usability. You simply navigate the options with the arrow buttons on the remote and make your selection by pressing the enter button. The preferences screen is shown in the below right image, and this is where you make changes to basic things like photo slide show intervals.
 
The images below show the video and audio setup screens. This is where you can fine tune the output signals to best match your home theater equipment. Without making any changes here, I was able to connect via HDMI, component, and composite and get up and running quickly.
 
After this preliminary testing without media attached, I connected a Seagate Free Agent Go 320GB external hard drive with a couple DVD folder based movies (made purely for testing purposes, of course). I initially thought something was wrong as the blue LED on the device was working, but there was no audio or video signal on the TV. I tried all three connection types, powered up and down a few times, and was getting nervous that something had died. A bit by accident I left the device powered on and left to do some other things and came back to find out it had finally come around. Subsequent testing showed that with media attached the device was just simply very slow to 'boot up'. Don't expect to rush into a movie, as it didn't matter if it was a flash drive or hard drive, how big the drive was, or how full it was loaded... it just isn't an instant on kind of thing.
Once I got up and running, I carried out some testing with two DVD folder movies, and the below left screen shows how the navigation looks. You can navigate to your movie of choice, enter the folder, and select the correct file in order to start the movie. From there on it works just like any other DVD player.
 
It might not be high definition, but it definitely could pass for a DVD played straight from the original disk. The menus in the movie all worked properly, and the remote was able to fast forward, rewind, skip chapters, and so on as expected.
 
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