By: Erik Vlietinck
Thu, April 24, 2008 - 6:17:00
Pros: Multi-purpose, user-friendly, excellent LCD screen, Sturdy
Contras: A bit slow with uploading, Battery drains too fast

http://www.jobo.com
Score:

The GigaVu Extreme is a hybrid device that allows you to view photos downloaded into the device straight from a CompactFlash or SD memory card, play videos (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4), or listen to music (MP3). Photos which have been enhanced in-camera with voice annotations, can be viewed and listened to as well.

The GigaVu Extreme is a about 15 cm wide and 10 cm deep. It’s 4 cm high. It is a hard disk with an operating system and a glossy colour LCD screen, a set of buttons and a navigation knob. The enclosure is of rubberised plastic and the LCD screen is protected by a thick, sturdy rubber cover. The whole thing looks like it’s been built to withstand WW3.

The device has a slot for a CompactFlash card. If you have a SD memory card instead, there’s not a problem as a converter is delivered in the box. The GigaVu Extreme comes complete with a remote control (you can show videos and photos on a compatible digital video TV), and all the necessary cables. The battery is included as well --it’s rechargeable battery sitting in a rubberised bottom slot.

GigaVu Extreme Connectivity

To be as complete as possible, the GigaVu Extreme also has an IrdA port and Wi-Fi capabilities. I was very interested to see how well this device would cope with photos and videos being transferred to and from a Mac. So, I shot a whole 4 GB CompactFlash full of RAW and JPEG files and inserted the CF card into the GigaVu Extreme. Starting up the device took only a couple of seconds, so I expected a fast download.

The download performance was a bit disappointing. The files on the 4GB card took over 15 minutes to download into the GigaVu Extreme. This was with verification disabled. With verification set to on, the GigaVu Extreme verifies each image for accurate match with the photos on the CF card, which takes another 10 minutes.

Of course, as soon as the images have been uploaded, the performance plays less of a role, at least that’s what I experienced. The GigaVu Extreme lets you see histograms, channels, and colour values for each photo and all of these features work fast enough. The device creates thumbnails if you allow it to --perhaps that’s why the download procedure was slow-- and shows these with a subtle yellow border around the selected one.

Clicking with the navigation knob on a selected thumbnail opens the photo in a size that fits the LCD screen; big enough to see details, as the LCD screen is very contrast-rich and has deep, saturated colours. You can further zoom in on an image, but the performance becomes lacklustre once you get beyond a zoom factor of twice the fit-on-screen size.

The GigaVu Extreme and Video Files

I also tried the GigaVu Extreme with a MPEG-4 video downloaded from the Mac. For this to work, the video has to be dropped in a special folder on the GigaVu Extreme’s disk. The device mounts like an ordinary hard disk, so creating folders is a breeze. The video that I downloaded to the GigaVu was a couple of Gigabytes in size. Its file name showed up on the LCD screen, but it wouldn’t play. The reason: the battery was depleted before the video could load.

Everything on the GigaVu Extreme is well thought out, including the fast keys, the navigation knob and the rubberised enclosure. It’s the battery that really is the Achilles heel of the system. The colour LCd and hard disk simply consume too much power for the device to work for hours on end. I assume that if you use the GigaVu Extreme for off-loading photos from your CompactFlash cards throughout a shooting day, the device will have power to spare.

However, if you’re taking the GigaVu Extreme on the road with you, and you want to show photos and videos to customers, you’d better have a full battery load before you start. You will definitely need it. The GigaVu Extreme does come with a good battery gauge, but it should also come with a charger for when you’re on the way.

All in all, I found the GigaVu Extreme to be good value for the money. It’s certainly a piece of equipment to be considered by commercial photographers who have to shoot while outdoors.