Combined AV Devices > Pinnacle Systems Combined AV Devices > 70 GBP to 139 GBP

Advantages: stream your computers media to your tv
Disadvantages: quality of wi-fi, setup can be tricky

...of the showcenter 200 called Pinnacle media manager. Aside from Pinnacle media manager being on the cd-rom there is also the necessary software and drivers you need to install to successfully via the cd-rom to establish a connection between your pc and the showcenter 200 which can either be done via wifi 802.11g, which i found to be very tricky and couldnt seem to establish a connection via wifi, or when anything did happen i just lost the connection, ...
...and there are no problems at all with connectivity or anything. Then how about box contents, well in the box you get a wifi dongle which you connect to the back of the showcenter 200 to establish a signal for wireless connectivity, you also get a 3 metre ethernet cable (cat5e), and of course you get the other basics such as scart lead and the plug. So how about an overall opinion, well i found this on ebay for £100 which was sold as an ex display ... Read review

Advantages: Low cost
Disadvantages: Dodgy menus, very disk fussy, lousy DVD burner that will fail.

...eventually replaced the DVD burner in mine with a Liteon 20X unit for about £16. This solved the problem, and for the moment, it's been working perfectly. Fitting a replacement burner is straightforward enough, though getting it to neatly fit into the existing front fascia is a bit more challenging. ... Read review

Advantages: Looks, sound, originality
Disadvantages: battery life, loudness of speakers

The Samsung YP K5 mp3 player is immediately striking. Its sleek design and black finish would seamlessly fit into Batman's arsenal of gadgets. When I first bought the product it was immediately noticed by friends and strangers and as an aid to 'street rep' it works wonders. I was at first dubious of the sound of the speakers - I bought it over the internet and so had no way of trying out the player to check the sound capacity. However, my worries ... Read review

Advantages: The media center interface, decent codec support, HD movies stream really well.
Disadvantages: The DVD player is terrible.

Okay, the big pull of this DVD player is the built in Media Center Extender software, which once set up runs really well. You need to have vista installed on a PC (which needs to be on for it to work) and you also need a good network connection between the two. I have tried both a 200mbps powerline ethernet network and a wireless N network and for me the wireless network performed better for HD movies, but this will differ for most people so just ...
...wifi connection. The built in DVD play is poor to say the least, it doesn't scale DVD's out to widescreen it simply takes the DVD's basic resolution and outputs it to the middle of the screen. I tried watching an old cracker and had to stop as it was displayed as a 640x480 picture in the middle of my 720p HDTV, believe me this looks terrible. Its worth it for the media center as it works seemlessly and is a lot easier to access than the XBOX 360 ... Read review

Advantages: CHEAP. (BUY THE BOX, NO MORE CHARGE)
Disadvantages: NEEDS GUIDE UPDATING EVERY SO OFTEN (SCREEN GOES BLACK WITH LITTLE MESSAGE TILL DONE)

FREEVIEW IS NEW, CHEAP, EFFECTIVE AND GETS OVER 30 CHANNELS INCLUDIND CBBC CITV CHANNEL, BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC3, BBC4, ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, C4, C4+1, E4, E4+1, C4 FIRST LOOK AND MANY MANY MORE. T ALSO INCLUDES MANY RADIO CHANNELS AS WELL. ANOTHER THING IS IT CAN USE THE "RED" BUTTON FEATURE ALSO KNOWN AS THE INTERACTIVE FEAUTURE. MANY WILL AGREE THAT IT CAN BE BETTER THEN SKY. IT HAS A 14 DAY TV GUIDE THAT WILL TELL YOU WHAT WILL BE ON FOR THE NEXT ... Read review