Combined AV Devices > Digital multimedia receiver Combined AV Devices

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: Direct USB Play, Wired & Wireless Connectivity, Intel Viiv Certified
Disadvantages: Less than perfect User interface, No HDMI Connectivity

This is the first Intel Viiv certified digital media adaptor. Great for those who want to share media content from their PC all over the home. This device can connect to your network either wired or wirelessly, the wireless supports the 802.11b/g standards, but if you want to play with HD content, then you'll probably want to use the wired connection, it gets a bit slow over wireless. The wireless security on this model is up-to-date, which is ...
...at the moment, (128-Bit Encryption). All of the major video, audio and image filetypes are supported by the device, so no need to worry about incompatibility. Installation is a little tricky, as it sometimes won't work with Windows Media Centre very well. Overall, it's a good device, with all the features you need in such a device, superb. ... Read review

Advantages: Plays MP3, photo and movie over your network to your HiFi/TV.
Disadvantages: Stutters very badly on any HD content.

...last week to order the D-Link DSM-520 from Komplett.co.uk at £172 inc VAT & del. Reasons for buying : I wanted to stream HD movies, photos and music. Reviews have been mixed, admittedly, but seemed to indicate that this was the best of the bunch. I also looked at the Freecom and the Pinnacle before deciding. The DSM-520 arrived on Monday 4th Dec 2006, and was installed very easily and quickly. That part at least was painless. I used D-Link's own ...
...pen drive. * The D-Link media server is actually not as bad as some other reviews make it out to be. One very minor niggle though, was in playing MP3 files from one artist - it showed me the list of tracks, with all Track 1s first, then all Track 2s, and so on. Using the album feature got around this, but the interface is still just very slightly clunky on MP3. The TwonkyVision server seemed to have some good and some bad points too but I'm not ... Read review

Advantages: HD footage anywhere in the house, quality
Disadvantages: wi-fi not always capable of HD streaming

A great addition to any HD tv you may have in your house, perfect for a secondary TV such as a bedroom this will allow you to stream from your PC to the TV over wifi in HD. Although there isn't exactly what could be considered a huge amount of HD on the net you are legally allowed to rip Blu-Ray/HD-DVD movies. Streaming devices for music and standard definition video have been around for a couple of years now and have done their job perfectly, it ...
...reasonable prices. The EVA8000 coming in at just below £200 is a lot cheaper than a blu-ray player with more features. Connections: -Scart -S-Video -Component Video -A 1080i HDMI socket (although this will be upgraded to 1080p via new firmware) -Phono Output - Coax and Optical Digital outs -Ethernet Jack -USB The EVA offers two different ways to stream the footage, wi-fi or Ethernet, I would definitely recommend using Ethernet if possible ... Read review

Advantages: Record from TV/DVD, Excellent for watching movies, has many features
Disadvantages: Expensive upgrades, poor inbuilt speaker, limited for gamers

The Archos 605 WiFi has many features such as the option to record from the television, to surf the internet, it even has the ability to be used as a GPS. One downside is a lot of these features require additional money to be spent. If you're a gamer then you might be a little disappointed by the fact that the with the Archos 605 you will be limited to only playing flash games. The Archos 605 basically just isn't a gaming device. If gaming is your ...
...I did notice about the Archos 605 is that the sound quality of the inbuilt speaker is pretty poor, that being said this isn't totally uncommon with this type of device. When listening to music via the headphones though the quality of the sound is pretty decent. Now for what makes the Archos 605 truly special, it's ability to flawlessly play movies. No conversion, no fuss. Simply plug the Archos 605 to your PC via USB, drag and drop the movie/s of ... Read review