Media Centres - Good Gear Guide

Amplifiers, Blu-ray Players-Recorders, CD Players-Recorders, More...Digital Radios, DVD Players-Recorders, Home Theatre, Media Streamers, Mini HiFi, Recievers-Amplifiers, Remote Controls, Set Top Boxes, Speakers, Turntables

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Home PCs, Media Centres, Mini PCs

Review Date: 01-DEC-2009

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ASRock Ion 330HT-BD

RRP: $720.00

ASRock's diminutive Ion 330HT-BD 'nettop' media centre is brilliant if you're an avid movie watcher with a large collection of digital media or Blu-ray discs. It's head and shoulders above any Blu-ray player or media streamer in terms of functionality, and its tiny size and small ecological footprint mean you can set it up next to your television and forget about turning it off.

Media Centres

Review Date: 07-SEP-2009

Western Digital WD TV Mini

RRP: $149.00

The WD TV Mini media player will work with almost any video, music or photo file you throw at it. Minor criticisms aside, this tiny black box is the perfect companion to older televisions or those with a spare component port.

Buy Now

Media Centres

Review Date: 16-JUN-2009

Seagate FreeAgent Theater

RRP: $199.00

If you already own a Seagate FreeAgent Go external hard drive, then the FreeAgent Theater is a decent media player. As a general purpose media player, though, it doesn’t stand up to the competition.

Media Centres

Review Date: 03-DEC-2008

Claritas 14.2 VFD

RRP: $2950.00

If you’ve got somewhere to put it, Claritas’ new media centre PC is more than powerful enough for your high-definition media playback needs.

Media Centres

Review Date: 14-AUG-2008

Iomega ScreenPlay HD

RRP: $249.95

As a storage device, the ScreenPlay HD excels — it’s fast and has plenty of storage space. Its media playback abilities leave plenty to be desired, however, with limited format support and an uninspiring interface.

Media Centres

Review Date: 03-APR-2008

Linksys DMA2200

RRP: $450.00

While we like the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200, we found using Media Center too unreliable to replace our Freeview boxes, let alone a service such as Sky+. And although media streaming and DVD upscaling make this a fully-featured device, its Media Center foundation prevents it from reaching its potential.

Media Centres

Review Date: 28-MAR-2008

Sony VAIO TP2

RRP: $2399.00

We like the new form factor, we like the Blu-ray player and we like the HDMI output, but the external USB TV-tuner should really be an internal device. That aside, the TP2G is a good performer and has a reasonable amount of space on board for media enthusiasts.

Media Centres

Review Date: 25-JUN-2007

Hewlett-Packard Pavillion Media Center M8075a

RRP: $1450.00

For its price the HP Pavilion m8075a is a neat little unit with some good basic features for the budding media happy user. It's clearly not a high end machine for power users, but for those looking to get a little extra media functionality out of their next PC purchase the HP Pavilion Media Center m8075a PC is a reasonable selection.

Media Centres

Review Date: 25-MAY-2007

Acer Aspire iDea 510

RRP: $2999.00

The Acer Aspire iDea 510 makes a set-top box out of a computer, without losing many of the perks of a PC. It's reasonably easy to set up and it worked with a number of test displays. It performed well enough in our performance tests for a media centre, and it did it quietly, too.

Media Centres

Review Date: 13-APR-2007

Hewlett-Packard Pavillion-M8090A_03

RRP: $3400.00

While the lack of HDMI and a tower case design are sore points, the m8090a is nonetheless a solid media centre PC. It offers more than enough power to perform most tasks and even packs in some grunt for playing games.

Media Centres

Review Date: 16-MAR-2007

Acer Aspire E700 Model S

RRP: $2499.00

The Acer Aspire E700 Model S manages to work on both levels, as a PC and as a media centre. It has some upgrade potential, but the configuration we tested will easily handle a wide variety of functions.

Media Centres

Review Date: 12-MAR-2007

ASUS Digital Home D22

RRP: $2599.00

The ASUS Digital Home D22 is a great all around media centre. It offers dual HD tuners, with a HDMI output, meaning it will be useful for a great many years to come.

Media Centres

Review Date: 04-DEC-2006

Acer Aspire iDea 500

RRP: $2499.00

Acer has done a great job of disguising this PC as a set-top box. It's easy to setup and simple to use. We would highly recommend waiting for the Core 2 Duo refresh before purchasing this product. However, if you need something right away it will still handle most tasks easily.

Media Centres

Review Date: 05-JUL-2006

Pioneer Computers Australia DreamVision VIIV MiniPC

RRP: $1499.00

If you want an incredibly small media centre PC for basic media functionality then the DreamVision Mini is a great choice. It isn't a powerhouse by any means, but it's diminutive design certainly makes up for this in some regards.

Media Centres

Review Date: 01-MAY-2006