Over a year ago the HDI Dune BD Prime model was the first to combine blu-ray and general media files all into a single device, supported by actual hardware. It's not the only one any longer but there's still only 2 today so HDI has a pretty good chance of becoming selected. Inside this review, we tell you exactly what to expect...

SageTV may not been known to a few, but they have come along with a small player that offers exactly what the consumer base have been crying out for. With the best online services on any media player to date and BDMV/BD-ISO playback.

But could it possibly have a hercules heel?

Novatron is back and brings us a somewhat special combination of media player which can handle recording form both analog attached sources over SCART and COMPOSITE or from DVB-T broadcasts. in addition, the player is as much capable as a standalone media player in "theory". We checked it out to see how well it copes with the media player section and report it inside this review.

Thecus brought us the N7700 which is a robus NAS server for home and Soho use and has quite a few tricks up its sleeves. Looking at the price it costs surely this device will appeal to you and we had a hands down with it to see how it copes with our media needs in general and how it operates. The conclusion? It's a great device... but...

Ellion are back with their new HD media recorder the HMR-600H. The player has multiple I/O’s including EuroScart in and out amongst the plethora of connections. It has an onboard DVB-T tuner with a programmable schedule and 7 day EPG.

Mede8ter MED500X joins the bunch of RealTek based media players and while time passes, we feel these affordable range of products come closer and close to the levels we consider "ready for use". Coming from South-Africa straight into your living rooms should you decide to pick this one, comes a versatile media player with well tuned functions in general but off course, like many "newcomers", there are a few things that require updating.

Media Players come in all shapes and sizes these days, but none have been truly portable until now. HDHorizon may have finally given the market exactly what has been sought after for some time, the first truly mobile media player package...

High profile. High profile? After months of wait for the new generation media players powered by the fastest processors from Sigma, we can now dive into what all that power means for the end user, you and me. Has it gone "stylish" or "shaggy"? What has been done with al that extra juice... Let's find out inside this review of the PCH C-200...

Even though DViCo had a rough year in 2008, they lately proved to be back in full force developing on the M-6500. Newer and more powerful is their new product, the M-6600 but the more power does not translate in delivering more in general, just faster and better should do the trick for us.

A review of the NetGear WNDR3700, NetGear's latest and greatest AV series router that should blend in with your entertainment system no problem. Stacked with advanced features that are easy to configure, this model becomes instantly MPC's recommended router for your local network in which you share all kinds of media bteween PC, USB storage and your media players.

NetGear did it again. They launched a new NAS model recently that adds even more value to the already famous ReadyNAS series. Although expensive, ReadyNAS devices belong to the absolute top segment of quality and robustness. This new model is launched on the side of the other ReadyNAS series adding SAN support and the fastest performance on the market according to NetGear. Tailored for business use, I’m sure we don’t mind getting a little “business level performance” into our homes, which is why we decided to check it out.

Some might say that we at MPCCLUB have a tendency to get excited easily. To a certain degree this, as of late may be true, but usually our excitement is born out of a desire for a product to break the mould and offer something new over the usual crop of Sigma 86xx series players. Lately there has been a lot of talk about the Realtek 12xx processor series which promises to offer more than the current crop of Sigma processors and we have recently reviewed a couple of players using this new processor range, HMB Movie

In this time of an ever growing abundance of HD Media Players, manufacturers need to be creative with the design of their player in order to set it apart from the masses. The i-box comes from an Asian manufacturer, Shenzhen ZHC Technology Co Ltd., which is little known on these European and quite possibly US shores. They pitch the player as a HD Media Player which, quoting from the packaging, is “The best solution for creating a Home Digital Entertainment”. A big statement from an unknown player, can they pull it off with their i-box Z400W HD Media Player?

Measuring only 18cm height, 3cm width and about 8cm deep, the Xtreamer sure is small but we have seen small players before. I remember the iSTAR Mini for instance. That’s how we know small players can be just as capable as any of the “big brothers” out there. It’s like they say: “Size doesn’t matter”… Small units however come with limitations and while we discuss the hardware

Ever since MPC started almost 6 years ago, we have had an influence on people’s use of media players at home. We saw the market of storage become more important for home users, prices dropped significantly and integration of media services took place at a reasonable fast pace. We are never satisfied as while we used to complain about prices of hard drives and NAS enclosures, we now complain about noise in our living room where the device is located. We want it to be as silent as possible. Not an easy challenge for the vendors to meet as a hard drive runs hot and placing multiple close to each other including their day and night operation (in some cases needed) requires adequate cooling. While vendors have overcome the challenges to create price worthy solutions, hard drive prices have dropped, media integration is completed, small and big storage needs are fulfilled, it seems the vendors are ready to take on the next challenge and if this story ends up being a success for vendors is...

Better than Sigma. Powerful. Amazing quality. Only few of the claims made surrounding the RealTek RDP1283 chip and the player we have now on our test table uses this chip, so expectations are high. The HMB Movie Palace is brand new and offers HD up to 1080p, for the first time based on the RealTek chipset. Now if it can confirm all the claims that are made upon RealTek remains to be seen. Let’s get started and have a look at the HMB’s abilities for all levels of consumers ranging from novice, to pro.

This feels like Déjà vu. You know when you think you have seen or heard something before, but can’t quite remember it. Well thankfully I can, and the Déjà vu came when I persued the previous reviews carried out on MPC and found the review on the Elektron EHP-600 by Hi-Jack. This led me to double check the unit I had been sent just to make sure dementia wasn’t creeping in, and that I hadn’t been mistakenly sent an EHP-600 instead of a 700.

Long gone are the days when the thought of having 4 terabyte on line for file storage was left to commercial setups and the extravagant. These days with the price of HDDs tumbling and the value of Gigabyte to euro increasing, the everyday user thinks terabytes over gigabytes. I can remember buying my first 1 gigabyte HDD which was an IBM spitfire. This cost me an arm and a leg over €100 and that was second hand!

iTab 38HD. It’s an amazing concept really to fit in commercial DVD playback and DVD backup directly supported from the unit, including audio CD backup (rip to MP3), HD playback and network features into one product. I remember the iTAB 36HD which I’m still using as a second player to once in a while backup a DVD or watch series in the bedroom. I never used it for network streaming and I know I had a reason as my wireless reaches the bedroom and my NAS is always on. Maybe during the review I will learn of my reasons again as I’m certain it had to do with the player. Let’s get started, shall we?

The MvixPVR is a bit of a conundrum, it doesn’t fit the profile of the usual HD media players that we are used to at MPCCLUB, but has more to offer than the usual PVR or standard definition media player. I initially became very excited when I took the MvixPVR out of its wrapper; it’s an impressive piece of kit with a professional look about it from its sleek front fascia to its top loading IPod dock. Impressions however, can be deceptive and initially I was deceived and beguiled by this device. I am still a bit perplexed as to whether the deceit was through my own misgivings and desire for the player to be more than it was, or the skilful way the manufacturers and their marketing department have touted this player as a FULL 1080 HD media PVR and IPod friendly must have player.

It’s like something out of ‘Flash Gordon’- no not that modern pile of pants that was recently aired on the satellite channels, but the original where rocket ships were…., well rocket ship shaped and a bit of imagination was needed to help the story along. Thankfully there’s no imagination needed with Conceptronic’s CFULLHDMAi media player besides what the hell does the name mean? When I was told I would be receiving another media player for review, I expected the normal run of the mill product, ‘much the same but housed in a different plastic shell’. The lesson I learnt very quickly upon opening the box was that ‘complacency can be an unjust partner in life’. The CFULLHDMAi is anything but the normal run of the mill player. It has a retro feel to it and is well constructed from mainly black anodised aluminium. But does it take us into orbit or is it as tacky as the sci-fi shows of the past? We’re climbing aboard to take it on a test flight.

Ever since NetGear made a smart decision few years ago buying Infrant (ReadyNAS) and SkipJam (Entertainment), they positioned themselves as leader in the digital entertainment bringing robust solutions to our homes. Compared to Cisco who purchased KiSS –Technology (Linksys), the contrast could not be bigger. One company flourishes with regular new top products while the other… well, we haven’t heard of since years. NetGear now presents us with the EVA9150, the next level of home entertainment and big brother of the EVA700 and EVA8000. US price is $399 and EU price is about €420. Let’s see what we get for that money while we dig into the EVA9150…

It seems like the season for oddly shaped and curiously designed media players. I’d Just finished reviewing one oddly shaped player, when along comes this little number, (which raised an eyebrow of curiosity as to exactly what the designers had in mind when they conceived the shroud of this player.) A quick bit of research soon revealed that the player was modelled after the now famous Natatorium, or “Water Cube”, from the Beijing Olympics. The manufacturer wished to honour the memory of the event and rightly they should, for the Chinese Olympics was a sight to be seen and was arguably the most spectacular show on Earth. So this little player as you can imagine has a lot to live up to… Is it worth the bestowed honour? We put it to the test and discover if this player has anything new to offer.

At times where things are changing rapidly from analog to digital TV, I ‘m pretty much pro DVB-T but several countries lack enough channels in this system, amongst Belgium where I am located. I believe people are currently pulled back and forth between analog TV and DVB-T, depending on available channels in their country and with mostly being forced to choose between Analog TV recordings or DVB-T on most products; many delay their purchase or decide to become satisfied with one of both. Now those times are over and at an affordable cost with the A.C.Ryan PlayOn!DVRTV as it features both DVB-T recording and Analog TV in a single device. Mix that up with Wireless 802.11g, 10/100Mbit network, input and output… and you get the idea… This is a device covering most of your needs from reading the specs only. Let’s see how well A.C.Ryan scores in my hands for it’s price of only €299 at this time including a 1TB hard drive.

Conceptronic have produced quite a number of media recorders in the past, a few of which have been reviewed here at MPC. Up for review is their latest and greatest media recorder which now incorporates dual DVB-T tuners and claims to be able to playback Full HD 1080p. Conceptronic have tried to incorporate both a media recorder and a state of the art media player which attempts to go head to head with the like of Dvico, Popcorn Hour for media player capabilities and compatability of playback.