Buyer's Guide: The Best Media Centres

A good media centre should be able to handle pretty much any file you throw at it. It should also have a clear, user-friendly interface and offer advanced functions that aren't too complicated to use. We're mainly thinking of the infamous 'media jukebox' function, which displays your movie collection a bit like pages in a catalogue, with the film poster, plot summary, cast list and all other kinds of handy information.

There are three main types of media centre:

• Media streamers. These have no room for an internal hard drive. Files are played off a USB peripheral you connect to the streamer (flash drive, external hard drive, card reader) or directly over a network (Ethernet or Wi-Fi depending on the model).
• Media tanks. While also being able to play files off USB peripherals or over a network, media tanks have a built-in hard drive on which you can store content.
• Media centre & set-top-box. These come with or without a built-in hard drive, and as well as being able to play multimedia files, they also have a TV tuner. While you can pick up SD Freeview in the UK with a DVB-T tuner, European HD DVB-T tuners are not compatible with HD Freeview in the UK. If you want to watch high-definition channels in the UK, make sure you check the manufacturer's tech specs carefully or look for the 'Freeview HD' logo on the manufacturer's website.

With these factors in mind, here's our pick of the best media centres out there right now.

Editor's Choice

Syabas confirms its status as a serious player in the media centre market with the excellent Popcorn Hour A-300 and its incredibly user-friendly interface. While not much more than a simple upgrade of the previous model, the innovations are there, and the built-in jukebox brings real added value.

Two Alternatives

Best of the Rest

Here are a few more of our favourites.