Dane-Elec So World TV

Digital TV tuner, LCD colour screen , SDHC card reader and network connectivity: the Dane-Elec So World TV is really very complete on paper. Does this media centre with HD digital tuner mark itself out from the pretty tough competition? This is what we're going to find out in our review.

Design and build: standard, but less well done

Compact and also elegant, this centre has a nice glossy black casing. Note however that dust and fingermarks accumulate very quickly on this type of surface. At the front, a colour LCD screen allows you to browse through the menus with the TV turned off, or display photos. It's therefore a shame that the manufacturer didn't think to put any buttons on the box, which means you have to use the remote to pilot it.

The remote is moreover of less than average quality. The plastic used is light and the poor finish gives it a gadgety feel. What is slightly unsettling is that there's no "Menu" button. Returning to the main menu is therefore a real pain as you have to press the 'back' button an incalculable number of times to return to the main menu.


We're not feeling particularly inspired when it come to the interface: quite simply it's the one supplied by the decoding chip manufacturer (Realtek). Dane-Elec has added only its own colours and modified two or three icons. Frankly the result is disappointing and reminiscent of media centres from 2007: the definition you get on Full HD televisions isn't exploited at all and there are no advanced options at all.


You can't display music album covers, visualize photos in mosaic form or create a video jukebox.

Note also that there's a fan for expelling the hot air from the decoding chip and hard drive. No luck here, the fan is fairly noisy. This makes it a bit of a pain if you want to record programmes at night if the box is in your bedroom.

Compatibility: standard with DTS support

The chip used is now very common and its qualities are well known: it can decode all current HD video. We liked the fact that you can decode DTS and Dolby Digital audio tracks with the device (PCM mode). This means you can send stereo sound to the TV speakers or send a 5.1 signal to an external speaker set. Bitstream is also supported for those who want to use their external amp.

DVD and Blu-ray backups are supported. With DVDs, both ISOs and RIPs are recognised with menu, subtitling and audio file support. There was however a bug with menus which get difficult to select. For Blu-rays, only RIPs are recognised. You lose the menus but get audio files and subtitling. Find more detail in our product face-off.

Connectivity: SDHC reader, USB socket and network

There aren't that many audio and video outs but the essential is there with HDMI, composite and coaxial. An SDHC reader and USB Host connectors mean you can link to memory cards, USB keys and external hard drives.

The infamous "Realtek USB bug" appears once again: if you leave your hard drive plugged without accessing it for more than ten minutes, it will no longer be detected by the device.

Networking is handled via an Ethernet 100 Mbps socket. This is slightly diappointing in as much as it's impossible to access the media centre from a computer. You can do things in the other direction however and can read the content of shared files. Note however that playback of videos over 28 Mbps via the network will result in a jumpy display. You'll also have problems with big 1080p films. 720p and SD will be fine however.