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Reviews: Media Centres
Using a media centre is supposed to be easy: fill it with music, movies and photos, plug it into your TV, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. But with so many models available now, it's hard to know which will suit you best: do you really need HD? And what about connecting to your home network? Find the right product for you with our media centre reviews!
Régis Jehl
Updated: January 17, 2012
Updated: January 17, 2012
Our Tests
We use two separate tests: the DigitalVersus test and the DivX test. Each method involves a battery of videos, photos and music encoded in a variety of formats. We make sure that HD videos play as well as high-res photos. We also use DVDs and Blu-rays (RIP and ISO).
We also check the interface, the options available and the remote control, as well as extra features like network connectivity, Wi-Fi and the screen to make sure they're all useful and well managed.
We also check the interface, the options available and the remote control, as well as extra features like network connectivity, Wi-Fi and the screen to make sure they're all useful and well managed.
A whole load of media centres are now available, with new features including LCD displays, Wi-Fi connectivity, recording capabilities and digital TV tuners. Some go even further, with advanced web features such as BitTorrent clients or access to online content from YouTube and Picasa among other things.
What should I look out for?
The first thing you should look for if you're thinking about buying one of these devices is which file formats it actually supports. A good multimedia player should be able to handle HD video, encoded either as an H.264 file or AVCHD from a digital camera or camcorder. But that's not all; you also need to make sure it can handle high-resolution photos and supports advanced audio codecs like DTS, Dolby Digital, FLAC and OGG.
Don't forget about the interface either: it should be fast, visually attractive and, above all, user-friendly. Look for some extra features too, like displaying photo thumbnails album covers or film art with extra info like plot summaries.
Finally, you need to think about what you want to use the product for: do you need a digital TV tuner for watching and recording TV channels? If you do, make sure you check whether it's an SD or a HD tuner, as you'll need a DVB-T2 tuner to pick up HD channels in the UK. If you're looking for a networked device, make sure it can access video on remote computers using the NAS and UPnP standards. And if music is important to you, you'll want to check you can use the LCD screen on the front to access your tunes without turning on the TV.
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Reviews: Media Centres
