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Reviews: Media Centres
Using a multimedia hard drive is supposed to be easy: fill it up 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 is the best for you: do you really need HD? And what about connecting to your home network?
Régis Jehl
Updated: September 01, 2010
Updated: September 01, 2010
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).
Our analysis doesn't stop there though and we also check the interface, the options available and the remote control, as well as extra features like network connectivity, WiFi and the screen to make sure they're all useful and well managed.
Our analysis doesn't stop there though and we also check the interface, the options available and the remote control, as well as extra features like network connectivity, WiFi and the screen to make sure they're all useful and well managed.
A whole range of multimedia hard drives is now available, with new features including LCD displays, WiFi connectivity, recording capability and digital TV tuners. Some go even further, with advanced web features, acting as BitTorrent clients, displaying online content from YouTube and Picasa amongst 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 a H.264 file or AVCHD from a digital camera of camcorder. But that's not all, you also need to make sure it can handle high resolution photos as well as support for the most 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, intuitive. Some extra features, like displaying photo thumbnails or displaying the covers of your favourite films with extra info like plot summaries.
Finally, you need to think about what you want to do: do you need a digital TV tuner for watching and recording TV channels? If you do, be careful about the difference between SD and HD tuners. Maybe you want a networked device? Well make sure it can access video on distant computers using the NAS and UPnP standards. And if music is important to you, you'll want to check that you can use the LCD screen on the front to access your tunes without turning on the TV.
