New Product Face-Off: Media Centres

Media centres and multimedia hard drives now have their very own home in our Product Face-Off, giving you the freedom to compare any two of the models we've tested and examine our test results.

For the past few months now, we've been busy working on a new test procedure for these products.  Covering more features and setting more demanding standards than ever before, we now check each product against over 200 different criteria.  Given the growing tendency for such products to resemble one another, we needed to find a way of separating them.

Our new procedure is now in place and has been used on all of the models we received before Christmas.  It seemed obvious to us that the next step was to go even further by giving you access to these results.  So, rather than adding even more detail to our written reviews, we've found a way to share the data with you, in our Media Centre Face-Off.

How does it work?

The Face-Off is a tool that allows you to check which audio, video and photo formats are supported on each device, but that's not everything.  We've also included the results of tests on the quality of streaming, the performance with high bitrate video and, last, but by no means least, energy consumption.


You'll also find a photo showing what happens when we ask the device to perform upscaling on a standard definition source, allowing you to see whether the quality is adversely effected when we use try playing an SD source on an HD TV.  And, no, not all products produce the same results …

To start with, we've added four products.  Two of them have just finished in the lab, while we've retested two others: the PopcornHour C-200 and the Mede8er MED500X.  As time goes by, we will add the results for other products you've told us you like, like the Dvico Tvix 6632N, and the WD TV Live.  We've asked the respective manufacturers for their products and we're looking forward to trying them out with our more demanding test procedures.

Time for a break then?

No!  We're already working on the next step.  We have several other tests to incorporate into the face-off in the next few weeks.  Once we've received some extra test equipment and set everything up correctly, we'll let you know.

> Product Face-Offs: Media Centres

> Product Survey: Multimedia Hard Drives

> Buyer's Guides: Our Pick of The Best Products