The most recent articles from Active Home

A cinema in your home

Active Home Staff — 2006-10-27T00:00:00.000Z

Active Home Staff, Active Home, Friday 27 October 2006 at 00:00:00

Bring the cinema home with high-definition projectors

Eyeing up the latest flat-screen TVs is an addictive business but there’s another, more cinematic way to get HD into your front room. Projectors are smaller and lighter than a TV and can put an image measuring over 300in on your wall. In fact, more often than not you’re likely to run out of screen or wall space to project the image onto before the projector’s optics reach their limit.

Sony’s commitment to HD is obvious with its VPL-VW50 and VPL-VW100 projectors. Packed with features such as high contrast ratio of up to 15,000:1, and support for full 1080p resolution, the VPL-VW50 brings entertainment to life.

The All Range Crisp Focus (ARC-F) lens, Real Colour Processor (RCP) enhance colours and images, while an ultra-quiet fan and an improved lamp life help to create the cinema experience in the comfort of your own home.

At the higher end of the HD spectrum is the VPL-VW100. With a contrast ratio up to 15,000:1 and 1080p resolution, HD content looks the best it possibly can. The high-quality Sony 400W Pure Xenon Lamp provides equal brightness output for each of the primary colours – red, green and blue, which are used to produce the trillions of colours displayed on screen.

The projector’s Advanced Iris technology also helps to improve images by constantly adjusting the iris diameter, so images in bright scenes are crisp and clear while black levels in dark scenes are deep and detailed. The VPL-VW100 is also designed to be ultra quiet, boasting an output of just 22dB.

PlayStation 3 redefines home gaming

Since its launch in 1994, the PlayStation’s success has been remarkable and it changed the face of console gaming. Twelve years later and Sony is about to push the limit of gaming again with the PlayStation 3 (PS3).

Due out in early 2007, this next-generation console won’t just wow people with high-definition graphics and hi-fidelity sound but will also install a Blu-ray player into the home of every owner. This fact alone is exciting enough, but what other features does it have up its sleeve?

The PlayStation 3 has a network port for direct broadband connection that will allow multiplayer gaming and access to PS3-specific content. There’s also a Bluetooth adapter, which is used to talk to the brand new controllers.

For that pure HD experience there’s an HDMI output and a digital optical output for connecting to a surround-sound decoder. The PS3 can output video up to 1080p, currently the highest form of HD.

Two models will be available, both with a Blu-ray player and the same processor, graphics and sound options. The 60GB model will come with a memory card reader and Wifi. The 20GB will be cheaper but will lack the memory card slots and Wifi (a USB memory card slot can be added).

The iconic controller retains the same shape and design but now includes an extra ‘PS’ button for returning to the home menu and turning the PS3 on or off. Motion-sensing technology enables six axes of control and there are also trigger-style L2 and R2 buttons.

The new wireless controllers can be charged directly from the PS3 by using the USB connectors. Finally, the port indicator shows when the controller is assigned to one of the PS3’s seven ports.

Game-wise the PS3 will have new titles to choose from including Warhawk, Eye of Judgement and Heavenly Sword. It’s also backwards compatible with older PlayStation and PS2 titles.

Review: Roadstar LCD8082DTV

Anna Lagerkvist — 2006-10-05T00:00:00.000Z

Anna Lagerkvist, Active Home, Thursday 5 October 2006 at 00:00:00

Access Freeview channels on the go with this handheld TV

Portable LCD TVs have come a long way in the past few years, as is evident in Roadstar’s recently released batch of stylish new handheld sets. So, we got our hands on the 8in screen model to test out.

The Roadstar LCD8082D is compact enough to fit into a bag (or even very large pockets), making it an ideal companion for holidaymakers, regardless of whether you go camping or on a charter holiday. The size of the screen means that, overall, the unit is just slightly bigger than an A5-size sheet of paper.

It has a digital tuner for accessing Freeview TV channels, along with a range of digital radio stations. After connecting the digital TV antenna, the automatic scan kicks in. Within a minute or so, it presented some 40 TV channels and 25 digital radio stations for us to explore.

A multi-analogue tuner is also built in, in case you’re out and about in an area that isn’t yet covered by Freeview, or abroad. You also get a range of built-in games.

The 8in LCD screen is crisp and clear. The 4:3 aspect ratio is a bit of a shame and means users will miss out on some of the benefits of Freeview and Teletext, while still viewing a miniature window of the TV programme currently tuned in. Still, overall the image is first class.

The sound is powerful but gets tinny when on max. We found that when watching or listening in a normal office or home environment, it is perfectly adequate to keep the volume settings to about a fifth of what the 8082D can actually churn out. The supplied earphones are decent, but not fantastic.

There are also useful functions, such as an electronic programme guide (EPG), so you can check out what programmes are due to be shown on a particular channel up to a week in advance. The built-in parental control function can be set so that certain channels can only be accessed by keying in a PIN.

Weighing in at just under a kilo, it can be operated from the mains, the supplied 12v in-car DC source, or batteries. It is easy to use, with intuitive menus and good reception.

Review: Humax HDCI-2000 PVR

Will Stapley — 2006-09-29T00:00:00.000Z

Will Stapley, Active Home, Friday 29 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Feed your HD display with the content it craves, without getting Sky involved

If you’re the proud owner of an HD-Ready display, but don’t fancy forking out for a Sky+ high-definition box and subscription, Humax has an alternative for you.

The HDCI-2000 will hook up to a satellite signal (this can be via a Sky digital dish or other digital satellite) and receive free-to-air broadcasts.

Thanks to the HDMI port at the rear, it’s perfectly capable of handling HD channels, but at present you’re limited to BBC HD on the ‘gratis’ front. If you fancy realigning your dish to a satellite other than Astra, further HD broadcasts can be uncovered.

The box itself isn’t particularly stylish: the LED display looks distinctly retro, while the remote is bulky and unattractive. Navigating the menus is a bit fiddly and falls far short of Sky’s excellent interface. The EPG is also disappointing, cutting off names of channels and taking a long time to populate.

Initial installation wasn’t tricky and basically involved hooking up the satellite cable to the back of the Humax HDCI-2000. The satellite signal can be looped through to a second digital set-top box if required.

However, it soon became apparent the Firmware needed to be updated before BBC HD could be received. With a USB socket sitting on the front of the HDCI-2000, we hoped this would be a relatively simple process.

Sadly, it wasn’t. The only way to update the HDCI-2000’s firmware is via an old-fashioned RS232 null-modem cable connection to your PC – something that’s so out of date we were confronted with blank looks when trying to hunt one down on the high street.

After finally updating the firmware, we then had to manually hunt down the BBC HD channel.

Despite the fiddly setup, we were suitably impressed when watching BBC HD via HDMI. Various programmes, such as ‘EastEnders’, are upscaled to HD, but you only really see the difference during true HD broadcasts: the World Cup and Wimbledon were two recent events to get the full HD treatment.

With the sparse availablility of free HD broadcasts, the HDCI-2000 is an expensive way to get a small taste of the future. But, if your HD display is crying out for content and you don’t want to be tied to a subscription, you might just be able to justify the price tag.

Review: Sharp Aquos LC-32P70E LCD TV

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-09-27T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Active Home, Wednesday 27 September 2006 at 00:00:00

An interesting alternative to the high definition ready route

When looking to buy a new TV set, most people would recommend one with the HD-Ready logo.

However, there currently isn’t a huge amount of real high definition material out there to watch. Most of us are stuck with standard-definition pictures from our DVD players, video recorders and Freeview programmes. And not all HD-Ready TVs are good at displaying SD material.

Sharp’s P70 series is a bold attempt by the manufacturer to fly in the face of the HD phenomenon, with a product that’s specifically designed to make SD source material look good on screen. And it does a fine job of it, too.

In our tests, the Sharp LC-32P70E gave an excellent picture on digital TV channels from its built-in Freeview tuner. Skin tones were natural and colours were rich but realistic.

DVDs, too, looked crisp and colourful over RGB Scart, and we detected virtually none of the motion blurring that occurs on some LCD screens. Even analogue TV looked good compared with other sets we’ve seen.

The LC-32P70E’s strong SD performance is largely down to the panel’s resolution. At just 960x540 pixels, the screen is able to produce a better SD picture without much scaling or stretching.

An HDCP-enabled HDMI socket is present, as is VGA and a component video-to-VGA adaptor. As such, the set is technically compatible with HD, although it downscales the HD image to fit the panel’s lower resolution.

Our tests prove that the LC-32P70E isn’t necessarily the best performer with HD input. When we fed the TV with 720p and 1080i footage, the results looked a bit harsh and grainy over HDMI.

Sadly, Sharp already appears to have started phasing out the P70 series in favour of an all HD-Ready lineup. This is a great shame, as it’s a genuinely good set, but you might be able to pick one up for song.

Review: Sonos ZP80

Anthony Dhanendran — 2006-09-25T00:00:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Active Home, Monday 25 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Sonos aims to make its award-wining music-streaming system more affordable

The original Sonos music system was a real turning point in digital home technology. It was the first time an audio-streaming device really looked the part.

Like Apple’s iPod – and not without a nod to its design – the Sonos ZP100 and its accessories looked like something most people would want to have in their living rooms (and in the rest of the house).

To add to that, it sounded great, worked without a fault and was easy to set up. The only drawback, and it was a big one, was the price – close to £1,000 for the most basic setup. Thankfully, Sonos has remedied that with the follow-up – the ZP80.

The way the Sonos works is that you buy one or more ZonePlayers, which are then dotted around the house and connected to an amp or speakers.

Add in one or more wireless controllers and one or more PCs, and you have a system that streams music directly from a PC, pumps it out around the house and allows you to control it wirelessly. Apart from the first ZonePlayer in the chain, none of them need to be wired to a network either.

The ZP80 is a cut-down version of the ZP100 – it’s smaller and more compact. The main difference, other than that, is that it can’t output directly to standard speakers because there’s no built-in amplifier.

You need to connect each ZP80 to an amp or powered speakers. The bundle we tested comes with a pair of ZP80s – although it will work with one – and the same wireless controller as in the original system.

Other than that, things are much as before. Plug it in and it works, and the easy-to-follow setup guides are still there if things go wrong.

The Sonos supports mp3, WMA, Ogg, and other popular audio formats, but won’t play anything that’s been copy-protected with DRM. Sound quality remains excellent – although this will of course depend on the quality of the amp and speakers used.

Review: Evesham V27DMCX-ZE3

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-09-21T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Active Home, Thursday 21 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Is Evesham’s latest HDTV guilty of stretching the definition?

The Evesham V27DMCX-ZE3 is a not quite high definition-ready LCD TV with a 27in screen and at £500, it’s less expensive than many 26in alternatives.

The set doesn’t meet the criteria required to sport the infamous HD-Ready logo, but has a curious HDTV symbol displayed on its bezel.

In the absence of both HDMI and DVI inputs, it transpires that the set will accept HD format images (720p and 1080i) via its VGA socket. A component video adaptor is provided for a more widely accepted HD connection.

Currently, many HD-compatible devices – such as Sky HD, Xbox 360 and some upscaling DVD players – come with component connections, but this is likely to change as more manufacturers start to promote the copy-protection aspect of digital interfaces such as HDMI.

In our tests, results with the VGA/component adaptor were mixed. We had intermittent success with an upscaling DVD player, although occasionally the TV seemed to have problems registering the connection. More reliable was a straight VGA connection to a PC.

We still had to do quite a bit of tweaking, both on the set and in the computer’s display adaptor settings, but eventually we had a bright, sharp display at 1280x768 pixel resolution.

Picture quality is actually pretty good. There’s no real noticeable motion blur, edges are sharp and the viewing angle is extremely wide. Colours look a bit bleached out via the PC input, but manual backlight and colour temperature settings offer good picture quality control.

The Evesham V27DMCX-ZE3 has plenty of problems, though. There’s no built-in Freeview tuner and it doesn’t have separate settings for individual inputs, so changing picture settings while watching a TV station will affect the settings for DVD inputs. That said, picture quality is surprisingly good for a TV of this price.

Review: InFocus IN76

John Archer — 2006-09-18T00:00:00.000Z

John Archer, Active Home, Monday 18 September 2006 at 00:00:00

After a surprisingly long absence, InFocus returns to the projector fray with a vengeance

Once upon a time, InFocus ruled the home projection market with its extensive and oft-updated Screenplay range. But then it all went a bit quiet. Until now.

InFocus’ return to the UK scene makes an impact on a number of fronts. For starters, the Screenplay sub-brand has gone, leaving the new model simply called the InFocus IN76.

Next, the slightly drab aesthetics of InFocus projectors of past is replaced by a striking, almost circular, design finished in glossy black and silver, and handily mounted on a rotating, tilting foot.

Connections, meanwhile, prove outstanding for a sub-£2K projector, including as they do two separate digital video inputs, plus options for PC, component video, S-video and USB.

The IN76’s claimed specifications read well too – especially the HD-Ready native DLP resolution of 1280x720, a strong contrast ratio of 3000:1, and an unusually high brightness of 1000 ANSI Lumens.

The video-processing engine looks the business, too. It’s a 10-bit affair from acclaimed third-party outfit Pixelworks, and as such can take in and work with the 1080p HD format being promised for Blu-ray discs.

Getting the IN76 ready for action is straightforward considering what a sophisticated projector it is. The remote control, for instance, is backlit and well laid out.

That jointed foot, meanwhile, makes it easy to get a picture on your screen, no matter how weirdly shaped your living room. And the on-screen menus never blind you with science or overburden you with scrappy sub-menus.

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of features to play with, though. For instance, you can adjust the gamma levels, the white peaking settings, fleshtones, a noise-reduction system, the colour temperature and the red, green and blue components of the image individually. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

So, has InFocus been idly twiddling its thumbs in the protracted period since its last new projector? Most certainly not.

The most immediate impact of its classy pictures comes from their sheer clarity. There is practically no sign of any sort of video noise anywhere.

DLP technology’s common troubles with fizzing noise over horizontal motion and green dotting in dark areas seem a thing of the past: fine details look devoid of colour moiré; sharp edges are free of shiny echoes or jaggedness; and general unpleasantness like grain or dot crawl has all gone.

There are sporadic flashes of DLP’s tell-tale colour striping in your peripheral vision, but this occurs far less commonly than is usual for a sub-£2K projector.

All this image cleanliness leaves you more free to enjoy, and get lost in, the other strengths of the IN76’s pictures – strengths which include some outstanding black levels able to render dark parts of a film with total confidence and a superb degree of subtle shading.

Colours are also more natural in tone and well saturated than we’re used to seeing in the affordable end of DLP/LCD projections. And the Pixelworks scaling engine works its magic to deliver both a superbly sharp picture with HD sources and an outstandingly clean standard-definition image.

Such a talented scaling system frankly has no business being on a projector as cheap as £1,700.

If you’re looking for a top-class movie projector that punches absolutely miles above its price weight, your bucks should stop here.

Review: Sony Bravia KDL-40V2000 LCD TV

John Archer — 2006-09-15T00:00:00.000Z

John Archer, Active Home, Friday 15 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Sony’s latest Bravia range rolls into town with its best 40in LCD TV yet

Call us demanding, but we haven’t been entirely blown away by Sony’s flat TVs just lately. They’ve certainly not been awful, but they’ve failed to lead the way as we might have hoped from the world’s most trusted electronics brand.

However, if the amount of sheer innovation it carries is anything to go by, then Sony’s Bravia KDL-40V2000 could be about to change all that.

At 40in, it’s Sony’s second-biggest LCD TV in the V series, but it wears its size extremely well, combining a robust build quality with a stylish black finish.

Considering the V series is in the middle of Sony’s latest range, though, it’s a shame we find one rather than two HDMI inputs, and two rather than three Scarts. You do get an analogue PC jack and HD-capable component video inputs, though.

The 40V2000’s features are dominated by those innovations we mentioned at the start.

Up first there’s a new Live Colour Creation system, comprising a new backlight system that emits light more efficiently and enjoys improved phosphor design, and a new colour processing engine. LCC apparently allows the set to reproduce about 25 per cent more of the visible colour spectrum.

The processing part of Live Colour Creation is part of a wider new Sony image-processing system dubbed Bravia Engine. This is the first image-processing suite Sony has designed exclusively for LCD TVs, and it offers such tricks as adding more fine detail, souping up colours, and applying a host of sophisticated noise-reduction techniques.

The last big innovation of the 40V2000 is Super Vertical Pattern Alignment, a new construction technique that uses subdivisions inside each pixel to refract backlight over a wider area.

Also worth mentioning is a fully featured digital tuner, gamma correction, an option for reducing Mpeg blocking noise found on some digital broadcasts, contrast enhancement, and the facility to perk up bright whites.

After witnessing the 40V2000 in action, we’re happy to report that its various new features aren’t just clever marketing spin. Immediately striking, for instance, is how sharp the picture is.

Every last dot of HD image information is gloriously rendered, giving HD pictures superb texture and an exceptional sense of depth. But standard definition reaps the benefits of the Bravia Engine, too, as detail levels are enhanced with few, if any, processing side effects.

The 40V2000 also portrays deeper and more believable black levels than not only any previous Sony LCD, but also most large-screen LCD TVs full stop.

As for Live Colour Creation, it helps this set produce colours that combine the sort of extreme vibrancy we know LCD can deliver, with a tonal range that’s unusual for both its breadth and its naturalism.

The Super Vertical Pattern Alignment earns its corn, too, as pictures watched from even extreme angles retain far more colour and contrast than normal.

For all Sony’s efforts, though, the 40V2000’s pictures aren’t perfect. Even Live Colour Creation can’t stop some deep reds looking orangey. Also, boldly contrasting edges look overstressed at times, and motion is fractionally susceptible to LCD’s response time smearing.

But, in the great scheme of things, picture quality really is first class.

It’s not just the pictures that do the business either, as raucous action scenes find the set’s speakers combining raw power and deep bass handling with the sorts of treble delicacy usually only found with a separates system. Outstanding!

With the 40V2000, Sony has delivered an LCD that sets a benchmark for its rivals. And although Sony gave us a list price of £2,000, we found it for a lot less online.

Review: Sony LocationFree

Jonathan Parkyn — 2006-09-13T00:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Active Home, Wednesday 13 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Watch your home TV and video anywhere around the world on your PC or PlayStation Portable

Only a few months ago, the notion of having your home TV and video beamed to you wherever you are on the planet would have sounded like science fiction.

Very quickly though, there are now two products that claim to do that very thing – Sling Media’s Slingbox and Sony’s LocationFree.

While the Slingbox can be relatively confident about backing up its claims, it seems like the future might still be a little way off for Sony.

As with the Slingbox, LocationFree connects to your Sky+, cable, Freeview box or DVD recorder and uses an infrared device to provide ‘remote’ remote control.

It has built-in wireless to communicate locally, but can also be connected via a router to the internet in order to send what’s on the box at home to either a mobile PC or PlayStation Portable console.

The main difference is that LocationFree doesn’t have its own built-in Freeview tuner and can only be used with one PC at a time, unless you pay £20 to register another system.

In terms of design, LocationFree is certainly the more sober of the two devices. A plain, slate-grey box about the size of two DVD boxes stacked together, the unit makes nothing like the kind of visual statement that its rival does.

And, depending on your point of view, this might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Unfortunately, this is about the only aspect where the LocationFree compares favourably. While the Slingbox is certainly no cinch to set up, for instance, getting going with LocationFree proved – in our case anyway – something of a nightmare.

After several days, multiple calls to helpdesk staff (who told us they were still awaiting proper LocationFree training and refused to provide any support for PlayStation Portable users at the time of writing), our main problem seemed to be compatibility issues with our router and ISP.

We were able to sort it out in the end, but not before we had been thoroughly frustrated by both the complexity of setting up the system and the lack of decent help available.

After the blood, sweat and tears, the actual on-screen picture was a bit of a let down, particularly on the PC. While watchable, it was quite blocky and, for some reason, it was impossible to switch to anything other than the default aspect ratio, which meant that widescreen programmes were displayed incorrectly.

On our PlayStation Portable, things were a bit better. The small-screen picture looked less blocky and programmes were displayed in the right format.

Again, it wasn’t the easiest of interfaces to work with, but then PlayStation Portable owners are already used to slightly awkward controls in many of the device’s built-in media applications.

We didn’t particularly enjoy our time with the LocationFree player. Admittedly, if and when you finally get it working, it’s pretty cool – particularly on a PlayStation Portable – but with far too many flaws and severely limited support, we find it very hard to recommend.

For the moment, if you’re looking for a way to keep up with local TV and watch your video collection anywhere in the world, Slingbox is the way to go. Poor pictures, limited options and poor support (at the time of writing) means Sony really must try harder with this one.

Also consider:

Sling Media Slingbox

A fantastic piece of modern technology, but you’ll need a fast broadband connection to really put it to good use

£180

4/5

Review: Sling Media Slingbox

Luke Peters — 2006-09-12T00:00:00.000Z

Luke Peters, Active Home, Tuesday 12 September 2006 at 00:00:00

Watch your home TV anywhere in the world

For some time now, it has been possible to watch TV on a computer: just plug a TV tuner into a USB port, tune in to digital (Freeview) channels and away you go.

In fact, Windows Media Center Edition does this by default, and even lets your PC record programmes, so what’s so special about Sling Media’s Slingbox?

Well, rather than transforming a computer into a TV, the Slingbox connects to your satellite, cable or PVR receiver, and allows you to watch and control them from any computer with a broadband connection.

Getting the Slingbox up and running was fairly straightforward. On the back of the device are S-video and audio inputs to which you run cables from the corresponding outputs of your Sky, cable or PVR receiver. All the cables are supplied.

If you haven’t got Sky, cable or a PVR, the Slingbox has an integrated digital TV tuner, so you can access Freeview by plugging in an aerial.

So that your device can be controlled remotely, a pair of infrared sensors need to fit around the front, in line with your preferred device’s IR sensor. Finally, a network cable needs to run from the Slingbox into a free Ethernet port of your router.

Unfortunately, the Slingbox isn’t a wireless device and will need to be permanently connected to the router.

Next in the installation process is for your Slingbox to be detected on your home network. Thankfully, the Slingbox uses UPnP (universal plug and play), which means your computer should recognise it automatically.

However, we first had to disable our computer’s software firewall for detection to happen. Naturally, we ensured our router’s firewall was activated later on. While not 100 per cent trouble-free, setup was far better than our experience with Sony’s similar product – LocationFree.

Lastly, install the SlingPlayer software on the computer you wish to stream to. Here, a set-up wizard will ask you to enter your unique username and password, and ask what device you have connected so it can install the matching remote control.

We hooked up our Sky+ box and in return got an identical, albeit virtual, Sky+ remote control on our desktop. Then it’s a case of hitting the connect button to watch whatever is being broadcast into your home. In two words: very clever.

Picture quality depends on how fast your internet upstream is at home and the internet speed of the computer you’re using. Sling Media recommends a minimum upstream of at least 256Kbit/s, which will display a window about half the size of a 17in monitor.

The overall image is very blocky, which is intensified up close. However, step back a few feet and picture quality improves. Audio is very clear and always keeps up with the moving image.

One of the best things is being able to control your Slingbox just like you would your TV at home. For instance, we could access our Sky planner, watch recorded shows, set programmes to record and pause live TV – and all this from anywhere with a broadband connection.

Yes, picture quality may be some way off perfect, but there’s no denying how impressive this technology is. The only downside is that two people can’t watch different things simultaneously.

So if you’re away and want to watch the footie, and the kids want to watch Nickelodeon, you’ll have to pull rank.

For a £180 one-off fee, Slingbox offers excellent value for money, especially considering how much Sony is charging for its LocationFree player and registration.

NetGem iPlayer+

Active Home staff — 2005-06-14T00:00:00.000Z

Active Home staff, Active Home, Tuesday 14 June 2005 at 00:00:00

A Freeview TV box that can surf the web,send emails and receive SMS messages

Freeview, as many of you will already know, is a way of getting a crystal-clear digital TV picture and dozens of new digital TV channels for a one-off fee by buying either a Freeview-enabled digital TV or by adding a Freeview box to your existing TV. The iPlayer+ is one such box, whose interesting features set it apart from its rivals.

The first thing to mention is its seven-day EPG (Electronic Programme Guide), which contains TV listings in a grid-style layout. This makes navigating through the maze of new channels far easier, and even allows you to set a reminder (or a recording, providing you have a VCR or standalone DVD recorder) for any programme within the next seven days. You can also splash out £28 for a Top Up TV card(www.topuptv.com), which will add a whole host of new channels to your iPlayer+ for one month. Each additional month of viewing is £8.

The iPlayer+ has an Ethernet port, so can connect to the internet via a wired or Wi-Fi network. This means that you can browse internet pages through your TV using the remote control or an optional keyboard (£25). There’s also an iPlayer website, which isspecific to the player and contains links to services such as shopping sites, news and games. However, features such as media streaming are limited, and the iPlayer+ won’t play anything in Real Player or Windows Media Player formats.

The iPlayer+ also has a telephone socket that – providing you have a BT line with caller ID, SMS text and answerphone services activated – will allow you to see who is calling you, to send and receive SMS text messages or emails, all from your TV. Another neat trick is its ability to play digital media files from a USB drive. Just plug it in and you’ll be

able to watch movies, view photos and listen to digital music. If you’re connected to a home network, you can also stream media files directly to the TV.

On the back of the player are two SCART sockets and an S/PDIF digital audio output for connecting to a hi-fi. This has a lot of bells and whistles for the money, although noteveryone will need all the extras that the iPlayer+ has to offer.

Harman Multimedia Encounter Speakers

Active Home staff — 2005-06-14T00:00:00.000Z

Active Home staff, Active Home, Tuesday 14 June 2005 at 00:00:00

Impressive 2.1 speaker system that breaks from the norm

If you want a set of speakers that stand out from the crowd, take a look at Harman Multimedia’s Encounter set. It consists of a 34-Watt sub-woofer and two 13-Watt alien-style satellite speakers – all in a white plastic casing.

The packaging and literature that accompany the Encounter speakers would have you believe they’re only compatible with Apple equipment – a variety of icons informs you it can be used with iPods, iMacs, iBooks etc. But, since it uses a standard mini stereo line-in socket, these speakers can easily be hooked up to a PC, media centre, MP3 player or just about any other sound source.

Setting up the speakers is no problem at all. A step-by-step guide is offered, but there’s really no need for it since all the sockets and plugs are clearly labelled. Things don’t get particularly complicated in terms of operation, either. Bass and treble dials arehoused on the rear of the subwoofer, while volume is adjusted using two touch-sensitive controls on the right satellite speaker.

As far as sound quality is concerned, we were suitably impressed. We supplied the Encounter speakers with a variety of audio sources from spoken word through to full-on dance tracks. Throughout all of the tests, the speakers coped admirably. Occasionally it was a struggle to stop the subwoofer from drowning out tracks in a sea of bass, but on the whole it was a well-balanced mix.

While the bizarre design is most definitely eye-catching, whether or not you’d want these speakers sitting in your lounge is another matter, and the novelty of the aliens-tyle satellite speakers may soon wear off. What’s more, £150 is a fair

amount to spend on a basic three-speaker set. Nevertheless, if you like the unusual design, the 2.1 Encounter set from Harman Multimedia is worth considering and is capable of producing decent sounds.

NEC HT410

Active home staff — 2005-06-07T00:00:00.000Z

Active home staff, Active Home, Tuesday 7 June 2005 at 00:00:00

It's nice to look at and will cost you less than a grand, but does NEC's DLP projector shine in a home cinema setup?

With its shiny white casing and attractive curved design, the HT410 from NEC is a projector that's clearly built for living room use.

It's also one of the cheaper DLP projectors. The HT410 features a native widescreen (16:9) resolution of 854 x 480 pixels and is able to project an image from 30in right up to 200in.

A vast array of connection opportunities are offered on the right side of the projector. Along with the standard VGA-in, you also get S-Video, component and composite video inputs, although DVI input isn’t supported. Thanks to the included composite-to-Scart converter cable, which is accompanied by a plethora of other cables, hooking up a DVD player is no problem at all.

Quick-access buttons, such as volume and video source, are placed on the top of the projector. A rather crude but effective stand can be pulled out at the front of the unit to alter the vertical projection angle, while a rear tilt stand allows you to quickly adjust horizontal positioning.

If you find that the vertical stand can't quite provide a steep enough angle, the lens shift function comes to the rescue. Using a manual dial, it's possible to alter the vertical angle of the lens without having to place a couple of dictionaries underneath the projector. Horizontal lens shift, however, isn't offered.

In terms of image quality, the HT410 performed just about as we expected. It can't match up to more expensive models when it comes to reproducing colours faithfully, and it also struggled to produce a bright display in well-lit conditions. But as a budget projector we were fairly impressed overall.

NEC has included an interesting function that aims to let you project the image at just about any wall, regardless of its colour. The HT410's colour correction then attempts to compensate for the wall's particular hue. Sadly, during testing this actually had little effect on anything but very faintly coloured walls.

However, we were impressed by the quietness of the fan. Despite producing a bright 1,000 lumen display, it still remained impressively quiet, operating at between 26dB and 28dB.

The remote control is small yet well designed. Usual functions such as aspect ratio, picture freeze and keystone correction are all available, while a red backlight can be activated for use in the dark.

If you're a first-time projector buyer but want to keep costs down, the NEC HT410 is definitely a model worth considering. It's attractively designed, produces a decent image and it's incredibly quiet.

Yamaha Digital Sound Projector YSP-1

Active Home staff — 2005-06-06T00:00:00.000Z

Active Home staff, Active Home, Monday 6 June 2005 at 00:00:00

Equip your living room with surround sound – from just one speaker unit

If you’ve got a DVD player and want your films to sound like they do in the cinema, a 5.1 surround-sound speaker system is essential. The 5.1 bit refers to five speakers and one subwoofer, each of which needs to be connected to a digital decoder with speaker cable. If you’ve got a large room, this can get messy, and the last thing you want is to be tripping over wires, or ripping up your carpet to lay cables under the floor.

However, a solution can be found in the shape of the Yamaha YSP-1, which claims to be capable of delivering 5.1 sound through just one unit. There are other poducts that profess surround-sound capabilities using just one, two or three speakers, but these often sound flat and produce something that is far from the encircling audio effect promised. But it seems Yamaha has broken new ground with the YSP-1. It looks – and is built – like nothing we’ve seen before, and is even called something different, describing itself as a sound ‘projector’ rather than just a plain old speaker system. But how does it actually work? Behind the grille of the metre-wide YSP-1 is a combination of 42 independently powered speakers.

A digital sound processing circuit inside the machine controls when each speaker emits sound and in which direction. Sound is not only projected directly at the listener but is also bounced off the walls, which allows sound to be heard from the front, sides and back. So, a plane flying overhead will sound like its coming from behind, and a voice calling from afar will sound like it’s coming from the other side of the room.

The YSP-1 has also been designed to work in a variety of sound modes depending on room layout and what you’re listening to. The 5-Beam Mode bounces sound around three walls of a room (left, right and rear) to give the impression of five audio channels (frontleft, front-right, centre, surround left and surround right). Stereo Mode will project two channels of sound directly at the listener (like a normal stereo), and 3-Beam Mode uses the left and right walls to produce three channels of sound (left, right and centre).The final Stereo + 3-Beam Mode is used when the YSP-1 is positioned in a corner of a room and, like 5-Beam Mode, projects five channels of sound.

In each mode tested, we experienced excellent sound reproduction and, when in 3 and 5-Beam Modes, a great surround sound effect. While it’s not ‘true’ 5.1 surround sound, it’s still light years ahead of its competitors, and is vastly better than many pseudo-surround sound devices we’ve seen. It can’t deliver thunderous bass as there’s no dedicated subwoofer, but the 120-Watt audio is extremely clear, especially in the centre channel, which is mostly used for dialogue. There’s a socket on the back of the YSP-1 for attaching a separate subwoofer, but this will add an extra couple of hundred quid onto the asking price. The only hitch is that the room you use must be relatively free of clutter, so the sound can be projected off walls without anything getting in the way.

Setting up the speaker is very easy. Its shape has been designed to fit under 42in plasma televisions, and it can also be wall-mounted using an optional hanging bracket (£45). Nevertheless, it also has its own integrated stand, so will sit quite happily in front of any television. It has a digital 5.1 decoder built in, so all you have to do is connect it to your DVD player or Sky box using a digital connection and the YSP-1 will automatically detect what audio format the film uses. The most common formats are Dobly Digital and DTS and surround sound, although it will also support, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6.

The YSP-1 has two optical digital input sockets and one coaxial digital input. Providing your DVD player has a corresponding digital output socket in either of these formats, you’ll be sorted for sound. As well as the discrete LCD display on the front of the YSP-1, there’s also a videoout socket on the rear of the unit to connect to a television where you can tinker with the various on-screen display (OSD) settings. Here you can follow the Easy Setup guide to select your room type and size (small,medium or large). We found the process simple to follow, and had it up and running very quickly.

The playback source will be displayed on the front LCD screen, and the YSP-1 will automatically select the most suitable audio format depending on what you are listening to. However, it’s possible to manually change this using the remote

control. You can also select a nifty Night mode, which improves listenability at quieter volumes. You can use this mode when watching films and listening to CDs, which should keep the neighbours happy. Other sockets on the rear of the YSP-1 include a System Connector jack (used to attach a Yamaha-branded subwoofer) and two sets of phono inputs for TV and VCR. All cables are included.

As a surround-sound speaker system, the YSP-1 is excellent and easily the best example of a single-source 5.1 device. The simplicity of setup really stands out, and the fact that you don’t have to attach five separate speakers or tangle yourself up in metres of unsightly cable is a pleasant reprieve. Audiophiles will most likely baulk at the idea of the YSP-1, as it’s not ‘true’ 5.1 sound. The fact that you’ll need a separate subwoofer to complete the package may put off other users, too. But as an all-in-one package that includes a digital decoder and support for five audio sources, the YSP-1 is just fine in our book, and well priced considering the technology involved.

Did you know?

For a long time, 5.1 digital surround sound has been the mainstay of DVD movie audio. The combination of left, right, centre and two surround speakers gives an excellent experience of all-encompassing sound and adds a sense of realism to films.

However, new formats have emerged that add extra audio channels to the fold. Six and seven-point audio systems (6.1 and 7.1) have been developed that add additional speakers to the rear, which helps to immerse the listener even more. However,the extra channels aren’t ‘true’ digital audio and will have been mixed by a processor to create the impression of one or two extra channels.

DTS Neo:6 is a surround sound format, designed to be used with films and music. It uses the DTS-ES (Extended Surround) format and decoders that support this format will make audio adjustments to incorporate extra satellite speakers.

LaCie Silverscreen 80Gb

Active Home staff — 2005-05-31T14:55:04.000Z

Active Home staff, Active Home, Tuesday 31 May 2005 at 14:55:04

Enjoy a variety of digital media files on your television

Your computer's hard disk is probably packed with movies, music and photos. However, unless you have a media streaming device or an endless supply of blank CDs and DVDs, it's likely that most of the media stored on your PC will only be enjoyed when you're sitting at your desktop.

The LaCie Silverscreen reverses this logic and allows you to watch digital video, view digital photos and listen to digital music on a TV or through a hi-fi. Inside its tiny shell is an 80Gb hard disk, where you can dump hundreds of video, music and image files. Just copy media from your PC to the Silverscreen via a USB 2 port, then connect the device to a TV using the Scart or composite cables.

Using the remote control, you will be able to browse and play files on-screen. The Silverscreen also has a digital audio-out socket for connecting to 5.1 decoders and hi-fis. It supports all the common video, image and audio formats, including DivX and MP3, but won't recognise protected audio files you may have downloaded from Napster or iTunes.

It will also play DVDs you have ripped to your hard disk, but only in the VOB format. It does, however, offer a form of video-on-demand, with the option of hopping online to rent or buy DivX movies from the DivX website.

Of course, playback quality is dependent on the quality of the original. On the whole, we found our DivX movies looked much better than they would have done if played from a VHS tape. Audio is also very good, especially when hooked up to a good sound system. The best thing about it, though, is its quiet operation - it's almost silent.

However, if you have or plan to add Wi-Fi capabilities to your home, the Silverscreen is a bit pointless; a media streaming device such as the D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Server will do the job without the hassle of moving files from one hard disk to another.

Contact:

LaCie 020 7233 8338

www.lacie.com/uk

Specifications:

80Gb hard disk
USB 2
Scart/Component video
Analogue audio out
Coaxial and optical digital audio out
Supports:MPEG-1,MPEG-2 (AVI,VOB,ISO), MPEG-4 (AVI, DivX, XviD), MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC (not m4a), AC3, JPEG (up to 8-megapixel)