Altinex, a leading manufacturer of modular AV solutions, have added to their line of AV control systems and jumped upon the multi-touch band wagon with the release of their MultiTouch product line.
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Archos have quickly redeemed themselves from the lackluster, dare I say failure, of the TV Plus and turned back to what they’re good at; all things portable.
But this time it’s not a new, sleeker, better model of their acclaimed multi-media players that they’re touting, but rather a GPS addon for the Archos 605 Wifi that is set to retail at £99.
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It’s a very rare occasion that I am so impressed with a product I have purchased that I decide it deserves a review. The SlingBox SOLO is one such product and the SlingBox PRO is it’s bigger brother.
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Adding another low priced laptop TV Tuner to the lineup TerraTec introduces the Cinergy T USB XXS which, as its name eludes, demands one of your precious USB ports in return for sweet, sweet digital freeview television.
If you’re a couch potato to the max and simply must have digital television on your laptop computer the Cinergy T USB XXS will do just that, it includes a remote control, ariel with suction cup and an adaptor to allow you to connect to your house roof ariel.
In my experience the roof ariel adaptor is a must, as I’ve never really been able to get a digital tuner ariel in just the right position to obtian watchable TV.
Still, at £29.99 if you want TV-to-go it’s a lot cheaper than the Slingbox Solo/Freeview Tuner setup I would opt for. You’re also likely to get a better picture, better control and, of course, a digital recorder so you can fill up your hard drive with stuff to watch on the go.
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With products ranging from £1,500 to £150,000 there’s no doubt that Meridian are a true audiophile and videophile brand. Meridian, founded in 1977, family-owned and based in Britain, manufactures everything from loudspeakers, complete music centers and home cinema systems and, until now, has done so below the radar of many of their potential customers. Now they are attempting to break into the luxury goods market and gain a higher degree of brand recognition as a company that delivers the highest possible performance gear to discerning customers and not necessarily just discerning audiophiles.
And this isn’t an unbased claim, Meridian is a multi-award winning company with much critical and industry acclaim as a world-leader in digital and analogue audio reproduction. They have some 135 awards for 156 products/innovations to date and have won the British Design Council Award for Outstanding British Products an unprecedented three times.
You can visit www.meridian-audio.com for more information or check over the fold to learn about some of their key products.
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Godawful name aside, the GIGA DUKE hard-disk-drive based Hi-Fi offerings from Sony are actually quite attractive, at least as much as something rendered almost entirely obsolete by modern hard-disk based mp3 players and good quality speaker docks can be.
The GIGA DUKE systems are designed to archive and play back your music collection without the need for a PC, the NAS-SC55PKE system supports up to 16x CD ripping, copying to mp3 players, mobile phones and the PSP and streaming audio to any room in your house. The lesser NAS-E35HD will rip at 4x and also transfer tracks to mp3 players and mobile phones.
Both systems come with an iPod dock and will record audio from a variety of other sources automatically labelling it with track information where possible.
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For anyone concerned about noise or under/over voltage electricity supplies slowly killing the power supplies of their expensive AV hardware or power surges wiping the same out in less than a nanosecond this is the kit for you.
The IXOS XHP420 PowerStation is not your average surge protector, built to protect home audio/visual equipment that costs thousands the XHP420 puts a paltry £159.99 price tag on peace of mind.
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The Tangent Quattro Mk2 introduces FM radio in addition to streaming internet radio, an RJ45 port for those who do not have a Wi-fi network and WPA2 Wi-fi security added for those who do.
With some 9900 stations to choose from plus your normal local and national FM stations, BBC Radio On Demand, Podcasts and the ability to stream audio from your PC or Mac the only thing the Quattro Mk2 could possibly need now is an iPod dock. However, Considering the iPod is best at browsing its own music collection and that the Quattro has line inputs for mp3 players I’m not sure if it’s even lacking that.
The whole package is packed into a heavyweight wooden enclosure available in four colours that both screams “retro” and still maintains that popular modern minimalist feel.
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Dubbed the “DAV-DZ BRAVIA” range of home cinema systems these new one-box systems are designed to compliment the latest BRAVIA televisions and, as a Bravia ownr telling from the pictures alone, they appear to do the job. The DAV-DZ260, DZ560, DZ660 and DZ860w all replicate the black and silver trimmed design aesthetic of my Bravia W series.
If you were wondering what the “w” is for in DZ860w, Sony have added wireless rear speakers driven by their S-AIR wireless technology, this is great news for people who don’t want to rip up carpets to conceal cables.
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Archos have brought their portable media players to the home cinema in the form of the TV Plus, an underwhelming cluster of missed opportunities and wallet draining add-ons.
It’s very difficult to know where to start with the Archos TV+, I’ll readily admit to glancing over reviews and coverage of the device at other outlets and haven’t really found anything that scratches the surface of just how poor the TV+ actually is, and certainly not anything that makes a concerted effort to ensure consumers don’t waste their hard earned £300 on a fully loaded 250gb model. I am going to attempt to rectify this by detailing my experiences with the TV+.
I would apologize to Archos in advance for writing such a scathing, sometimes slightly exaggerated article but as they had the nerve to construct this piece of crap in the first place and somehow thought I might have something good to say about it I don’t think they deserve any such pleasantries.
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