Gadgetoid

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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The Arcam Solo Movie 2.1 is £1450 of High-end Upscaling DVD / CD / DAB Stereo Music & Home Cinema system. It boasts significantly better sound performance than the £1000 Solo Music and all the video quality of the £2000 Solo Movie 5.1. The video and upscaling hardware comes right out of Arcams £1000 players giving it 1080i video upscaling and 1080p HDMI switching.

If the video and audio performance isn’t enough to float your boat, the unit is also stunningly designed attaining minamalism without actually doing so, the fascia buttons are cunningly disguised as styling and everything is accessible without being visually overbearing.

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Building on the success of Arcam’s Solo the Solo Mini takes modern trends to their extremes and brings us a sleeker, smaller Solo that even manages to slim the price tag down to a respectable £650 sans speakers.

This miniturised version of the Solo retains all the performance of its bigger brother and sacrifices just a little loudness whilst being still powerful enough to fill a good sized room for a party or serious music listening.

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It’s official, Toshiba has backed out of the HD war leaving Blu-Ray the clear winner. This should come as no surprise to anybody who was lured into buying an Xbox 360 DVD player by the offer of 5 free HD-DVDs. As a general rule; if it sounds too good to be true, it is. I’m one of those people and I have no hard feelings, now comes the wait for the death of HD-DVD to proliferate through the industry and ensure low, low HD-DVD prices for those of us who can appreciate our limited collection for years to come.

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Paramount Pictures confirmed today that they would be extending their partnership with Microsoft to bring the films they’ve been enjoying over in the States to the UK as well.

From tomorrow the film Transformers will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store in both SD and HD alongside other Paramount blockbusters. Movies are downloaded-to-rent with Points but cost from as little as 250 (about £2) for standard definition and 280 (£3.20) for high definition.

See over the fold for a list of titles coming this spring.

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