Accessories

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Gordon Kelly  |  Sep 24, 2014  |  0 comments

A few years ago Bluetooth was a dirty word in the audio market. Apple AirPlay and Wi-Fi Direct offered higher-quality, lossless, wire-free streaming and Bluetooth was reserved for budget speakers that looked bad and sounded worse. How times change. 

Steve May  |  Aug 14, 2014  |  0 comments

 

The prospect of high-performance wireless surround headphones should be a mouthwatering one for home cinema enthusiasts. After all, it’s not always possible to run your AV system at full throttle, so the idea of multichannel private listening has great appeal. 

Martin Pipe  |  Jul 16, 2014  |  0 comments

Essentially standing on the shoulders of IT giants, the Devolo dLAN 500 WiFi combines two established networking technologies – Wi-Fi and powerline – in a manner that's so obvious, I'm surprised it's not more widespread.

Mark Craven  |  Jul 15, 2014  |  0 comments

Over a decade since the launch of its iconic Evoke-1 DAB radio, Pure has moved into other areas, notably multiroom audio with its Jongo range and digital TV with the super-slick Avalon PVR. Yet the Evoke name lives on, and in its latest iteration, auditioned here, now adds Bluetooth connectivity to the usual mix of DAB radio and pleasing design. 

Martin Pipe  |  Jun 13, 2014  |  0 comments

Synology's DS214play offers all of the standard NAS functionality (including mobile device access and RAID configuration), plus the company's powerful DSM operating system and the ability to download apps that expand the unit's versatility. But the icing on the cake is audio/video transcoding, which is made possible by a dual-core processor and hardware-acceleration. Typically, trying to play something that your playback device can't handle will reward you with stubborn rejection or even a crash. The DS214play sidesteps this by converting, on-the-fly, the selected file into something that your player can cope with.

Martin Pipe  |  Mar 03, 2014  |  0 comments

Last year we reviewed the Roku LT, a cute streamer with Wi-Fi hookup, slick interface and neat handset. It offers loads of on-demand content, arranged into a grid of channels that can be added to or removed from as you choose. Among them are BBC iPlayer, Sky's NowTV, Demand 5 and Netflix.

John Archer  |  Feb 27, 2014  |  0 comments

Considering what a success the Xbox 360 has become since its 2005 launch, with its groundbreaking network play and ever-growing media portal/hub functionality, the Xbox One’s journey to shop shelves was surprisingly uncomfortable.

Ed Selley  |  Feb 20, 2014  |  0 comments

Having left the DAC market alone for the best part of twenty years, Arcam is making up for lost time with an increasingly extensive range. The latest arrival is the irDAC that replaces the earlier iDAC. While it looks similar, the irDAC boasts more inputs (which are now 192kHz capable) and is completely revised internally to include a new DAC chip, improved jitter reduction measures and extensive power supply arrangements. 

Martin Pipe  |  Feb 03, 2014  |  0 comments

Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system cannot even play DVDs – never mind Blu-rays. This seems strange, as modern PCs are more than capable of handling movies from disc, and can be connected to your AVR and display with the same ease as a conventional Blu-ray spinner. The basic (and free to install) VLC media player can deal with DVDs and Blu-rays amongst other things, but if you want more sophistication then Cyberlink aims to please.

Mark Craven  |  Dec 21, 2013  |  0 comments

Kaleidescape's cinema one sees the American media server specialist lowering the price point at which technophiles can enter its world of slick music and movie jukeboxing. Well, sort of – the asking price of £3,300 will still be too much for many, particularly considering the less-than-perfect way it enables Blu-ray rips to be played...

Martin Pipe  |  Sep 21, 2013  |  0 comments

I've tested a number of video processors over the years, but this one's rather different. The tiny Darbee DVP 5000 'Darblet' only caters for HDMI, and has none of the usual adjustments offered by conventional processors, such as brightness, contrast, noise reduction, deinterlacing modes or colour balance. 

Steve May  |  Aug 19, 2013  |  0 comments

In our new networked entertainment era, storing movies, TV shows and music on a NAS is a necessity rather than a geeky indulgence. But a fat hard drive locked to your network doesn’t really fly when you also want to view your stuff on mobile devices when out and about. Enter the Voyager Air from Corsair.

Benny Har-Even  |  Aug 06, 2013  |  0 comments

Bucking the trend of much of the tech industry, the headphone market has seen a stellar rise in recent years and everyone wants a piece of the pie. No surprise, then, that AV receiver supremo Onkyo has joined the fray.

Steve May  |  Jul 27, 2013  |  0 comments

If you’ve been looking for a cost-effective way of adding Internet TV, be it catch-up or Video on Demand, to a non-connected telly, then Sky’s new £9.99 Now TV box must seem heaven sent. 

John Archer  |  Jun 21, 2013  |  0 comments

For some hardcore gamers, winning isn’t enough; posting videos online for all to see is the only way to satisfy their egos. If this sounds like you, then the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition, a standalone PS3/Xbox/Wii video recorder, is right up your FPS alley.

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