Small BenQ Projector Brings Enjoyment The BenQ Joybee GP1 is a small and portable projector that makes movie viewing fun. It can liven up any room with its versatility and offers anyone a big screen experience anytime.
Cheap Samsung Blu-ray Delivers Stellar Image Quality The Samsung BD-P1600 won’t blow you away with innovation or offer anything above and beyond its competitors. What it does offer is exceptional image quality at a good price. As Blu-ray players come down in price it’s good to see that the cheaper models aren’t skimping on quality.
Denon AV Receiver Does Everything This may just be one of the most versatile AV receivers we have looked at to date. It not only has a wide range of connection options but it is also catered for the basic and professional user at the same time.
Great Value Samsung Blu-ray Home Theatre The Samsung HT-BD1255 is an all in one Home Theatre package that comes with the option of wireless rear speakers. It also has a rather swanky Blu-ray player included in the sales package making it perfect for those wanting to get into the 1080p scene without having to spend and arm and a leg to do it.
Speedy NAD Blu-ray Player Delivers The new Blu-ray player from NAD sports the latest technology, can play a variety of files from various sources, and is a solid performer. This spinner puts other dedicated decks to shame, but is the price tag worth it?
Panasonic Delivers Versatile DVD Recorder With the market saturated with DVD recorders, companies must step up and offer something good to catch the eye of the consumer. Panasonic’s latest DVD recorder, the XW-300, allows a user to record two programmes at the same time (thanks to its twin HD tuners) and comes with a 250GB hard drive. But just how good is it?
Small WD Box Big In Features The WD HD Media Player is a little black box that can play digital files stored on flash or hard drives straight to any television set. It is a simple solution for users who don’t have the time to turn on their computer, connect it to their TV, log-in, and search for the audio, video, or photo to be played.
Crest Power Board Cuts Electricity Bills Besides protecting your audio/video equipment from power surges and spikes, the Crest Earth Smart is energy-efficient with its power saving feature.
First Review: Toshiba Puts The Blue Into Blu-ray With New Upscaler If there is one product that will help push down the cost of Blu-ray players, it’s the new Toshiba upscaler that coverts traditional DVDs to 1080p HD. And at only $199 this little beast is set to be a real irritant up against Blu-ray devices that in some cases cost three times as much as this Toshiba box.
Topfield PVR Box Simplifies TV Recording Personal Video Recorders, or PVRs, take the stress out of watching TV by recording programs with a single touch of a button. Topfield wants you to ‘Break free from the way you watch TV’ with its new PVR, and we would have to agree.
Review: Surround Sound Minus The Extra Speakers If you live in a flat and don’t have space for a 5.1 speaker system in your living room, then perhaps its time to take a look at what Philips has to offer. The Philips HTS6100 is a soundbar home theatre system that only takes up a small space and can deliver a unique home cinema feel to any room.
REVIEW: World First Blu-ray Player Recorder An Expensive Beast Following the victory by Blu-ray in the high definition content war we have seen a slew of new Blu ray products to hit the market during the past 6 months. One of them is the Panasonic DMR-BW500 which is the first 500GB dual tuner Blu-ray recorder in the world outside of Japan.
A Cinema-Feel Samsung HD Kit The Samsung Blu-ray Home Cinema System not only plays your movies in Full HD, it also provides you with 7.1-channel speakers for the ultimate cinema feel. We pull out our favourite couch, sit down, and put this home theatre in a box to the test.
Impressive Pioneer Small Speaker System After purchasing an HD television set and a player that can display videos in high definition, the next step is to invest in a home theatre system that is a stunner in terms of looks and features. Pioneer’s HTP-LX70 certainly looks the part, but does it perform up to par with other home theatre kits in the market?
New HD Format Aims To Rival HD DVD & Blu-ray While Blu-ray or HD DVD high definition players make the most out of your HD-capable TVs, they still cost a lot of money. New Medium Enterprise’s Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) format aims to provide that HD experience cheaper, but is that enough for the two big HD formats (HD DVD and Blu-ray) to take notice?
Who Has The Best Home Theatre Kit? Denon vs Bose The SmartHouse shootout between the new Bose Lifestyle V30 home theatre system and the Denon S302 home theatre system has opened up some very big issues as to the future direction of home theatre kits.
New Denon Home Theatre Makes Bose Look Like Yesterdays Technology The new Denon S302 home theatre is one of the best value for money home theatre kits that we have ever seen. It is not only packed with the best in both vision, sound and networking technology, it is compact and very easy to install.
Marantz DVD Player Scales Up The DV7001 is a great audio player that also happens to do a fine job with video. SmartHouse celebrates its duality.
Great Sound From A Small Package After reviewing the ZVOX Mini a couple of weeks back, we now take a look at its bigger counterpart, the ZVOX Loudspeaker, and see whether this speaker system can satisfy those who just can’t get enough of sound.
Toshiba HD DVD Gives 1080p Justice We reviewed Toshiba’s HD DVD HD-E1 a few months back and we were quite surprised with its video quality and affordability. Now, we take the Toshiba HD DVD HD-XE1 for a ride to see whether the extra hundred dollars that comes with the player’s price tag is well worth it.
Canon Projector Impresses Alvin Gold reviews a home cinema projector from Canon with no HDMI connectivity and a 4:3 native picture resolution. So why is he still impressed?
High Calibre HD Upscaler The Vantage HD is a high definition scaler that hails from Britain. Martin Pipe thinks it might even hold its own against the competition.
Home Cinema Speaker Systems: HEAD TO HEAD In this head to head, Adam Rayner compares two sets of excellent 5.1 speakers from Q Acoustics and Wharfedale that will deplete your wallet for around $1500.
REL Compact Subwoofer No Lightweight Subwoofer fanatic Adam Rayner gets to grips with the REL slinky, dinky 10-inch bass-box, and finds it’s still got enough power to wobble his windows.
JVC HD Projector Raises The Bar JVC may have been struggling of late, but it has certainly raised the bar with its Full HD D-ILA projector. John Archer puts it to the test, and needs a lie down afterwards.
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Vs Pioneer 24FPS Blu Ray Player Shootout In an Australian first SmartHouse has been able to conduct a shootout between two of the latest Blu-ray players from Sony and Pioneer. The Sony model comes in at $1,399 and the Pioneer model at a $500 premium at $1,900. This is some $800 cheaper than the Panasonic Blu-ray offering at $2,700.
Top Class Projector Design Norwegian AV guru ProjectionDesign delivers DLP’s next ‘full HD’ projector. The SmartHouse Team looks on in pure admiration.
Pioneer AV Receiver With Smart Room EQ The advanced RoomEQ system lurking in the updated Pioneer AX4 THX receiver is a double-edged sword. SmartHouse investigates...
Denon DVD Player Goes HD Can support for SACD, DVD-Audio and 1080p video upscaling help the Denon DVD-1930 compete with HD machines?
Logitech 5.1 Speakers: Good But Not Impressive This 5.1 speaker bundle from Logitech comes with its own digital decoder and is the first in the world with wireless rears to be THX-certified. But does wireless come with a compromise on sound?
Denon DVD Player Shows How Its Done We investigate a player from Denon that can handle DVD as well as CD surprisingly well - that's the DVD-3930.
Tannoy High-Fidelity Home Cinema Speakers Where would flat screens be without flat speakers to make them worth having? We investigate a smart set of speakers from Tannoy which aim to bring quality audio to home cinema sound.
HEAD TO HEAD: Which Is The Best Home Cinema Gear If you do not want to mess with separates, but need cutting-edge home entertainment, these high-tech ‘one-box’ solutions could be the answer. We put systems by Panasonic, Philips, Denon and Pioneer head to head to see which is best.
Toshiba HD DVD Player Offers Stunning Pictures SmartHouse takes the Toshiba HD DVD player HD-E1 for a spin, but wonders if the stunning hi-def prowess of HD DVD makes up for a lack of features.
Velodyne Sub Knows Loud Velodyne adds DSP-based room EQ to its entry-level subwoofer range. But beware – this tiny box goes LOUD!
Canton Sub Delivers Big Bass The Smarthouse Team checks to see if Teutonic precision equals accurate and low bass with this silvery subwoofer from German brand Canton.
Affordable Acer DLP Projector Acer injects more life into the budget DLP projector market with its affordable HD Ready PH730.
Best Arcam DVD Player Yet Compatibility is the name of the game with this Arcam DVD player. The Smarthouse team thinks it’s their best yet.
iPod Compatible Denon Receiver This Denon A/V receiver variant offers an attractive mix of features such as iPod compatibility, and power. But in a converging world, is that enough? SmartHouse investigates the AVR-2807.
Panasonic Blu-Ray Player: Exclusive Review The world’s most expensive Blu-ray player is still cheaper than ultra high-end DVD players. We take a closer look at Panasonic's high-end Blu-ray baby.
High-End Nordost Cable Delivers Nordost makes the fantastic top-of-the-line Valhalla range of cables. But its lower-range Heimdall cabling isn't bad for the money either.
Budget Speakers Group Test You don't have to spend a fortune to own a pair of superb hi-fi stereo speakers - these babies start at just $485 a pair.
Lumagen Video Processor: Better Than It Looks We investigate the Lumagen Vision DVI – an affordable video processor that could postpone that expensive display upgrade. Turns out, it's not as bland as it looks.
