Hi-Grade DMS 2600

A media centre PC that wouldn't look out of place under your TV? About time!

For all the fanfare and ticker tape surrounding the first batch of Media Centre PCs, something vital was missing from every single one of them. No, not an operating system that boots up quicker than Giggs gets up the left flank - though that'd be nice - but a Scart socket on the back. Sure, flat-panel owners were catered for with DVI and VGA monitor connections and most of the PCs had S-Video sockets. But what older CRT telly has an S-Video input? Not many, that's for sure.

A warm welcome then, please, for the UK's first Media Centre PC to come touting not one, but two Scart sockets round the rear. It's also one of the first - with the possible exception of Carrera's Media Centre Plus - to actually look more like a home cinema component than a PC turned on its side and painted silver. Infrared has been integrated into the unit, the DVD-RW is a slot-loading drive instead of a tray, and the whole thing's not much bigger than a fat Sony DVD recorder.

Shame, then, that the overall impression is spoiled somewhat by USB, FireWire, headphones and mic ports on the front - even if they are in an extremely useful position. Closer inspection of the case and sockets also shows up the fact that this isn't up to, say, Sony build quality.

Unfortunately, the Scart connections don't help to dismiss this impression - we tested two machines and neither could output a picture successfully via Scart to a TV. Hi-Grade assures us this was an unfortunate coincidence, but we'd recommend seeing the DMS working via Scart in a shop before parting with cash. It's also worth noting that you can only get poor composite video, not RGB, via the Scarts.

Much better is the noise this model makes - or rather the lack of it. This really is a very quiet computer, though we found playing CDs or DVDs much noisier than you'd expect from a dedicated £100 DVD player. For other everyday Media Centre uses such as time-shifting telly, listening to MP3s or playing videos off the hard disk, it's perfect.

The keyboard and mouse have been cleverly implemented - they're built into one unit, with the mouse as a trackball on the side. It looks a bit drab and ugly, but it's a practical way of controlling the whole set-up from your lap, and the infrared range is strong enough to be used four metres away.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

In use, the DMS actually differs very little from its competitors. We barely noticed a difference in performance when using it as a Media Centre, although it's worth noting the 120GB hard disk doesn't have as much room for recording telly as HP's capacious 160GB model, the Media Centre M380 Photosmart. The other main downer is the lack of a digital TV tuner, which means no Freeview, just good old channels one to five. If you're interested in running games, this is a decent machine - it ran most of the titles we threw at it with detail levels set to max.

We're still not convinced about Microsoft's onebox concept, and this offering hasn't changed our minds. If you're after a DVD/hard disk recorder, save £300 and go with a Pioneer or Panasonic deck. If you dig the Media Centre thang, this is a competent, if flawed, contender.

Posted by T3 Online on 2007-11-01