Helios X5000 - TechRadar UK

The Helios X5000 is a flexible piece of audio-visual hardware, managing to combine a multi-region DVD player with multimedia network streaming client in a box that resembles that of a high-end CD player.

Choose the networked media you want to play from a list of shares - uPnP-compliant servers, including Windows Media Connect and suitable NAS devices - and they'll stream to the X5000 via Ethernet or 802.11g Wi-Fi.

USB storage devices (FAT or NTFS-formatted) can also be accessed. The X5000 supports a number of codecs including WMV, DiVX, XViD, MP3, WAV, FLAC, MPEG-1/2 and JPEG, and high-definition video (alas, not yet H.264) can also be handled by the device.

Courtesy of an online portal run by NeoDigits itself, the X5000 can tune into a selection of Internet TV channels yielding somewhat-variable AV quality.

However, you can obtain much better results from playing DVDs or by streaming your own networked files; the X5000 shows off its potential for excellent video and audio here.

AV connectivity includes HDMI, stereo audio, component and S-video - but there's no Scart functionality to be had on this piece of hardware, which may be something of a hindrance for some users.