Overview

The Tevion 28208 satellite-in-a-suitcase package is the sort of deal likely to show up in budget supermarkets and be quickly snapped up.

It should be noted that this ultra-portable system – comprising dish, universal LNB, standard-def receiver and all accessories – is also sold as the Philex SLX mini digital satellite system and that pricing can vary wildly among suppliers from the guide price given here.

The kit is intended for vehicles of those who are 'on the move', such as truckers and caravanners. As such, the 28208ALD receiver can be powered by a small 12V 'wall wart' power supply, or plugged into a cigarette-lighter socket.

Build and connectivity

The lightweight plastic 35cm off set dish and LNB assembles with relative ease; as supplied, the dish mounting plate is fixed to the dish. To this is fitted the LNB boom and a choice of wall-mount or suction cup.

Both are coupled to the dish, courtesy of a ball-and-socket arrangement that facilitates azimuth and elevation adjustment. Once the satellite is found – included in the package is a compass and very basic in-line meter – the mount can be locked.

There are no scales on the mount and although the compass can be used in conjunction with the table in the manual to determine azimuth, overall alignment is a trial-and-error affair. The wall-mount is ideal for permanent installations; removing the dish when it's not required is, however, simple enough.

A 10m length of co-ax is supplied, as is a useful flat-cable gadget that allows signals to be passed through closed windows.

We're quite taken with the idea of the suction cup, which is suitable for temporary use. It's intended for glossy surfaces, which will provide a tight seal. It helps if the surface area is moistened first. Simply place the cup on the surface, and push the lever down to lock it in position. Unfortunately, there's insufficient range in the ball-and-socket movement to facilitate placement on a window – it's designed for mounting on a horizontal surface, such as the roof of a car. In any case, the instructions recommend that the suction pad is not used on glass surfaces.

When the weather is good, this ad hoc mounting arrangement works well – but be careful on windy days. With the exception of the LNB clamp, which is fastened with an M4 screw, the dish is held together with thumbwheels and can assembled and disassembled quickly.

A DC-to-DC converter is used to generate LNB voltages (18V DC for horizontal channels and 13V for vertical ones) that are higher than that of the receiver supply. Clearly, the circuit works harder when providing 18V, something that may also explain the trouble we had receiving horizontal channels. The cheap switch-mode power supply is rated at 12V, 1.5A – that is 18W. In other words, the power supply is maxed out when horizontal channels are being viewed.

If there are plans to use this dish with a DiSEqC motor, we would be tempted to replace the power supply with one rated at 3A or more. Note that with a 2A power supply, horizontal channel problems were still experienced.

Setup

As far as receivers go, the midi-sized 28208ALD is as basic as they come. It cannot be converted into a PVR, not least because there's no means of plugging in a storage device.

It's standard definition only, connection to a TV being made via a Scart cable (RGB is catered for) or via composite video and stereo audio phono sockets and has a programmable 12V switch. As one might expect, there's only one LNB input; surprisingly, though, it's accompanied by a loopthrough output.

A sensible collection of front-panel controls are provided, together with a four-digit channel number indicator that brightly proclaims that the receiver is 'OFF' when it's in standby. This, as one would imagine, does little to minimise power consumption.

The receiver is FTA-only so it's just as well that searches can exclude pay-TV. You cannot specify PIDs when searching, but provision has been made for editing and adding transponders.

Overall, though, we're quite impressed with the receiver's setup provisions. Among its repertoire, for example, is a basic implementation of blind search. In this mode there are two passes – presumably for horizontally and vertically polarised channels. No step-size adjustment is provided. Nevertheless, the facility will appeal to enthusiasts on a budget.

Such folk will also appreciate the 28208ALD's ability to cater for DiSEqC 1.0 (4-way switchboxes), 1.2 and USALS. Up to 32 satellites can be accommodated. The handset even features a shortcut button to switch between them.

Performance

Basic use

The channel list can be sorted alphabetically, by satellite or by encryption status (again, somewhat redundant here). It's easy to place channels into one or more of the eight renamable favourites lists – another handset button cycles through the lists. The last-viewed channel can be recalled at the touch of a button, too.

The EPG displays now-and-next and seven-day schedules for one channel at a time with synopses and can be used to program the eight-event timer. Teletext is available, as are subtitles and audio soundtrack selection.

Other features are sparse. Among them are a radio mode, 3x3 mosaic of adjacent channels, a potent picture zoom, calculator, calendar and simple 'Gomoku' game.

Performance

One should not expect cutting-edge performance from a system like this, and, indeed, even basic searches were ponderously slow. However, AV performance – via RGB Scart – was surprisingly good.

Switching between channels was also faster than expected. At just over a second, the 28208ALD is faster than some far more expensive receivers.

When it's not 'on the move', this receiver could be used to convert an old CRT TV set for digital – provided, of course, that a LNB feed is available. As metioned, the selection of horizontally polarised channels (which rely on a higher LNB voltage) proved erratic on occasions – a sample fault, we trust.

The dish also worked well, considering its diminutive design. Thanks to the wider beamwidth of smaller dishes, it's easier to locate a satellite. In fine weather all key services from Hot Bird (13°E), Astra 1 (19.2°E) and Astra 2 (28.2°E) were received. Reception deteriorated during a shower; channels would periodically freeze or stutter.

Verdict

A 35cm dish will be too small for reliable reception of Astra 2/ Eurobird-delivered UK channels in most of Europe, although the delights of Astra 1 and Hot Bird will ensure that viewers won't go without.

For all its limitations, it can't be denied that this system is a bargain.

Sky has more than two million subscribers with a Sky Multiroom subscription that lets them watch TV in a second room. But, until now, the only way to watch HD in a second room has been to get a second Sky+HD box.

Not only is this pretty expensive – unless you're upgrading to a 1TB box in your main viewing room – it also needs two feeds into your second room. Even then, a Sky+HD box is big and noisy thing to have in your bedroom, which is where most people want their multiroom viewing.

The SkyHD Digibox, or DRX595 to give its true name, is a solution to that problem, and more.

The name's a giveaway that it's made by Amstrad, now fully owned by Sky and a brand that you might never see again unless Sir Alan Sugar gets tired of making godawful TV talent shows and goes back into the real business world.

It looks a lot like its big brother, the DRX895 1TB Sky+HD, shrunk down and with smaller, but very nice buttons for power, channel change and Back Up. And a very good look it is.

An exciting future

Connectivity is necessarily slimmed-down, with the back panel featuring a single RGB-capable Scart for standard-def viewing, a single LNB input, one HDMI out, Ethernet, USB, a modem, optical digital audio (with a neatly built-in dust cover) and a new 10-pin I/O port.

On the plus side, the HDMI supports Dolby Digital audio as well as stereo with Pro Logic, so the optical S/PDIF isn't quite as vital as it is on the standard Sky+. The I/O port doesn't do anything yet, but is designed to work with a range of peripherals such as the venerable Sky Gnome wireless audio extender, using a dongle that will imitate both the analogue stereo audio outputs and RS-232 serial data port of the larger Sky boxes. Sky's also hoping that other innovative uses will be found.

The standard Sky+ remote in the box hints that the HD Digibox is more than just a dumb second-room box – it has an exciting future. Although not enabled yet, the Ethernet port will allow users to not only watch live streaming content from Sky Anytime+ via broadband, but also to connect to their main Sky+HD box.

You'll be able to stream recordings from your hard disc, and control the Sky Guide Planner. For now, it's a satisfyingly high-performance HD satellite receiver, at least on a par with Sky's top-of-the-line 1TB PVR when it comes to channel changes and browsing the Sky Guide, if not faster.

On our 46-inch LG TV, the HD picture is as good as any other HD TV image we've seen, and for the first time on a Sky box, Dolby Digital is passed through the HDMI as well as the dedicated digital audio out.

Verdict

The downside to HD multiroom is the cost. The first box is free (extras cost £49 plus £30 installation), but an HD multiroom subscription costs a staggering £10.25/month on top of the standard £10.25/month multiroom sub.

We love HD, but £20.50 per month, per room is too much moolah for second-room HD.

Digital Stream DPS-1000: Overview and features

Overview

Already present on Cello iViewer TVs, the Digital Stream DPS-1000 is all about the Onyx connected interface from Oregan Networks that's making a play for inclusion on connected or smart TVs.

But while the big international brands have sought to create global hubs with local content – and with mixed success so far – Onyx has developed a simple yet dynamic interface that's stuffed with plenty of recognisable content.

New to the party comes Lovefilm, a service that – if you already have a standard subscription set up – can simply be logged into via the DPS-1000 to start streaming movies.

Features

A few widgets are on the front screen's right-hand side, including Facebook and Twitter, though the novelty of social networking on a TV screen is fast wearing off.

The Onyx interface has three main content icons at its core. Blinkbox is box set heaven, with a nice mix of US and British fare from House, The West Wing, The Mentalist, Heroes and, err Friends, to Come Fly With Me, Being Human, Spooks, Planet Earth and Outnumbered.

Some series are available only as a total package, while others can be rented or bought by the episode. It's even got a selection of Ross Kemp-fronted fare – what more do you want? Movies? Blinkbox hosts a fair few of them, too, though not enough to rival Lovefilm.

The presence of BBC iPlayer adds more gravitas, and puts this set-top box ahead of some major TV brands' web platforms. It's done simply and includes links to high definition content, though it's not quite as easy to navigate as the dedicated iPlayer website.

The Lovefilm service, meanwhile, is pleasingly identical to the online service, featuring options to stream some (though certainly not all) of its movies in SD (sadly no HD is available), or to instruct Lovefilm to post you a DVD or Blu-ray disc.

The front screen also includes a Web TV hub of online video, websites such as YouTube and Flickr, news and football feeds and podcasts.

Get the DPS-1000 on a home network and it can play most major video, music and photo formats (including DivX HD, but not AVCHD files from HD camcorders) from a PC or NAS using DLNA, with two USB slots proving similarly talented.

Digital Stream DPS-1000: In use

Ease of use

Some online services can be slow to load and skipping back a page can take a few too many seconds, but overall the Onyx interface on the DPS-1000 is very impressive indeed.

The problems we had were primarily hardware-related. Most troublesome is the remote control, which is nicely weighted at one end, but otherwise poorly manufactured. It suffers from the all too common mistake of a button for every command, which means that not only are they all bunched-up, they're also too small to use easily.

As if to underline the budget nature of what will most probably be an unwelcome guest on your coffee table, the battery compartment of the remote rattles. Yuk.

The DPS-1000 has Wi-Fi, of course it does – why would anyone consider a media streamer without Wi-Fi? Except, of course, that it doesn't.

We're into dongle territory, though Digital Stream doesn't actually make one (various third party dongles work, apparently, though not the Xbox 360 dongle that we had to hand). It does, however, explain why there are two USB ports on the rear of the unit.

Lovefilm's search function is effective, though it presents dynamically changing results based on every letter you add to the search term, which slows the process. More impressive is the way the box searches both YouTube and any networked PC or Mac, producing – for instance – some of your own ripped or purchased music alongside videos from the internet.

Sound

The lack of Wi-Fi consigns the DPS-1000 only to living rooms with routers, but there's another reason why this piece of kit won't be suited to all AV set-ups or home cinemas.

Audio output is severely restricted to the Scart and HDMI outputs, so unless you have a modern AV receiver in your home cinema with HDMI switching, you're out of luck with surround sound. And even with sound in general if you have a projector.

Picture

Picture quality from streaming video varies primarily because, like most similar platforms, that annoying buffering has been completely banished. Like Sony's connected TVs and Blu-ray players, the Onyx browser uses adaptive streaming technology that dynamically changes the amount of video data it receives via streaming according to how fast the line is.

That does mean the occasional drop in picture quality if you have, say, a 2MB broadband connection, but to our eyes that's a small price to pay for no buffering.

Value

What we do like about the DPS-1000 is its Apple TV-like size; this is not a piece of kit that's going to dominate your set-up. It's certainly more polished and, crucially, content-rich than most connected TVs.

While we expect that to change on the latest haul of high-end TVs, this £90 gadget seems an attractive alternative to replacing your telly. Bear in mind, though, that it does replicate a lot of the services on a PS3 or Wii.

You could, of course, spend an extra tenner and get an Apple TV, with iPhone niceties and built-in Wi-Fi. The choice is yours, but don't let the traditionally peerless Apple interface sway you, because Onyx has arguably topped it.

The number of standard-definition Freesat zapper boxes released thus far can be counted on the fingers of one hand, but the continuing digital switchover means that there's still a need for beginner-friendly, quality FTA sat boxes.

What Freesat receivers offer that many other FTA boxes don't is a common spec which ensures that you at least get a superior EPG even if few are particularly well suited to finding channels on satellites other than 28°E.

The DS-100's black casing is pretty generic for a Freesat box – lacking any kind of display other than a blue power light and concealing a row of operating buttons beneath a flap on the front. The rear panel is also minimal – just a single LNB input and two Scarts, which makes it easy to hook it up to a VCR or DVD recorder (though only the TV Scart can output in RGB).

There are no separate audio connectors or data ports (software updates are strictly over the air). The remote has plenty of bright white buttons and a layout that quickly becomes intuitive to use, with the box responding fast to commands.

Setup involves entering your postcode (to decide which regional versions of ITV and BBC One you get – although these can be swapped around later) and selecting aspect ratio before automatic tuning starts.

The menu interface is also familiar from other Freesat boxes we've tested, with a few tweaks here and there. TV and radio channels can be accessed quickly from a main list with the option to lock channels, show TV only or add them to a single favourites-only list.

Scheduling and recording

EPG data for eight channels at a time can be viewed as a full-screen grid for all channels or organised into 12 genres such as radio, lifestyle and children. Synopses are shown and you can jump page by page and skip back and forth 24 hours.

The programme info banner can be used to view now-and-next data for the current channel and others without needing to switch over and can be toggled to show synopses in half-screen.

A manual tuning menu caters for non-Freesat channels in range of your dish. Frequency, symbol rate and polarity can be entered but – as might have been expected from the Manhattan brand – there's no motorisation, DiSEqC switching, advanced searching or the ability to select which satellite you want to scan.

Located channels are listed from number 3000 onwards and accessed from the channel list by pressing the swap button or via the programme info bar. They can't be favourited and don't show up in the EPG. MHEG and audio description services are supported.

The DS-100 falls rather short in the picture department when viewed on our 40-inch plasma TV even with good reception. A seemingly lacklustre tuner generated soft-looking results regardless of the source with minor but noticeable artefacting.

Not one for the big telly in the living room, perhaps – nor, indeed, those with home cinema audio systems as there are no audio outputs, though sound via Scart was perfectly acceptable on our Panasonic TV.

Performance gripes aside, this low cost receiver has enough usability and features to make it worth considering as a spare room or bedroom box feeding a relatively small screen TV, perhaps

Google TV: Overview

Despite asking its hardware partners not to show new Google TV devices at CES, Google has said that this is the year that Google TV will be available outside the US.

But if the first international Google TV devices are like the $300 Logitech Revue that's currently shipping in the US, will you want one when you can buy it?

The idea behind Google TV is to take the TV screen and the TV channels you already have and add the web, complete with Flash and HTML 5, web content like YouTube and a search interface that brings it all together.

What you get is an interface running on top of a derivative of Android 2.1 plus Chrome rather than the Android browser - but still with Flash 10.1 built in.

That's all running on an Intel Atom CE4150 processor with hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding (for H.264 but not for WebM) rather than the ARM processor we're used to seeing Android on. And that means that not only is the Revue's case large enough to fit in a full set of connectors – HDMI in, HDMI out, Ethernet, two USB ports, two IR blaster ports and SPDIF – it also has air vents and a fan (although you won't notice it over the sound of your TV).

Most add-on media streaming boxes that you plug into your TV, like Apple TV and Boxee systems, leave you to control your TV separately, with its original remote.

Google TV is more like Windows Media Centre (or the Windows Media Center-based set-top boxes that will be out this year), where you get one remote control for working with both TV and online content, and you can see TV shows (from a cable TV or set-top box but not broadcast channels, at least on the systems we tested) full screen or in a picture-in-picture window, via the HDMI port.

The Revue has the advantage of Logitech's Harmony remote technology; tell it the model of your TV, set-top box or AV receiver (easier said than done if you've got a flatscreen mounted on the wall) and it looks them up in its online database and lets you control them from the Revue remote.

It's limited to controlling three IR devices, but it does mean you only have one remote to find space for. But that remote is actually a full size QWERTY keyboard, which is going to put off a number of mainstream users straight away.

Google TV: Getting started

Google delivered an update to Google TV in December; when we plugged in the Revue we had to wait almost five minutes on a fast broadband connection for this to download and install before we could get to the twelve set up steps.

These aren't difficult but it does take about twenty minutes (much too long), the user experience is disappointing and not nearly friendly enough; Google TV can't autodetect screen size or resolution so you have to manually resize the image on screen.

Even if you have a network cable in, the setup asks you to choose between wired and wireless (the equivalent step with Apple TV makes it much clearer that you have a network connection but can switch to Wi-Fi if you want) and it's never encouraging when the designers have so much confidence in the intuitiveness of their interface that they play you a training video you can't skip at the end of setup.

The Keyboard Controller remote

The Revue box is a netbook inside and the Keyboard Controller reinforces that. It's remarkably light, but it's also large and computer-like. The keyboard scatters the special keys around confusingly; Home, Back and Picture in picture are with the playback controls but Search is where the Windows key would usually be and Mute and volume are over on the top left.

Despite the size of the keyboard, key buttons like Stop and Zoom are secondary function keys to leave space for Ctrl, Alt and Tab.

Things you'd expect to work – like being able to scroll through a list with the mouse pointer as well as the arrow buttons – just don't (there is a two-finger scroll gesture but it's just not that comfortable when you're holding the keyboard).

We found ourselves repeatedly switching from the arrow keys to the touchpad and back because many apps demand you use both and it's not clear which works for any given interaction until you try.

You can't tell which of the playback keys will work either; play/pause works with the podcast Queue interface and on some of the Spotlight video apps, but not in YouTube (so you have to mouse over to the on-screen pause button).

Having a keyboard at all could be seen as a failure (the Apple TV remote is at the other extreme of being almost too simple), but if you want to search or type in URLs, you're going to need one and this is certainly better than the terrible predictive text systems on Samsung connected TVs (and faster to type on than the alphabetical on screen keyboard of Apple TV).

The Sony Google TV controller groups the special buttons far more logically, but has the same problem of too many function keys, plus the QWERTY keys are much too small.

You don't have to use the Revue keyboard to control Google TV; Logitech sells a version of the DiNovo Mini Controller with Google TV buttons and functionality, or both Google and Logitech provide free Android apps to run on your phone.

The Google TV Remote app lets you search by talking to your phone, but it only works on Android 2.2; 2.1 users can get the similar Logitech Harmony app without the voice control.

Google TV: Interface

The Google TV interface is designed to be fairly easy to navigate without resorting to the mouse; there are eight categories down the side with thumbnail icons in each:

Bookmarks (which can be apps or web pages you've marked with the star button on the keyboard), Applications and Spotlight (the apps section has local apps like the Gallery and Logitech Media Player plus a selection of the options in Spotlight, like CNBC, Napster and the custom interface to Amazon's video-on-demand service).

Joining them is Most visited pages (which includes individual pages inside apps – which at this stage are only custom websites rather than actual Android or Flash apps), Queue (a nice interface for exploring and subscribing to podcasts, as well as videos you've marked to watch later), the What's On TV guide for your set-top box TV (if it's one of the selected services Google TV supports), plus direct links to Netflix and the Amazon video on demand service.

You can edit the category menu to add or remove apps; confusingly the Add menu lets you add items that are already on the menu instead of greying them out until you've removed them as well as some specific apps like YouTube and Twitter.

We like that you can remove any of the built-in categories if you don't use them, because there are only ten slots on the menu. Any of the menu items can be what Google TV calls a custom 'shelf'; a folder you can put more items into if you want to organise things.

Although almost everything in Google TV is actually a web page in varying levels of disguise, the Chrome browser isn't one of the top-level menu entries unless you put it there yourself; it's on the list in Applications.

That's because Google expects you to search for web and TV content (and pressing the Search button is also the fastest way to type in a URL; something that makes more sense if you're already an Android user). How well this works depends both on what you're looking for and what you've got connected.

With selected set-top boxes you can find future programs (as well as what's playing now, what you've got recorded and what's online) and set the DVR for them; that's a great experience that's far easier than navigating through an EPG, even if you're getting a list of which episodes you can pay for or watch free online and it's where the Google expertise really shines. You can even type in a channel name instead of remembering the number for it.

But with any other TV service you still get current and future TV shows along with the other results, if you ask Google TV to record something it changes the channel then and there – and tells you to use your own DVR to do it.

Switching between TV and online content is fairly seamless, but navigating between different areas of online content gets confusing.

All of the content apps we opened seemed to open in the same Chrome tab, so we couldn't easily have the Twitter app and a YouTube video ready to switch between – choosing Back or Home and picking another app opened it in the same tab and in some cases the video we'd abandoned started playing again before the new app loaded.

Opening a new tab from the menu button gave us a Google home page – but closed the original tab with the previous app in. Occasionally we'd jump back to a different app rather than the Home screen and it all felt rather unpredictable.

Another interface issue is the picture in picture command; calling it DualView is a bit of a misnomer because it's a much smaller thumbnail (and while you can now move it if it's obscuring something vital in the main screen and resize it, it's not immediately obvious how to do either).

Plus DualView only works with TV; you can't have an Amazon video in the thumbnail while you check Twitter – or indeed Twitter in the thumbnail while you watch a match.

Google TV: Online content

The major disappointment with Google TV in the US is that all the major networks – and Hulu – have blocked Google TV from playing their online episodes.

What you can see are YouTube and similar sites like Vimeo or specialist video sites for food, fashion, music and technology, older films from ad-supported sites like Crackle that don't play in HD, film trailers from Flixster, content from channels that have done deals with Google like Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, pay-for content from Amazon and the Mspot movie rental service, and streaming content from Netflix and HBO GO (both of which have excellent interface but need a subscription).

The content in Spotlight is a bit of a lucky dip. The Twitter application only fits four tweets on your TV screen (but they're legible, unlike the text and controls on some uncustomised websites from ten feet away).

You can load Facebook in the browser but there's an app that puts the Party Central Facebook game in its own interface. The Huffington Post NewsGlide interface is good for seeing top stories while USA Today formats stories to look more like the printed version; reading them on screen by paging through with the arrow keys feels a bit old fashioned, but some older test viewers mentioned that it was nice not to have to get their reading glasses out.

There are also some services for children with basic read-along books and some remarkably low-quality games to play with the arrow keys on the keyboard, plus catalogues like Clicker and Sidereel that help you find TV, films and music available online (but many of those sites are blocked when you visit them).

The custom web interfaces take a variety of approaches; some start playing a video immediately and make you browse to pick what you want, others present you with a catalogue to browse.

Some have a DVR-like interface, others look like web pages. Mostly the interfaces are primitive; choose the stocks you want to see in the CNBC app and whatever video you've chosen to watch stops playing – and when you save your stock picks the first video in the list starts again from the beginning.

The 'leanback' YouTube experience isn't even the default; you have to choose it and even then videos don't start full screen or in HD – you have to use the mouse to click the buttons for that on every video.)

The same was true for most of the video sites. Amazon's US-only video-on-demand site does start videos full screen, but even on a fast broadband connection they don't start in HD; the image visibly jumps once it's tested the connection and switches to HD and even then much of the video has the artificial clarity and layered effect of upscaled video and we could see artefacts (especially around title text). You also have to navigate through the Amazon website to get to videos.

The quality issues make watching longer online content frustrating and while The Onion is fun, we're not sure how many short online food or fashion videos you're going to want to watch in a row. This kind of content 'snacking' works very well for cartoons though and you do have the whole of YouTube to choose from.

You can watch your own content, from PCs and network hard drives that support DLNA, using the Logitech Media Player; this works well, but the complexity of authorising the player to connect to your PCs is another step in making this a device for enthusiasts rather than mainstream users.

The Gallery application prompted us for details of our Picasa account but we didn't immediately see how to add another account like Flickr and images from Picasa didn't fit the screen well.

Music quality from Pandora was much better than from the Tunein Internet radio app; Tunein took our prize for the least consistent interface because although the stop button worked (which it didn't in most video services) the play and pause buttons seemed to restart tracks from the beginning and the back button took you out of the app entirely rather than back to a previous station.

The hardware pause button didn't work to pause YouTube videos either, and very few sites supported the fast forward and rewind buttons.

Most of the online content on our test system didn't respond to the mute button either, but this may have been a set up issue we haven't been able to iron out.

The inconsistency of when the playback controls work with online content is frustrating and even when you can pause something Google TV doesn't manage the pause stack at all well.

You can't pause content that's already playing in the background if you've gone to look at something else like Twitter without switching back to it; and when we paused a podcast, opened the Pandora app to play some music and paused that, pausing Pandora started the podcast playing again as well.

The podcast carried on playing in the background when we switched to other apps without pausing it and carried on playing even when we started a YouTube video; but when we hit the Home button while watching an Amazon video-on-demand show it stopped playing when we started another app.

Despite the simplicity of getting at online content on your TV in the first place, these kind of rough edges are out of place in a device with this kind of price tag.

Google TV: Verdict

The Logitech Revue does many things well, although most of those are features that are already Logitech strengths – like the universal remote control, the very usable (and surprisingly light) keyboard and the DLNA media streaming.

Google TV does several things well: putting the full-featured Chrome browser onto a TV screen, integrating a mix of online and TV information for a search that certainly approaches its universal claim, giving you YouTube video full screen with only a modicum of fiddling each time.

But what it mostly does is hint at a future where your entertainment really will be integrated and seamless but also open and powerful.

The problem is that many of the roadblocks to reaching this nirvana are more about business models than about technology (although there are some technology issues to solve as well) and there's no guarantee that Google will be able to solve all of them.

We liked:

It's the web, on TV; you're watching YouTube videos and Adult Swim Cartoons and video podcasts and your online photos or listening to Pandora and Napster and podcasts on the screen you bought for watching and listening on.

You can search and get results from the web and your TV provider. You can have the news playing in a small window while you check out what your friends are saying on Twitter. It's not seamless and it's not always intuitive, but it beats hauling out a laptop to look at next to your TV.

We disliked:

The setup and the simple fact of having a keyboard for a remote control are going to put off people who would otherwise be the target market for a system that makes it easy to get the web on TV.

The interface is both simplistic and confusing. The pause problem is frankly infuriating. There are too many places where you're asking why a feature like picture in picture only works for TV channels, not online videos and the fact that we were agreeably surprised when the search button searched inside the Twitter app says something about the level of expectations we came to have of the user interface.

The app market isn't here so everything that passes for apps today is a website – which is both an advantage and disadvantage; some work with the arrow keys, some need the mouse, but even on the best sites the web seams show eventually.

Verdict:

Google TV is very promising; taking online video to the sofa, along with your photos and music and favourite websites is a great idea and an open selection of apps will be a welcome change from the walled garden app offerings of current connected TVs.

But the current version of Google TV doesn't deliver on that promise, with an overcomplicated interface, TV integration that only offers DVR functions with select set-top boxes and services, and no apps that aren't just websites.

Compared to the limited functionality but blissfully simple setup of the latest Apple TV, Google TV still feels like you need to be a geek to use it.

If the UK devices don't have significant improvements and the Android Marketplace, we say wait for another version or two. At this point, it's too much Google and not enough TV.

You might have noticed a little buzz around 3D recently, and why not – 3D TV sounds like a fantastic idea. James Cameron's Avatar demonstrated that the technology has advanced, even if the film itself is a steaming pile of stinky old sci-fi cliches, and after some short but intriguing demos from Sky, we wanted to know how it would translate into an experience you could enjoy at home.

Sky has partnered up with LG for 3D, and we used an LG 47LX9900 active 3D TV. It retails at around £2,000, including two pairs of rechargeable glasses (extra pairs cost £100 each).

In 3D mode, the screen alternates at 50Hz between left and right eye images, and the glasses contain LCD filters which block each eye at the same rate, synchronised by an infrared signal from the TV. The brain is fooled into seeing a stereo 3D image.

The parallax view

Depth is defined by parallax; caused by the separation of the left and right eyes, and 3D stereo cameras mimic this, creating positive and negative parallax to make objects to appear in front of or behind the screen. Too much, or too fast, and your eyes will have to refocus uncomfortably.

Other factors can affect the 3D experience, such as image brightness and crosstalk, where the left and right images aren't cleanly separated so you see ghostly echoes. Ambient light also makes a difference: pitchblack is best as the glasses are highly reflective, and bright sunlight causes peripheral vision to flicker most unpleasantly with active 3D.

Then there's Sky's transmission format – side-by-side – which squeezes the left and right images into a single HD frame at 1080i, which the TV then stretches to full width. This means they're not 1920 x 1080i, but 960 x 1080i, although Sky claims that lost horizontal resolution is less noticeable than lost vertical detail.

Over two weeks we've watched a bit of golf, football, nature and film docs, some films, and we've seen Sky's 3D demo reel too many times. It's all free to Sky World HD subscribers, at least until there's a full schedule worth watching, and it works on existing Sky+HD hardware.

However, as yet there's no 3D Sky Guide if you want to look at it while watching in 3D. It's just very fuzzy. There's a huge variation in quality, and some of Sky's older 3D experiments, like the Avatar 35mm Special, should be locked in a heavy box and thrown overboard.

The nature docs Bugs! and CGI dinos of Sea Monsters made us look forward to David Attenborough's Flying Monsters 3D at Christmas. Monsters vs. Aliens had some fun moments, but some 3D effects designed for the big screen don't quite come off on TV, and when the effect goes wrong you stop enjoying the film.

Sky's sports are well-filmed, but onscreen graphics often pop jarringly out of the screen, especially with the deep landscapes of golf. And while depth was initially a bonus, especially looking at the subtly pitched greens, it was hard to decide whether it was any better than the BBC HD coverage, because of the half-HD resolution.

The 50Hz 3D refresh rate also makes movement far less smooth than 2D HD, when you can take advantage of the TV's 200Hz refresh. It's a backwards step, making balls and limbs disappear into a blur, and flattening the 3D image during tracking shots.

Verdict

If we had a choice between 3D and 1080p or even 2K resolution, we'd take higher resolution. The 'wow' factor of 3D is short-lived, and it's too often a roller coaster ride from the 'oooh' of a nicely composed 3D image to the 'ouch' when your eyes suddenly cross over.

It's not good enough to buy a 3D TV. Not yet.

With similar dimensions to the average satellite zapper, the Triax T2-HD 115 looks not unlike the Triax TR 105's 'big brother'. Blue indicators accompany channel change and power buttons but if you're hoping for a proper LED display you're out of luck.

The rear panel sports an HDMI 1.4 output (which includes an Ethernet channel) while two Scarts make archiving SD shows to a VCR/DVD recorder easier. Separate audio comes via an optical S/PDIF connector that currently outputs stereo only.

There's also an aerial loopthrough, an unused Ethernet connector and a USB port for applying software updates.

The receiver proves responsive to commands from a small remote whose familiar button arrangement works in its favour. The seemingly sensitive tuner made short work of finding channels including HD.

Triax's distinctive red, white and black colour scheme has been incorporated into the interface, which can be hard on the eyes, though we found bumping up the menu transparency helped.

The current channel is displayed on the right of the menu screen including the technical reception menu, which is fair stuffed with data (useful for installers, perhaps).

Radio and TV channels are accessed from a main channel list or you can create a single favourites. Seven-day DVB data is displayed in a scrollable full-screen timeline programme grid of TV and radio channels.

You can skip in two or 24-hour increments and synopses appear at the top. The programme info banner restricts you to browsing now-and-next data including synopses for the current channel and others without needing to switch over.

HD pictures are sharp yet natural-looking and both HD and SD broadcasts can be upscaled to 1080p via HDMI with a slight detail boost. The Scart produces decent enough RGB results too, though composite, as expected, is softer.

Audio from both TV and radio channels sounds clear, especially via the S/PDIF audio output.

The HD 115 covers most bases as a zapper box and delivers decent picture and audio. But it lacks valuable features such as media playback and a CI slot as found on similarly priced products.

Sling Media's Slingbox Pro HD is finally available in the UK, after being on sale in the US for over a year.

Its key advantage over the original Slingbox Solo is HD support; where the original model was restricted to only streaming standard-definition, the Pro HD is capable of streaming 1080i hi-def via component.

In addition, Sling Media has added a Freeview tuner to enable users to stream over-the-air broadcasts as well. This is a handy feature that allows those who don't have a set-top box to still enjoy the convenience the Slingbox provides.

This Pro HD unit is larger than the original Solo model, which comes as no surprise, considering it has more connections and internal components. Input options include component, S-video, composite video and coaxial antenna, so it's possible to hook up multiple sources, but crucially there's no HDMI.

While the box is physically wider than the original, it still has a sleek form factor. Setting up the Pro HD is straightforward and simple. Slingbox provides step-by-step instructions, and the setup tool on their web page is very useful and easy to use.

In particular, the user interface is quite intuitive, with an onscreen remote that mimics the one from your home source, thanks to an IR blaster.

In full flow

Once I had the Slingbox Pro HD up and running, I was presented with excellent picture quality. High-definition sources on my laptop looked almost as good as at home on my television.

On occasion I did notice a small amount of noise in the picture, and it seemed to me that the overall image was slightly darker than the original. It soon became apparent that picture quality was dependent on how fast my internet connection was running.

To combat dropouts, Slingbox has created a sophisticated streaming technology that automatically adjusts picture quality based on your home's internet speed. A simple way to put it is that, when internet bandwidth is low, picture resolution decreases as well and vice versa. I really noticed this between the peak internet hours of 6pm-9pm.

The major flaw I can see with Slingbox Pro HD is the HD element. In the UK we're seeing fewer component sockets on set-top boxes (Virgin Media's V HD box has dropped it, for instance). So, as this video output option disappears, it will create an issue for Slingbox users who continue to upgrade their Sky and Virgin Media boxes.

Also, the Pro HD does not include a Freeview HD tuner, which would have made it much more appealing.

Nonetheless, the Slingbox Pro HD is a neat product that allows you to access your set-top box, PVR and various other video devices from anywhere you want through the internet. In that regard, it's perfect. You should never miss another show again.

Despite its small size, the Comag SL30 HDMI USB digital TV receiver can't be powered directly from a camping-friendly low-voltage DC source. You can record TV and radio programmes and timeshift using a rear-connected USB storage device.

Also unusual at this price is the HDMI port; however, a Scart socket is provided as an analogue alternative. No UHF modulator is fitted.

Build and connectivity

Also on the rear panel you'll find the LNB input and loopthrough output, which are perhaps a little too close together for comfort. An HDMI output (there's no upscaling) is accompanied by a composite-only Scart.

The USB port can be used for firmware upgrades as well as recording. There's only space for a single power LED and the bare minimum of controls – channel up/down and standby – meaning that the handset is practically essential.

The latter sports a vast array of buttons for PVR functionality, channel selection, menu control, teletext, subtitles, radio mode and much more.

The receiver's internal construction is neat, though it can get quite warm in use.

Setup

The second option of the main menu covers installation. After selecting the satellite(s) available to you in a list – the preset 44-strong list can be appended to or edited – the choice is made between fixed and motorised dish.

If you're using the latter, the next menu (antenna setup) makes provision for USALS or DiSEqC 1.2 configuration, such as limit setting and satellite positions. Fixed-dish users, meanwhile, can specify a DiSEqC 1.0 port.

Signal strength and quality bars indicate how the currently selected transponder is being received. A 12V switch item is redundant, given that there's no output.

'Single satellite search' does as it says; similarly, the multi-satellite search function available to DiSEqC systems will visit several satellites in one go. In both cases either FTA or all channels can be found, which is more useful than it seems because some channels are improperly 'flagged'. You can also scan for radio and/or TV.

Blind-scan isn't an option; it's possible, though, to select an individual transponder and search that. No control over PIDs or FEC is, alas, offered.

The transponder list can be edited or added to; parameters here are restricted to frequency, polarity and symbol rate. Other menu options look after the video-output settings, parental locks, clock, favourites (eight lists) and channel management.

From here, channels can be deleted, locked, moved and skipped. They can also be sorted alphabetically or according to encryption status, and satellite-specific lists selected. This is just as well because the 'normal' channel list, accessed with the 'enter' button, gives you no such flexibility.

At best, multi-sat viewers can toggle between the current satellite and all channels. Other menus look after recording functions, such as drive formatting and timeshift buffer duration.

Basic use

Compensating for the standard channel list's inflexibility is the 'find' button, which homes in on a channel if one or more letters of its name are entered. The basic but serviceable EPG can program the eight-event timer to instigate a USB recording or a simple channel change.

Other features include a sleep timer, teletext, subtitles and soundtrack selection, video format and a TV/radio mode button. There's also a nine-channel, multi-picture thumbnail feature.

PVR and multimedia

Timeshifting, which needs to be turned on via a menu, requires an HDD – solid-state drives are not fast enough. Yet even with one of these slower devices you can play any recording (timed or manually-invoked) that's in progress – you'll find it, with any others, in the 'record manager' menu.

We also discovered that you can simultaneously watch and record two different channels, although both must be on the same transponder. JPEG or BMP still images, MPEG video files and MP3 tracks will play too, although other content like DivX is ignored.

You also get three games to play – Tetris, Othello and Sudoku.

Performance

Pictures via Scart are disappointing. Thanks to the composite-only connection, they're somewhat fuzzy and spoilt by more noise than is usual. But audio quality is excellent. Fortunately, HDMI redresses the balance with a noticeably superior performance.

Colours and greyscale are true to life and, within the restrictions of SD broadcasting, details are pleasingly resolved. Searches and channel-changing are both speedy, and menus are responsive too.

However, sensitivity was found a bit wanting – transponders on some satellites were missed. Reception of Hot Bird and both key Astra clusters was reliable, though. We managed to run out of memory during a multi-satellite scan.

Although this receiver may boast DiSEqC capabilities, chances are that it will be partnered with a fixed dish in a budget setup and so this need not be an issue.

Another problem we encountered relates to timed USB recordings. On seemingly random occasions the recording was not made – insufficient USB capacity was not the cause. Manually invoked recordings were always successful.

The Ferguson F101HDSat Freesat HD zapper is pretty much a clone of the Metronic Sat HD 100. Both have the benefit of media playback from USB drives but lack BBC iPlayer – with no signs that it will be added.

Like the Sat HD 100, the receiver is heavy and runs rather hot. Power, channel-changing, and volume buttons make up a plain fascia.

The rear features an LNB loopthrough, an HDMI out, TV and VCR Scarts, an optical S/PDIF and Ethernet and USB ports.

The remote's buttons are small, but there are VCR-style pads for controlling music and video.

There are two tuning modes – Freesat and manual. Freesat tuning involves the usual process of punching in your postcode to determine which regional variations of ITV and BBC occupy the top slots in the EPG before scanning.

'Manual' can be used to receive non-Freesat channels from 28.2°E or other satellites in range of your dish. You can scan a single satellite (a full scan of 28.2°E took 20 minutes), scan a transponder or perform an NIT scan, but there's no support for advanced features such as DiSEqC. If you do a manual scan of 28.2°E you get Freesat and more channels but you can't switch across to the Freesat EPG.

Instead, all channels get a more basic guide listing DVB data for the current channel. Channels (Freesat or otherwise) can be sorted A-Z, Z-A into SD and HD channels, by network or grouped into lists headed movie, music, sports, shopping, guide, news, scramble, FTA or Favourites 1 or 2.

Perform a Freesat scan and you get a rather low-res version of the standard Freesat EPG – viewable as a full-screen grid for all channels, skippable in 24-hour periods with synopses included. This can be further sorted into 12 genres (e.g. news) and you can schedule up to eight timer events with once, daily and weekly repeat options.

Format support for media playback from USB drives is limited to MP3, JPEG (with slideshows) and MPEG-2 files and there's no provision for playlisting.

Both HD and SD pictures look reasonably crisp using the HDMI output, but SD Scart pictures can leave colours looking pale and unnatural, even with RGB enabled.

The FD101HDSAT isn't great for those who want other channels but it just about passes muster for a Freesat HD zapper.