Hybrid entertainment system ideal for apartment-dwellers

By RICHARD WOOD

As the PC and home theatre collide in the living room, hybrid entertainment devices are appearing on the market.

We've seen a number of them in past months, first-generation offerings from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Philips, Acer and Microsoft.

Combine a TV, stereo and computer into one and what do you get? - a "kludge" or a smooth integrated home-entertainment system that saves you both space and money?

The Megabox from local PC assembler Arche Technologies aims to provide one - combining an internet-connected 2.4GHz or more Intel-based PC, a television, video recorder, CD and MP3 player, radio, jukebox, digital photo viewer and a DVD player with optional DVD recorder.

The Megabox sells through retailers nationally including 100% Your Electric Store, Retrovision and Smith City. Pricing starts at $2999 for an 80GB system with 256MB of memory and a 17in Philips flat tube monitor, but you can customise to your own requirements - adding surround sound or a flat-panel LCD screen - or save on some of the cost by plugging into existing TV or stereo units if they have the right connectors.

I used a Megabox for a week in my own home with a family of four and expected fights over which part of the functionality would be used at any time, especially between the TV and the PC.

But although the Megabox is a powerful computer, no real demand eventuated at my house to use it as such.

Sitting on the sofa with a wireless keyboard is not the same as sitting at a desk and I simply couldn't read the normal computer text from the comfort of the couch.

Bumping up the size in the Windows settings also increased the text in the software that runs the TV and video function, thus making that unreadable.

The ShowShifter software on the Megabox worked perfectly once I set up the TV channels and is easily mastered and nicely visible from across the room.

The software includes the useful function of being able to "time shift" while watching TV. You can take a break from a broadcast and start recording to the hard disk. When you come back, say five minutes later, you press play and it starts playing the recording, continuing to record ahead of you in the background.

The Jukebox was also a lot of fun. Traverse a list of all your songs, selecting tracks from a menu. A six-in-one memory card reader provides all the regular formats for viewing digital photos or loading them or your MP3 songs to the hard disk.

The radio and CD can be accessed directly from the front panel without turning the computer on.

After boot-up, the radio and CD front panel access is disabled but it can be controlled through the mouse and software.

The Megabox is an unusual sight, with a squarish frontage featuring the radio and CD controls, hidden CD/DVD device and brush metal finish. It's not quite like a computer, nor does it resemble a stereo or video player.

Apartment-dwellers short on space will love the Megabox.

But for non-tech-savvy people, setting up and running the Megabox could consume hours of labour, friends' goodwill, or dollars on technical support issues.

For the regular living room I'd wait a bit longer for the next incarnation.

The ideal unit of this type would allow all the functionality to operate at once in different areas of the house.

Megabox

From $2999.

Pros: Time shift, video and picture storage on a hard disk.

Cons: It's a computer - expect technical issues.

Rating: 7/10