Dragging your notebook around to watch movies? The alternative low tech approach is to throw away the notebook bit with a portable DVD player, and this one has DivX playback. Simple, yet somehow we like it.

When everything from your movie collection to your photo album is digital, why would you want to watch it all on a tiny monitor with tinny speakers while your big television and surround sound sits idle in the lounge room?

The iZak is at first glance nothing more than a transparent plastic portable hard drive. It has all of the hallmarks - small form factor, a single power LED at the front and a few nondescript ports at the rear.

This unit plays more than just your rental movies and existing DVD discs, it's also capable of VBR MP3, WMA, JPEG, PhotoCD, HDCD Xvid, AVI, MPEG layers 1, 2, and 4 play, the latter of which is more commonly referred to as DivX, named after the compression codec.

Editing performance with HDV remains sluggish, but DV-editing ability is formidable.

It turns out that Microsoft [I]is[/I] bringing out Windows XP Media Center Edition in Australia, but until such time as it materialises -- and Microsoft Australia is being very sketchy on the dates -- those of us looking to integrate our PC media files with our televisions and hi-fi systems have to turn to bridging solutions.

Small screen, but it's packed with features, including DivX playback, slot loading DVD, HDMI, and a digital TV tuner.

A reasonable option if your budget is tight, but you get what you pay for

An inexpensive 10.4" digital photo frame from Alsotech, the Ultraview boasts DivX video playback, mp3 functionality and USB.

The idea of using your PC as the central control point for your home theatre has been bandied about for some time.

If you're looking for a Blu-ray player with the lot, LG's YouTube-enabled BD370 could be the one for you.

It lacks Wi-Fi, but is otherwise an excellent budget video-streaming choice

The TViX is a fairly small box, roughly about the same size as a good DVD box-set, but inside it's got some amazing smarts. This also technically isn't a media streamer as such - it's more a media cacher thanks to the 80GB hard drive inside.

An excellent alternative to a fully-blown Media Centre PC.

Watching DivX movies in bed on your 17inch laptop is ok, but stick this wireless speaker nearby and the experience will be as close to home cinema as you'll get with a laptop.

A very tidy solution for streaming your downloaded video to the TV, without the need for a full Media Center PC.

Lack of online content and copy-protected music are problems, but no HDMI is a major headache

The widest format support, plus flawless wireless streaming, put this among the best network players we’ve seen so far

The ultimate portable media player.

While it might seem like a good idea, the Seagate FreeAgent Theater is more novelty than useful. And the price point is not as competitive as others in this range.