HITACHI DZ-MV208E

Like most Gateway machines, the case is solid and the internal layout is very clean offering plenty of space to get in and exchange components or install drives.

Blu-ray and HD DVD players will come out fighting this year. We reveal which format is best placed to be DVD’s successor.

There are almost as many acronyms for the various standards of DVD as there are companies involved in DVD development.

Hitachi DZ-MV100A

Hitachi pioneered the concept of recording digital video direct to DVD . Now into its third generation of DVD cameras, a few competitors have appeared on the horizon with its first generation models

Hitachi pioneered the idea of consumer cameras capable of recording video direct to DVD. The early models were large and relatively expensive but high quality. It has taken a while for the idea to take off but it is certainly gaining momentum with a number of competitors now coming into the market. Hitachi has responded by progressively making its cameras more compact and adding extra features such as a SD memory card for storing still images or compressed video clips.

DVD is said to be to movies what CD was to music. Well-filmed DVD movies are better in all respects than those recorded on VHS, so the idea of a digital video camera recording direct to DVD disc would appear sound.

Hitachi DZ-MV100E

This Hitachi monitor features IPS TFT, a pre-cursor to the latest Super-IPS technology used in the superb Eizo unit.

Burn straight onto a disc or choose the hybrid HDD model.

There is not a huge difference between this and the MV550E. In fact, if you put them side by side you have to look closely to see the difference in looks, which is model number in small print on one side.

Sharp are finalising plans to commercially produce quad and triple layer Blu-ray discs capable of 100GB and 8x read speeds using new disc materials and improved laser technologies

Dell Dimension XPS B733r

One of the most barren models feature-wise that we looked at (and only dubiously beating the Sony VPL-ES1 and the Sanyo PLC-SW30 which took the bottom honours), the Hitachi CPS210 certainly made up for it when it came time to undergo our strenuous testing regime.

The tools for home movie-making have become far more accessible and functionally more versatile. While truly broadcast-quality images are still the domain of 'prosumer' and professional video cameras

A month's worth of HD news in digest form.

Dan Chiappini delves into multimedia jargon in our monthly tech term glossary.