The notebook winner this month was a close call. Two units stood out as being at the top of the multimedia field: the Pioneer D47K and the Acer Aspire 1802WSM. Feature-by-feature they were very closely matched, but we chose the Pioneer for several reasons, one of which was its advanced media capabilities.

Slightly older model, but the best 42in TV you can buy, full stop. Not cheap, but the quality is all up there on the screen

Expensive but extraordinary. If God watches the telly, he does it on one of these

An older model, and not the best 50in Pioneer, but still better than every other 50in on the planet in its day. If you can’t manage the top-end Pioneer, this is the set to go for

We did a double take this month. Not only are Pioneer and Protac's chassis identical but the inside specs are too.

The Pioneer DreamBook Power 900 is a locally built monster – this isn’t a desktop replacement, it’s a desk.

Incredibly powerful laptop system, with a few small issues that hold it back from true glory.

A stylish, silent well-featured Media Center PC at a decent price.

If laptops were cars, then the Pioneer Power 470 would be a caravan - a quick scan of the specs reveals that it has almost everything. The 470 model we tested was a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 unit with a large 60GB of drive space and 256MB of DDR.

As this Labs’ sole available proponent of the –RW format, Pioneer has a struggle on its hands getting the public to accept the standard over the faster and more widely used +RW format.

A fine TV that offers a rich, warm picture but comes up just a tiny bit short against rival sets from Sony and Philips

An older TV, but in its day one of the best picture performances we'd ever seen

We’ve seen several manufacturers make use of FIC’s Spectra case before, but few have made such a good job of it as Pioneer.

One of the most striking things about Pioneer’s entry this month is the cosmetics: it’s 24hr karaoke bar meets street-racing BMW. And lots of blue LEDs! And these LED’s can get a little annoying – especially the super bright “headlight” LED’s. They shine directly ahead, and at desk height they beam straight into your eyes. There is also a large, illuminated ‘Xfinity’ etched into the front door of the case. Suffice to say this case won’t be to everyone’s taste. But otherwise, the rest of the externals are OK – the top mount houses two of the six total USB ports beneath a tidy flap, and a large power button with a good action.

When we sent out the call for multimedia systems we were expecting notebooks and PCs capable of DVD playback and some basic gaming. Pioneer not only cleared this bar with their submission - they raised it.

As DVD starts gaining ground on CD burning as the optical storage method of choice, 4.7GB DVD has some competition at the hands of the newer 8.5GB dual layer format.

Locating the sweet spot in the market for well kitted out machines on a budget, Pioneer has come to the party by introducing it's Power PC model, featuring all the tech goodies without the sour aftertaste of a high price ticket. This black futuristic PC looks quite schmick with its front mounted LCD readout displaying up to date temperature information on the system, so you know exactly what's happening with your cooling.

Making it into the sub $500 price category, Pioneer offers a very competitive unit in its DVR-A06P DVD writer, supplied with a single -R and -RW disc and an excellent software package.

As well as being the first company to launch EIDE DVD burners into the mainstream IT marketplace, Pioneer is the company behind DVD-R and DVD-RW recordable media formats. In the last couple of years, it has fought hard to stave off competition from Philips' rival standard, DVD+RW, and until recently buying a DVD recorder meant locking yourself into one standard over the other.

A poor performer in the face of HP’s similarly-priced, touch screen-enabled rival.