In the mid-1990s a debate raged over whether we would eventually end up watching television on our computers, or whether television would take over from the PC. In 1995 a PC called the MyGeNie went on sale boasting that you could watch TV while you worked...

19in widescreen LCD TV which shows much promise and is Dell’s first consumer offering in Australia. Spec-wise it looks quite good on paper, with 450cd/m2 brightness, 600:1 contrast ratio and 1280 x 768 widescreen resolution, and it doesn’t disappoint when fired up.

Even though the Voodoo3 3500 TV is an older card than most on test in this Labs, we have included it since it, along with the ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Pro,fills a niche in the graphics card market that caters to people looking for a low-cost TV and video capture card alongside reasonable 3D gaming performance.

How many acronyms can a monitor have before it chokes on its own resolution? We have all come to expect CRTs, LCDs, TFTs and God knows what else but now Samsung has come up with a monitor with so many acronyms it will leave you gasping.

A Media Center PC and 32in LCD TV all-in-one.

Ever since the mid-1990s, a variety of manufacturers have been attempting to find a reliable way to turn your PC into a television – without a huge amount of success.

Compro's VideoMate Gold TV may be an analog TV tuner card, but it's got one feature that alone makes it better then the DTV cards reviewed - it has a power pass-through for your PC's power switch.

Blistering speed in 3D and a multitude of multimedia features makes the 3500 an excellent card for video enthusiasts and gamers alike.

Although similar products have been available (with much controversy) in the US for a few years, the Samsung DVD-H40A is the first Personal Video Recorder (PVR) to reach our sunny shores.

Altech's Maestro Pro is a Home Theatre PC based on Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Similar in nature to the Zinwell ProV (June 2002, page 46) but with better execution, the X-Media DreamBox is a small set-top box for your desktop that lets you watch TV, video, console games and DVDs on your monitor without the need to power on your PC.

As well as TV viewing (an analog tuner is built in) this screen's strength comes from its LCD-ness which makes it awesome for plugging into a PC (Media Center, anyone?) or for components like digital set-top boxes or DVD players.

While the epithet 'multimedia PC' used to be bandied about to over-hype any PC in the mid-'90's that was capable of playing music, rudimentary video, and games, the descriptive was overused so much on sub-par PCs that the impact of any real multimedia capabilities was diminished in the wash of pretenders.

The Hi-Grade Xperian can simply be described as a bundle of essential technology ingeniously put together in one desirable package.

For those with deep pockets and big hearts, this DVD recorder comes with full PVR functionality and an 80GB hard drive.

The problem with having a DVD player, cable TV or a VCR is that when you want to use them you’re usually relegated to the lounge room where they’re set up, and not the secondary comfort of a spare room, the kitchen or your bedroom.

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

There’s only so many times I can herald the coming switch from analog TV broadcasts to digital, so I’ll just dig straight into this impressive digital television card.

Bursting at the seams with inputs, this model has it all. Integration of a TV-tuner makes this more than just a PC display - rather, it's a multimedia powerhouse, perfect for game consoles, DVD viewing and TV watching.

Chunky, powerful and intimidating. Everything you want in a PC, but not what you'd want in a media centre.