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. The other main difference between the TViX and the other devices is that you can't slave this device over a wired or wireless network to your PC - you can only download movies and music to the device via USB 2.0.

Some might find this a hassle, but I thought it was fine - the only problem being having to either drag a PC over to the unit or face disengaging it from the stereo and TV and taking it over to your PC for a refill.

It's worth it though, as the TViX has some impressive file format support, including JPEG, MPEG, AVI, DiVX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x and Xvid video plus MP2, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and WMA, AC3 and full DTS 5.1 audio.

The video format support doesn't end there as the TViX is fully DVD compatible. Should you happen to rip a DVD to your hard drive, say if your friend has home movies on DVD movies that you want to copy, then you can then copy that ripped DVD directory full of VOB files from your PC to the TViX and play it on your TV like it's an inserted DVD disc - menus, extras, languages, subtitles and all. This essentially converts the TViX from a standard media player into a portable DVD library.

TViX comes with just about every connector you could need, including analog stereo audio out, composite, component, and S-Video out, and both co-axial and optical digital audio outputs. It also comes with a remote control with more buttons than you could possibly need, but it makes it handy to use.

The interface is very basic but intuitive as the system's media is presented in a typical directory tree structure which makes browsing for files a breeze.

With the inbuilt hard disk and the small form factor, the TViX really is a portable DVD player that can be taken to friend's houses. It stores enough DVDs, DivX clips and MP3s to double as a powerful jukebox, and has all the outputs you could require.

The unit sent to us came with an 80GB hard drive for the cheap price of $499, but Lako Pacific also sells the TViX without hard disk for $359. There's no upward limit to the hard disk capacity that you can put it in, so if you happen to find a cheap monster drive then this could be perfect way to store your media.

Some may be dissuaded by the USB-only approach to connectivity, but it really is a fabulous piece of hardware and its video support is excellent.