Pioneer's slim and trim DVD recorder/hard disk combination might be missing an electronic programming guide, but its powerful archiving features and beginner-friendly menus help make up for lost ground.

JVC's intriguing VCR/DVD combo recorder comes loaded with promise on paper and riddled with annoying quirks in person. The DR-MV1 (£300 or less online) can control a satellite receiver thanks to the included infrared transmitter. It plays VHS tapes in progressive scan, but you must copy to DVD first to do so.

Portable TVs have an uncomfortable late-80s feel to them. Back then, we all walked around with handheld gadgets from the future that weren't really handheld at all – the 'brick' style mobile phones and laptop computers that weighed more than today's desktops.

The high-end market is continuously morphing into new forms. Just when we were adjusting to the idea that Porsche makes an SUV, KEF -- the legendary British speaker manufacturer -- has unveiled its first home theatre in a box (HTIB). But KEF's KIT100 Instant Theatre (£1,200 list price) is a radical departure from everyday all-style, no-substance

Freeview might be a fairly limited service, with a mix of terrestrial channels, spin-offs that show repeats and imports and a gamut of shopping/music/minor interest offerings that fill the rest. But it's a free and easy way of getting digital TV, and for that we should be thankful, especially due to the high cost of Sky and cable TV.

The DVD recorder may still have some way to go before it replaces the vast number of VCRs out there, but those willing to change may have considered the combined DVD/HDD route. And why not -- since Sky+ has brought the virtues of hard drive recording to the masses, millions of people have been

Thomson has finally released the personal video player that it announced almost a year ago: the 20GB Lyra PDP2860. While it lets you enjoy music and movies wherever you go and has a slicker design than the competing Archos AV320, the PDP2860 offers fewer extra features and won't load as many types of video. We also would like this device more if all its functionality were active, but Thomson had to release it early to catch the Christmas shopping season.

The portable video player market is percolating, with some manufacturers already releasing second- and third-generation devices such as Archos's AV420. A major offshoot of this fledgling category is the Portable Media Center (PMC), which was first introduced back in January at CES. The Creative Zen Portable Media Center is the first device of many to employ Microsoft's Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center operating system; competing devices from Samsung and iRiver aren't far behind.