Evesham Ebox 2

Evesham's Ebox 2 is another example of how PC manufacturers are changing the notion of what it means to own and use a PC, and it won't stand out from the other devices in your living room. The only visual giveaways are a FireWire socket and a pair of USB 2 ports on the front panel.

The PC runs Windows Media Center 2005, an operating system designed to make it easy to enjoy photographs, music or DVDs. In particular, it simplifies the process of watching, recording and storing TV programmes, linking in with aerials and set-top boxes so that all can be managed through the simple menu-based interface.

However, we advise you to call the company to make sure your existing set-up is compatible.

Noise is an issue for computers of this type and the Ebox is as quiet as a mouse. Options for watching and recording TV are about as good as it gets today, with a dual digital tuner. This means you can watch one station while recording another and receive Freeview broadcasts.

A 200Gb hard disk is sufficient but a multi-format, dual-layer DVD writer is provided if you need to free up some space.

The Intel Pentium 4 processor running at 3GHz with 512Mb of memory performed respectably in our tests and Wi-Fi is built in. The leads required to plug the PC into standard TV sockets are supplied, but normal PC content and web pages will look odd on a TV because of resolution issues.

A DVI port is supplied to connect to a PC monitor but it's not possible to use it while watching the TV screen.

Evesham provides a good set-up poster and a separate signal booster box. The four USB 2 and single FireWire sockets situated at the rear may be difficult to use and we'd have liked to see them at the front. Still, the Ebox 2 is narrowly the best device of its kind available.

Also consider:
Hi-Grade DMS II 3400