Panasonic DMR-BW880

The basics

The Panasonic DMR-BW880 is a Blu-ray player and recorder that also packs in Freeview HD.

Network media streaming and IPTV apps are also on board – so how does this media multitasker shape up?

The good

The Panasonic DMR-BW880 big selling point is just how fully equipped it is. As well as delivering crystal-clear Blu-ray images, it'll also deliver your Freeview HD to your HDTV too.

The Panny's also packing twin tuners, so you can pause and rewind live HDTV, watch one channel and record another, or even record two simultaneously, while the 500GB hard drive will let you fill it to the brim with your favourite shows. You can also compress an HD file down to save space, and even the lowest quality setting (HM Extended Play) looks pretty good. You can then burn your favourites to the built-in Blu-ray recorder.

The DMR-BW880 is also web-connected, so it can jump on your DNLA streaming, and has lots of ports (USB and SD/SDHC/SDXC) for handling all your media – video, music and snaps.

The bad

The web TV skills aren’t massively impressive yet – there's YouTube and that's about it.

The only stumbling block may be the price - at £799 this isn't the cheapest on the market and might be difficult to justify. There's also a 250GB model for £100 less.

The bottom line

In all, this is a great piece of convergence kit and a glimpse at what set-top boxes might become. Look out for internet deals on the price.