Gainward's Hollywood@Home Roundup

Thoughts

Gainward's Hollywood@Home range of peripheral devices couldn't be further from the image it promotes with its high performance graphics cards. Low cost and high volume is presumably a key cause for their introduction at Gainward, the vendor apparently testing the water for a larger push into the peripheral space. And for the largest part with the reviewed trio of items, they've succeeded.

Talking about the TV tuner product, TV2Go, first, it's clear that they get the basics right. There's good quality, decent performance, a decent, if unergonomic remote, USB2.0 bus power and fine supporting software. It's nothing incredible, but for the mobile user it's about as good as it gets. Pricing sits at £51.17 from Scan in the UK, including VAT. Recommended if you want a cheap TV tuner with no frills that just works, especially for use in a mobile scenario.

Music2Go is similarly competent in the basics. The C-Media ASIC powering it, along with the DACs used, make it a decent 7.1 upgrade over your existing on-board audio solution, provided it's nothing comparatively excellent like Soundstorm or HD Audio. While the CODEC choice with those on-board solutions often lets the final implementation down, the basics to those two product sets don't make it worth upgrading to 7.1 audio just for the sake of it. However, the USB2.0 bus power is the Music2Go's biggest feature. Not having to carry around a separate power supply is a massive boon and it deserves to sell well just because of that. That it's small(ish), light and offers a decent remote and sound quality only add to things. Again, recommended if you need portable, positional audio without much outlay. At £25 from Scan, you can't go wrong.

Finally, the 'Xplosion 5.1 headphones are the cream of the crop for me. Paired well with the Music2Go, they really do work in more than limited scenarios. Best with games, especially Doom3, the 'Xplosion is a fine partner for those times when you can't crank up your normal 5.1+ speakers and you still want to game with full immersion. Lights down low, 3am, Doom3, you and the light, unweildy 'Xplosions feeding your ears with the screams of the dead. At £23 inc VAT, you know it makes sense.

I said on the first page of the article, "Let's take a good look starting with the TV tuner, to see if Gainward's other tricks are worth them turning, and you soliciting."

Their low-cost whoring is worth the risk, most definitely. A triplet of fine products that are somewhat niche in nature, but seem to fill those niches admirably. All three come somewhat recommended, the 'Xplosion 'phones especially.