See Mr Spock and Captain Kirk as they were meant to be seen warts and all as the digitally remastered version of the original Star Trek comes to Freesat. Three new CBS channels are due to launch on Freesat, November 16 - CBS Drama, CBS Reality and CBS Action - replacing Zone Romantica, Zone Reality and Zone Thriller.

Other classic shows on the three channels include Dynasty, Moonlighting and Models Inc. Freesat, the subscription-free satellite TV service offers over 140 channels and free high-definition (HD) programmes from the BBC and ITV. CBS Drama, CBS Reality and CBS Action will be on channels 135, 136 and 137 respectively.

www.freesat.co.uk

LG has announced that the HR400 will be available at the end of this month. The HR400 is a Blu-ray DVD player, a Freeview receiver with recording onto a built-in HDD and it also streams YouTube videos without the need for a PC.

The Blu-ray is 1080p full HD and will also upscale your old DVDs. The Freeview element includes a 160GB HDD.

This really does do the job of two separate boxes and the YouTube feature is just a nice little bonus.

It will cost around £350 - which is fairly cheap considering the functionality. Find out more from LG.

(via T3)

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So, you know what it's called and you know how much it costs but the question is, what exactly is a multimedia HDD box and what can it do for me/you/anyone?

Everything and nothing is the answer. On the surface, it's an excellent product. It's small, it's portable, the 250GB HDD detaches while the flash drive in the main body of the unit will keep on recording regardless. You can connected it via just about any cable you've got to whatever kind of screen you like and you can plug in all manner of USBs and SD cards to play off or record onto.

Digital Vision has launched the GiGo DV-DTR1 Digital Freeview recorder - the first USB stick based recorder on the market.

It's basically a single tuner Freeview receiver, with the usual EPG you'd expect on a Freeview box, that has three USB ports on the front of it. Users can record programmes using the EPG direct to any storage device plugged in to one of the slots.

Programmes are recorded in MPEG-2 format with an hour's worth of programming taking up about 2GB. The file name is taken directly from the EPG and programme synopsis is also copied.

Playback is via the GiGo or via any device that supports MPEG-2, meaning you can take your recorded programmes with you on the move.

Robert Musk from Digital Vision told Tech Digest (well, me) that he sees the GiGo box as a direct replacement for people who were comfortable recording onto VHS but haven't got to grips with Freeview recorders and personal planners yet.

The GiGo DV-DTR1 will be available in Tesco from September for £69.99 initially, although this will probably drop to £59.99. The cheapest Freeview reorder I could find on the Tesco website was £87.89 for a 250GB DigiHome model meaning the GiGo could be a good entry-level Freeview recorder.

It doesn't take a satellite dish or subscription service to get yourself a PVR these days and a company from France is pushing the set-top box paradigm a little further as of last week with an HD multimedia HDD device known as the Wyplayer.

It's a good-looking, fairly compact device in the flesh with all the ports you'd expect in the shape of 3 x USB, Ethernet, RCA and, of course, HDMI (1.2 only). It also happens to have a built-in Wi-Fi N receiver with no ridiculous aerial sticking out of the back. So, already we're looking at one function most PVRs don't have - media streaming straight from your computer.

Over Christmas I ate a lot of turkey, drank a lot of wine, and fiddled endlessly with this - the Emtec S800 movie cube. I'll break it to you now - it's not a cube - but it is a great little home entertainment set-top-box that lets you stream video over a network and record television.

Not one for the technophobic amongst you, but if you like tinkering with your AV setup then it comes highly recommended. It costs £230 and the company claims it's available now from Dixons, but I certainly can't see it on the site, or anywhere else for that matter. If you know where you can buy it in the UK, drop us a line in the comments.

Related posts: Emtec S800 HDD Movie Cube - an all-in-one digital media set-top-box | Emtec launches Movie Cube-R multimedia centre

IP Vision has announced a new hybrid set-top box which can be used to access the complete range of Freeview channels, acts as a digital video recorder (DVR), as well as being able to access a range of video on demand content over the Internet.

The company is keen to point out that this is a subscription-free, operator independent service, unlike those from the likes of BT, Virgin Media and Tiscali. It can be used with any broadband provider.

At launch, over 1,200 hours of content will be available in the VoD library including films and programmes from Paramount, ITV, Turner Broadcasting, Eagle Vision, Fremantle, Entertainment Rights and Aardman.