A whole host of manufacturers have recently been teaming up with MetaLink, a company that specialise in wireless media streaming technology based on the draft 802.11n specification - the next generation, higher-bandwidth wi-fi that should have sufficient capacity to stream multiple HDTV around the home.

The latest to partner is Daewoo, as announced at IFA 2006 today. It's next-generation set-top box (STB) will allow for just that - multi-streaming video around the home.

There's not a huge amount of detail on Daewoo's next-gen equipment yet, but other manufacturers to do the same thing include Philips and LG, so it's something that is sure to gain ground as both HD and wireless comms move forward over the next few years.

I've written about the concern over standards compliance - but if things continue like this we may just end up with a de facto standard with everyone using MetaLink WLAN technology to power their connected homes and worlds (oops sorry that's a Philips-ism). What I'm wary of is seeing a standard turn into a manufacturer tie-in (Microsoft anyone?) - hopefully that won't happen despite 802.11n not due to be officially ratified until at least mid-2007.

MetaLink do seem to be the real winners here so far, but in an consumer electronics world currently dominated by cables, a decent wireless solution that's as good as wired is a very welcome prospect.

Daewoo UK website
802.11 specifications explained at Wikipedia

I mentioned earlier in the week that the first viewing of the new Commodore (the Mpet II mp3 player), but the new Gravel entertainment system seems altogether more in line with the Commodore name.

Commodore's latest baby is Commodore World and the Gravel entertainment systems. The Commodore World website promises "a large variety of entertainment content - music, videos, games, favorite radio and TV programs", accessed on demand via the Gravel devices. As yet, the site is unavailable to view, so we can't confirm what exactly is on offer.

What we can see are the Gravel devices. The Commodore Gravel In Pocket is a pocket-sized multimedia device with built-in Wi-Fi. It supports all major file formats, including MP4, MPEG, DivX, Xvid, WMV, streaming WMV, JPEG, BMP, GIF, along with MP3, WMA, WAVE music files. There's 1GB or 2GB internal flash memory, expandable by SD card and comes with the claims that it's world-first, high-quality flash video device that plays full screen, full motion (24 fps) on a 2.8-inch TFT screen.

It's sometimes hard to illustrate a jump in technology, but TDK has made it that bit easier, unveiling a disc for Blu-ray drives with a whopping 200GB capacity.

TDK's new 200GB Blue-Laser disc doubles the capacity of their existing 100GB Blu-ray prototype and could store approximately 18 hours of high definition video (encoded at 24Mbps). The initial Blu-ray disc standard offered a choice of 25GB single layer Blu-ray discs or 50GB dual layer discs (as pictured). However, TDK has now managed to cram 33.3GB on each of the disc’s six layers to hit the 200GB mark on a single-sided disc.

The disc is currently a working prototype, with no shelf date confirmed as yet. We'll keep you posted.

TDK website

More Blu-ray:
Lite-on unveils external Blu-ray disc writer
Sony announces AR series VAIO – world’s first Blu-ray notebook

Hello and welcome from Berlin where the Tech Digest team, that's Ash, Chris and Susi, will be bringing you all the breaking news from the world of consumer electronics. At the moment the stands are still half built so we haven't been able to check out what's new, but here's a taster of what's in store just to whet your appetite.

Philips: The press conference begins 2pm Berlin time and you can log in at www.ifa.philips.com to get all the latest product information. For now we know that Philips will be announcing a new Skype VoIP phone which also doubles as a DECT phone (the product was first shown last year). Also there's a new Windows XP Media Center for the living room with 250GB hard drive and Blu-Ray (again the product was first shown last year).

LG: We went to the press conference this morning but new product information was disappointingtly scarce. What we do know is that they plan to launch new TVs with built in DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) following the success of the 43inch plasma model launched in May. After toying with the idea of a combined Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player (now isn't that a good idea) it seems they've ditched that plan in favour of backing just Blu-Ray. No plans to launch a new a player this year though. Apparently LG has shifted two million handsets of its 'hero product', the chocolate phone, but now news on a successor yet. However, we do know they will show off another mobile TV phone which uses the DMB standard.

Remember Philips' prototype interactive board game from this year's CES? Well, they've refined it and its ready to face the public.

The idea of the Entertaible is to mix the flexibility of the electronic games arena, such as dynamic playing fields and varying levels, with the traditional social interaction of the board game. The Entertaible features a 30-inch LCD, sophisticated touch screen-based multi-object position detectors, plus supporting control electronics.

According to Philips Research spokesman Gerard Hollemans, the idea in the short term is to "reinvigorate established board game classics", then create "brand new games offering unprecedented levels of user interaction - games that would never become predictable or ever quite ‘feel' the same twice, however often you played them."

You should get an idea of what that all means towards the end of this year, with Philips set to pilot the Entertaible in a number of public locations.

Philips website

If there was an award for the most innovative stand at IFA it would surely have to go to Sony. The 'stand' was more like a lavish theatrical set in which an interior designer's imagination had been left to run riot. Walk into one room and it was a digital hall of mirrors. Walk into another and it felt like one of those Japanese hotels where you have to sleep in a tube. All the separate rooms were divided by floor-to-ceiling drapes (a bit like those you get at the car wash), leaving maximum opportunity for collision between visitors. I wouldn't like to be in charge of that accident book.

Here's another IFA 'world first': a portable digital terrestrial (Freeview) set-top box with a built in 11cm LCD screen. Measuring 17cm x 9cm and tipping the scales at 425 grammes, the mobile set-top box can be connected to a TV using composite video or Scart. There's also a USB port for software downloads via the PC and an optional external antenna for digital TV reception at high speeds. The mobile set-top box operates on a rechargeable battery that provides up to 2.5 hours playtime. A 12 Volt car adaptor is available as an optional extra. The DTI0601 will be available in the UK, Australia, France, Germany and Italy in early 2006.

www.thomson-broadband.com

Philips demonstrated a number of interesting research projects at IFA - most of which are nearly ready for launch. There was a 3D flat screen display which will be used mainly by advertisers and for specialist medical applications (ie baby scans). There was also a display of the company's 'photonic textiles' which will eventually enable you to create your own electronic clothes (see Philips Homelab for more information). However the product we got most excited about was the rollable display which has been developed in conjunction with Polymer Vision. It was first demonstrated at IFA a couple of years but seems very close to becoming a reality, albeit initially in black and white rather than colour. Using ultra-thin 25 micron plastic substrates, combined with flexible organic electronics technology, the display is intended - eventually - as an integrated solution for a mobile phone. The QVGA resolution display is scheduled for manufacturing in 2006.

Not sure about which recording format to go for? Panasonic has announced a recorder that covers most of the bases - at least as far as standard definition goes anyway (we won't even get into the high def recording format war that is still looming). Unveiled at IFA was a four in one recorder, comprising 200Gb hard disk drive, VHS VCR, DVD recorder and SD Memory Card. Called thd DMR-EH80V it comes with its own electronic programme guide, Guide Plus, and a built in DV terminal for dubbing DV-quality images from a digital video camera to the recorder's hard disk drive or DVD disc. Panasonic claims the 200Gb hard disk can hold up to 355 hours of footage and the DVD recorder can record on DVD-RAM, DVD-R, +R and DVD-RW discs.
www.panasonic-europe.com

Humax announced a new digital terrestrial (Freeview) set-top box at IFA. The PVR-9200T features 160 Gig hard drive for 100 hours recording time, two tuners (so you can record two channels at once) and a USB port for PC connection so you can store MP3 and JPEG files onto the hard drive. It also comes with 7 day EPG and Dolby Digital Audio output.

www.humaxdigital.com

IFA News: Is this the biggest plasma in the world. Well yes I think so. It is apparently a 102inch model and though I didn't get the ruler out to measure it, it's pretty darned huge. Picture quality from this 1920 x 1080 resolution screen isn't bad either and, according to Samsung it offers 6.4 billion colours (how do they measure that?) Obviously the product will never come to market, it's simply there to pull in the punters to the stand - which it did in a spectacular fashion.

However if you do want a commercially available plasma and have more money than sense then you could always invest in the 'tiny' 80inch model (PS80X5H). Picture quality from the 1920 x 1080 display is even better than the 102inch and I was quite impressed by the surround sound system which comes with it. It also comes with Picture in Picture (PIP) and a double screen facility. Another 'world's largest' claim comes from Samsung's SP71 L8HX - the world's largest DLP projection telly. It has a screen size of 71inches, also offers 1920 x 1080 resolution and comnes with HDMI inputs.

Last week Samsung in Korea anounced the SCH-B250, a fourth generation mobile phone which enables you to watch digital TV on the move. Today at IFA it unveiled a complete range of portable devices which use DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) technology for mobile digital TV - apparently at speeds of up to 200 kph. Among the products on display was a 5inch handheld PC with digital terrestrial antenna (the XP40), a 12.1 inch notebook (the Q30+) and a 7inch portable DVD player, the SV-L77DM13. It also demonstrated how the technology could be used within a car. Now all we need is the mobile digital TV content!

At IFA Toshiba unveiled what has to be the smallest and most unusual projector in the world. Rather than using a hot projector lamp, the tiny Toshiba - which measures just 136 x 39 x 100 mm - boasts low-voltage LEDs. It's the first projector we know we to run on batteries (they provide about two hours running time) and, unlike conventional LCD and DLP projectors, it starts up and switches off instantly.

Picture quality isn't the best and maximum image size is around 30inches but it's ideal for business presentations and for portable applications (ie taking on holiday). As well as the usual video/audio inputs it also comes with a USB port for easy transfer of data, pictures etc. from your PC. It's expected to go on sale before Christmas for 999 Euros (£700) including foldable white screen. Also announced at IFA were several larger and more expensive projectors from Tosh including the MT400 and the HD Ready, MT700.

Just time to tell you about a new device from Terratec that turns your PC into a digital TV box. Rather than the usual clumsy digital terrestrial (DVB-T) adaptor that bolts onto the side of your PC, this neat little TV tuner plugs directly into the USB 2.0 port of your computer and is, apparently, no bigger than a Swiss Army knife. It also comes with software for digital video recording on your hard drive. Must confess we haven't seen it yet but will check it out and get a piccie tomorrow when the show officially opens.

Further proof, if it were needed, that this year's consumer electronics show in Berlin is all about convergence and HD. Consumer electronics giant Philips has announced it is launching an HD-compatible Windows Media Center in October as part of its 'Connected Planet' range. Called the MCP9350i, this all-in-one entertainment solution comes with 250GB hard drive and features wi-fi (802.11b/g connectivity) and Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz processor. Importantly, it's a silver and black coloured set-top box which looks like it should sit neatly under the TV. The only downside is the price. Expected to go on the market for 1499 Euros, it seems a little on the pricey side at the moment. However prices are expected to fall.

So IFA is over for another two years and fortunately there's no more barging past mullet-haired, frankfurter-toting, red-sports jacket-wearing types (and that's just our fellow UK tech journalists) to grab the scoops.

And if you can't be bothered to wade through all those news IFA news stories, here's your easily digestible quickie guide to the world's biggest consumer electronics show.

Here's the Tech Digest round-up of the best of the rest of the world's largest consumer electronics show IFA. We'll have detailed analysis of the show along with a easily digestable instant guide later in the week.

* Bluetooth personal CD player
* The fantastic Broadband Box
* Samsung votes for DAB
* More digital radio
* Philips' coin-sized optical disk
* Recordable DVD price war

IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics show with over 1000 exhibitors, got underway in Berlin yesterday. Click here for full stories