500gb of storage, all housed in a sleak, sexy, shiny black box!

Music, pictures, document storage, movies, record from TV/DVD and Satellite, this little baby promises a lot, and I was hugely delighted to get my hands on one for a trial.

Now, I've been around computers since the 8inch floppy was the height of new invention, and I've seen storage just keep on shrinking, yet opening up the box I was still awe struck by just how small this 500gb device really is, measuring just 16.5x16.5x5cm, and weighing less than a bag of sugar!

In the box, along with the unit itself are a selection of cables (2x AV, 1x power, 1xUSB, 1x Scart->AV converter), a remote control (and batteries) plus a quick start guide, and to my delight a proper printed comprehensive manual. Not a big manual, but one that explained everything in simple straightforward terms.

Following the quick start guide, I had the unit up and running in a few minutes, it proved simple to use, and performed each function exactly as described. Hook it up to your computer and it's an external hard drive, use the media slot on the front to read SD/MMC&CF cards, transfer your pictures over and play slide shows of them on your TV, transfer your music collection over and the Media Bank will run as a jukebox (either connected to the TV or directly to speakers) Could it be that this one unit really is all I need to handle my storage needs? Trials of data transfer, music playback and picture display were all smooth, fast and without incident. I transferred over some movie clips from my computer, and the playback was excellent. The remote control did take a little bit of getting used to, but only because it has more functions that I'm used to!

In fact if that was all the Media Bank did, I'd have been perfectly content with it, but for me the best was still to come! Hook it up to your DVD and you can record what's playing, hook it up to your satellite system and it'll replace your VCR/DVDR/Plus system. Because this device comes with full recording functionality, both one-touch and scheduled, along with all the playback functions you'd expect on your DVD player, including book-marking your place during playback. To test it out, I set it to record while I was out on Saturday night (Dr Who, if you're interested) and set my satellite system to change channels accordingly. When I got home at midnight, there waiting for me, because I had to check straight away of course, was my program, all ready for me to enjoy! (So much more successful than my first attempt with the VCR!)

There were a couple of little niggles with regard to the record functionality, firstly, there doesn't appear to be a way to rename files without connecting to the computer, and 001.avi isn't a particularly helpful name. And, rather more annoyingly the Media Bank can only record up to 2gb or 1 hour per file. If your recording exceeds those sizes a new file is instantly opened up, but you do miss a couple of seconds of your program. Still, if you're recording while you watch you can stop & start a new file in the advert breaks, and if you're recording from DVD you can make a neat interchange, so it's likely to only be scheduled movies from TV recording that will be affected. But overall these minor irritations certainly didn't detract from the good features the unit offers.

So, after trialling it, how do I feel about the Disgo Media Bank?
I absolutely love it! It delivers everything it promises and more... I almost couldn't bear to put it back in its box at the end of the trial, I so wanted to keep it! With an RRP of just £169, this product really is worth every penny!

Available online from www.mydisgo.com