NextBase Media 22 under the spotlight

 The Media 22 has a slot for plugging in an iPod, a port for a USB drive and a memory-card reader for SD cards, MMC cards, memory sticks or Memory Stick Pro cards. It supports iPod Nano, iPod Nano 2G and iPod with Video. It can also receive stereo signals from a device that can beam digital music via Bluetooth stereo or A2DP signals, such as a mobile phone, a PDA or a notebook computer. The Media 22 also has a built-in top-loading DVD player and a 3.6-inch thin-film transistor screen with 360-x-240 resolution. It supports all types of DVD discs and can play DivX video format as well as DVD video.

You can watch movies on the tiny screen or output the video signals to a television set using DVD-component or S-video cables. The DVD system decodes Dolby Digital Audio but cannot play Digital Theatre System sound from DVDs.

Its built-in 2.1-channel wooden speaker system makes Media 22 very interesting. The test found the speakers can reproduce good-quality deep bass sound and the mid- and high-range sounds are delivered with clarity. The Media 22 is very easy to use. You simply plug in the medium you wish to use, such as a USB disk or memory card, and the Media 22 detects it automatically and highlights the media type for you to choose from its mode menu. The test found that it received and reproduced music from a Samsung E840 with sound that was very good quality.

The Media 22 also has a built-in FM tuner capable of tuning to frequencies ranging from 87.5-108 megahertz.

However, because it uses a very good wooden speaker system, the Media 22 is quite heavy. It weighs about 9 kilograms and measures 480 x 270 x 210mm.

The Media 22 is manufactured by the Hong Kong-based manufacturer of popular portable NextBase DVD players. It is distributed in Thailand by Goodluck World Business and priced at Bt19,900.

Paisal Chuenprasaeng, The Nation