Product Reviews

Unless you've got Windows Vista, your graphics card is idle the whole time you're using the standard Windows desktop. Tenomichi aims to change that with its 3D Media Centre, which uses your graphics card to drive a 3D interface that provides easy access to all the media files on your PC.

Games have had 3D front ends for years and as a result are easier to navigate and understand than the flat Windows desktop. Pitfalls abound, however, and Tenomichi has fallen into most of them while trying to create a working interface. For a start, a 3D interface should make the application more accessible to all users, but 3D Media Centre's infuriating sound effects and tech-styled graphics could alienate everyone but computer enthusiasts.

Controlled by mouse, keyboard or a remote control (not provided), the Gold version comes with six applications on its 3D carousel. 3D DVD uses Nvidia's PureVideo codec to enlist the help of your Nvidia graphics card (but not ATI cards) to provide hardware acceleration for DVD playback and video editing. The exact level of acceleration and support you receive depends on your graphics card - see Nvidia's website (www.nvidia.com) for full details. The Audio CD player

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is little more than functional, with MP3 or other audio file support conspicuously absent. This is a criminal oversight for a modern media centre.

3D Media Centre provides a tool for converting and transferring video to your portable media player, PSP, iPod Video or even mobile phone. It's quite straightforward to use and does a reasonable job of conversion but, like the other applications in the suite, it looks terrible compared with similar windows-based tools and is awkward to use. Although there is a TV icon on the carousel, TV playback is not yet supported. It should be available soon through a free upgrade and will include DVB and HD digital TV and multiple-screen preview. There is also a functioning slideshow creator that uses your graphics card to provide a clutch of funky 3D photo transitions.

3D Media Centre's saving grace is the inclusion of 3D Edit 4. This is Tenomichi's flagship product and, despite suffering from the same 3D interface issues as the other applications in the suite, is considerably more polished. The benefits of using the graphics card for image processing are clearly illustrated here. With real-time effects from a Shaderman graphics engine and 3D transitions, even the interface doesn't manage to obscure the power on offer. Combining DirectX and DirectDraw in a single video-editing application is a great idea and enhances your creative ability with instant results.

As a media centre application, 3D Media Centre is well below par. The interface is clumsy and lacks polish, while the applications don't fulfil the basic requirements of a media centre. Were it not for the inclusion of 3D Edit, it wouldn't be worth buying. As it is, if you have a powerful graphics card and want to add complex effects to your home videos, 3D Edit makes 3D Media Centre more attractive and better value.