Virtually Total Connectivity

Smaller than the first generation of Showcenters, the 200 is only 30 centimeters wide, 23 centimeters deep and 4 centimeters high. If you've already got a stack of HiFi separates, you'll have to put this one on the top of the pile. As far as connections are concerned, Pinnacle has thought of practically everything.

First of all, there's a SCART socket (only in the European version) for very easy connection to a TV or video recorder, for example. This socket can also provide an RGB signal to get the best video quality possible from the SCART standard. There are also RCA and S-Video sockets. Of course, all of these sockets are limited to providing standard definition (SD) signals. For High Definition, you'll need to use the YUV (Composite) sockets. Unfortunately, there aren't any digital video connections. I'd have loved to have had a DVI socket or, better yet, an HDMi connection. Admittedly this last one (HDMi) is still not well enough established, but its inclusion would have definitely positioned the Showcenter 200 as a near future-proof product. No problems on the audio side. There's a double RCA analogue socket and two digital choices, optical and coaxial.

For the first time there's a USB socket on the front. This is where you can connect your external storage devices. We'll talk about that in more detail later. Last of all, for connecting to the PC, you have a choice between 10/100 Megabits/s cable-based networking using the RJ45 socket or wireless networking at 54 Megabits/s via the WiFi 802.11g protocol.