One of the items that is sure to fly off the shelves this holiday season is LCD TVs. Why not? With the drastic reduction in manufacturing costs and the sheer number of different brands in the market, a decent HD LCD TV isn’t beyond the realm of a working stiff, with many 42-inch models clocking in at under P50,000 or so.

Therein lies the problem – while customers are spoilt for choice when it comes to TVs, high-definition content is sadly lacking, and Blu-ray players are still making tentative steps from the realm of insanity when it comes to price. You could settle for over the air broadcasts and DVDs, but then, what would be the point of your brand new 42-inch HD LCD TV?

That’s where the BrightView CinemaTube comes in. The CinemaTube  is basically a HD player/streamer/torrent downloader– it’s capable of reading, and playing, most (if not all) popular movie and audio file formats out there, including DivX, MPEG4, Real Video, and MKV, and automatically upconverts them to 1080p full HD (if they aren’t HD yet). The whole thing is small and compact, and is easily half the size of a standard DVD player.

The CinemaTube has enough connections to connect to most home theater setups, including HDMI, S/P DIF (optical), component (YPbPr) and composite. It also has connections for two USB devices  which include flash drives and hard disks, and a single Ethernet port so you can plug it into your home network. If you’re not a fan of wires, there is an optional wireless dongle available for the device. The included remote isn’t the prettiest I’ve seen, but the myriad buttons are clearly labeled and easy enough to press.

Setup is easy enough, and during your first run-through with the CinemaTube it’ll ask you a few simple questions to get you going. After the initial setup, you can now plug in your preferred storage media in the two USB slots and the device will automatically list the items it can play on your screen. It is also DTS ready, so if you have a DTS compliant device and the source file was encoded with DTS, you’ll be able to enjoy high definition sound.

As mentioned before, the device will upconvert whatever video content you have in your storage devices to 1080P, meaning full HD, to the best of its abilities. Standard caveats apply of course – if you’re hoping that that grainy video you shot from a cheap camera will miraculously become clearer, you are sadly mistaken.

The device is also capable of downloading torrents for you (as long as there is a place to put the files in), and can download 3 torrents simultaneously. It is also capable of downloading third party applications that’ll allow you to watch internet TV, but it seems that particular feature isn’t  available yet locally. You can also stream media that’s stored in the computers connected to your network.

The BrightView CinemaTube is an excellent companion to a HD LCD TV. At the fraction of the price of even the cheapest Blu-ray players, it gives users excellent value for money and unparalleled versatility.