Gadget of the week: Harman Kardon BDS 5

What is it? From the sound experts themselves, the BDS 5 is a versatile media player that will play Blu-ray discs and all kinds of DVD and CD formats. What's special about it? Apart from the fact that it has the Harman Kardon touch, the BDS 5 is a feature-rich audio/video receiver capable of speaking to most of the latest gadgets and devices you may have and also includes a 5.1-channel digital amplifier and all the latest in surround-sound system. I don't see a speaker though. Yes, this is only a receiver. You'll have to buy those separately or hook it up to existing speakers. The Harman House outlet at The Dubai Mall has some cool DSF deals and offers on speakers. Remind me what's the deal with Blu-ray discs again? Blu-ray discs are much like your CDs physically but have been specially designed to supersede the DVD. It's quite different from the DVD when we're looking at storage capacity, image resolution, disc construction and the player requirements. Blu-rays can store up to 50GB of data while your DVD can do about 8GB. Also, regular DVDs have a standard resolution definition of 480, which is great for tube TVs (remember those?), while Blu-rays are designed for high definition 1080, great for all your latest flat screens. What's more, because of the way it's constructed, your regular DVD players cannot play Blu-ray discs while most Blu-ray players are now capable of playing any format, something the geeky guys call "backward compatibility". So why haven't the Blu-rays taken over the world? They will, eventually. Much like how we have subsequently graduated from video cassettes to VCDs and to DVDs, the Blu-ray's domination will surely come. More acceptance will lead to better sales that will, in turn, make the discs cheaper and therefore more accessible. So what else can I do with the BDS 5? You can play music from your iPod or iPhone via a dock (sold separately), create a realistic 5.1-channel sound field from just two speakers and a subwoofer, connect it to your home-computer network and play all sorts of media files, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP3, WMA and JPEG. It is also compatible with either a 12cm or 8cm disc, has a USB port and is very easy to install. Oh, and did we say it's a Harman Kardon? What's the damage? The BDS 5 retails for Dh2,999 at Harman House in The Dubai Mall. Call 04 3399629 for more information.