I more or less now the functions I want but have no idea what to look for.
I want to be able to stream content (mostly films/tv series, maybe HD) from my laptop to the TV. I also want to be able to pause/rewind live TV and record onto the unit too.

What do i need?

an XBOX? or is there better dedicated stuff available for this?

Ccl computers do a media centre pc (base unit only that sits next to your tv, using tv as the monitor) for about 220. Haven’t got a link sorry but if u can afford it its the way to go since u will then have any internet and local network content on your tv via the hdmi port on the pc. Live tv? TvCatchup.com. mtb vids? Freecaster.tv and mtbcut.tv. YouTube, iplayer, 4od, 5od, streamed content off your laptop or the 500gb hard disk etc etc. that’s what I’d do. If you’re feeling flush, put a blu ray player in the pc too. If you want the link email me and I’ll send it on when I get chance.

Here’s the link

http://www.cclonline.com/product/26190/NoMfgCode/CCL-Systems/CCL-Ion-Micro-System-/CCLATOM3/

Another option would be an AppleTV (£99 new or about £70 eBay) which will stream anything from iTunes on your laptop wirelessly – or jailbreak it and you can stream stuff from a NAS.
A couple of little changes (native access to NAS, iPlayer, Ch4oD) would make this a brilliant device.

Edit:

I also want to be able to pause/rewind live TV and record onto the unit too.

What do i need?

A stick to put your moon on 🙂

I have a PS3 specifically for use as a media centre. It streams over WiFi (even Blue Ray quality).

I would strongly recommend getting the PS3 media server (free) software on your PC / Laptop as it encodes on the machine so you get very little buffering.

There seems to be some nice stuff in CCL. Would this do what I want? Although it’s out of stock.

I should add – I’m in Spain – so I’m not fussed about 4oD etc as I can’t access it. (yes I could get a VPN or something but that’s a whole other story!)

imnotamused – will that stream from my laptop?

I should add – I’m in Spain – so I’m not fussed about 4oD etc as I can’t access i

Ib hat case if you use iTunes [and have got the stuff in iTunes] the an appleTV 2 is possibly the neatest and smallest solution.

It would also allow you to stream music wireless from your laptop/iPhone wirelessly.

Yes if you share your films folder from your laptop, you can then access the films folder from the media pc as if it were another drive. Or, use your media centre pc to hold all your media and share a folder out on that to which you can connect from your laptop to copy/stream content