If you’ve just spent £1,000 or more on a new TV, we doubt you’re going to thank us for telling you to spend even more. Sound always accounts for half the experience, though, whether you’re watching sport, movies or just Neighbours. And the speakers built in to your TV are not likely to do justice …

He may enjoy killing the innocent, blowing up planets and generally keeping a stranglehold on those around him, but that doesn’t mean old Darth Vader doesn’t like to kick back, relax and watch a hi-def movie with glorious, uncompressed surround sound. Indeed, we think he’s got an Onkyo TX-NR906 in that little egg where he takes his helmet off. A …

You could argue that Kangaroo, the online video-on-demand joint venture between ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide was never going to make it out of the marsupial pouch. A fairly obvious hint was the departure of Ashley Highfield, who joined Microsoft last year. But now it’s official: the Competition Commission has ruled that the project must not continue. The justification …

The technology press has got all excited about the arrival of the new Philips Cinema 21:9 TV, because it offers a full movie wide ratio. Having a truly movie-like experience at home is the holy grail of geeks across the world, as long as it doesn’t involve any of that ludicrous 3D nonsense. But, if you’re really serious about a …

We’ve certainly had a bit of a pop at freesat in the past, but it’s not because we don’t like it — we just think it could be a lot better. That’s mainly to do with the standard-definition channels, which really should look better on digital satellite than they do on Freeview. That said, both BBC HD and ITV HD …

We’ve been waiting years for Sony to release the XEL-1, ever since it showed off its OLED hotness at CES 2007. This particular 11-inch OLED TV has been tempting us with its dinky awesomeness since it was launched in the US in January 2008. OLED TVs promise to be a credible replacement for LCD and plasma in a few years’ …

Yesterday the US swore in its 44th president to record crowds in Washington DC and rapturous excitement across the globe. Being stuck in the CBS office, we weren’t able to watch TV at our desks, so instead we turned to some of the many streaming services that were offering footage online. It was a huge occasion for Web streaming, but …

We’ll admit it, we’ve got a soft spot for DivX. The much-used video codec started as a hack of Microsoft’s proprietary MPEG-4 codec, and was born out of frustration with Microsoft’s video-playback lameness. DivX quickly became an important ingredient of Internet video, but in an HD era, something with a little more power is needed. Oh look, here’s DivX 7. …

There’s a been a surge in interest recently about an ‘imminent ban’ on energy-inefficient TVs. Rumours reported by several national newspapers indicate that plasma TVs could be banned under new EU rules on energy efficiency. Of course, with Russell Brand already sacked, the papers need something else to cover their pages and whip up some public outrage. The British press …

Has Samsung finally lost the plot? We’ve heard about speakers made from paper, Kevlar and even silk, but those materials weren’t good enough for the Korean mega-corp. So it’s gone and dragged some seaweed out of the ocean and made speaker cones with it. The company claims kelp is a perfect material for speakers, because it has a very fast …