We are looking at buying a new DVD player for our new LCD 1080p TV and are looking for recommendations on a model that would provide all of the following: – HDMI Output – 1080 capability / upscaling capability – All regions playing capability (NTSC/PAL) – Will work on European power (220V) – Card-Reader (SD …

If you want the best picture from your DVD player, you’ll want to spend more than the £20 some companies charge for their players. Oppo, a company not especially well known in the UK but popular in the US, is bringing its range of upscaling DVD players to the UK, starting with the DV-981HD. So, what’s the big attraction of …

In the latest skirmish in the hi-def format war, the HD DVD promotion group announced on Monday that in Europe, HD DVD is the king of the ‘attach rate’ — the average number of discs each person buys for their player. The headline number was that HD DVD owners are buying, on average, 3.8 movies each, with Blu-ray owners buying …

During the forthcoming festive period, many City folk are likely to receive very large bonuses, which they will need to spend on something to impress their snooty mates. Sony has cleverly targeted the super-rich pillock market — its Bravia KDL-70X3500 will certainly soak up a good chunk of that extra cash, and will definitely impress everyone in a 3-mile radius. …

Here’s the main problem with the high-definition formats: the discs are very costly to produce, while DVD is dirt-cheap. Sure, it won’t be many years before HD DVD and Blu-ray are as inexpensive as DVD is now, but until then, what do the smaller, independent producers do? There is a solution of sorts — namely, burning high-definition video to a …

We don’t have a degree in business, but it stands to reason that reducing the cost of a formerly expensive item down to a rock-bottom price might possibly produce a sales boost. In the US last weekend a number of stores reduced the price of the Toshiba HD-E1 (they call it the HD-A2) down to just $99 (£47). Unsurprisingly, they …

We’re into November now, and that means that all new Blu-ray players must conform to the BD Full Standard Profile — profile 1.1 — specification. This doesn’t mean that all the players on the market now are compliant — far from it — but the new ones should be, aside from the Sony PlayStation 3. Of course, if you’re waiting …

Ambilight is one of those ideas that sounds like it was cooked up by a mad scientist who had a quiet week and a couple of coloured LEDs lying around. The reality of it is quite different, because once you’ve seen Ambilight working, the scientist doesn’t seem quite so mad anymore. The Philips Cineos 42PFL9632D makes him seem worthy of …

It’s hard to criticise Korean companies these days. There was a time when LG and Samsung were famous only for their low-end products, but these days, nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, it seems to be the Korean companies who are innovating and adding new features, and in LG’s case, it’s only gone and stuffed a Freeview PVR …

Once upon a time, when TVs were made from gigantic lumps of glass and other large and heavy materials, it was only really possible to put them in larger rooms. Sure, manufacturers tried to miniaturise TVs to put them in clock radios and handheld screens but they were generally black and white, or utterly awful. These days, you can get …