I’ve seen adverts for Freeview Playback and noticed that there are a couple of Freeview receivers with the logo on them. What is it, and why should I care? Tony You should care because those nice people at Freeview, and the hardware manufacturers, are trying to make your life a little better with technology! Put …

If a 50-inch plasma TV isn’t big enough for you, but you aren’t quite rich enough to afford the gigantic 103- and 108-inch screens from Panasonic and Sharp then you’ll probably want to consider a projector. BenQ would politely offer its W9000 model for your consideration. The W9000 is a 1080p DLP projector that can produce a 100-inch picture, as …

We’ve all got so caught up in the fighting between Blu-ray and HD DVD that we haven’t really given any consideration to the possibility that neither high-definition format will actually win. Indeed, it’s actually possible that HD DVD and Blu-ray might both be successful in different parts of the world. Most people think that the format war will, for the …

If you love the outdoors and love watching TV you’ll inevitably be struck by how incompatible these two pursuits tend to be. After all, installing a TV outside is a foolish endeavour and will almost certainly end with an expensive puff of smoke and the death of nearby people. Amazingly, there’s now a solution that won’t end in a multi-million-pound …

Most of us don’t give a hoot how our TV is delivered, we just want to watch Big Brother with minimal fuss. But IPTV can offer us lots of extra features, such as on-demand movies and maybe one day high-definition TV. Yesterday Crave pitched up at a roundtable discussion about IPTV, which featured bigwigs from the BBC and Motorola, among …

I want to buy a new TV and I’ve heard a lot about 1080i and 1080p — which sort of screen should I go for? Sarah There’s a lot of confusion about 1080i and 1080p. First of all, I’ll explain what both are, and how this confusion arises. There are two parts to these hi-def numbers. The first is the …

In the HD DVD versus Blu-ray shin-kicking contest there are many victories claimed, most of them by the Blu-ray camp. This week is no exception, as the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies on Blu-ray outsold The Matrix trilogy on HD DVD. The good news is that together, consumers spent about $2m on these films, which can only be …

The concept of a Freeview receiver that can record isn’t new — for a while now companies such as Thomson, Sony and Humax have been making digital video recorders that give Freeview viewers Sky+ style features without making Murdoch any richer. The good news is that there are whole new set of these DVRs on their way, under the ‘Freeview …

It’s always good to see a new Sharp TV. They rarely disappoint our keen eye, in either looks or picture quality. But the new Aquos LC37RD2E has caught our eye for a different reason — it has a new 100Hz mode. These are all the rage at the moment and can make a huge difference if you want smoother motion …

Pioneer has certainly managed to pack a helluva lot into the LX01. Firstly, it’s a Freeview receiver with PVR functionality. You can save programmes to the built-in DVD writer or 160GB hard disk. But that’s not all — it’s also a fully fledged surround-sound system offering eight channels of glorious cinema-style audio. The most interesting feature is the new surround-sound …