As we perch on the edge of our seats waiting for the Blu-ray vs HD DVD scuffle to end, we have plenty of time to predict which format will be triumphant. The latest salvo is Sony’s announcement of a seriously cut-price Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300. It’s a step up from the enormous BDP-S1 — it’s cheaper, smaller and amazingly will now …

The centrepiece of Toshiba’s stand at IFA 2006 was the area promoting HD DVD. Toshiba announced the European launch dates and pricing for two players, the mainstream HD-E1 and the high-end HD-XE1. Visitors to the show were able to see the players in action, compare them to standard DVD players and find out about the first batch of titles. The …

Visitors to the Samsung stand at IFA 2006 were greeted by a wall of flat-screen televisions. Samsung had one of the largest stands at the show and at least half of it was dedicated to televisions of one type or another: LCDs, plasmas, rear-projection screens and even CRTs. In particular, Samsung was promoting its new 1080p screens. The 1080p standard offers …