LG Electronics Blu-ray players look to have turned a corner this year–until now, they’ve been overpriced, badly specified, and worst of all, tedious to use. The LG HB354 is the latest to raise the bar, promising to bring a touch of glamour to the proceedings with its attractive styling and impressive features. Clearly, this system …

Having won the format war over a year ago, Blu-ray appears to be going from strength to strength, and now it’s only gone and got itself an official chart. The league table appears at blurayrevolution.co.uk, a cross-industry site promoting the format to viewers here in Blighty. The hit pa-ray-de, compiled by the Official Chart Company, gathers information from hundred of …

Crave was recently invited to plush old Harrods, if you please, to tour the Loewe mini-store. Donning our best bib and tucker, we got a fascinating insight into the well-to-do audience for the German manufacturer’s stylish and desirable TVs. As a shopping experience, it’s about as far away from your high street electrical store as you can imagine. While we …

For the sake of convenience we’d suggest getting a good monitor and adding a tuner card to your PC. This will also add the ability to record TV straight on your PC, which is very handy. Buying a TV limits you to the tuner onboard, which may mean analog instead of superior digital. Make sure to get a monitor that …

One cold and wet British summer, a Home Cinema reviewer was growing old waiting for a Blu-ray player to play his copy of Zombie Strippers — for review purposes only, of course — when an idea came to him. Some sort of ranking for how fast Blu-ray players load discs. This way, when we review a new player, we can …

Last week we reported that the BBC began streaming live TV to mobile phones in the UK. BBCs One, Two, Three and Four, and BBC Radios One to Seven, plus others, are now available for over-Wi-Fi streaming to various handsets, including the Nokia N96, and we’ve been trying it out over the weekend. The short version It’s alright. The long …

For years, cinema goers and DVD buyers were repeatedly lectured via the medium of the pre-roll video: downloading movies was stealing, like pinching a handbag or a car. It bordered on offensive, since it was mostly only paying customers who were ever forced to sit through them. Thankfully, the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness — owners of the delightful …

It may be a while before we see an OLED screen suitable for lounge room use, but in the meantime we have this: the XEL-1. Look out for the CNET Australia review shortly!(Credit: Sony) While the 11-incher has been out in the States for a year, Sony has just informed us it will be available in mid-April 2009. This ain’t …

Sony’s not one to rest on its laurels. Blu-ray has been on the market for a couple of years, and although it’s in this stagnant economy it needs to get us all on to the next consumer electronics device. So, today the Japanese giant has announced exclusively to CNET UK its new format — microBD. The discs are very similar …

Channel 4‘s free TV catch-up service, 4oD, can now be accessed with any Web browser on Windows, Mac and Linux, putting the last 30 days of its programming on its Web site, for free ad-supported streaming. It’s the would-be step cousin of the BBC’s iPlayer, using Adobe Flash video — like YouTube — instead of Windows Media Video. Before now, …

Media streamers are both marvellous and smashing. We’re especially fanatical about the Popcorn Hour and HDX 1000 boxes we’ve reviewed over the last year. Not that we’re ones to brag, but we’re pretty sure our tireless evangelisation has triggered other manufacturers to climb on to the media-streaming bandwagon. Seagate is the latest, with a product it’s calling FreeAgent Theater. If …

It’s sometimes hard for us techies to understand that there are still some people who don’t know about the transition to digital TV. Or more importantly, still don’t have the appropriate equipment ready for the digital switch-over. The good news is TVonics is thinking about these people, and the MDR-250 is aimed at some fairly specific individuals. Firstly, this thing …

I’m told I’m famous. “At last,” I cried, when Rory informed me last week I was an international superstar. “The day I’ve been waiting for,” I bellowed across the office. Luckily, I stopped before telling everyone I was finally getting out of my day-to-day existence and suggesting they should stick their collective heads up a collection of pigs. It turns …

Updated TiVo is planning to offer video-on-demand (VoD) services with content from all the local free-to-air broadcasters by the end of 2009. Hybrid TV CEO Robbee Minicola told CNET Australia that she is in negotiations with the local broadcasters to offer “catch-up” and “archive” services via her company’s TiVo box, at the Get Ready for Digital conference in Sydney yesterday. …

Hybrid TV (makers of TiVo in Australia) has been in talks with local manufacturers to co-brand products such as TVs and Blu-ray players with the TiVo logo. Could we start seeing this little fella on Blu-ray players? (Credit: TiVo) Hybrid TV CEO Robbee Minicola, at the Get Ready for Digital conference in Sydney, said that a Blu-ray player — not …