When it comes to high definition and big TVs, CES is the king of all shows. Every year everyone tries to beat everyone else at producing the biggest and best products. Last year, two products from Apple managed to dominate the show, even though they weren’t even there. That’s right — Vegas is a crazy …

In one of the most aggressive moves in the HD war yet, Sony Australia has announced it will give away free PlayStation 3 consoles with every one of its 1080p televisions. Buy a 1080p Bravia between now and January and get a PS3 thrown in. From 21 December until 21 January 2008 customers who buy one of the BRAVIA XBR, …

Anyone who’s ever seen an LCD TV will know that the backlights are a bit cack. The uniform lump of light they produce shines through the whole screen, meaning you can never really get a nice deep black. Plasmas, on the other hand, can produce a lovely deep black, but it’s harder to lay your hands on a ‘Full HD’ …

Would it really be so bad if there was never an end to the hi-def format war? Would it matter to consumers if players ultimately became able to play both formats? Obviously some early adopters would be miffed, having spent their hard-earned on a player that can only manage one format, but everyone else would win. Right? That’s what LG …

I get annoyed when I see people slating Voyager as being the worst Star Trek. For a start, it makes me think they haven’t ever seen Enterprise, which really was the worst of the franchise — although even that show had its moments. I liked Voyager because it was pure Trek. What I mean by that is set on a …

You might remember some time ago that Michael Bay proved he’s a Sony fanboy by ranting about how Paramount would never get a Transformers 2 from him, because it had switched to support HD DVD exclusively. Obviously, once the sugar high from his Kool-Aid had worn off, he retracted the statement and said that 300 on HD DVD was pure …

Two major video rental chains, Video Ezy and Blockbuster, have announced a partnership with Sony designed to educate customers about the Blu-ray format. Over 200 stores around the country will be fitted with stands featuring PlayStation 3s, Sony’s BDP-S300 Blu-ray players and Bravia TVs, as well as educational content. Most of the featured stores will make BDs (Blu-ray discs) available …

Italian projector specialist SIM2 has announced a slew of new projectors — including the company’s first “budget” model — which incorporate several groundbreaking features. The Domino D10 is SIM2’s most affordable model yet. One of the newest innovations is the Unishape lamp which can change its light output dynamically within milliseconds. This increases contrast in dark scenes and is much …

To butcher an old gag from The Fast Show: “Do you like TVs? Do you like free things? Then you’ll love the new Sharp Aquos LC46XL2E.” Of course the original gag was about cheese and peas, but you get the point. So, what free gear do you get with this 46-inch LCD TV? Well, you can choose either a free …

Sci-fi movie fans will know all about the history of Blade Runner and how there have been several releases of the movie and much acrimony along the way. The Final Cut — created for the 25th anniversary — claims to be the final, definitive version, and it’s out next Monday on HD DVD and Blu-ray. And that’s not just a …

The Toshiba HD-EP35 is an anomaly: it’s a high-end HD DVD player, but it doesn’t actually replace the old top-of the-range Toshiba machine, the HD-XE1. Instead, it sits between the XE1 and the EP30, with some features of both. Toshiba’s HD DVD player line-up can be confusing, so to clear the situation up, here’s a run-through of where the players …

It would be easy for us to lapse into stereotypical Australian jokes about BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4’s on-demand video service, which is code-named Kanagroo. So we will. Strewth Skippy, they’ve only gone and created a joint video on-demand service so Bruces and Sheilas can watch their favourite shows from the past and present online. Bonza! Antipodean colloquial hilarity …

Christmas — or Xmas as it’s now known, on account of Jesus being largely forgotten in the rush to sell tat — is coming and that means coloured TVs and other electrical goods. We saw the Sony Bravia KDL-20S3070U coming from a mile away, and we don’t just mean because it’s brightly coloured — each year parents seem to give …

We got rather excited about Panasonic’s latest DVD recorder range last week, and the company has already started delivering on its lofty promises. The ES15 is slightly different from the rest of the range as it doesn’t feature an integrated digital tuner or HDMI output. However, its USP is a high-value price tag, with interesting features that include progressive-scan video …

We’ve never seen anything quite like the Panasonic DMR-EH80V. It’s like the Swiss Army knife of DVD recorders, with both a hard drive and a VHS deck busting out of its oversized chassis. Going back to VHS is like an 80s nostalgia trip — you want to fire up a massive IBM ThinkPad and listen to Wham! for the complete experience. In …