Do you often find yourself on an aeroplane bored out of your mind? We do, and usually it falls to a laptop and some DVDs to distract us. The problem with laptops is that they are often large, and drink power. So enter the LG DP271, a compact portable DVD player for all those boring …

Earlier this week we commented on the decision by Paramount and Dreamworks to switch to HD DVD exclusively, instead of continuing dual-format support. This was seen by some as a bit of a victory for the HD DVD camp, even if it did cost them a rumoured $150m. Now we have word that Toshiba is cutting the cost of its …

commentary Just when things were looking good for Sony and its Blu-ray format, one company’s decision has meant that customers and retailers will be the biggest losers in the so-called “format war”. Paramount’s announcement that it will support HD DVD exclusively has seemingly thrown this conflict into irrelevance. Only last week, figures emerged that Blu-ray was outselling HD DVD two-to-one …

The Linksys KiSS 1600 is described as a wireless high-definition media player. Which reminds us very much of another product we’ve heard about called Apple TV. Amusingly, KiSS is owned by Cisco Systems, who you might remember had a scuffle recently with Apple about the name of a phone… The KiSS 1600 aims to be an all-in-one media solution. It …

I’ve noticed that the picture on my new LCD TV looked significantly better in the shop than it does now I’ve brought it home. Is it broken or have I bought a dud? Duncan First off, the good news is no, your TV isn’t broken, and the chances are you haven’t bought a rubbish model. The issue here is that …

Some years ago, owning a flatscreen TV endowed one with a certain status. It sent a message to anyone who might gaze upon it: “My owner is cashed up to the gills, and premium entertainment hardware is a lounge room priority”. Now that the price of plasmas and LCDs has plummeted, flat TVs no longer have that elusive cachet. How …

It’s not often we see significant advances in the high-definition disc format war, but yesterday — in a move that had us re-reading the press release with our mouths wide open — Paramount announced that it would shift from supporting both formats, to exclusively releasing movies on HD DVD. The announcement also includes Dreamworks Animation, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies, …

Caring about the environment is trendier than ever in the tech world, with massive companies such as Apple and Dell at least paying lip service to the idea that our obsession with new products shouldn’t take an unnecessary toll on old Mother Earth. Keen to jump on the eco-bandwagon is PURE Digital, whose DAB radios lead the digital radio pack. …

The Samsung DVD-HD870 is designed to do one thing — breathe new life into your DVD collection and make your standard-definition discs look like high-definition ones, using upscaling. Upscaling offers wildly varying results — no DVD player can create information that isn’t on the disc — but when a DVD is properly produced, using a decent bit rate, there’s enough …

Buying a new television is often fraught with difficulty. The vision you see on screen in the store showroom may look totally different when you take your new TV home. Why? Well, a couple of factors come into play. In store, you’re probably looking at a high definition feed (good) that has been split to display on multiple screens (bad). …

One more day. That’s all. We can manage one more day, right? One more day of football-less tedium, with only the sickly sweet methadone of transfer gossip and pre-season friendlies to replace the true heroin of real league action. Tomorrow the country will return to its natural state — football crazy, football mad. And this season there are more options …

Toshiba’s HD DVD division is like the kid who doesn’t have anyone to play with — overweight, lazy and beginning to develop an odd smell. Until now, that is — there hasn’t been much competition in the HD DVD market, but that’s about to change with a new player from Onkyo, the DV-HD805. But unlike the aforementioned loser, Toshiba has …

Football season is upon us. It’s time to raid Sainsbury’s for Carling, ignore your wives and children and hysterically scream “THE REFEREE’S A BANKER!” Though why people insist on shouting such an obvious lie is beyond us — referees are professional now, they don’t have other jobs any more. Dumbasses. Anyway, if you’re lucky enough not to have to sit …

The little guy has won out on the end, as Channel Nine has lost its case against IceTV in which it claimed that the company’s IceTV Guide infringed the station’s copyright. Credit: IceTV The decision was handed down at the Federal Court in Sydney this morning. According to IceTV’s website, the court found that “IceTV did not and does not …

It’s not often we get so excited about a DVD player these days that we jump up and down when it arrives in the office. That wasn’t always the case though — we remember when DVD was the most amazing thing we’d ever seen, and KiSS is keen to evoke such emotions in us once again with its funky new …