While the industry giants have only just got around to putting a Freeview tuner in their flat-screen TVs, the ever-nimble giant killer Humax has thrown dual digital tuners and a hard drive into its latest TV. The LGB-32TPVR can record one digital TV channel to its 40GB hard drive while you watch another. It’s also …

In the past, the movie industry has behaved a lot like King Kong, wandering wounded through the Internet, lashing out at anything that looks like it might pose a threat. But it looks like someone’s shot a tranq into the beast, and it’s had a change of heart. Universal Pictures announced yesterday that it would release Peter Jackson’s King Kong …

Toshiba’s 32WLT58 is the new 32-inch LCD TV from the Japanese giant — an upgrade of the 32WL56. It packs an integrated digital tuner, two HDMI inputs and Active Vision picture processing, all wrapped up in a slinky new shell. The picture quality from this flagship display is excellent, with the HD Ready 1,366×768-pixel panel combining an 800:1 contrast ratio and …

Panasonic’s Viera range of plasmas is getting an updgrade for 2006, with the PV500 range morphing into the PX600 range. While the company is still making LCD TVs, it firmly believes that plasma is the way forward at screen sizes of 37 inches and above. The new range will arrive in May with 37, 42 and 50-inch sizes all badged as HD Ready and …

Regular LCD TVs are just so boring — they’re all so preoccupied with ‘HD Ready’ badges and HDMI sockets that they forget about design. At £1,500, the Philips 32PF9830 may be more expensive than most 32-inchers, but its Ambilight panels produce a veritable firework display of colours as you play Grand Theft Auto. This mix of technological power and design extravagance …

It’s rare to see portable DVD players these days, but it’s a genuine miracle to see one with an integrated digital tuner as well. The DTV-407 is the first all-in-one DVD player and Freeview package we’ve had in the office, and despite some reservations about Freeview’s suitability for watching on the go, it’s certainly an attractive proposition. The player itself …

There must have been a meeting over at Panasonic recently at which one enterprising creative type said, “DVD recorders — they’re a bit dull, aren’t they? Let’s just make a range that boasts every possible feature we can think of. That’ll make our competition cry into its sushi.” Thankfully, the suits were listening, as the new Diga range from Panasonic is …

Despite its vocal support for plasma technology, Panasonic is covering its bet in the flat-screen market with the launch of the LXD60 LCD range. It’s set to release 26-inch and 32-inch LCD screens this month, with a 23-inch model to follow in May. The LXD60 range is fully HD Ready, with integrated digital tuners and dual HDMI inputs. Pretty impressive stuff, and the dual-HDMI …

Love is Radio 4 on a crisp spring morning. Love is static-free reception. Love is hundreds of different niche-interest stations. Your love may waver because of low digital radio bit rates across the UK, but then all affairs have their moments of doubt. Unlike most humans, the ST-SDB900 has an off state, so you can remedy any conflict with the press of …

If you’re the sort of person that buys furniture at Heals and clothes from Dolce & Gabbana, then this new Viera television will fit right in to your highly coiffeured lifestyle. It’s not cheap at around £2,700, but this 37-inch TV looks gorgeously modern sitting on its silver stand. Plasma may be slightly out of fashion next to the sharper …

The BD-P1000 will be the first Blu-ray player to market this year, Seungsoo Park of the Digital AV Division for Samsung has announced. The BD-P1000 is set to land in September for around £800, following a launch in the US in May for $1,000 (£580). The player will support 720p and 1080i high-definition playback, as well as backwards compatibility with …

Samsung’s HT-XQ100, which we saw at CeBIT 2006, may look like a standard home cinema system, but further investigation by Crave’s gadget monkeys reveals something rather revolutionary. It’s not only one of the first ‘in-a-box’ systems to feature an HDMI output for high-quality digital video, but it’s also capable of video upscaling. This means it will turn your standard-definition DVDs into …

Samsung’s last LCD TV range heralded the dawn of the flat-screen revolution, with fantastic picture quality, great styling and high-value pricing causing many to ditch their CRT TVs. But sadly their day has passed, and like all much-loved gadgets they must step aside for something newer and shinier. Samsung’s new ‘R7’ range, which we ogled at CeBIT, will be on sale in …

LG’s BD199 Blu-ray player is dead — an abortive experiment that will make way for a combi player with HD DVD playback as well. This will make LG’s unit the world’s first ‘universal’ high-definition disc player, and it will arrive alongside most single-format models if its planned late-summer release is met. Rejoice, you might think — the high-definition format war …

If a doctor were to inspect the world of televisions right now, she’d give it a nice big lollipop and a perfect bill of health. We can’t remember the last flat-screen TV that we’d actively discourage people from buying — they’ve all been spiffing. The problem is that every TV these days is HD Ready, affordable, and even likely to have …