Sony has announced a range of high-definition LCD televisions under a new brand called “Bravia”, emphasising that liquid crystal displays will supersede plasmas over the next five years. According to the Japanese electronics giant, Bravia stands for “Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture”. The new range of Bravia LCD TVs feature a greater viewable colour …

Makers of digital lifestyle gear are caught in a Catch 22, according to BenQ Chairman and CEO K.Y. Lee. With the majority of consumers wanting to be ‘pioneers’, manufacturers have to jam-pack their products with all the latest gee-whiz functionality, despite those functions being rarely, if ever, used. Take mobile phones, Lee says. His own company’s research shows that despite …

Dell Australia has followed the lead of its US parent and made it’s first foray in the consumer electronics world by launching a 19-inch LCD TV in time for Christmas. A hybrid flat-panel monitor, the Dell W1900 is aimed squarely at ‘multimedia households’, as it features picture-in-picture capabilities so you can simultaneously watch TV and work on a document or …

For a nation that generally gloats about being an early adopter of technology, Australian uptake of digital television has been decidedly underwhelming. Four and a half years after the introduction of the first digital broadcasts here in 2001, even the most optimistic estimates put the number of households that have switched to free-to-air digital TV at just over ten percent. …

Am I mistaken, or were remote controls meant to make life easier, not harder? I am constantly cursed at home with the challenges of finding the right remote. Inbetween a couple of DVD players, the TV, foxtel remote and a broken remote that I keep around to keep my daughter amused, I can often be found juggling remotes just in …

Warner Bros. Entertainment said Thursday that its home video division will release DVDs in the high-definition Blu-ray format. The move further tips the scales in an industry weighing the merits of two rival next-generation technologies. Warner, which had decided to distribute films in the popular HD DVD format, is now the second big Hollywood company to say it will also …

How do you get from high-class thrillers to low-budget schlock flicks? This week’s new releases show the way. Also, there’s something called Star Wars on the way, apparently. Gothika (Columbia, 94 mins) Psychiatrist Dr Miranda Grey wakes up one day as a patient in the same asylum where she had worked, accused of the heinous murder of her husband. Having …

Can a DVD addict find happiness through a mail-order rental business? I don’t know what it is about the many DVD rent-by-mail operations popping up around Australia that initially put me off. Is it the fact that DVDs wouldn’t fit in my mailbox anyway, and walking past the video rental store to pick up undeliverable DVDs at the Post Office …

How much is your TV time worth, exactly? In amongst a slew of other things, last week I went to what was hailed as the first public demonstration of a new Australian TV technology, dubbed ICE (“Intelligent Content Engine) – you can read the details here. Now, there’s no doubting that inventor Peter Vogel’s a very clever man – aside …

Netgear and IceTV have announced a partnership to deliver an electronic program guide to Topfield personal video recorders without using a PC. Just days after of releasing an electronic program guide (EPG) for Microsoft Media Center PCs, Australian company IceTV has teamed up Wi-Fi equipment maker Netgear to bring a free-to-air EPG called iceguide to Topfield PVR owners. By connecting …