Samsung can’t claim to have produced the first multi-format player — that award goes to LG for its Super Multi Blue player — but it can claim to have the first one that is certified by both the Blu-ray Disc Association and the DVD Forum. The BD-UP5000 offers playback of both formats, but it also …

Not taken with Yamaha’s one-piece 5.1 surround-sound system for £1,000? Still want a cinema sound setup? We’ve been given an exclusive preview of Logic3’s SoundStage speaker system, which incorporates a true 5.1 setup within a single metre-wide enclosure for a more than acceptable £250. More interesting still is that this 150W beast works its magic with a full 15 speakers …

If you’re an exacting, perfectionist movie fan, you may well be disillusioned with the black levels of flat-panel TVs. Here to re-illusion you is the PDP-428XD, one of Pioneer’s ‘Kuro’ televisions. If your Japanese is a little rusty, you may not know that kuro is the Japanese word for black. Clearly, Pioneer believes this is one ninja TV. The company …

Here at Crave we love Freeview. It’s a fantastic service that offers a bunch of decent channels (and bid-up tv) for nothing but the cost of the box and a TV licence. But we can still see room for improvement. The quality isn’t really up to the standard we’d expect for an HD Ready era. This is especially relevant when …

Crave hopes you haven’t just rushed out and bought Toshiba’s top-end HD DVD player — there’s a new one that’s basically the same, but cheaper. The HD-EP10, unveiled at CeBIT, has a similar look to its bigger brother but is made of standard DVD player plastic rather than the HD-XE1’s bullet-proof, shiny metal. Crucially, it can output video at 1080p for …

Toshiba works hard at shows like IFA — not only does it promote its own gear, it’s also charged with the responsibility of promoting HD DVD, to beat the Blu-ray disc association’s efforts. At its press conference in Berlin it announced two new HD DVD players and two swanky new picture-frame LCD TVs with hordes of gleaming HDMI inputs. Which …

There have been some rumblings recently about the next generation of Ambilight televisions from Philips. A number of leaks have now provided model numbers and a few details about the new televisions. From what we can gather, the new Ambilight technology will no longer just rely on reflecting colour on to a wall — instead, the light will be projected …

So, the curtain has lifted on IFA, Berlin’s finest technology trade show, and Sony is one of the first companies to take centre stage. It didn’t waste an opportunity to try and stick one to rivals in the HD DVD camp, as it announced that it will finally be launching its low-cost Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300. The Japanese giant further …

Now the era of the flat panel has arrived, we’re all falling in love with high-definition video. We’ve got games consoles, HD DVD and Blu-ray and some patchy TV services from the likes of Sky and Virgin Media. The problem is that Freeview has never been seen as a viable platform for high definition, because bandwidth is severely limited. What …

Sony’s first projector to sport the high-end Bravia TV brand is a marvel. Normally you need a very dark room to get a decent picture from a projector, but, providing you buy the screen Sony is selling to accompany its new AW-series, you can watch a movie with the lights on. It really works — Crave was treated to a …