SBS has become the latest service to announce its Freeview channels, with the premiere of SBS TWO at 6pm tonight. SBS TWO goes live 1 June 2009 (Credit: SBS) The new channel — a re-branding of the SBS News channel — promises “more world film and drama, documentaries, international news and sport”, and plans to …

HDMI is rather like sleep: a gigantic waste of time, but essential because there’s basically no alternative. If we could take a pill and never sleep again but still feel refreshed each morning, you can bet we would. And if there was any other sort of cable that could get 1080p video and lossless audio to the rest of our …

Samsung has announced that its new 6 and 7 series LCD televisions have achieved a minimum of five stars out of six under the new Energy Rating Scheme — beating Sony’s “green” television. The 7 series “LED TV” achieved the highest ratings with the 55-inch UA55B7100 (AU$5799) achieving a maximum of six stars. Meanwhile, the 40-inch UA40B7100 (AU$3899) reached a …

How’s this for a geek aphorism? Once you’ve had Ambilight, you never go back. Okay, it doesn’t rhyme, but if it’s true, Philips must have a fairly large captive market, because it’s the only company able to produce these magical glowing TVs. The newly announced 32PFL9604 is the latest TV in the Ambilight range, and it’s available in June for …

Recently news has reached us that the third best TV show in the history of mankind has been cancelled in the US. We’re talking here about Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles –the best show is Arrested Development (also on FOX and also cancelled), and the second best is Lost. If you’re not aware of the show, then you should immediately …

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia gathered the media earlier this month to promote VidZone and some other upcoming features on PS3 and PSP. While it was interesting to see the highlights of the company’s roadmap for the next few months, it was also notable for what they didn’t discuss, namely the hot topics of last year’s 2008 confab,PlayTV and BD-Live. PlayTV, …

Geek humour aside, the Netgear EVA9000 Digital Entertainment Elite does appear to be everything you need in a media streamer. It’s built like the sort of wall needed to enclose an outdoor toilet and it’s a very traditional form factor — meaning it will sit squarely under your TV with all the other anonymous grey boxes. Clearly, Netgear isn’t trying …

1984 was a pretty amazing year for cinema. If you’ve got a favourite 80s film, there’s a good chance it was released this year. It was, for example, the year than Arnold Schwarzenegger came from the future to kill Linda Hamilton. Harrison Ford also made an appearance with a whip and a hat, with the intention of looking around a …

Australian DVD rental company Quickflix, which has previously delivered movies ordered online through the mail, will begin taking the next step to a fully digital service by offering movie downloads. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Working in an initial partnership with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group Australia, the service will make downloadable films available for rent (with DRM restrictions …

Warner Bros has signed up to Facebook so viewers can team up to experience Watchmen using BD-Live, the Internet-connected, interactive Blu-ray feature. The option to simultaneously watch a film and comment on it via BD-Live is called the community screening feature. Viewers of the Watchmen: Director’s Cut Blu-ray disc will now be able to sync their BD-Live buddy list with …