LG unveiled its newest LCD television range last night amid an overwhelming amount of cocktails, fashion, Z-grade celebrity — and not much tech. The “Scarlet” viral campaign — the brainchild of some guy who directed three episodes of Entourage, and which was repeated last night — spoke of a new TV series but for the …
Read More »Classic Layout
Whaddyareckon?: Home theatre vs movie theatre
An outing to the cinema is a good night out for all. Watching an epic flick from a comfy seat, equipped with a bucket of cola and a trough of popcorn: what’s not to love? Well, perhaps the mobile phones that pierce the darkness with shrill ringtone versions of top 40 hits. Or those irritating kids that talk through the …
Read More »Foxtel iQ2 pricing exposed, long waits expected
updated Foxtel has unwittingly unveiled its HD pricing today after inviting customers on its e-mail list to order its iQ2 set-top box, with callers experiencing long delays. A leaked iQ2 pricing document — available from Foxtel before the sites went down for several hours — suggests Platinum HD will be AU$130.90. A document leaked onto rumour site KnowFirst suggests that …
Read More »Toshiba Regza 52Z3030D: Big LCD TV, big performance
In 2005, a 36-inch widescreen CRT was considered huge. Quite right too — it weighed over a metric tonne and needed specially re-enforced furniture to squat on. Just three years on, and comparatively massive TVs, that just a few years ago would have been a logistical impossibility, are now ten a penny. Even so, a 52-incher is something special, and …
Read More »Pioneer sells out plasma
Pioneer has announced new pricing for its range of Kuro plasmas in preparation for the next generation of televisions due later in the year. None more black (literally) Pioneer’s top-of-the-line full-1080p panels are now AU$5999 for the 50-inch PDP-LX508A and AU$9,999 for the 60-inch PDP-LX608A, which is about two grand off each. Unfortunately, if you were looking to buy one …
Read More »Please Explain: 100Hz
100Hz technologies such as Samsung’s Motion Plus aim to combat judder and ghosting effects by adding extra frames to program material, and this can also make fast-moving content such as sport appear smoother. These new frames are not simple duplicates but “interpolated” — for example, the TVs processor works out where a football should be between one frame and another …
Read More »Philips DVDR5520H: Records TV, performs miracles
We love Freeview’s marvellous combination of choice and freeness, but even your old gran can see its picture quality is a long, long way from high definition. So when the Philips DVDR5520H arrived at Crave in a box emblazoned with the phrase, “Watch Freeview in 1080p HD quality”, we expected its next trick to be turning on the tap and …
Read More »Paramount gives fans some Blu
We watched the whole Paramount/Blu-ray situation with interest last year, and were concerned that the ongoing war would kill public interest in HD. The Spiderwick Chronicles is released on DVD and Blu-ray in July. Thankfully, it was only six months later that HD DVD conceded defeat and Paramount announced it would again release Blu-ray discs. Come 31 July we’ll see …
Read More »LG HT762TZ: DVD upscaler, 5.1 surround and boozy speakers
Some time ago we reviewed an LG home cinema system, which wowed us with its low cost and high performance. So when LG offered to send us its new HT762TZ 5.1 system, with a built-in DVD player and the added bonus of some stylish Champagne-flute speakers, we were understandably excited. As we’ve said many times, in countless reviews, flat-panel TVs …
Read More »Super Hi
It’s no secret that the Japanese are into their high definition televisions — they’ve been able to watch HD for years now. They even had an analogue transmission for HD in the late 80s, beating the rest of the world by some considerable margin. It’s no surprise then that they quickly got bored of HD, and came up with something …
Read More »