In the late 70s and early 80s, TVs had faux wood all over them. They went all matte black in the late 80s, then during the 90s a ghastly silver was all the rage. With the introduction of flat panels matte black made a comeback for a while and later went glossy, known as piano …

Here at Crave you can usually tell when an interesting product turns up, because a little crowd forms, making comments, coming over to have a look and possibly make noises like “ooohh” and sometimes even “aaahh”. So today, when the LG 50PG6000 50-inch plasma TV arrived in a box half the size of a car, a multitude of reviewers, subs …

Sony has always managed to create LCD TVs that everyone wants to own — its Bravia picture processing is some of the best out there for LCD screens, but increasingly other manufacturers are starting to catch up. Sony is hoping its new W4000 range will increase the gap again and persuade customers to give their hard-earned money to the Japanese …

commentary When the ABC announced last month it was stepping up its IPTV endeavours to move from basic streaming and podcasting to providing “catchup TV”, there was a rush to sign up for a limited trial that will run for the next three months. According to the ABC, only 5000 Australians would make the cut-off, and given the rush of …

Foxtel has revealed details of its new HD service to be released next year which will feature four HD channels and a custom-built box. It’s been almost three years since the original Foxtel iQ came out, and by the middle of 2008 the latest iQHD service should be available. According to Patrick Delany of Foxtel’s blog, the new box will …

If you haven’t heard of Loewe you’re missing a treat, because the company specialises in some of the most eye-catching equipment you’ve ever seen. It’s probably fair to say Apple designer Jonathan Ive would be happy to have a Loewe in his living room. The German company’s latest is the innovative Connect 37, a 37-inch LCD TV with built-in media …

Building your own home cinema is never going to be the cheapest decision you make. Once you factor in the cost of a Blu-ray player, an HD TV and a surround-sound system you’re going to be getting some very cross phone calls from your bank manager. One way to reduce the cost is to buy an all-in-one Blu-ray and surround-sound …

We’ve received a lot of feedback recently about our review of the Samsung F8 and our take on the company’s Motion Plus technology. In order to rectify the problems F8 users have been experiencing, Samsung has released a new firmware version. But what does the firmware do, and what does Motion Plus do, anyway? In order to find out, we …

We’re seen a fair few quirky speaker designs in our day, but not since The Flintstones have we seen audio speakers made from stone. Bowers & Wilkins have come up with a design for their Signature Diamond speakers that encases the tweeter in a marble housing. The company says marble works because it’s stable, weighty and rigid. It supposedly provides …

If you long for the auditory joy of surround sound, but don’t want — or aren’t allowed to have — a multi-speaker setup at home, then you’ll relish the opportunity the Yamaha HTY-750 provides: surround sound in one compact box. The HTY-750 scores over some of Yamaha’s larger sound bars in two main ways. Firstly, it’s smaller than some of …