Ambilight is one of those ideas that sounds like it was cooked up by a mad scientist who had a quiet week and a couple of coloured LEDs lying around. The reality of it is quite different, because once you’ve seen Ambilight working, the scientist doesn’t seem quite so mad anymore. The Philips Cineos 42PFL9632D …
Read More »Classic Layout
Blu
We’re into November now, and that means that all new Blu-ray players must conform to the BD Full Standard Profile — profile 1.1 — specification. This doesn’t mean that all the players on the market now are compliant — far from it — but the new ones should be, aside from the Sony PlayStation 3. Of course, if you’re waiting …
Read More »LG 32LT75: Freeview Playback in an LCD TV
It’s hard to criticise Korean companies these days. There was a time when LG and Samsung were famous only for their low-end products, but these days, nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, it seems to be the Korean companies who are innovating and adding new features, and in LG’s case, it’s only gone and stuffed a Freeview PVR …
Read More »Swings both ways
Apologies for the headline, but we couldn’t help ourselves. What else are we supposed to write when the press announcement heralds a new TV mount that “swings to the left and swings to the right”? Sniggering aside, if you’re looking for a way to wall mount your new flat panel TV, the Atdec Telehook TH-37-63-AWM is specially designed for mounting …
Read More »Humax LU23
Once upon a time, when TVs were made from gigantic lumps of glass and other large and heavy materials, it was only really possible to put them in larger rooms. Sure, manufacturers tried to miniaturise TVs to put them in clock radios and handheld screens but they were generally black and white, or utterly awful. These days, you can get …
Read More »Toshiba Regza 40XF355D: The slimmest LCD TV in town
LCD televisions are small, there’s no doubt about it. Especially when you compare them to those gargantuan CRT monsters we all know and love. But one thing isn’t cool about LCDs, and that’s the fatty lardarse bezel round the screen. Happily, those clever chaps at Toshiba have been working hard to make the outside edge of the new Regza 40XF355D …
Read More »Sony BDP
The Blu-ray camp has long been claiming victory over HD DVD in the next-generation disc format war. Sony has been particularly noisy about how it has trounced the other format. The problem is, Sony hasn’t launched a Blu-ray player for us Europeans — with the exception of the PS3, and we’ve only just got that. Until now, that is: Sony …
Read More »Onkyo TX
The Onkyo TX-SR875 is a fully featured AV receiver, which means you plug a bunch of your AV gear into it, like your DVD player and games consoles, and it makes them sound amazing. You’re unlikely to have enough stuff to plug into it, frankly, because the back of this thing has more holes than the plot of Transformers. The …
Read More »projectiondesign M20: Add 200 trillion colours to your life
There are pros and cons to video projectors. On the one hand, films can look stunning when blown up to the size of a wall. On the other hand, Deal or No Deal is unlikely to benefit from being expanded to such epic proportions. With high-definition content becoming more common though, there is an increasing amount of stuff just begging …
Read More »Seven dips toes into the HD multi
Viewers watching Channel Seven’s HD channel 10.30pm on Monday night would have witnessed Australia’s first tentative steps into the world of commercial multi-channelling. Channel Seven is claiming that its two-hour block of unique programming, late at night on weekdays, is Australia’s first commercial digital multi-channel. Indeed it even goes so far as to claim that it’s “Australia’s first new commercial …
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