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Toshiba defends HD DVD: Major price cut ahoy

Let’s start with some wallet-pleasing news. Toshiba’s entry-level HD DVD player, the HD-E1, is dropping in price from £450 to £350. This leaves room for the new HD-EP10 to jump in at the £450 price point. The top-of-the-range HD-XE1 remains unchanged at £650, with no drop in price planned. The reduction on the E1 comes …

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Sources: Apple, EMI in deal, but Beatles not included

Apple and EMI Group will reveal a ground-breaking deal on Monday for Apple to sell the music label’s songs free from copy protection limits, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The report said music giant EMI plans to sell “significant amounts” of its catalog without anti-piracy software, citing people familiar with the matter, and that the music label is …

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BT Vision signs up new talent

BT’s Vision product — a cheap Freeview PVR with access to video-on-demand services over the Internet — struck me as an excellent idea when it was launched last year, but I haven’t seen much of it since. The company has just announced some new deals, though, which should jazz up the hitherto anaemic line-up. New partnerships with Warner Bros and …

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Photos: Hands on with Sony’s new gear

Crave has just spent a rather pleasant couple of days playing with the very best products Sony is planning on releasing in the next few months. As you can see from the picture, it took place in the idyllic Brit-fest location of Rhodes, with hundreds of attendees from all over the world. Click through our photos for the highlights of …

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Sony Bravia D3000 and S3000: New LCD TV ranges

Every year Sony manages to set our technological taste buds aflutter with gorgeous new TVs. From its sunny retreat on the Greek island of Rhodes it has announced two new Bravia LCD TV ranges, which offer some tantalising new features. The D3000 range (pictured) is clearly pitched at replacing the cinema in the lives of film lovers. It’s about time …

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Sony Bravia Theatre RHT

If the thought of wires snaking around your room has put you off buying a set of surround-sound speakers, Sony has the answer. We’ve just been treated to a demo of the Bravia Theatre RHT-G800, a TV stand with built-in speakers that create the illusion of surround sound. There are seven speakers inside the stand — three at the front, …

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Blu

Blu-ray discs are more resistant to damage caused by scratches and fingerprints than DVDs due to a TDK hard coat applied to the surface of the disc, according to proponents of the storage format. Michael Hoog from the Blu-ray Disc Association and Michelle Garra from the Blu-ray Disc Working Group discuss disc durability with CNET.com.au at the official launch of …

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Toshiba 42WLT68: Three HDMIs and good looking too

So, you have a 42-inch gap in your lounge that needs filling with something? If you’re an adult, a poster of Pamela Anderson during the Baywatch years probably isn’t an option. Nor, we suspect, is the popular student decorative style known as ‘wall of beer cans’. Instead, we recommend you place a nice big television in the gap. May we …

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EA presses play on music label

Electronic Arts will team with Nettwerk One Music to form a full-service music label, the game publisher announced Monday. Dubbed Artwerk, the label will sign and develop new and established artists for publishing, master recording and sync deals, as well as digital and physical distribution of musical works in movies, TV shows and video games. The Los Angeles-based label has …

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Look Ma, no wall mounts!

Giant flat-panel displays are beautiful pieces of technology, but for all that money they should do more than just sit there, shouldn’t they? For some time now, Hitachi has had models that swivel a bit, but in most installations we’ve seen, the display is mounted on the wall. Now that’s understandable — if you’ve got a display that saves on …

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