Blogs

Thomson isn't a manufacturer we encounter too often these days, but back when a DVD player was as coveted as a Steve Jobs creation on launch day , the French company led the way on our shores. Having eagerly previewed DVD since its Japanese rollout in...

Now the review of the Cambridge Audio Azur 650BD 'universal' Blu-ray player is online, time to add an update on what I've been up to with the player. I've had a second sample of the machine for some time now, working towards a review in the June issue...

Cliff Richard did it. So did John Noakes, and Reg Varney. In the 60s and 70s, the skidpan at London Transport's Chiswick Works was a magnet for film and TV crews: we all saw buses pirouetting across our screens with varying degrees of elegance, apparently...

In Part 1 of this piece we looked at how Technicolor is bringing its expertise in broadcast, cinema and disc authoring and duplication to 3D content delivery for the home. But while there's a content distribution system in place for 3D over existing broadcast...

Can't help feeling we've been here before – most DVD and Blu-ray players come with parental locks, allowing their use to be limited according to film ratings, Sky asks you for a PIN if you try to watch certain movie material during the day, and in the...

As we wrote last week , Harrods – along with Currys and Sony Centres – is now taking pre-orders for Sony's 3D TV range. Finding myself near Knightsbridge today with some time to kill (but sadly without the shopping budget to indulge myself), I popped...

It's been quite a week for 3D TV: Samsung had a ritzy launch in New York, Panasonic has announced a tie-up with Best Buy in the US and LG has brought forward its plans for the launch of 3D TV in the UK. With so much PR hype hitting the airwaves, an invitation...

It's been a busy evening, with news ed Joe Cox over at Stamford Bridge where Samsung is unveiling its 2010 UK model range, while I've been up at the top of Centre Point in London admiring the view of the capital and getting the lowdown on Sharp's new...

As announced in our news section , Onkyo has a whole new range of home cinema products on the way in the next couple of months, with facilities including HDMI 1.4 for 3D passthrough and Audio Return Channel, upscaling and a stack of Audyssey technologies....

There are two reasons why I have a problem with firmware updates, and one is that they can be used to cover deficiencies in a product – things the manufacturer should have addressed before putting it into the shops. I've lost count of the number of AV...

This is the latest widescreen LCD from Samsung, which has just gone into mass production. And while most screens have an aspect ratio of 16:9, and Philips has been making a big fuss about its Cinema 21:9, the Korean giant has gone even further – this...

The doors are open and the Bristol Sound & Vision Show is underway at the Marriott City Centre Hotel, Lower Castle Street, Bristol BS1 3AD. We've got a brand-new demo room in the Bristol Suite, with a much bigger reception area for you to come and...

There were oodles of new products at the Philips 2010 launch in Barcelona: the TVs were the main event, especially as the company has decided to make its new 8000 and flagship 9000 Series TVs ‘3D-ready’. This means they are compatible with 3D, but consumers...

I've read this several times now, and I still can't work out the twisted corporate logic involved. See what you think... "TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Sony Corp. said Wednesday that it will restructure its network services operations by absorbing the business into...

Things are changing in the global TV market, with LED backlighting making a move on the conventional CCFL technology in the LCD TV sector, and plasma TV sales putting in a late surge in the closing months of 2009. And brand shares are altering, too: in...

We'll be bringing you a full review of the new Sky+HD 1TB box in the May 2010 issue of the magazine, on sale from April 7th, but in the meantime – and as I've just upgraded to one at home, replacing an old Thomson box in the process – here are some first...

Where the Action Is: La Nuggets 1965-1968 First, the earth cooled. Then, the Beatles went to America. And after they came back (and went again several times), others followed en-masse creating what rapidly became known as ‘the British Invasion’. The result?...

It's been a long and exhausting day getting to know Panasonic's 2010 TV product range in Munich, but there have been some surprises along the way, including pricing on its upcoming Full HD TVs, and the announcement of the company's first LED-backlit LCDs....

Following this morning's product preview at Gleneagles in Scotland, we can now bring you the lowdown on Sony's complete range of TV and home cinema products for 2010. All but the entry-level Bravia TVs in the UK will be fitted with Freeview HD tuners,...

The Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver tonight: the opening ceremony is at 6pm local time, or 2am back here, so fans of parades and flags will need plenty of strong coffee. Even if you stay up, you won't be watching proceedings in 3D, but visitors...

It's exactly a year since Pioneer announced it was pulling the plug on its Kuro plasma range , quitting the TV business completely and concentrating on in-car technology. So, since February 12, 2009, how are things going at the former maker of what were...

It's that time of year again, when the clever folk at GfK serve up the retail stats on exactly what we've all been buying for the past 12 months. How has the recession affected our hi-fi and AV buying habits? What's hot and what's not? How much are we...

An interesting day spent at Toshiba's 2010 product launch. The company's rightly proud of the progress it's made in the last year – it's now the number two player in the UK behind Samsung – but it's equally a little miffed that its biggest sales successes...

Comedian Jack Dee once aptly compared it to asking your gran to look up something in the Radio Times – 'Hold on, dear, I'm just trying to find the page...' – but the demise of teletext will strike a chord with anyone who grew up with the cumbersome TV...

The first Pixar movies were aimed at kids, but proffered enough wit to keep adult viewers amused, too. The studio’s later films have turned that credo on its head, weaving distinctly grown-up themes – love, relationships, the very meaning of existence...