The Queen of Hearts Rocks - In Hi Def

This weekend sees the BBC boosting its extended HD Trial with the first of 2 big concerts to be broadcast in high definition, so dont forget to set your Sky+ box for The Concert for Diana, a day of live music from the newly rebuilt Wembley stadium to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana. The impressive line-up includes Elton John, Take That, Natasha Bedingfield, Duran Duran and Will Young among others. If thats not enough, on July 7th BBC HD will be screening Live Earth, the worldwide event put together by former US Vice president Al Gore to save the planet with venues in London, New York, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg. Should be good.

TV gets steamy with Aquavision

You might think that a TV in the bathroom is the ultimate in luxury (if you do then you’ve probably got low expectations in life), but did you know that Aquavision have new range of waterproof HD READY LCD screens designed specifically for watching whilst luxuriating in a steaming hot bath. No? Well trust me, they do. 5 screens ranging from 17 to 40 inches and each with with its own RS232 port which enables them to be controlled from anywhere in the home, provided you’ve got one of those home automation control systems of course (who hasn’t?). For the price you also get integrated Freeview digital and analogue tuners, a component video input, S-Video input, analogue PC input, 2 HDMI inputs on the 32in AVF-32-4C and 40in AVF-40-C, a single HDMI on the 17, 19, and 26in models, full scart connection as well as built in games and they 1080i or 720p HD inputs. The screens are heated to prevent them from misting up, so now theres more than one way to watch your favourite soap in the bath…

Not all 1080p Screens are created equal.

At the moment it appears as though everybody wants a new flat screen TV, unsurprisingly since we the public have been bombarded with marketing spiel surrounding this new technology for the last 3 years or so. Perhaps more surprising is how this technology has evolved over those 3 years. From the beginning we have been told that these new screens will accept 720 lines of progressive scan loveliness or up 1080 lines interlaced, these being the maximum resolutions for HDTV. Early adopters then handed over small fortunes for these sets, safe in the knowledge that they could now watch TV with the best possible picture quality around (never mind how poorly some of these sets rendered the standard definition free-to-view broadcasts).

A mere eighteen months later though a new breed emerged - the 1080p screen. The self-satisfied expressions worn by everyone who had rushed out to be the first to own the biggest and best screen on the block, turned overnight into fixed grins and the blood drained from their faces (probably) as they quickly realised that their state of the art goggle box was rapidly becoming an also ran. 1080 line progressive scan screens are capable of almost double the resolution of the 1080i counterpart and the latest high definition sources (blu-ray and HD DVD) can deliver images to match. (Although it may be some time before broadcasting technology catches up, so dont hold your breath there).

You might think therefore that we’d reached limit HD technology could go no further? Well give your head a shake my friend, has history taught you nothing! 1080p is not the be all and and end all. Most of the 1080p screens on the market <i>only</i> work in 50 or 60 hz or whole numbered multiples of this (ie 100 or 120hz). Why is this important, well thats up to you but hertz are the defined frequency at which a specific number of frames are cycled to create the impression of a moving picture. Most movies are filmed at 24 frames per second (which is another way of saying 24 hertz) and since 24 doesn’t divide easily into 50 or 60, some technichal jiggery pokery occurs which is best described using the 50hz screens as an example. 24hz is almost 25hz which in turn is half of 50hz. European TVs typically operate at 50hz, so when mastering a european DVD the movie is transferred at 50 frames per second, which naturally should mean that the film would end up being half as long, with the action played out at speed and with everyone speaking in queaky voices. To get around this problem each frame is repeated twice - so if you were watching Denzel Washington in Deja Vu on a European Tv and thinking you had seen the film before, well, um you had - kind of.

However a new breed of next generation high definition disc player is looming on the horizon, which surprise surprise, can output movies in the native 24fps, but to take advantage of this you’ll need a screen capable of rendering this frequency, such as the SONY Bravia D3000 series. By all accounts the results are impressive, but unless you are a home cinema videophile you’re unlikely to notice to much difference - even so the urge to upgrade your now obsolete 50hz 1080p screen will undoubtebly prove overwhelming in the long run.

Laser TVs - Thing of the future my Nan reckons….

For almost a year now the TV industry has been quietly buzzing over Mitsubishi’s 2006 announcement that they would bring the first Laser Projection TV to the market this year. However the current range of Plasma and LCD TVs can breathe a small sigh of relief because this will not happen until 2008. Laser TVs are capable of bright and deep images on large, thin, lightweight screens and supposedly are cheaper to make than your average Plasma Screen. Mitsubishi aren’t the only company beavering away on the new technology either, other companies like ‘Coherent’ and ‘Arasor’ (who?) are reportedly working on them too. And while this list may not be household names in the TV arena, 2008 could prove to be an interesting year.

JVC Launch new 1080p Range

JVC America today announced the launch of 4 new models of LCD TV which boast the latest must have 1080p screens incorporating the full HD resolution of1920 x 1080 . There are 2 ranges (the 688 series & 788 series), available in 37, 42 and 47 inch screen sizes, and both featuring black cabinets, although the slightly higher specced 788 series comes with a silver trim and an ultra-thin bezel. JVC’s proprietary Digital Image Scaling Technology (DIST) will convert all signals to 1080p and 2 HDMI 1.3 sockets will allow connection to the latest generation of 1080p sources. Additionally the sets come with two component inputs, three composite inputs, three AV inputs, an S-Video input, and optical digital audio out, and a fixed audio out.

SKY HD to scrap its monthly fee

Some of you out there may have just spent what amounts to a small fortune on your brand spanking new High Definition Television, only to realise that now you need a decent source of broadcast high definition content. Well you can’t go wrong with the quality of SKY HD, and from July 1st you will be able to get it cheaper as sky give in to pressure and axe the £10 month subscription fee for the SKY HD box. This decision has thought to have been taken to compete with the rival services including Virgin Medias V+ box and the BT Vision VOD service.

Digital Direct Offers - 22/06/2007

Hitachi
1) 37” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £650.81, saving of £1019.18

2) 50” HD Ready Plasma with integrated freeview now only £1114.96, saving of £665.03

Sony
1) 26” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £404.96, saving of £295.03

2) 32” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £767.01, saving of £232.98

LG

1) 32″ HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £447.01, saving of £552.98

2) 42″ HD Ready Plasma with integrated freeview now only £629.01, saving of £1073.98

Pioneer

1) 42” HD Ready Plasma with integrated freeview now only £976.49, saving of £1523.50

2) 50″ HD Ready Plasma with integrated freeview now only £1446.49, saving of £2353.50

Latest Comet Vouchers 22/06/2007

1) EXCLUSIVE £30 discount on this HP 22” Widescreen with code HPTFT30 – extended offer - must end midnight 26th June 2007

2) £50 on the Toshiba HD DVD player + 2 free HD DVDS! Just enter Promotion Code 50OFFHD Offer Ends Midnight 27th June 2007

JVC TVs promise home theatre quality sound

JVC have announced the development of a new range of LCD TVs which have the ability to deliver a home cinema level audio experience without the need to resort to external components, presumably they mean AV receivers and 5.1 speakers here. Seems like bold claim to us, so how have they achieved this? Well JVC has incorporated “Waves Maxxaudio” which “re-masters the audio content and optimizes it for the speaker system, listening environment, and our ears. Waves tools are used in the creation of the world’s top music, movie soundtracks, and video games. These JVC TV models are the first consumer electronic products to utilize these same award-winning professional tools that compensate for acoustic limitations in dynamic range, frequency response and imaging.”

Pioneer’s new Flat Screens

Pioneer have announced a line-up of new flat screen televisions that boldly claim to offer a picture and audio experience like none before them, with the deepest levels of black and high-grade audio. The new screens incorporate technology that sets new standards in flat-screen televisions, boasting rich black levels (80% deeper than before), which ultimately lead to brighter colours and sharper details, the new screens are unrivalled in video and audio performance. 42, 50 and 60-inch screen sizes, in XGA will be available from June and Full HD versions in 50 and 60-inch available from September.

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