Comet Discount Voucher - 19/07/2007

Not strictly HDTV but home entertainment related nevertheless. Comet are offering 25% off Panasonic DVD home cinema when you enter code 25PANA into the promotions code box after adding the product to your basket! – Offer ends 25/07/07

Plasma Vs LCD

Plasma screens are suffering at the moment, being outsold at the till by LCD TVs at a rate of almost 10 to 1. But does the beleaguered king of High Definition TV deserve this sort of treatment? Well we think not. Among the purists out there the plasma screen is this the platform of choice when it comes to high end home cinema setups, offering better picture quality all around especially on the larger screens where it can outperforms even the best ‘Full HD’ LCD screens for comparatively smaller cost.

There is little doubt that at the time of writing LCD technology has improved markedly of recent years, and for an introduction to the HDTV market at an affordable price then LCD is probably the way to go, but bear in mind that LCD is still a poor second choice when thinking in terms of a larger screens and proper home cinema experience. So why is LCD so dominant, you may ask. Well marketing is playing a major role. The Concept of Full HD 1080p TVs is currently a major selling point, but plasma screens that offer this holy grail are sorely lacking. But should this be your only reason for buying a TV? Perhaps not. Just because a screen is capable of showing an image in 1080p resolution with perfect clarity doesn’t always mean it can render this same resolution with moving pictures. In fact rarely, in the case of LCD, is this the case and the moving image on a 1080p LCD screen can still smear enough to lose the benefit of full HD resolution. On the other hand, Plasma screens can show video images much more cleanly without any resolution compromises or motion blurring, so the picture quality will generally look better on a lower resolution plasma than a corresponding full HD LCD screen.

With this in mind, when you consider that the likes of Pioneer, Panasonic and LG are promising a range of 1080p plasmas in the near future then the market could turn against LCDs very quickly. But even now you can not, should not, dismiss the plasma outright, especially if you are looking for a screen larger than 37 inches. Look beyond 1080p and consider the inherent capabilities of Plasmas: the motion handling as mentioned and also the deeper level of black which plasma screens can render. When viewed on LCD screens, very dark films can look washed out and not quite as black as they should be, which diminishes background details significantly. And if you’re worried about so called ‘plasma burn’, then don’t. For the average user this is not a problem. Plasma screen technology has advanced significantly since the horror stories of images being burned into screens 2 or 3 years ago and with a few precautions such as turning the tv off occasionally you should be fine.

Digital Direct Offers 12/07/07

This weeks top offers from Digital Direct are:

JVC
1) 32” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £447.39, saving of £352.60

2) 26” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £404.89, saving of £245.10

Sony

1) 40” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £903.01, saving of £596.98

2) 26″ HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £420.01, saving of £279.98

Panasonic

1) 26″ HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £531.99, saving of £358.00

2) 37″ HD Ready Plasma with integrated freeview and wall bracket now only £668.01, saving of £1711.98

Toshiba

1) 37″ HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £563.91, saving of £786.08

Hitachi

1) 37” HD Ready LCD with integrated freeview now only £644.01, saving of £1025.98

Pioneer

1) 42″ HD Ready Plasma with integrated freeview now only £951.49, saving of £1548.50

1080p Projector for Project Design

The Norwegian Company projectiondesign has announced sketchy details of their latest offering and it does sound rather good. Called the M80 and boasting full 1080p HD compatibility the three-chip DLP projector will be capable of true ‘e-cinema’ level image quality and is based on the Cineo professional projector range. It includes HDMI 1.3 connectivity, 10-bit video processing, optical filtering and perhaps most notably claims an astonishing contrast ratio of 50000:1. Due for launch in the Autumn 2007, you can bet this baby wont come cheap.

HDTV For Free

In the the Spring of 2008 , the BBC and ITV will launch a joint venture to bring High Definition TV to UK for free. The service is provisionally known as Freesat and is a satellite service that will broadcast both Standard definition and High Definition channels. The service is being introduced partly as a result of Ofcom’s decision to sell off the the highest bidder the broadcast bandwidth freed up by the switch-over from analogue, which would inevitably lead to more pay per view TV. A free satellite service also has the advantage of bringing digital and HDTV signals to areas where freeview is currently unavailable or has a weak signal.

The service will launch with with around 200 channels and consumers have the choice of a standard or a high definition receiver, as well being able to choose a Hard disk recorder similar to SkyHD or the Virgin V+ boxes. As well as ITV and BBC the door is open for other broadcasters to join the venture, so the future looks bright for free HDTV after all, so long as the receivers aren’t too expensive.

Cheapest 46” JVC TV in the UK

Cheap Tellys are selling the cheapest 46 inch JVC TV , the JVC LT-46DZ7BU. At the moment they have the following active vouchers:

Spend between £150-£299.99 and get £10 OFF
Spend between £300-£599.99 and get £20 OFF
Spend between £600-£799.99 and get £30 OFF
Spend over £800 and get £40 OFF

Enter Voucher CodeTAGEDRAFRETH at the checkout to qualify for the discount.

£40 of the JVC LT-46DZ7BU brings the price to a handsome £1349 (as of July 4th).
The current price can be found here

Click here to shop at CheapTelly.co.uk

Dixons Voucher for July 2007

Looking to buy a HD LCD or Plasma TV from Dixons this month? Well good news they have announced their latest discount vouchers:

This month’s codes:

10JULYAW - £10 off all orders over £300

50JULYAW - £50 off all orders over £999

These codes will expire on 1st August 2007.

Sony Invents Television for the Blind

Well, not invents actually, since the television for the blind concept has been around for a couple of years, but the corporation has announced today that all of its Bravia range of televisions will incorporate Audio Description (AD) as standard. AD is similar to subtitles for the hard of hearing except the action is described for the benefit of blind or partially sighted viewers.

“We are all used to seeing and using subtitles on TV, but what many people don’t know is that the technology exists to make a similarly useful service available for the 30 million* or so visually impaired people we have in Europe,” says Andreas Ditter, Vice President TV Operations Europe. “The entire Sony BRAVIA television range now provides access to Audio Description (AD) as standard which, in combination with a commitment to raise awareness of AD, aims to increase the number of programmes, broadcasters and television manufacturers that offer the service.”

Until now Audio Description has only been available to those with a compatible set-top box, but now all Sony BRAVIA televisions will include Integrated Digital Television (IDTV) as standard, and provide access to AD without the need for an additional decoder.