Half of UK men would give up Sex…

….if there was a promise of a 50 inch plasma at the end of it! Apparantly so. In a recent survey of 2000 people by electronics retailer Comet, it transpires that up to 47 percent of men (and 33% of women) would be willing to go without a bit of the other for 6 whole months if there was a 50 inch high definition plasma TV up for grabs. It seems Size really does matter more to men than it does women after all.

Personally I’d rather fork out the £950 it currently cost for the LG 50PD65 and have a TV right now as well as as much sex as I could handle for the next six months - but thats just me :).

PS3 Lite on the Cards?

Todays rumour mill seems to working overtime with suggestions that Sony could well be unleashing a slimmer, leaner version of their flagship High Definition PS3 games console this Autumn. The word seems to have been leaked to T3 by an un-named source over at the recent CES in January. The new console is said to be slimmer and lighter as well as sporting a bigger hard drive too (possibly 160gb). Of course in the long run we would probably have expected Sony to do something like this, after all they have have a track record of streamlining their popular games consoles, starting with the PSOne, but to release something a soon as this Autumn would be unlikely - but hey you never know.

Source: T3

High Definition TV without the monthly Subscription…

I posted yesterday about Channel 4’s new High Definition Service which essentially is a subscription free service but, as with BBC HD, you have to subscribe to SKY HD in order to watch it. Well actually that aint necessarily so. Cue the Fortec Star Passion, an ideal alternative to SKY. Now don’t get me wrong, you cant use these to watch Sky’s own subscription channels, these are encrypted and only SKY Boxes can decrypt them, but they still let you watch BBC HD and no doubt the soon to be released Channel 4 HD along with a host of other Standard definition channels too, oh and of course you’ll still need a satellite dish to make the most of it. However once you’ve scanned the Astra 2A satellite then you have access to a host of extra channels totally free HD results are reportedly impressive with BBC HD transmissions so far being on a par with that delivered by Sky and Virgin Media. On the downside tho, the standard definition content isn’t as clear as it could be on the larger screens, and the Fortec Star Passion isn’t a PVR like the SKY HD is. But weigh that up against the fact that you don’t have to pay Sky’s monthly fee and make up your own mind.

Buy the Fortec Star Passion from Maplin today

New High Definition broadcast from Channel 4.

In the UK, Channel 4 announced yesterday that they would would soon be providing their own high definition TV service in December 2007. As with the current programming on BBC HD it will be available for free via the SKY HD box (no word yet on the Virgin Platform). Sadly this does mean that although the Channel 4 service is being provided free of charge, you’ll still have to fork out for a Sky HD box and viewing card in order to see it.

“Channel 4’s aim is to offer our viewers maximum flexibility in accessing our high quality programmes and content at a time and in the format of their choosing,”Be it sports, movies, documentaries or entertainment, Sky HD customers can now access the richest selection of content in HD.”

This announcement is a step up for free to air High Definition programming because Channel 4 are going to be the first channel to broadcast all their content in both standard and High Definition simultaneously. For now the BBC HD service is restricted to selected High definition content and a lot of repeated programming.

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.

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.