Save 10% On Sky Pay Once Watch Forever
Dixons have a special offer on Sky Pay Once Watch Forever
VOUCHER CODE
Usual price - £75.00
Use voucher code SKY10 to get 10% OFF!
-
Posted by HDTV Guy on May 1st, 2008 filed in Television | Comment now »
Panasonic VDR-D160 digital camcorder
SVP have got stocks of the Panasonic VDR-D160 digital camcorder at a silly price with an accessory pack.
It was a Digital Video 2006 Award Winner, for Best DVD Camcorder.
Marketing Summary:
Panasonic VDR-160 with FREE Panasonic Tripod & Carry Case
- 3CCD camera system
- Electronic Image Stabilization
- 2.3 MegaPixel still picture recording
- 10x Optical Zoom
- 700x Digital Zoom
- 2.7″ widescreen LCD screen
- SD memory card slot
Only £149.99 inc VAT while promotional stocks last.
-
Posted by HDTV Guy on February 6th, 2008 filed in General | Comment now »
iRiver B20 MP3 Player with DAB Radio
Even if you have the worlds largest MP3 collection, there will be occasions when for a change you would rather listen something other than your own music library.
Thats where the iRiver B20 comes in with its built in DAB receiver you can tune in to digital radio stations whenever the mood takes you.
The iRiver B20 has a healthy 4GB of memory for storing your music collection and a 2.4in colour TFT screen.
Picking what you want to listen to and finding your way around the menu is child’s play as the iRiver direct click control lets you to press the edges of the screen to navigate.
Bang up to date the iRiver B20 supports the digital radio electronic programme guide (EPG) service which is currently at the testing stage, this makes choosing digital radio channels a breeze.
The iRiver B20 is available now from Advanced MP3 Players.
-
Posted by HDTV Guy on November 26th, 2007 filed in DAB Radio | Comment now »
Enjoy Christmas with a new flat screen TV
One of the must have purchases this Christmas is likely to be an awesome new television. The high street shops are stuffed full of tempting TVs some with massive savings off the list price.
If its a while since you last bought a television the massive choice available, specifications, screen sizes and ad on gadgets will be enough to make your head spin.
High Definition is the word you will keep hearing, but not just any HDTV will do, your new flat screen TV needs to be able to deliver quality standard definition pictures too.
Also do not forget about sound, some manufacturers scimp on sound as they try to cram all the bits and pieces into the TV casing, pointless having great pictures beaming into your living room if the sound is pathetic as your enjoyment will be severely curtailed.
Watch out for the sticker too an “HD Ready” logo is no guarantee that a television will be able to give the best results will high definition content or do justice to you spanking new HD dvd player no look out for the logo “HD Ready 1080p” to ensure the best standards.
Which? Magazine recently published a report about popular flat screen televisions here are some of their findings.
Best HDTV on test.
32″ Panasonic Viera TX-32LXD700 LCD Digital TV HD Ready
This set has it all a super crystal clear 32″ widescreen with awesome sound with a deep resounding bass which is often missing from flat screen TVs.
Also incorporated is a memory card slot so you can view your holiday snaps in fabulous high definition.
More details can be found at Cheap Telly.
Best Buy
32″ Panasonic Viera TX-32LXD7 LCD Digital TV HD Ready
We stay with Panasonic for the best buy, if your budget doesn’t quite stretch to the LXD700 this is the next best thing, brilliant picture quality, and the sound is pretty good too, less of the frills of big brother, (fewer HDMI sockets), got plenty of plaudits from Which? testers.
More details can be found at Cheap Telly.
Future Proofing
32″ Sony Bravia KDL-32D3000 LCD Digital TV HD Ready
The Sony Bravia KDL-32D300 won the Which? award for most advanced flat screen, it has every feature you can imagine, can handle high definition video at 24 frames per second which is fantastic for the new generation Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
Slight negative with this set is the sound, not quite as crystal clear as the Panasonic but not far behind either.
More details can be found at Cheap Telly.
Best buy big telly
37″ Toshiba Regza 37X3030DB LCD Digital TV Full 1080P HD Ready
A 37″ giant of an LCD TV which won’t break the bank.
Not the best resolution TV available and the picture has been described by some as slightly soft, however in line with many Toshiba television sets the sound quality is simply excellent.
More details at Cheap Telly.
Worst on test
The worst television on the test was the own brand Marks and Spencer 3210DVB.
The Which? report said
“The sound quality is barely acceptable, but not as bad as its standard definition pictures, described as ‘hideous’ and ‘ugly’ by the expert viewing panel.
” The jerky high definition images manage the distinction of being the worst of any HDTV we have tested this year.”
More Televisions can be found in the Cheap Telly catalogue.
-
Posted by HDTV Guy on November 13th, 2007 filed in Television | Comment now »
XBox 360 Import game bargains
YesAsia have some very popular deals on XBox 360 Import games.
Recommended titles
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (Asian Version) - £25.85
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Asian Version) - £22.97
TimeShift (US Version) - £22.97
YesAsia.com: Games: TimeShift (US Version) - XBOX - Atari, Inc. - Free International Shipping
Please note -
UK delivery is free. Also no VAT or Import Taxes (see YesAsia Customer Support)
-
Posted by HDTV Guy on November 7th, 2007 filed in Gaming | Comment now »
Set Top Boxes
“HDTV,” short for High-Definition Television, is said to completely replace primitive analogue TV by the year 2012. HDTV is basically digital TV; the term ‘digital’ is defined as the way signals are broadcasted and interpreted by the TV. Traditional analogue TV is transmitted as waves, while digital TV is broadcasted as binary, sets of ones and zeroes. A big advantage of this is broadcasters can present a lot more information than analogue TV, around five to seven digital channels for every analogue channel. However the only way to obtain this type of new-age technology is to subscribe to a service that offers HDTV, and receive something called a Set Top Box.
Some really good set top boxes are available from the Freeview service. A very nice set top box by Goodmans can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk for only £49.99. The GDB15HD model is advertised as including such features as HDMI, and also 1080i Upscaling. The GDB15HD offers upscaling support of all the way to 1080i for the sharpest, clearest picture possible. Also the GBD15HD set top box offers the capability to view television shows in the upcoming week by its seven-day electronic guide. With this function, you’ll never miss your favorite shows.
Another excellent, though more pricey, set top box from Freeview is the Sagem 62160SL-T. The Sagem 62160SL-T offers what’s called a “twin tuner” that allows the recording of two programs at the same time. Recording two shows at once won’t hurt your 62160SY-T set top box at all, because it comes equipped with a 160 gigabyte hard drive, allowing you to save shows and watch them whenever you like. The 160 gigabyte hard drive gives you the option to save up to eighty hours of programming. With that much space available at your disposal, it’s quite hard for competitors to beat the 62160SL-T from Segam.
-
Posted by Brian on October 14th, 2007 filed in General, Television | Comment now »
HD Gaming: Xbox 360
Since the release of the Xbox 360, sales for High Definition Televisions have been on the rise. I must admit, after seeing Gears of War on a High Def TV versus a regular analogue television, there’s absolutely no comparison; HDTV completely wins out.
Gears of War is a third-person shooter video game that involves much strategy and a high level of tactics. It was developed by Epic Games, who also came up with the Unreal series, using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology. Gears of War was exclusively released for the Xbox 360 on 7 Nov 2006 only in select stores in the U.S.A.
Another great game for the Xbox 360 is a game called Burnout 3: Takedown. Burnout 3: Takedown is the third installment in the fast paced racing series, Burnout. It was released on 7 Sep 2004 and was developed by Criterion Games, while it was published by Electronic Arts. The game has since drawn critical acclaim and an enormous fan base.
The HDTV’s are able to display a far greater amount of pixels at a very quicker rate than an analogue television, thereby making the picture very crisp and clear. The colors are very vibrant due to the HDTV’s increased contrast ratio and the details of game play are crystal clear.
Video games are one thing, but the Xbox 360 offers much more than that; there is an optional Xbox 360 HD DVD Player available now on sale at Amazon.co.uk for £109.98. Even though it sounds a bit pricey at first, it is still about £200 cheaper than the Playstation 3. The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player offers current owners of the Xbox 360 the most affordable way to grow, and expand their knowledge of the latest and greatest DVD technology. Just add Xbox 360 HD DVD Player to your Xbox 360 for the most awesome home-theater experience.
-
Posted by Brian on October 10th, 2007 filed in Consoles, Gaming | Comment now »
Setanta Sports unmissable LIVE sport
Setana Sports
Operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and the USA, Setanta is a leading provider of premium television channels to subscribing customers.
Setanta broadcasts can be obtained via digital satellite, digital terrestrial, digital cable and analogue cable.
Setanta also provides sports video services via Broadband Internet.
In the UK, the Setana Sports Pack consists of 9 great sports channels:
- Setanta Sports 1
- Setanta Sports 2
- Setanta Sports Ireland
- Racing UK
- Racing World
- NASN
- Celtic TV
- Rangers TV
- LFC TV ( Just launched - September 20th)
A 10th channel Arsenal TV will be available by Christmas.
Click here for more about Setanta Sports and how to subscribe
-
Posted by HDTV Guy on October 4th, 2007 filed in Television | 1 Comment »
Blu-ray DVD’s
Blu-ray DVD’s are slowly working their way up to replace the old, ancient DVD’s. Blu-ray DVD’s are already outselling old DVD’s in many stores.
The best selling Blu-ray DVD on Amazon.co.uk as of this writing is 300. The movie 300 is based on King Xerxes and his trying to follow through with his fathers’ (Darius) plans in conquering the Hellenic city-states; included in that list is Sparta. King Leonidus, his band of 300 Spartans and a few allies will try to thwart the Persian army, even though the Persian army is in the hundred-thousands.
The next best selling Blu-ray DVD at Amazon.co.uk is Casino Royale, the latest installment in the James Bond series. For fans that have long been a fan of the franchise, Casino Royale offers some jokes that only you will understand. For instance, Mr. Bond wins his Aston Martin at a game table, and when the bartender questions him on his preference of his martini being, “…shaken or stirred,” he bitterly replies, “Do I look like I give a damn?”.
Another Blu-ray DVD that has been selling very well is the latest installment of the Superman series, Superman Begins. Believing that hiss home planet Krypton might still exist, Superman was gone in space for five years. When he found out it was a lie, he comes back to a completely changed Earth. Terrorism became rampant, and Lois Lane got married, started a family, and wrote a paper entitled ‘Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman’ that won the Pulitzer Prize. Lex Luthor is also back and is planning to use a stolen piece of kyptonite that will grow a brand new island that he plans to control.
Lastly, another best seller that has been doing very well is the final installment of X-Men; X-Men: The Last Stand. A place called Worthington Laboratories, while using the genes of a very powerful mutant child, develops a serum that destroys the ‘mutant X gene’ for good. Magneto and his band of renegade mutants form an army and march onto Worthington Laboratory, no guarded and heavily fortified, located on Alcatraz Island.
-
Posted by Brian on October 3rd, 2007 filed in Blu Ray, DVD | 1 Comment »
HD TV Specifications -2
HDTV is slowly becoming the standard in our world today. Rumor has it that by the year 2012, HDTV will have completely replaces ancient analogue television sets, so it’s no surprise that you should your time and shop around for a good one. Before that though, much research is needed. Two of the more important specifications to look for are the type of connection that will be used, and the “Contrast Ratio.”
The contrast ratio plays a big role on how well the picture displays. Another role contrast plays is how easily and clear the details display on the screen. While shopping around for a good HDTV, you’ll notice that the screen contrast ratio numbers vary widely, even ratios of televisions in the same price range.
Often times, two sets of numbers you’ll come in contact with are 3000:1 and 800:1. These numbers are the ratio between white to black colors on the screen at one time. Having said that, 3000:1 means the white colors are 3000 times brighter than the black colors. Likewise, 800:1 means that the white colors are only 800 times brighter than the black colors. In easier terms, the lower the contrast ratio number, the higher likelihood the coloration will be much different than the video source, versus a higher contrast television.
Another option to consider when it comes to buying an HDTV is the type of connection that will be used. The most popular type is called HDMI, which is short for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. HDMI is a 19-pin connector that supports 10.2 Gigabits per second at 340 Megapixels per second.
Another type of popular connection is the type used mostly in France, called SCART. SCART is an acronym that means Syndicat des Constructeurs d’Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs. The 21-pin SCART connector appeared originally in 1977 on French television sets, and it became the standard in January of 1980.
-
Posted by Brian on September 30th, 2007 filed in Television | Comment now »