Tag: High definition
Warner offering to swap your HD-DVDs for Blu-rays
Aware that the Blu-ray market still hasn’t really taken off, Warner Bros are getting a little desperate, and they’re waving an olive branch of peace at people who bought HD-DVDs. They’re going to let people mail the original box art for any HD-DVDs that they bought and swap them for the same title on Blu-ray.
It’s not quite free, they’re charging $4.95 per disc for the service, plus $6.95 shipping, but it’s still much cheaper than buying all the new discs yourself. It might even be worth scanning the local bargain bins for the old HD-DVDs to send off, then flog the replacements you get sent. You won’t be able to make a mint, though. It’s limited to 25 swaps per household.
(via Den of Geek and @stuart_coles)
Eee Box gets an upgrade, and HDMI-out
The humble Eee Box B202, which we liked last year, has been granted an upgrade by the technology gods. It’s now the Eee Box 206, and comes with an HDMI-out slot, meaning that you can plug this baby into your TV and watch high-definition content. It even comes with a remote control.
Specs-wise, it’s got an Atom processor, 160GB of hard disc space, 1GB of RAM and Wi-Fi. It comes with Windows XP, but I’d advise replacing that with Linux or Windows 7 swiftly. Don’t replace it with Vista though, whatever you do. For that, Asus is asking £309, which isn’t too bad for an HD-capable machine.
What do you reckon? Would you recommend this for a parent considering plugging a PC into their TV? Or something else? Share in the comments.
(via Tech Radar)
Sky HD boxes self-destructing, getting replaced
Sky HD customer? Have you heard from your provider lately? The company is allegedly recalling thousands of digiboxes due to a design fault that will gradually corrupt hard drives, ultimately causing disk failure.
The problem affects Pace-made units (Thomson, Samsung and Amstrad models are fine) and subscribers are getting three months of free HD subscription to compensate them for any data stored on their boxes.
Have you had your box replaced? Get in touch in the comments below and let us know what happened.
(via TrustedReviews)
Literally *INSANE* Sky claims that watching HD broadcasts helps combat depression
Genius. Simple genius. Sky has teamed up with psychologist Donna Dawson to claim that watching broadcasts in HD via Sky+HD can help alleviate the symptoms of depression.
Of course, as men who have just spent an obscene amount of money on an HDTV and Sky+HD subscription, there is indeed something calming and enjoyable about sitting there, basking in the HD glow, smug in the fact that your picture has more pixels in it than the picture your neighbours are lumbered with.
But the completely ludicrous PDF guide to Sky+HD claims that “programmes with vivid, bright and sharply defined colours create a visual sensation for our eyes, which help to lift our spirits and energise…
iTunes UK gets a high definition boost: new TV shows arrive
iTunes stores outside the US have always lagged behind when it comes to new features, but Apple has gradually been adding new video content to the UK store.
Last week’s moderately big news was that high definition episodes of Lost series 5 have made it into the iTunes store. Now, eagle-eyed fans have discovered a range of other titles that have “suddenly hit” the store…
Toshiba pushes out new 1080p Camileo Pocket DV camcorders
Toshiba today announces two new members of its Camileo range of highly portable camcorders, both of which are capable of shooting in full (1080p) high definition mode.
The Camileo H20 is an upgraded version of the H10 launched last summer, and features 1440 x 1080 shooting (not quite the standard widescreen 1920 x 1080 you’d expect from HDTV or a Blu-ray disc, but a fair compromise for a handheld device), 5x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom, video stabilisation, night shooting mode, YouTube upload facility, 5-megapixel digital stills and HDMI output…
Sky offers Sky+HD box for under fifty quid as satellite giant pushes high definition
Sky has decided that it’s time to get really aggressive when it comes to high definition in the UK, and to that end has slashed the price of its Sky+HD box to just £49. That’s a third of the price it was early last year (£150) and is the satellite broadcaster’s hope of getting many more subscribers hooked on pay-for-HD.
In fact, thanks to a lot of enticing marketing and the lure of a variety of sports, films and other content in high definition, Sky has just had its best quarter — in the three months to the end of December, 188,000 people signed up for high-def services, taking the total number of subscribers to nearly 800,000…
Toshiba announces Satellite A350: its first 16" widescreen laptop
What do you do when a 15-inch laptop is just that little bit too small, but a 17-inch one is a bit big? Simple! Buy a 16-inch version, like the Satellite A350 widescreen notebook from Toshiba…
CES 2009: Samsung reveals huge range of new LCD and plasma HD tellies
I knew that not long after reeling off LG’s massive line of new HDTVs then along would come someone else with lots of TVs to brag about.
That’s Samsung.
Here we go, then, with the latest high definition TVs from the South Korean technology giant.
First on the list is the new 8000, 7000, and 6000 Series of LED HDTVs which boast better environmental credentials and over 40% less energy usage to LCD TVs of a similar size. Fortunately, Dan’s already done a sterling job reviewing these tellies so I’ll move on to Samsung’s other new displays…
CES 2009: Pioneer unveils new Blu-ray and upconverting DVD players, new AV receivers
Pioneer has been showing off its latest range of Blu-ray players, upconverting DVD player, and AV receivers.
First up is a new collection of advanced Blu-ray players, all capable of handling BD Live for advanced disc features.
The BDP-120 and BDP-320 are aimed at consumers who want a simple high definition disc player right out of the box and come with 1GB of memory (either via a flash drive or internal memory), full BD-Live functionality, USB and Ethernet ports, True24FPS feature for realistic reproduction of discs recorded at 24fps, full support of all high resolution audio formats including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream output, and up to 7.1-channel analogue output…
