Home Entertainment

Just when you thought your room wasn’t big enough for a home theater, JVC has come to the rescue with its ultra-slim amplifier and speakers, designed to sit perfectly alongside or underneath your ultra-slim 50-inch TV or projector screen. The SP-FT model from JVC is a pair of 31mm thin satellite speakers and matching amplifier which pump out an adequate 80W total output over four independent channels and support Dolby Digital, DTS and AAC formats. Read More

Despite being relatively late to bat in the media streamer/jukebox market, Western Digital came up with a gem of a product last year with the WD TV, which featured in our recent take on Media Streamers. This slimline, stylish device was designed to attach to a TV and play back music, photo and video files from connected storage, but lacked the streaming capabilities and HD support of more versatile (and expensive) rivals. Buoyed by the success of the WD TV, Western Digital is back with the WD TV Live, which addresses the above issues by offering full-HD, 1080p playback via an HDMI 1.3 port, and the ability to stream files across a wired or wireless network. Read More

TVs are no longer dumb receivers sitting in the corner of the lounge, displaying whatever trash the networks have decided to cram down our throats. Nowadays, a TV is just as likely to be hooked up to a home theater PC (HTPC) for playing games, accessing media content stored on a hard disk, or surfing the Internet. For more complex tasks like that, the humble remote starts to look a little underdone. That's where remote controls on steroids, such as the GlideTV Navigator, come in. It combines the functionality of a keyboard, mouse and AV remote control in one distinctive-looking unit that fits in the palm of your hand. Read More

Toshiba has upped the ante in TV technology by unveiling its flagship model, the Cell Regza 55X1. This new 55-inch LED unit has the TV junkie in mind with many features not seen before, including the ability to record up to eight channels at once, a 3TB hard drive (record and store up to 26 hours of HD programs), a powerful processing chip identical to the one found in the PS3, a dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1, 240Hz scanning, a display divided into 512 distinct areas (each with individually-controlled lighting and luminance that deliver an industry high 1250cd/m2 – 2.5 times higher than typical TVs, and a seven-speaker sound bar. All for a lazy ¥1 million (US$11,500 approx). Read More

It seems the world has become obsessed with ‘skinny’ – watch your diet, exercise more and aspire to be ‘model thin’. But skinny isn't always better when it comes to speakers – good sound reproduction needs room to vibrate. However, at IFA, Fraunhofer scientists (in cooperation with Sennheiser electronic) presented a completely new concept for ultra-flat loudspeakers that still deliver full sound reproduction. What’s more, these speakers can be integrated inconspicuously on walls or in furniture because they're only 24mm thick (0.94-inch). Read More

If you’re the type of entertainer who likes to make their guests green with envy, then this wall-mounted bar is sure to get your attention. This cooler-than-cool concept is smolderingly good-looking with its dark, smooth drinks cabinetry. The stunning silver ice dispenser and suspended drinks tray just add to the appeal. Don't you wish you could get your hands on one immediately? Read More

Not long ago, radio manufacturers had only to worry about the basic look of their devices. Rarely were new stations added, reception methods hadn’t changed in a long time and, generally, smaller was better. Sure, they had to combine an alarm clock in some models, but that wasn’t too difficult. Now a radio has to be a veritable Swiss army knife of appliances, and this is where the new Sensia from Pure excels. Its list of features includes a large color touch screen display, DAB, FM stereo and digital radio with full Band III, wireless media streaming, input from iPods/iPhones and MP3 players, and Pure Apps that let you connect with Facebook, Twitter, Picasa and thousands of podcasts. Read More

Those outside of the UK may not be overly familiar with the BBC iPlayer, a streaming web-based TV service for the British institution’s range of channels that has seen burgeoning success and spawned a number of terrestrial and satellite-based rivals. It’s also worth summarising the aim of Project Canvas, a venture by the broadcasting giant that looks to bring a similar streaming service to the home and will notably look to incorporate other channels, on-demand services and web-based content from sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, as well as built-in PVR functionality though a set-top box connected to a TV. Read More

After seeing CE devices that were certified for DivX Plus HD playback at IFA 2009, wondering what exactly what DivX Plus HD was, and finding next to no information about it on the web, we decided to go straight to the source. In short, it's a bunch of nifty stuff for both high-definition content consumers and creators, but if you want to know much, much more, click through for the video of Tim Hanlon talking to DivX at IFA. Read More