HD
The HD version of the diminutive Flip Mino camcorder has reached UK shores following its release in the US last November. The three ounce Flip MinoHD happens to be the smallest and possibly the simplest high definition camcorder in the world, with one touch recording and a 4GB internal memory (upgraded from 2GB) that's good for 60 minutes of 720p video. Read More
LG's latest Audio/Visual offerings are moving down the path of connectivity and convergence, and delivering some very nice user interfaces. LG's new "Technology Design Centre" made its debut at the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix on the weekend where the Korean company introduced its PS80 big-screen plasma "Time Machine" TV, with built-in hard drive and digital video recording, its YouTube-capable super-fast BD370 Blu-ray player, its HB954WA 1000w home theatre 5.1 system, tuned by Mark Levinson and featuring wireless rear speakers, and the LH50, an ultra-quick 200hz LED-backlit LCD TV that intelligently adjusts picture controls according to the ambient light conditions in the room. Read More
To meet the ever increasing graphical demands of modern games AMD has introduced the ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card that boasts a staggering 1.36 TeraFLOPs of compute power, GDDR5 memory, and engine clock speeds capable of nearly 1GHz. Read More
Digital SLR cameras featuring HD video capture have burst onto the market in recent months and Canon has now put this functionality within reach of a much wider audience by including 1080p recording in the latest addition to its entry level Rebel range. The new EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR sports a 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor, nine-point Autofocus, a 3.0-inch LCD and shoots 1080p video at 20 fps and 720p HD video capture at 30 fps. The best bit - at USD$800 (body only) it's around a third of the price of the HD video capable EOS 5D Mark II released in September last year. Read More
The convergence of video and still cameras has been happening practically since the first digital cameras rolled off the production line. It’s now pretty standard for still cameras to be able to capture short bursts of video and it’s easy to capture a still pic using most video cameras. Sanyo’s Xacti dual camera range seeks to blur the lines between still and video cameras even further by allowing the capture of still and 60 fps video images simultaneously. Read More
Blu-ray licensing changes offer hope for cheaper players and discs
Even though Blu-ray has claimed the honors in the format war with HD DVD, it has failed to set the world on fire in terms of widespread adoption. One of the major factors for this slow uptake can be attributed to the high prices of not only Blu-ray players and recorders, but also the discs themselves. But plans announced by Sony, Panasonic and Philips to create a simplified licensing process for Blu-ray discs could see this change. Read More
Samsung launches AMOLED screened compact digital camera
Samsung Electronics seem to be busy beavers of late, with new products landing on the shelves all over the place. The latest releases, just in time for PMA09, are the TL320 and HZ15W, the former featuring a hi-tech, hi-res three-inch AMOLED screen and the latter, a class beating 10x optical zoom. Read More
Silicon Mountain Holdings has announced the release of the Allio Lite, the latest offering from their range of popular Allio converged LCD HDTV/PC... and it's at a lower price point. The Allio Lite is available in a 42-inch 1080p model or a 32-inch 720p model, and features the same selection of inputs (2 x HDMI, 1 x s-video & audio, 1 x DVI, 2 x component, 6 USB, 1 x eSATA) and outputs (1 x HDMI, 1 x optical audio) as the original Allio models. Read More
Like Samsung’s Series 9 and Toshiba’s flagship Regza SV670 Series, SIM2’s Solar Series of LCD HDTV’s feature LED backlighting that can be selectively turned off behind black areas in scenes to provide deeper blacks and overcome one of the weaknesses of LCD TV’s using the traditional CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlighting. Read More
With the head of LG Display recently quoted as saying that flat-panel LCD prices have bottomed, the world's electronics manufacturers are looking for the next big thing to keep the coffers ticking over. With a number of companies rolling out various 3D TV technologies over the years, it’s obvious that many think that this will be the next big thing. Panasonic is one such company that has spent a lot of time and money investing in 3DTV. The fruit of its labor: the world’s first 3D Full HD (3DFHD) Plasma Home Theater System. Read More
