Home Cinema

V Festival gets Virgin Media TiVo app for music minus the mud

Home Cinema

Virgin Media is bringing the V Festival to your living room -- minus the mud and annoying teenagers -- with a new TiVo app.

Virgin Media TiVo is a rather clever set-top box that learns what telly programmes you like. It also offers apps, like the V Festival app stuffed with musical goodies from interviews with the turns to special backstage performances. Continue reading...

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Panasonic PT-AT5000E 3D, HD LCD projector is three kinds of D

Home Cinema

Fancy filling your domicile with eye-melting, brain-exploding, high-definition 3D, but for some reason hate televisions? Then Panasonic's PT-AT5000E might be for you. It's an LCD projector that spits out 1080p HD video, but it's also capable of firing a 3D picture onto your living room wall. That's three kinds of D!

This potent projector offers a 300,000:1 contrast ratio and 2,000 lumens of brightness. Happily, you can adjust the 3D effect, and the PT-AT5000E is capable of converting boring old 2D video into 3D. Continue reading...

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ITV Player to charge for online telly before the end of the year

Home Cinema

The only pay is Essex, according to ITV. The broadcaster will test payments for its online services before the end of the year, but in the meantime ITV Player catch-up is now available for free on freesat.

ITV Player lets you catch up with shows from ITV, ITV 2, ITV 3 and ITV 4, including Emmerdale, Corrie, The Only Way is Essex and the Jeremy Kyle Show. There's some good stuff on there too, we're sure. Continue reading...

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Netflix could come to UK next year, making LoveFilm tremble in fear

Home Cinema

The Netflix film-rental and streaming service is rumoured to be planning a UK launch.

Netflix is the number-one film-rental service in the US, offering DVD rentals by post or via streaming online. It's been doing so well in fact that the company pushed out a massive launch across Latin America earlier this month. Continue reading...

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YouView rejected by Sony

Home Cinema

Sony has snubbed YouView, rejecting the alliance of online television services as 'too UK-specific'.

YouView will offer catch-up and on-demand television from the main channels all in one place, via a set-top box. Yes, another one. Sony has decided not to get involved, so you won't be seeing Sony Bravia televisions, Blu-ray players or PlayStations with YouView access built in. Continue reading...

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Spotify and Virgin Media team up to put tunes in your telly

Home Cinema

Virgin Media will soon bring tunes to your telly, having signed a deal with music-streaming service Spotify.     

Both current and new Spotify users will benefit from a range of special offers, including access to exclusive new and early releases, like those currently offered to paying Spotifiers, and also gig and festival tickets. After all, Virgin runs the V Festival, where this year you can see The Saturdays and Big Audio Dynamite on the same stage within an hour of each other.
Continue reading...

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Wimbledon 3D: How the BBC is filming the tennis in three dimensions

Home Cinema

Ah, Wimbledon. Rafa Nadal, Andy Murray, Sue Barker and the cream of world tennis are in SW19 for two weeks of athletic excellence, strawberries and weird grunting noises. This year there's an added dimension to the hallowed competition, as the BBC broadcasts the finals in 3D for free. CNET UK has gone behind the scenes to see how 3D is raising its game at Wimbledon. Continue reading...

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TiVo iPhone and Android apps on the way, Virgin Media users cross fingers

Mobile Phones

PVR manufacturer TiVo appears to be readying iPhone and Android OS control apps according to an article in CEPro, Zatz Not Funny reports.

There's already a TiVo interface for the iPad that makes viewing information and controlling the TiVo pretty easy. Even if you've got a huge TV, it's very convenient to be able to view and update the digi-box from your lap. Assuming you can get a network or Internet connection, it can also be used to schedule recordings when you're away from home. Continue reading...

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Sky Go is a new way to watch Sky online or on your phone, and it's free

Mobile Phones

Sky Go is go. Sky Player and Sky Mobile TV, the two services for watching Sky away from your telly are being combined to form Sky Go -- and it's free to all Sky customers.

Sky Player lets you watch Sky online, and Sky Mobile TV lets you watch on your phone. With the introduction of Sky Go there'll be just one service for your phone, tablet, laptop and computer, which is free to all Sky subscribers. Continue reading...

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Wimbledon in 3D to be free on the BBC

Home Cinema

The BBC is to serve up its first 3D broadcast, live from Wimbledon. It'll be ace. You'll love it. Ace, d'y'geddit? Love, like in the tennis! Stick around, kid, there's plenty more where that came from.

Auntie Beeb will broadcast the men's and women's singles finals in 3D from Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in West London, where it has been held since 1877. Continue reading...

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Virgin Media cheapo TiVo available today for £50

Home Cinema

Cheapo TiVo is here. Virgin Media's new budget version of the TiVo personal video recorder is available today, learning your taste in telly and recording stuff it thinks you'll like for just £50 upfront.

The cheaper option looks and performs exactly the same as the more expensive TiVo: it's the same box, but with a different hard drive inside. The cheaper model packs a 500GB hard drive, half the size of the premium TiVo's 1TB memory. Continue reading...

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Panasonic DMR-BWT800 and DMR-BWT700 turn 2D into 3D gold

Home Cinema

Life getting you down? Is the only exciting thing that ever happens to you an unexpected item in the bagging area? Don't be downhearted: the Panasonic DMR-BWT800 and DMR-BWT700 Freeview+HD Blu-ray disc recorders can metaphorically transform our boring two-dimensional world of meetings and losing any unsaved work into a dazzling high-definition, three-dimensional extravaganza, by literally turning 2D into 3D.

Both decks boast twin HD terrestrial tuners, so you can record two digital broadcasts at the same time. They offer 5.1-channel surround sound so you can enjoy your recorded programmes and your Blu-ray platters in glorious high definition for the ears as well as for the eyes. Continue reading...

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YouView set-top boxes will have at least 320GB, two tuners, HDMI and Wi-Fi

Home Cinema

YouView set-top boxes, which will let you watch online catch-up and on-demand services, will have at least half a gigabyte of RAM and a hard disc of at least 320GB for recording TV, the organisation has announced.

Its boxes will be powered by Linux, have at least one HDMI connection, two USB ports, an Ethernet socket and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Two DVBT/T2 tuners mean you can watch one channel and record another. Continue reading...

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Virgin Media TiVo chooses cheaper option with 500GB box for £50

Home Cinema

If you've been salivating over the thought of a telly that records stuff it knows you'll like, we have good news: a Virgin Media TiVo box could be yours for as little as £50 up front. But if you're not already a Virgin Media customer, keep saving those pennies.

TiVo is the ace set-top box that allows you to rate what you watch, training the box to automatically record stuff you'll like. You can search programmes, make wishlists of things you want recording before they're in the schedules, and even watch programmes you've missed over the last week -- but all for an eye-watering price. Continue reading...

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Sky 3D uncovers long-lost 3D film from Second World War

Home Cinema

They're often portrayed in films as two-dimensional villains, but the Nazis were in fact fans of 3D. Newly discovered photos and film footage shows Second World War-era soldiers soldiering in specially filmed 3D, to be shown in May on Sky 3D.

WWII in 3D will be shown on Sky's 3D channel in May. The documentary will include film and photographs of Nazi soldiers, Allied troops and civilians in 3D, including a German army training film discovered in a museum vault. Continue reading...

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Popcorn Hour update adds BBC iPlayer to A-210 and C-200 streamers

Home Cinema

The BBC's iPlayer is now a must-have for any self-respecting AV device. If the Spice Girls were about today (and significantly more nerdy) they'd sing, "If you want to be my AV product, you've got to get with my iPlayer." Apart from the fact that it doesn't rhyme. Happily, the people behind Popcorn Hour media streamers agree -- not about the rhyming, the iPlayer -- and have just added the Beeb's catchup service to some of their boxes. Continue reading...

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Onkyo adds Spotify support to new TX-NR609 AV receiver

Home Cinema

Onkyo has teamed up with Spotify to let you stream music through its new TX-NR609 AV receiver. As such, it's a pretty safe bet that Spotify will be integrated into all of Onkyo's new lumps of audio greatness before too long.

You'll need a premium Spotify account to access the service via the TX-NR609, which has just gone on sale, costing around £500. That's no surprise -- you also need a £10-per-month premium account to use Spotify on your mobile phone. Continue reading...

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YouView appoints Alan Sugar to get fired up over Internet TV

Home Cinema

Bolshie boardroom telly star Alan Sugar has joined YouView. The Apprentice boss is the new non-executive chairman of the BBC-led consortium developing the YouView Internet television portal.

YouView announced that peer of the realm Baron Sugar of Clapton replaces former Ofcom exec Kip Meek in the non-exec role at YouView, previously known as Project Canvas. Sirralan has been drafted in to provide "additional expertise in consumer marketing and technology delivery" as YouView inches towards launch.  Continue reading...

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Panasonic's DMP-BDT310 and BDT-210 Blu-ray players open with a wave

Home Cinema

Panasonic's new DMP-BDT310 and DMP-BDT210 Blu-ray players are as capable and great to use as always, but now the company has added another feature to attract your attention and spending power. So what is this new trick? It's the ability to open the disc tray by waving your hand over the top of the player.

No, we don't know why you'd want that either. But it is kind of cool, and does reduce the amount of time you have to spend looking for a tiny eject button. The only problem we could see is that most people will put the player somewhere that doesn't make waving at the top of it all that easy. Continue reading...

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Onkyo 2011 AV receiver range has Internet radio, Last.fm and 4K support

Home Cinema

It's that wonderful time of year again, when the days are getting a little longer, the crocuses are poking up, and -- crucially -- Onkyo is rolling out its new budget and mid-range AV receivers. There's an impressive new style this year too, which we think makes Onkyo's hardware even more desirable than ever.

At the top of the range sits the magnificent TX-NR609. It's THX Select2 certified, has six HDMI inputs -- one on the front, handy for gamers -- and the usual AV inputs and optical and digital audio connectors for you to get high-quality surround sound from older, non-HDMI equipped hardware. Continue reading...

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