Acetrax is closing: Download movies by 21 June or lose them
Home CinemaMovie streaming and download service Acetrax is being shut down by owner Sky on 21 June -- so if you've bought films through it you need to download them pronto.
The Swiss company was bought by Sky in May 2012, and is best known in the UK for its smart TV apps, which let you stream films directly to tellies from the likes of Samsung, LG and Panasonic. Like many streaming companies it lets you rent movies for 24 hours or buy the right to stream them whenever you want, which will obviously be affected when the service closes. Continue reading...
Sony Bravia X9 is a 4K TV for £4k
Televisions4K is finally getting more affourdable, as Sony brings its Ultra HD X9 range of TVs to the UK for £4,000.
Four grand's a heck of a lot for most people to blow on a gogglebox, but it's dramatically cheaper than next-gen tellies have been so far. Samsung's 4K effort, the S9, recently went on sale in Selfridges for a staggering £35,000 -- by comparison the Sony is a supermarket special offer. Continue reading...
TalkTalk treads the boards with new Digital Theatre channel
Home CinemaTalkTalk is coating theatre's fourth wall in glass, and bringing some of Britain's finest stage performances to its telly customers with a new Digital Theatre Channel. The channel bursts into song -- jazz hands and all -- on TalkTalk Plus TV today, and will charge a minimum of £3 to customers wishing to take in a show.
The telecom giant has partnered with Digital Theatre, a company that records live performances to allow audiences to gaze through the proscenium arch from the comfort of their homes. Continue reading...
Samsung S9 Ultra HD TV in Selfridges for a mere £35,000
TelevisionsGot £35,000 burning a hole in your pocket? If you don't fancy putting down a hefty deposit on a house or driving an Audi A6 straight out of a showroom, you might consider this television.
The 85-inch Samsung S9 is mounted on what looks like a very large deckchair and boasts 4K Ultra HD resolution -- 3,820x2,160 pixels of opulence. That's just 0.4p per pixel! Continue reading...
4G will disrupt Freeview TV in fewer homes than expected
TelevisionsFears have been allayed over whether the 4G networks that'll launch this summer will interfere with Freeview telly signals.
A trial conducted by at800 found that a makeshift 4G network using the 800MHz band only affected Freeview reception in 15 out of the 22,000 homes surveyed, The Register reports. at800 originally predicted 120 households would experience problems. Those that did have trouble were remedied quickly with a cheap filter. Continue reading...
Tesco's free Clubcard TV service has some right old tosh
Home CinemaTesco's new Clubcard TV gives members of its loyalty card scheme a Netflix-style streaming TV service for absolutely free. Unfortunately, instead of the sexy, cerebral delights of House of Cards, you'll be watching ancient repeats of Two Pints of Lager and Alistair McGowan's Big Impression.
Tesco Value Clubcard TV boasts "hours of BBC Worldwide content" -- hours! -- such as the one-joke Goodness Gracious Me, grim children's borefests Stig of the Dump and The Secret Garden, and a bunch of cooking shows featuring angry middle-aged men. Continue reading...
LG 55-inch OLED TV launching in July, costs £10,000
TelevisionsI know we've heard about LG's 55-inch OLED TV set before, but it's so far failed to make it to shop shelves. Well now comes word it'll land here in the UK in July, exclusively for sale from Harrods. And the price? Glad you asked. It'll set you back a cool £10,000.
Recession? What recession? Continue reading...
Lord Alan Sugar steps down as YouView chairman
TelevisionsLord Alan Sugar's time at YouView is over. The gruff business bod is due to step down from his role as non-executive chairman in the next few weeks, according to a release sent out by the company this afternoon.
The peer formerly known as Surralun has been non-executive chairman since 2011. A new chairman will be announced in due course, so best get your CV in now if you want to stand a chance. Continue reading...
BT buys ESPN TV channels, BT Sport TV service coming summer
TelevisionsBT is buying a bunch of ESPN channels, which it'll roll into its own sports service that'll launch this summer. The landline and broadband provider is picking up the ESPN UK and Ireland TV channel business, which includes the ESPN and ESPN America channels, as well as live sports rights.
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of July, the company says. It'll bring live games from the FA Cup, Scottish Premier League, German Bundesliga and UEFA Europa League to the BT Sport TV service. Continue reading...
Pure Avalon 300R Connect on sale now, costs £300
TelevisionsPure's first set-top box is on sale now. The company has announced its rival to YouView is up for grabs from Internet retailers, though there are only seven left in John Lewis, and five at Amazon, so you'd better get your skates on. It'll be available in-store at John Lewis and selected independent retailers later this week.
We went hands-on with the Avalon 300R Connect back in September, when it was announced. It's available in 500GB or 1TB versions, costing £300 and £350 respectively. Continue reading...
Samsung TV Discovery searches on-demand and live TV
TelevisionsSamsung's got a new TV service that aims to make smart TV viewing a tad easier, letting you search multiple apps for the single programme you're trying to watch.
Dubbed 'Samsung TV Discovery' (bold -- I like it), the service will search through services like Netflix, Lovefilm, YouTube, as well as live TV listings. Samsung's wizard wheeze is that you'll only need this one app to search through everything your telly has to offer, saving you the chore of hopping in and out of different on-demand services. Continue reading...
Apple hires LG's OLED expert, iTV rumours set back in motion
TelevisionsThe rumours concerning Apple working on a TV set have gone a little quiet of late, but this is sure to stoke the coals. Apple has hired an expert in OLED screens who previously worked at LG and Samsung. Now why would it want him I wonder?
The man in question is Dr. James (Jueng-Gil) Lee, 9to5Mac reports, citing the OLED Association. Lee was previously a senior researcher on LG Display's R&D team, and before that, he was a researcher with Cambridge Display Technology. Prior to that, he was the head of R&D for LCD technology development at Samsung. In other words, the man knows his televisual onions. Continue reading...
Japan to start 4K broadcasts next year
TelevisionsAs if KFC for Christmas dinner isn't reason enough to move to Japan, how about TV shows in Ultra High Definition? Well there's not long to wait, as broadcasts in the format will start in Japan next year -- that's two years ahead of schedule, proving it's not just the trains that run on time over there.
Reuters reports the Japanese government will launch the world-first service in July 2014. That's just in time for the World Cup final in Brazil, which sounds like pretty nice timing to me. Continue reading...
House of Cards: Netflix's Spacey series previewed in video 
House of Cards, the new TV show based on the classic BBC series of the same name, is two weeks away from landing on streaming service Netflix.
Every episode of the series, which stars Kevin Spacey, will be made available online simultaneously, and can only be viewed on Netflix. It's disruptive stuff, so hit play on the video above to learn more, and hear a few choice quotes from its creators and cast members. Continue reading...
CNET CES Awards: Razer Edge wins Best of Show, People's Voice
GadgetsIn the roundup to end all CES roundups (for this year at least), let us recap the winners of the Best of CES Awards, which were announced last night and recognise all the most exciting and innovative products unveiled in Vegas this year.
The Razer Edge, a Windows 8 gaming tablet with a panoply of peripherals, has been proclaimed the best product of CES 2013. Its family of accessories open up different usage modes and lets you play full-blown PC games practically anywhere. Continue reading...
CNET CES roundup: Samsung's bendy Youm and 110-inch TV
GadgetsSamsung has been mysteriously quiet in terms of big splashy product launches at this year's CES -- instead it's opened our eyes to some fascinating new tech concepts.
Rumours of flexible screens have been circulating for a while now, and Samsung's finally proved there's real substance to the whispers by treating us to a glimpse of Youm, its yummy new bendy display. Continue reading...
Samsung Evolution Kit coming soon to supercharge your TV
TelevisionsSamsung's smart TV Evolution Kit will soon allow you to upgrade the processor and software of certain 2012 Samsung tellyboxes, bringing them kicking and screaming into cutting-edge 2013.
Originally announced at least year's CES, the Evolution Kit is simply a small box that slots into the back of your TV. It might not sound like much, but like Danger Mouse, it's packing some very helpful kit. It upgrades your TV's existing dual-core processor to a quad-core variant, apparently tripling the speed as well as drastically improving the graphics processing. Continue reading...
LG's stunning OLED TV available soon to UK's rich
TelevisionsLG's fancy 55-inch OLED TV may have been kicking around for a while now, but it's finally going on general sale in the UK within the next couple of months. Before you get too excited about snapping up this luscious new telly, be warned that it'll set you back a whopping £6,300.
OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) TVs are able to produce extremely deep black levels as they're not lit by traditional backlights. Instead, each pixel generates its own light, meaning that the screen is able to show a true black shade, rather than a dark grey that most regular TVs can achieve. In my hands-on time, I found it to be extremely vivid with amazing contrast, punchy colours and superb clarity. Continue reading...
LG's 2013 TV lineup to feature NFC, updated smart services
TelevisionsLG has taken the covers off its new lineup of Google-powered smart TVs, ahead of the ceremonial unveiling at CES next week. The new models promise improved smart software, razor-thin bezels and, most interestingly, NFC capabilities.
The NFC tags found on the 2013 tellies will enable you to easily transfer videos and photos from your phone to the big screen, simply by tapping them together. In theory, it saves time and avoids frustration by not making you dive in and out of clumsy menus each time you want to pair your phone. It's potentially a very useful feature, but whether it works seamlessly in practice remains to be seen. Continue reading...
Samsung teases new Smart Hub TV ahead of CES
TelevisionsCES is just over a week away, and Samsung has given us a taste of what it'll be bringing to the world's biggest tech fair. It promises to show off its new smart TV platform, known as Smart Hub. As well as TV shows and films, it'll bring together all your apps, social networks, music and more.
According to the Samsung Tomorrow blog, the user interface will be split up into five categories. These are On TV (live TV), Movies and TV Shows (video on-demand), Apps, Social, and the fifth one is Photos, Videos & Music. Continue reading...
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