Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Freeview HD is still in it’s first steps. Although the signal is being broadcast in some regions, the sheer lack of set top boxes available to catch the signal seems to be hindering it hitting the mainstream. Sony though have announced that new lines of TVs incorporating the subscription-free Freeview HD tuners will be launched this week.

The NX803 will be available in 40”- 52” screen sizes capable of LED backlit 200Hz images and future-proofed with 3D support. With built in Wi-Fi this model can stream media from your PC but also incorporates the Sony/LoveFilm widget, allowing subscribed users to stream movies from the DVD rental people(when it gets launched)and Skype and Bravia Internet Video(a TV catch-up service).

Also for the more budget/eco conscious, there’s the HX803 and Bravia Essential EX703. The HX803 same as the above but minus the networking options and the EX703 will have the networking options only a less responsive 100Hz screen and energy saving features. Both the latter models will be available in 40” and 46”

As you may have guessed (despite the recent flurry of mobiles on our blog) we love a good telly and this one looks like a great one coming from those super-relaxed Dutch folk at Philips. This is a contrast ratio beast.

The 2 models will both have Full HD capabilities, available in 32”, 40” and 46”(9000 series) and 37”, 40”, 46”and 52”(8000 series) both have a 0.5ms response time and a staggering 10million : 1 dynamic contrast ratio thanks to those lovely little LED's showering the screen in light.  The 9000 also dishes a super fast 400Hz refresh rate whilst the 8000 a lesser 200Hz(you say lesser but it’s still great) Both series also pack Wi-Fi which can stream video direct from a DLNA enabled PC.

What else makes these great is that both series of TV will be ready for the 3D revolution. However this function wont be given as standard with the initial release. If you want it, you’ll have to upgrade with a a pack containing a wireless transmitter and “Active Shutter” glasses.

The launch has happened today in Spain so details of a UK release and price are still unavailable at the moment but should be around soon.

It took them a while to face the reality of losing the HD format war but eventually Toshiba buckled and decided to make a foray into the Blu-Ray market. Now we have it’s second blu-ray player on the cards the BDX2100KB, a respectable player on the market with a respectable price tag to boot.

As said it’s respectable but not the best blu-ray player on the market. It’s BD Live compatible but without a Wi-Fi connection you’ll just have to make do with the hard reality of wires. As per it does the full 1080p video output at 24fps and does the usual DVD upscaling. Put all this with Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio which you can output at 7.1. One great feature it does have is MKV support via a USB port which will also play DivX.

On sale in May for £129.99 this will appeal to those who just want a Blu-Ray player a little better than the lowest entries but not “all that”

We here at Mighty Gadget cant wait to embrace the 3D revolution and all these wonderful AV gadgets that one will need. We’ve talked about the TVs and the supply from Sky/Freeview etc. Today we have a projector. The Acer H5360 has just come out and is one of the first of its kind to be on shelves for us to buy.

The H5360 is compatible with NVIDIA’s 3D vision(what it uses in its graphics chips) which dispalys two images at 120Hz for each eye. What this means is when you slap on the glasses, the images converge into one a 3D image that runs at 60Hz. The projector itself projects(obviously) a 2500 ANSI Lumens image which has a contrast ratio of 3200:1. As for resolution, 720p.

The projector is on sale now for a measly £549.99. Not bad for a brand new piece of kit so if you’re thinking ahead its not too bad an investment. If you want use out of it now however, you’ll need an NVIDIA 3D vision powered PC to use it.

After Toshiba’s HD-DVD lost the HD format war to Sony’s Blu-Ray, it has finally decided to release a Blu-Ray player. It has been 18 months since the major movie studios decided to stop producing films onto HD-DVD opting for the Sony format.

Toshiba have since been working on upscaling regular outputs to HD quality. Daily Yomiuri a Japanese newspaper, has reported that the electronics giant will be releasing a standalone Blu-Ray player by the end of the year aswell as a Blu-Ray recorder.

Despite the UK CEO claiming that the Blu-Ray format would soon be outdated, blu-ray sales are up 91% in the first half of 2009 alone so they might aswell get into it while the moneys there.

Music broadcaster (although it's been a long time since MTV's core channels could be classed as music programming) MTV has confirmed today that it plans to launch a HD TV service in the UK by the end of 2008.

MTVNHD will be a 24-hour service originating in Poland, with a mix of bought-in and original programming, including extreme sports, music charts packages and live concerts.

MTVNHD will also broadcast a block of programming from sister network Nickelodeon, including Spongebob.

Availability of the channel is unconfirmed at the moment, but Sky HD is almost certain to be included. Virgin Media and Freesat HD customers will have to wait and see.

Ok so not an extensive review, but one of our readers was kind enough to provide some initial feedback on Freesat. The box was the Humax Foxsat-HD which is now available from Comet

Got the Humax receiver.
First impressions were how small.
Then came the disappointment.
It runs very hot, which means short life.
No diseqc switching, and when I scanned, most of what is available I can get anyway off a Comag from Lidl, and that has diseqc.
I will need to look at the numbers in more detail tonight, but I get BBC HD anyway off my Topfield.
My guess it will be a flop, at least for those of us in the know.

Unfortunately for me I am not one of them in the know and I am a little naive about satellite but the topfield mentioned above should be the HD Satellite receiver TF7000HT. I am not a huge TV fan so I think I will wait until all this Freesat malarkey becomes more mainstream.

John Lewis says it will be selling the HD receiver for a price of £149, plus optional £100 installation. But there's no news on whether this will be a Grundig or Humax box yet.

Interestingly it is believe John Lewis and its partners will be working with Sky to roll out the new service as Freesat does not have it's own installation service yet.

Humax is expected to release its new Freesat HD receiver, the Foxsat-HD, to coincide with the launch the launch of the Freesat service on May 6th.

The specification for the Foxsat-HD box is as follows:

• Receiving HDTV signals (MPEG-4 AVC/H 264 and MPEG-2)
• Under 1w power consumption in standby
• HDMI digital interface for transmission of picture and sound
• Simultaneous playing of transmissions over HDMI, YPbPr or Scart
• Easy installation and operation
• Resolution format: 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i
• DVB-S2 and DVB-S compatible
• Ethernet support
• Full colour, high resolution electronic programme guide
• Dolby digital audio output
• Automatic software upgrade via satellite
• Improved SDTV on a HD LCD TV
• Audio description / One-touch subtitles
• Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth): 28 x 4.5 x 20cm
• Weight: 1.5kg

If you are not aware of Freesat the following extract from Join Freesat should explain it:

Freesat is a brand new digital satellite TV service from the BBC/ITV. freesat has no monthly subscription, just a one-off payment for the digital box, satellite dish and installation. It will even come with subscription-free, high-definition TV programmes. Because freesat is broadcast via satellite, it’ll be available to almost every household in the UK.