Televisions

It was so nearly the factory visit that never was, although expectation was high as I grabbed this quick picture through the bus window before we entered Samsung's Cheonan plant, two hours south of Seoul on a buckaroo expressway.

As the gates opened for us, the blanket camera ban came into effect.

Cheonan is huge, and is at the heart of Samsung's plasma display panel production. Except yesterday it wasn't - producing, that is. A very short-term halt had been called, partly due to the effects of the global economic crisis and a spot of over-productivity, and partly to regroup and get things rolling again for production for the future.

The picture above shows what would have been happening if anything had been happening, but aside from some maintenance guys and a few staff taking displays out of their ageing/testing racks, not much was going on that day.

We were assured that the factory will be going like the clappers again in the next few days, but we still had the slightly surreal experience of being guided around a generally dark and deserted factory by the manager, who explained to us what the machines would be doing if they were actually doing anything.

But if Cheonan is huge, the nearby Tianjeong complex is positively scary colossal,  to the extent that we needed a guided bus tour merely to get round the place. This is Samsung LCD Panel Central, and in just one building we visited we watched an automated line producing panels at the rate of one every 15 seconds, 24 hours a day, in complete clean room conditions.

 

"And," our guide explains, "we have ten lines on this floor, 10 on the floor below, and 11 upstairs, so if you want to know how many panels we make a day, you can do the maths."

Travelling abacus to the fore, I recklon that makes a capacity of some 180,000 panels a day, all produced with by highly automated assembly, with most of the staff being involved in quality control and checking the processes.

But even that, or the large tower blocks in which single staff-members can live for $30 a month, everything supplied, isn't the most impressive thing about this place.

There are several of these enormous production buildings already, and more are on the way. One is just nearing completion, and when it's done will have taken just five months from ground-breaking to fit-out and production start up. Our guide tells us that of course it's being built by Samsung's contruction company - other recent projects include one of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which is currently the world's tallest building, and the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which will steal the crown from Taipei.

"And," she says, "since the factory works 24 hours a day, so do the construction workers."

I would have grabbed you a picture but the entire complex, even down to the perimeter fence out onto the street, is covered by CCTV. Take a snap and a fast response security team will be with you in 30sec or less, ready to erase your memory. Or at least that in your camera.

 

Well, the LG UK press trip is over, and by now the rest of the group should be back home after their 12-hour-plus flight. I’m still in Seoul, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment.

For now, what’s striking about this city is that everyone’s watching TV. You see them watching Korean drama in their cars in the traffic, sitting on park benches soaking up the soaps, or moving slightly to music videos even on the subway system.

And a visit to LG’s Digital TV Research Lab, located on the campus of Seoul National University – think Korea’s equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge – showed why: just about everything in the company’s range able to receive a signal can get digital TV.

We were welcomed by Choon Lee, the head of the Lab, who explained that the facility was established six years ago, and works closely with the university on research projects, as well as recruiting graduates.

His colleague, Dr JR Kim, then gave us an overview of digital TV in Korea and beyond, and how LG is positioning itself to provide suitable devices wherever there’s a service.

The DMB – digital multimedia broadcasting system – has been in place in Korea for a couple of years, and has caught on like wildfire. It seems just about every mobile phone can receive live TV – at which point Dr Kim produced his own from his pocket, screwed in a little telescopic aerial and proved the point.

It’s in car navigation systems, too. In fact, even the least expensive satnav systems on the Korean market – and we’re talking around £60 or so – have DMB capability.

Why? It’s not just ‘because we can’: the traffic in Seoul is so bad that people do a lot of their TV viewing on the move. Or rather on the crawl.

Same goes for mobile phones. One of our hosts explained to us that she spends two hours a day commuting. Each way. So she’s glad that her phone can receive TV even in the depths of the Seoul subway.

The people at the lab have to struggle with competing standards, from the DMB-T/DMB-S (terrestrial/satellite) used here, via the European DVB-H (handheld), Japan’s ISDB-T and the ATSC-MH (Mobile Handheld) system in the States, or MPH (Mobile Pedestrian Handheld) as it used to be called.

It’s quite a technological struggle – the system needs 4Mbps data rates for standard definition, and up to 15.4MBps for high-definition, which you might want in the car, if not on the bus.

But they reckon they’ve got it cracked – the current system can receive a clear picture in vehicles travelling at 140mph/225kph, signal to noise and Doppler effect problems notwithstanding.

And in case you think all this is just another Asian thing, and will never happen here, on Thursday LG announced the launch in Europe of its LG-KB770 phone, which has a 3in display, 3MP camera, 3.5G capability, internet connectivity and DVB-T reception.

Initially on sale in France and Germany, it could come to the UK as soon as there’s sufficient service and interest.

 And that’s about it, so I’ll wrap up from LG in Seoul with a shot of our novel greeting during a trip on a submarine to which the company treated us the other day – as you do.

 

I’m staying in Korea this weekend and joining a Samsung press event for the whole of next week – stay tuned for more posts giving the view from Korea’s other consumer electronics giant.

Have a good weekend!

At LG's Paju Display Cluster here in Korea, we were taken through a short tour of the history of the company's involvment in TV, which covers the past 40 years.

Entering the gallery past the bust of company founder Koo In Hwoi,

which you find in every one of the company's major facilities, we were first given an insight into where LG and TV got together.

This was where it began, with Korea's first black and white TV set back in the 1960s. Seen here in close-up

It's still working, and forms part of a display that leads the visitor through the company's TV milestones, up to its first plasma and LCD offerings.

Opposite, and next to an array of awards won by the company's display division, is a history wall (below) which contains the significant milestones in the company's TV business.

 

As was exolained to us, LG claims an almost embarrassing range of firsts and superlatives, including:

• Korea's first black and white TV, in 1966
• The world's first digital TV solution, in 1997, two years after its acquisition of US TV manufacturer Zenith
• The world's f irst 60in plasma TV, in 2001, followed by the first 76in  two years later
• The world's first 55in LCD, in 2004, with the first TV with a built-in HD digital video recorder the following year
• And the world's first 100in LCD, in 2006

In the gallery, however, history is soon passed in favour of where the company is now, with demonstrations of its wide-viewing angle LCD technology, and the way its Intelligent Sensor system can reduce power consumption on TVs.

And TV is celebrated here, with the large high-quality panels arranged as if in an art gallery

In fact, the company had plans to market its TVs as an art form, with famous works available

but was stymied by licensing probems.

Instead, it suggests, how about the flat-panel window, just the thing to give the basement dweller an improved view of the world?

The gallery also demonstrates the way the company is marketing its displays as simulator solutions both for automative applications

 
and for military training (below)

 

before you go on to see the advanced technology section.

Here you can experience TVs with LED backlighting, perhaps giving a hint about the way the company is thinking, and the inevitable 3D TV demonstrations.

LG has both conventional 3D TV, for which you need special glasses, and a 3D monitor system, which needs no special glasses.

here'll be more on the latter when we've had a closer look at one of the company's R&D facilities, but the 'with glasses' version certainly seemed to impress our irrepressible and indefatigable tour guide, Cindy Myung.

She enjoyed it so much she had to be persuaded to give up the glasses, even if the man from Stuff, in the background, doesn't seem quite so sure!

And then they press a button and you're on the way out of the exhibiton, but not before you pass through this amazing hi-def aquarium, formed from TV display panels on three walls and the ceiling to give a truly surrounding effect.

 

Some users have reported problems with their Sony Bravia W4500 TVs as discussed on our Forums. We've been in touch with Sony HQ, and they've come back to us with a set of optimum settings for the backlight to get the best picture.

So if you've bought one of the new Sony models, we suggest you follow Sony's recommendations as outlined below:

 

To achieve a high level of performance and picture clarity, Sony utilises a very bright backlight setting. This helps deliver the brightest picture possible, as well as exceptional picture clarity even with the darkest image sources.

However, under certain dark viewing conditions, the setting may cause the screens on some of these televisions to exhibit a slight uneven uniformity, especially for a blank screen with no video source.

This condition is not normally visible under typical viewing situations, such as watching movies or television programmes, and should not affect viewing experience.

Should customers find that this condition affects their viewing enjoyment, we suggest adjusting the following settings to minimise this condition:

1) Setup Menu - select - Light Sensor: ON
2) Setup Menu - select - Power Saving: Low or High
3) Picture Menu -- Reduce the Backlight Level eg 'Standard' or 'Cinema
mode' (Factory Setting = 'MAX')


 

 

Interesting to read that Panasonic is now saying that the 'half-life' of its latest plasma TVs, such as the TH-46PZ81B (left), is in the region of 100,000 hours.

That's the amount of use it takes for the screen to drop to 50% of its original brightness – when it'll still be perfectly usable, just not as bright – and it equates to about 11.4 years of continuous use, with the set on 24 hours a day.

In the USA, where the statement was made, commentators worked out that means with an average of 6.5 hours' viewing a day, the set will be good for 42 years. And given my average viewing of around 4 hours a day – not so much in the week, but we tend to watch more at the weekends –, that would give us an expected half-life of getting on for 70 years.

So forget worrying about whether your TV will still be going strong come London 2012: on the current record of London as the host city, we should have had at least one more Olympics in the capital before the set needs to be put out to grass.

By which time I strongly suspect we all might have moved on to a new TV standard, let alone new sets. Not, of course, that I'm expecting to be around to celebrate the 70th birthday of any new TV I buy now.

But it got me thinking about the common myths flying around in consumer electronics, mostly coming from the mouths of babes, sucklings and the desperate on the sales floors of the nation.

Here's a very Top 10.

1. Plasma screens don't last as long as LCDs
Not so - see above.

2. Plasma screens need re-gassing after a few years' use
No, and I'm never quite sure where this one came from. Could it be because some old TVs needed degaussing if they were exposed to strong magnets – for example in badly-shielded speakers – ?

3. LCD screens don't last long
No. Reported to me by an amazed customer who'd been told "Well, your pocket calculators use LCDs, don't they? And how many of those have you thrown away?"

4. LCD screens are useless once the backlight goes
No, it should be perfectly possible to open up the set and replace the backlight, then it'll be as good as new. Whether it's economically viable, given the falling price of TVs, is another matter.

5. Plasma screens are no good for gaming, due to the risk of screen burn
Nope. Modern screens have strategies to avoid screen-burn – the permanent imprinting of static areas of light tones onto the screen. You see it in old panels used at airports or railways stations used to display timetables: when the signal goes down, you can still see the 'grid' on the screen. I have a plasma at least four years old, and it's never had a sniff of screen-burn.

6. There's no point buying a big flatscreen if you're only going to be watching standard TV
Again no. I'm typing this sitting in the office with a 32in Panasonic about 8-10ft away screening the Olympics - women's beach volleyball, since you ask – and it looks absolutely superb. And that's on a distributed aerial feed, with dozens of sets around the building hooked into it.

7. There's no point buying an HD ready set – Full HD is the way to go
Simple answer to this one - 8th-generation Pioneer Kuros, still among the best-looking TVs you can buy.

8. Flatscreens look worse than good old CRT TVs
Not really – see the answer to 5 above, and bear in mind it's unlikely you ever had a CRT much above 32-36in. Factor in the truly atrocious picture quality available on some Freeview channels, thanks to massive amounts of compression, and you have a recipe for disaster.

9. Product X is just as good as Product Y, and much cheaper – after all, the panels come from the same factory
No. That may be the case, but the two sets are likely to have very different picture processing, and maybe even totally different backlight technology. It's a bit like saying all CD players using the same transport or digital to analogue converter sound the same.

10. There's no point having a large TV – most films on DVD or Blu-ray have black bars top and bottom, so you're only using part of the screen
Plenty of point - you try watching a film in its original format on a 26in screen! The black bars are there as the film is being presented in the format the director intended. And if they really offend you, you can always use the zoom function on player or screen to give a full-screen image, provided you don't mind losing about 12.5% of the picture area from each side.

A few weeks ago – presumably to ensure not all the high-definition TV attention was on the Freesat HD launch – Sky announced a forthcoming update to its Sky HD electronic programme guide (EPG).

We reported the story here, highlighting the main new features, but I’ve since had the chance for a hands-on play with the updated EPG, and there are some hidden delights that’ll make life a lot easier for Sky HD users.

New HD highlighter
For example, as those of us know who regularly trawl through the EPG on the hunt for high-def gems, there’s still a lot of standard-def (SD) content lurking on HD channels. Well, a new feature allows you to highlight all native-HD shows and movies in orange (shown above). That means no more getting over-excited about, say, a classic film on Channel 4 HD that turns out to be a sludgy SD transfer.

This HD highlighting needs to be activated via the customisation area of the EPG’s options menu – which is where you can also choose to view the channel listings with or without the new mini TV option, which allows you to keep an eye out on the action as you browse.

Hello mini TV; goodbye music
I can see the pros and cons of this small screen (shown above right). On the plus side, I can see it coming in handy to browse the guide/your recordings during ad breaks, while still keeping an eye out for the show restarting. However, it does cut down on your at-a-glance listings – reducing the number of channels per page to a mere six. Turn it off and you actually get one more channel per page than with the existing HD EPG.

What’s missing from the customisation menu is an on/off option for the music that’s traditionally accompanied the TV guide. That’s because Sky’s canned the tunes completely – a sad day for the musicians who used to send in their compositions in the hope of EPG airplay (yes, really).

Meet the blue ‘back’ button
But let’s get back to some more useful updates. If you’re a fan of shuttling between shows – maybe two concurrent Champions League games, or head-to-head X-Factor/Strictly Come Dancing – the Sky HD remote’s blue button is about to become your friend. Press it and you’ll go straight back to the last channel you were watching, with no need to go via the TV guide itself.

 
Browse while you watch
If the mini TV allows you to keep an eye on the action while browsing the full guide, the new now/next/later menu bar (shown above) reverses that scenario – allowing you to peruse a cut-down version of the guide at the bottom of your main picture.

It shows you what’s coming up on that channel for the next 12 hours, with the ability to scroll down to other channels, plus to hit the ‘i’ button to get show information (as you would on the full planner). It also simplifies recording, as we'll come onto later.

Full search – at last!
As you’ll know if you’ve had the frustrating displeasure of using the current A-Z search, it’s far from easy to find a show on Sky. The recent searchable guide on Sky.com has been a revelation – it’s saved my viewing bacon several times by finding second screenings of shows it’s missed – and I’m delighted to see an on-screen version of this is due in the new EPG.

As shown above, you can use your remote control to input up to 10 characters; hit search and seven days of programming will be searched, with the results able to be stacked and sorted (see below) so you can easily see what you’re after.

 

The new search function also allows you to browse the week’s programming  by genre and sub-genre – for example movies/comedy or sports/football.

Recording tweaks
Another aspect of the current Sky HD EPG that really irritates me is the long-winded process of recording a whole series – or ‘series linking’ in Sky parlance. Once you’ve found what you want to record, you hit the R button and you’re taken to your planner, from where you hit ‘series link’. There’s then a hold-your-breath pause while you wait to see if Sky will play ball.

The new EPG aims to make that a lot simpler. When you hit the record button (and, as illustrated earlier, this can be from the mini now/next/later guide as well as via the main line-up), if it’s part of a a series, you’ll instantly be given an option of ‘record once’ or ‘record series’.

Another neat update is the addition in the TV listings of an ‘R’ symbol (see bottom left, below) on programmes you’re already planning to record – no more duplicate recordings in the planner.

Stack up those shows
Next, back to one of the features Sky chose to highlight in its initial release on the new EPG: series stacking. I didn’t understand the full appeal of this until I had a play with the system, and then it came to me: no more hunting around on my planner to find various episodes of a series I’ve recorded, possibly missing one and then watching a show out of order (hell, Lost and Heroes are random-enough as it is…)

Series stack (shown below) removes the strict chronological ordering of the planner and allows you to view all recordings of the same show in a single block-listing, which you can expand or collapse as needed. A boon for over-tired watchers everywhere…

Lock and load
Finally, if there are shows on your planner you don’t want younger members of the family having a gander at, Sky has made it easier to PIN-protect any recording – not just the time-, channel- or certificate-specific content it already requires PIN access to.

The EPG update is due by Autumn: Sky says it’ll be rolled out over a two-week period, with every Sky HD customer receiving a written guide to the new system via post, with interactive tutorials also available at Sky.com and on Sky Anytime.

By then - as reported here - we could also have some price-cuts to write about to....
 

Philips has confirmed the Ambilight 7600 Series of LCD TVs will be released in June, with sets in 32, 37, 42 and 47in sizes.

The smallest set, the 32PFL7603D will retail at £799, the 37in will be £999, the 42in £1199 and the 47PFL7603D around £1499.

We reported from the Philips launch in Lisbon and we can now add some meat to those bare bones. The three largest TVs are Full HD 1080p resolutions, while the 32in is 1366 x 768.

Each of the four models will feature the Philips Pixel Plus 3HD Engine, as well as the seemingly 'love-it-or-hate-it' Philips HD Natural Motion technology.

Other technology on board includes the latest version of the Dynamic Contrast Enhancement system, which helps Philips claim a 30,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio – some four times higher than the previous generation.

As well as the picture, the sound has been given special treatment in the 42in and 47in versions thanks to the inclusion of the Philips wOOx subwoofer technology, which should naturally deliver a little more 'oomph'.

All four sets also have Ambilight technology on two sides, which thanks to a series of integrated LEDs project colours on to your wall behind the screen to match the images on TV.

Last but not least, all four sets have four HDMI 1.3a inputs – three on the rear and one on the side. As ever, look out for a review very soon...

Technorati Tags: Ambilight, Full HD, HD, HDTV, Philips, 7600 Series, television, TV

Patience folks, patience! Our Forums are abuzz with questions about Panasonic's first Freesat high-definition TV, and never ones to let you down, we've just finished testing the TH-46PZ81 plasma model.

It's fully-equipped with a built-in Freesat tuner, so all you have to do is plug it into a satellite dish and you'll have a selection of subscription-free HDTV channels to choose from. Sound too good to be true?

Well read on to find out if the promise of free high-def TV is all it's cracked up to be...

Panasonic TH-46PZ81
5 stars
£1700

For
First TV to include Freesat HD tuner – excellent HD and SD pictures; Full HD, 1080p/24fps; sharp, detailed, colourful video images

Against
Very little considering what it costs

Verdict
If you fancy some free-to-air HD content this summer, with the added bonus of a top notch 46in TV in to the bargain, then look no further

Hot-on-the-heels of our First Test of Humax's Foxsat-HD Freesat box in the July issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, here's our first look at a TV with an integrated Freesat HD tuner.

It's from Panasonic, and you can call it the TH-46PZ81. You'll find 42in and 50in models in this range, as well as this 46in set.

We'll deal with Freesat HD in more depth in the panel at the foot of this page, but briefly, it's a non-subscription service, which requires a one-off payment for installation of the dish and connection. It then delivers a host of standard definition channels – similar, though not identical to rival service Freeview – as well as the all-important free-to-air HD content.

From the outside the TV certainly looks familiar enough but take a look at the connections on the back and you can't miss the Freesat HD tuner connection, which requires the rather fiddly F-Type screw-in connector aerial cable (as used on Sky).

Elsewhere there's a standard aerial connection for the integrated digital and analogue tuners, as well as three HDMI inputs, a component connection, two Scarts and other standard video connections.

There's also a digital optical audio output, too. Completing the specs, this set is a 1920 x 1080, Full HD resolution panel, perfectly capable of accepting 1080p/24fps video.

So on top of the usual scan for analogue and digital tuners, we run the Freesat HD set-up. This tells us our signal strength and signal quality – both of which register around 75 per cent – and shows your channels stacking up. Anticipation mounting, we soon head straight in to the world of Freesat HD...

And, well, it's pretty darn impressive. The TV Guide has a brand-new look to it but works in the standard way, so we navigate straight to the BBC HD channel. Watching endless trailers for Hotel Babylon, Wild China and Heroes may not be everyone's idea of fun but there's no denying the picture looks brilliant. Insight is excellent, edges are drawn sharply, and there's a vivid, lush colour palette. And hey, you get proper content in the evenings.

SD channels via the Freesat HD tuner look great, too, with these – and the HD channels – comparing favourably with the performance of the dedicated Freesat HD set-top boxes.

The Freeview tuner on board this set is decent, too, should you want a fix of channels, such as Sky Sports News, that Freesat doesn't provide. There's also much to admire with the sound quality, with solid, full-bodied dialogue and decent punch and weight.

Lest we forget, you'll of course want to know how this set looks with video. Upscaling the DVD of There Will Be Blood, the Panasonic shows itself capable of decent black levels, impressive contrast, good detail and smooth motion. All the things, you'd look for then, yes?

Switch to something a little more colourful, and packing a fair few more pixels, the Blu-ray disc of Ghost Rider shows bright, dynamic colours, with a clean, stable finish. Again, black depth is decent, putting up a good fight against some class-leading plasmas.

So this is another impressive television from Panasonic. All the more so when you consider the price tag, just £1700 – and that includes that hot-off-the-press Freesat HD tuner. If you were waiting for a viable alternative to a subscription-based service in order to get your HD fix, then – providing the content keeps coming – this could well be it.

More about Freesat
Freesat itself isn't a new service – the standard-definition box has been around for a while, and for £50 will deliver digital TV to many areas that can't get Freeview. A not-for-profit organisation devised by BBC and ITV, it threatens to break in to the mainstream now due to the addition of HD content, thanks to the Freesat HD tuners.

To get the service you need a satellite dish and tuner – an existing Sky dish will do the job. There are four set-top boxes on the market at the time of writing, as well as these Panasonic TVs.

And what do you get for your money? BBC HD and ITV HD content, potential for plenty more HD channels and also a host of standard-definition TV channels.

ALSO CONSIDER
Samsung LE46F86
£1900
5 stars Jan 08

Great value screen, and one of the best LCDs that we've seen at this size – though there's of course no Freesat HD tuner.

Philips 47PFL9632D
£1900
5 stars Jan 08

If Ambilight is your bag you could do worse than check out this Philips 47in set, which oozes class thanks to the fine style and finish.

TECH SPECS

Type plasma

Aspect Ratio 16:9

HD Ready yes

Full HD yes

Screen size (in) 46

Resolution 1920 x 1080

Accepts 1080p yes

24fps yes

HDMI 1.3a Yes

Integrated analogue tuner yes

Integrated digital tuner yes

HDMI in 3

DVI in 0

PC in 1

Component in 1

RGB Scart in 2

Scart in 2

S-Video in 1

Composite in 1

USB in 0

Memory card in 0

Phono audio in 2

Phono audio out 1

Digital audio out 1

Dimensions (hwd, cm) 80 x 116 x 39

Weight (kg) 40

Technorati Tags: 1080p, 24fps, 720p, BBC HD, Freesat HD, Full HD, HD, HD TV, HD-ready, HDMI, HDTV, high-def, High-def TV, ITV HD, Panasonic TH-46PZ81, plasma

Fresh from unveiling a forthcoming new look for the Sky HD programme guide (EPG) - reported here last week - Sky today revealed to us that additional HD channels will shortly be announced, and that ITV HD is firmly on its agenda.

"The EPG relaunch is just the first phase of a really good push on HD," a Sky spokesperson confirmed. "There's a lot of changes coming".

And, as we'll come to shortly, that 'push' could possibly include price-cuts, and will certainly involve a technical update to streamline HD content.

But first the ITV HD situation. As we reported here, the new channel launches exclusively on Freesat this Saturday. However, Sky has confirmed it's in discussions about ITV HD being available via Sky HD service, and that it's "very hopeful" of a positive outcome to those talks.

Part of those negotiations surround how Sky HD would host ITV HD as a standalone channel - not the 'via the red button' option that will first be available to Freesat HD users. Regional variations in ITV's programming and advertising are an issue here, it seems.

Despite Sky's optimism, ITV HD is unlikely to be one of the new HD channels it unveils in around four weeks time. We'll bring you news of those announcements as soon as they're made.

We'll also update you on any Sky HD pricing changes. When we suggested possible price cuts - to the box or the £10/month HD fee - Sky didn't rule either out as part of its 2008 plans.

Definitely in the plans, meanwhile, is a move to a different, more efficient CODEC for Sky's HD content, meaning users will be able to fit more high-definition programmes onto their box, without - Sky claims - a loss of quality. Again, we'll bring you a date for this technical tweak as soon as possible.

As well as watching this space for news updates, look out for more pictures of the new Sky HD EPG - and our initial feedback on its usability, based on some hands-on experience - next week.

Technorati Tags: Freesat, HD TV, Sky HD

ITV has just announced that its HD service will go live on Saturday, just in time for the Euro 2008 football.

The service, which the company says "will initially be available to viewers watching on Freesat", will be accessible as a simulcast via the red button, with on-screen prompts directing viewers with Freesat HD boxes that high definition programming is available.

In addition to live coverage of the European Championships, ITV’s HD coverage over the summer will also include a range of movies, with ITV saying its "coverage through 2008 will encompass an unrivalled range of free-to-air premium football including the new season of UEFA Champions League, The FA Cup, and England internationals – followed later by selected ITV dramas and acquired programming."

Coverage of Euro 2008 begins on Saturday with live coverage of Portugal v Turkey from 7.15pm on ITV1.

Technorati Tags: HD, HDTV, ITV HD

On sale this Thursday is the latest What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision Ultimate Guide - and this time we're talking televisions.

It's packed with everything you need to know to choose, buy and make the most of your new TV, HDTV service and an entire home cinema system.

That includes in-depth tests of over 50 of the world's best flatscreen sets, both plasma and LCD, and in every size from 19in bedroom models to that massive 103in Panasonic. We've as many of the new sets as we could get out hands on, and all the major names in TV are covered, including Hitachi, LG, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.

You'll also find all you need to know about projectors, disc players and set-top boxes for digital TV.

Plus we've sound systems to match great pictures with amazing surround effects, and even our pick of the greatest games consoles.

We'll tell you why it's worth buying a new TV right now, talk to top names in the TV industry about what they've got planned for your future viewing pleasure and even bring you some readers' views on just why they've embraced the HD TV revolution.

It's also packed with practical advice on how to set-up your TV to get the most from it, and stacks of essential add-ons to bring you maximum enjoyment from your investment.

We'll even tell you how to take your TV out and about wherever you are, with a round-up of the hottest personal media players.

The What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision Ultimate Guide to Television is on sale from June 5th, at £4.99 – you can find it in Asda, Borders, Sainsburys and WHSmith.

Technorati Tags: 1080i, 1080p, BBC, BBC HD, Blu-ray, Cable TV, Digital TV, DVB-T, Flatscreen TVs, Freesat, Freeview, Full HD, HD, HDTV, high-def, ITV HD, LCD, LCD TV, plasma TV, PlayStation3, Sky HD, Ultimate Guide

We covered the Philips 9600 Ambilight Series earlier in the year, directly from the launch in Lisbon, but now we have more details and those all important prices.

Scheduled for release in June, the range starts with the Philips 32PFL9603D, which will retail at £999, and goes up in size and price to a 47PFL9603D, at £1999. There will be 37 and 42in models, too.

These Philips screens are the first TVs to use the latest version of the company's Perfect Pixel HD engine. Doubling the processing power, Philips claims a 500 million pixels per second processing speed.

The screens have 100 Hz Clear LCD technology on board and boast a claimed 2ms response time, which aims to remove any sign of motion blur.

And these aren't the only coffee-spluttering figures – Philips also claims a colour palette consisting of a mind-boggling 2.250 trillion colours and a dynamic contrast of 30,000:1.

There are four HDMI 1.3a inputs on all the sets, allowing for 1080p/24fps video images, and of course digital Freeview tuners.

Philips' famous ambilight technology is here, with these sets using the latest version – Ambilight Spectra – on two sides of the screen. The sets have also had a fresh design overhaul, as you'll see in the images.

So, due out in June, let's run down those prices again. The 32PFL9603D will set you back around £999, the 37in 37PFL9603D should cost around £1499, Philips' 42PFL9603D will be £1799 and the 47PFL9603D will be £1999.

We'll look to have a review of one of the above models just as soon as we can...

Technorati Tags: 32PFL9603D, 9600 Series, Ambilight, Ambilight Spectra, Perfect Pixel HD, Philips, television, TV

Your favourite read on TV? Not quite – but pages from the magazine now form part of an art installation outside the London headquarters of Channel 4, adorning the massive 'Big 4' sculpture thanks to Ghanaian Artist El Anatsui.

Anatsui – who draped a Gothic palace in a ‘cloth’ made of whisky bottle caps for the 2007 Venice Biennale – is the third artist to adapt the Big 4 since it was installed outside Channel 4’s London head office in 2007.

To help Anatsui create his Big 4, magazine printer St Ives Web, newspaper printer Trinity Mirror Plc and The Independent donated printing plates for top UK titles – among them What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, Time Out magazine and the Financial Times.

On re-using news for art, Anatsui has said: “When about to discard old newspapers, I have noticed that most people begin to read the articles they come across.

"It is as if the speed in which they are flung at us is so great, and the need to process the information so urgent, that we wished for a little more time to digest.”

The 50ft-tall metal Big 4 echoes the on-screen logo in being made of disparate elements, only forming the '4' when viewed from certain angles. It was erected as part of the company's 25th anniversary celebrations.

You can see more pictures of it in its El Anatsui version – and try to spot the WHFSV pages! – here.

Technorati Tags: Big 4, Channel 4, El Anatsui, What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision

Pioneer has announced details of its latest, ninth-generation range of Kuro TVs – including the last Pioneer-badged plasma sets to sport glass panels made by the company itself.

It has also revealed its first-ever LCD screens - developed, as we reported here earlier, in conjunction with Sharp - and confirmed its sub-50in sets will sit in this line-up, rather than its plasma family.

As of next year, Pioneer will adopt Panasonic-derived plasma panels, a move designed to help keep costs in check and ensure it can continue to produce competitively priced TVs.

In another big change, this year's G9 series 'Kuro' plasmas are available only in 50in and 60in screen sizes: the smaller 42in plasma previously offered by the company has been dropped, its place in the range taken by three new LCD sets, each of which uses LCD panel technology from Sharp.

Every set in the range, from 32in LCD to 60in plasma, is offered with 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution, with the new KRL-32, 37 and 46in LCD sets also providing 100Hz picture processing.

Pioneer claims the Sharp-based LCDs - due from September - have been specially tweaked by the company's engineers to optimise black levels and overall image quality: just as well, given that the 32in set is expected to cost £1300, and the 37in model £1450.

The plasmas, meanwhile, boast still-better black levels and contrast, and are offered as both integrated 'one-body' sets (the PDP-LX5090 and PDP-LX6090 - in shops by June) and as two-element 'component' TVs, with a separate media receiver box just like Pioneer sets of old.

These latter models (dubbed KRP-500A and KRP-600A, and due later in the summer), also boast tweaked cosmetics and new, radically enhanced on-screen graphics.

In addition to Freeview tuners, they also include HD-capable satellite receivers, but sadly aren't Freesat compatible.

All four plasma panels are slimmer, at around 94mm, than last year's equivalent G8-series sets - as you can see from the picture below.

Prices are expected to be around £2400 for the 'LX5090 and £4200 for the 'LX6090, with the two-box component sets costing around £300 more in each screen size.

Look out for news of Pioneer's new Blu-ray player, receivers and systems in our home cinema section soon!

Technorati Tags: Freesat, Freeview, HD TV, Kuro, LCD, Pioneer, Plasma

A 42in screen for £770 would have been unheard of a couple of years ago, but today's flatscreen TVs offer better value than ever.

Toshiba's latest LCD, the 42XV505D, is a case in point: for well under a grand you get a Full HD screen with Freeview tuner, 24fps support and multiple HDMI sockets. But has performance been compromised to keep that price competitive?

We've just tested it for the Ultimate Guide to Television, on sale June 5, but you can read our review exclusively online today.

Toshiba 42XV505D
5 stars
£770

For
Punchy, vibrant picture, with good sharpness and stability; value; good spec

Against

Black levels aren't quite as deep as those of some rival plasma sets; Freeview tuner can be a touch unsubtle

Verdict

Not necessarily perfect, but this elegant, well-specified Full HD set is a cracking value-for-money proposition

In recent years Toshiba has done very well with smaller screen LCD TVs, but struggled to compete at with rivals at bigger screens sizes. However, the acclaimed 40ZF355D (and its predecessor, the 40XF355D) changed the status quo rather nicely, and now it's the turn of the 42XV505D to keep up the good work.

It's quite clearly a good-value offering, this set. It's well-equipped, stylish and, with its Full HD resolution, 24fps support and multiple HDMIs, well-placed to deal with everything the Blu-ray future can throw at it.

Sound quality is similar to that of other Toshiba models we've tested, such as the 32C3030DB and 37C3030DB: that's to say, it avoids harshness or brightness, but lacks a little detail compared to the best in class.

Given some fine-tuning, the picture's very impressive: the image has lots of punch, terrific stability and an appealing verve.

There's no problem with motion, either from TV or from Blu-ray, and while the colour balance is ever-so-slightly warm, with a touch of exaggeration to red hues, the picture never strays into unnatural excess.

Freeview signals pose a sterner test: the Toshiba's 1920 x 1080 resolution means it has a lot of scaling work to do, and while it manages to keep noise well in check, the picture is still less subtle and stable than with DVD or HD content.

Black level insight is the traditional LCD weak spot relative to large-screen plasma alternatives, and here the Toshiba is undoubtedly outpointed by Panasonic's same-size, same-resolution TH-42PZ80.

But in other regards, notably edge definition, the Toshiba has the edge, and it's also cheaper. That, coupled to everything else that it offers for your money, means this is one set you should definitely see for yourself.

TECH SPECS

Type LCD

Aspect Ratio 16:9

HD Ready Yes

Full HD Yes

Screen size (in) 42

Resolution 1920 x 1080

Accepts 1080p Yes

24fps Yes

HDMI 1.3a Yes

Integrated analogue tuner Yes

Integrated digital tuner Yes

HDMI in 3

DVI in 0

PC in 1

Component in 1

RGB Scart in 2

Scart in 0

S-Video in 1

Composite in 1

USB in 0

Memory card in 0

Phono audio in 2

Phono audio out 1

Digital audio out 1

Dimensions (hwd, cm) 67 x 101 x 31

Weight (kg) 23

Technorati Tags: 1080i, 1080p, 24fps, 720p, Digital TV, Freeview, Full HD, HD-ready, HDMI, HDTV, high-def, LCD, LCD TV, Toshiba 42XV505D, TV