It hasn’t been too long since 3DTVs were released, but Panasonic are developing 3D technology at a rate of knots. They’ve unveiled two new Full HD Plasma TVs over in Japan which are not only 3D, but have a built in 3D Blu-ray drive on the side as well as an internal Hard Drive for recording directly from the Hi-Def tuner.

Panasonic have somehow managed to cram a 500GB Hard Disc Drive into the new models, the 42 inch TH-P42RT2B and the 46 inch TH-P46RT2B. The inbuilt 3D Blu-ray drive will not only feed full HD Blu-ray picture and audio to your TV, but it also has the ability to archive your recorded media from the HDD onto recordable Blu-ray discs.

If that isn’t enough mind-blowing technology crammed into one TV, Panasonic have also included Internet Services such as Skype and Youtube. The plasma screens have a claimed contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1 and are Panasonic’s awesome full black PDP panels, meaning you’re going to be getting one of the best pictures around.

Now, you’re thinking this is pretty incredible right? Well unfortunately incredible comes at a price, 440,000 Yen for the 46 Inch model and 390,000 Yen for the 42 Inch option to be precise. That’s around £3310 and £2930 respectively if these sets were priced up for sale here in the UK.

The unfortunate news is that these sets are only set for sale in Japan for now, and there hasn’t been any indication they’ll be making their way to European shores. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Panasonic decide to give us the chance to get our hands on these beauties.

Now Available on Virgin Media

Yesterday we reported on the news that terrestrial TV company, Channel 5 (or Just Five as they now are called), had pulled out from taking part in the upcoming Project Canvas which is aimed at delivering a one stop place for all online and on demand TV services, Five reportedly pulled out due to the cost of the partnership.

Today Five have announced that evene though money is a bit tight, they will; be launching a Five HD channel available on Virgin Media and Sky.

Five have been looking to get a HD version of its service for some time but after failing to get a proposal for a HD partner together for Freeview HD, Ofcom passed the deal over to the BBC and Five were not included in the launch of the Freeview HD service 2 months ago.

Not long after, Five dropped out of Freeview HD the RTL owned company announced that it will in fact be providing a HD channel but was originally exclusive to Sky customers, but as of today both Sky and Virgin media users will be able to enjoy CSI, Live from Studio Five and lots more in HD.

Currently Sky subscribers will need to pay an additional £10 a month (plus have a Sky HD box) to get HD channels whilst Virgin Media customers with a V+ HD box will get the channels for free. – Sky are currently offering 42 HD channels (including Movies and Sports) whilst Virgin are only offering 13 HD channels (but with Sky Sports HD and Movies HD incoming). It’s still a give or take on which service is better.

Five HD is available now to Sky and Virgin Media HD customers.

The deal was made to allow BT customers access to the two premium sports channels from the 1^st of August onwards and will mean that Sky Sports 1 and 2 are available to all paid subscription TV services in the UK.

Sky Sports 1 and 2 coming to BT Vision soon

Currently no pricing has been announced, but The independent regulator and competition authority Ofcom, has already ruled that Sky would have to cut the price it charged rivals to show its premium sports channels under the fair trading act and went as far as to suggest that the Sky Sports 1 and 2 pack should be sold for £10.63 a month at wholesale, so roughly £15 for the 2 channels to a consumer.

Still, Sky are appealing against this price band and the pricing is still up in the air.

Either way BT Vision customers should be pleased as they can now get all of the 2010/2011 football on their package, which is sure to tempt a few people away from Virgin and Sky packages.

Many users are trying to get onto the website and just not getting any coverage whilst the lucky few (by few we mean thousands) who have a great connection will still be experiencing disruption to the service.

The BBC news website had already made a statement that they were expecting the game to be “the biggest event that we’ve streamed live to date”.

With ITV’s recent criticism of its coverage and a major slip up regarding ITV HD customers having a blackout in picture when England scored its first goal against USA in the first game of the group, and when ITVs servers struggled to cope with demand during the opening game between Mexico and South Africa.

If you are experiencing issue with the service may we suggest looking for a foreign broadcast service of the same game… you may not have the commentary you want… but at least you can watch the game!

The Bravia can amazingly show Blu-ray discs in both formats, bringing the highest possible immersion and quality into your home. The Bravia range also features a special software hat converts 2D images to 3D at the touch of a button. Sadly however, the gimpy glasses are here to stay with the Bravia range, but it’s something we can deal with, since it is going to look so damn good.

Sony 3D TVs

The first Bravia TV coming out is the KDL-HX803, with the HX903 and LX903 models coming soon. Shops will also offer the BD-S470 and BD-S570 Blu-ray players, with the S470 requiring a firmware update (available from June 12) to enable 3D viewing.

Sony has really been plugging 3D content lately, with the PS3 getting it too on some of its games and Sony themselves filming 25 matches of his Summer’s World Cup in glorious HD/3D too.
What’s more, many new movies are also being 3D-ified after release, such as Spider-Man 4, The Green Hornet and Resident Evil: Afterlife, with 3D Blu-ray versions of Monster House and Open Season coming soon too.

Prices are to be announced, but KDL-HX803 will reportedly set us back around £1500, while the BD-S470 is about £190 (so the BD-S570 will be approximately £250). Sony’s electronically charged high-tech 3D glasses will be bundled with products with 3D enabled, but will also be available for £90 each, with apparently 100 hours battery life at full power. The will also come in different colours. Awesome.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show it was all about the 3D TV’s but out of all the Sony, Samsung and Toshiba TV’s displayed the Panasonic 152inch plasma (TH-152UX1) monster was the one that got everyone chatting, and now it could all be yours.

Don’t just expect the TV to be a scaled up version of a normal sized TV because the 152incher has a huge 4096 x 2140 picture resolution (or “4K” as Panasonic  are dubbing it) and a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1, a high speed driving technology for full moving picture resolution, and a crosstalk reduction technology for producing clear and crisp 3D images and with the ability to project life-size images of humans, basically the TH-152UX1 will give a kick ass picture to go with a ass kicking screen size.

Size does matter!

But if 152 inches is a little too much for you, the Panasonic are also releasing a 103-inch model (TH-103VX200), and a 85-inch model (TH-85VX200) which whilst not as huge as the 152 will still put you back a fair wedge and impress your friends.

The TV’s are currently on display at the InfoComm 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be available soon.

Yes, today Sharp have announced that it will be bringing 3D technology to its future LCD Aquos Quattron 3D TV’s by revealing a new line-up of TVs.

Japanese electronics giant Sharp had previously shunned 3D technology when other manufacturers were using 3D as its future plan, with Sharp choosing to focus on its fourth colour (yellow) technology.

LCD Aquos Quattron 3D

Buts Sharp will be hoping to go one better on the other 3D technology brands by incorporating its Quattron four colour technologies with the 3D displays to offer a more brightly defined picture.

Sharp is also promoting the 2D to 3D image conversion for the LV range as superior to its competitors offering so if you want to watch your version of Avatar in a less mind boggling format, then Sharp is boasting that it will convert the picture seamlessly.

Hardware wise, Sharp are also going to be competing,with the LV range being available at just 3.9mm thick on the LED TV,s  which will be available in  40, 46, 52 and 56-inch models.

The Aquos Quattron 3D range will use AN-3DG10 glasses and Sharp have also launched a pair of 3D ready Blu-Ray players to give you the full setup. The Aquos BD-HDW700 and BD-HDW730 3D Blu-ray players incorporate hard-disk recorders with a whopping 2TB of memory.

So Sharp have waited it out and have shown its full house right on the last deal, well played Sharp, well played. Sharp haven’t announced any European release dates for its TVs yet but if you need more of a Sharp fix or just a giggle then check outs Sharp’s, quite frankly Amazing Quattron TV adverts, in which the brilliant George Takei (of Star Trek and strange voice fame) shows us what we can’t see…

OH MY!

The New BBC iPlayer has been branded as “Simple, Personal, Connected” and the update will be focusing firmly on these three areas as well as some more under the bonnet tweaking to improve the service, so what does “Simple, Personal, Connected” mean?

Well, we will break it down by area, “Personal” refers to the new BBC iPlayer new login system, dubbed BBC ID which will allow users to setup a BBC ID account online or on the BBC iPlayer console and once setup the system will allow you to mark favourites, offer smart recommendations and send/receive those favourites via the new Facebook and Twitter integration.

The New BBC iPlayer has Facebook, Twitter and Live Chat features

The Facebook and Twitter integration is part of  the “Connected” aspect of the new iPlayers system and as stated above users will be able to share what they are watching, what they like to watch and  comment on shows and share all this with their friends. Undoubtedly the account logins will be incorporated into the BBC ID login so users don’t need to constantly login to individual services each time they want to say how awesome the latest Eastenders episode is.

The second part of the “Connected” aspect of the new BBC iPlayer is the inclusion of a new live chat system, which will allow users free chat via the iPlayer console.  Initially this will be only available for Microsoft Live Messenger service but users will be offered a sign up screen if they want to setup a new account for chatting and once logged in, users will be able to see a live chat window next to the video content and will be able to chat and share with friends. The BBC have stated that the windows live messenger is the first IM service to be integrated and if there is a demand for additional services then they will be incorporating other IM services such as Skype, Yahoo and  Facebook chat.

And the “Simple” well this comes in the form of the above features in an easy to use and updated OS, the BBC’s on-demand chief Anthony Rose was able to word it better by stating:

“We spent more time designing than building the new BBC iPlayer. We wanted to add social and friends, but in order to do that we had to resist the temptation to put Facebook, Twitter and recommend buttons on it. We came up with something that’s almost more  like an application. You start off with a webpage, and slowly customise it to yourself.

“When you first go to the site, you’ll see two panels: Featured and Most Popular. After you’ve played a few programmes, you’ll see recommendations. The site will remember all your modules. It’s simple to use.”

And finally there was also talk of another forthcoming iPlayer update that will allow users to get On Demand content from other TV providers such as Channel 4 and ITV.

The BBC have announced that they will be engaging in several “linking partnerships” with other broadcasters and will start to import data other from rival on-demand services such as ITV Player, 4OD and Demand Five to the iPlayer console.

There is currently no date being suggested for the other on demand services being incorporated but the new BBC iPlayer is live in Beta today, and will be released as the default version by the beginning of July.

Is this the future of your living room?

Yes, at Google’s I/O developers conference Google’s long rumoured TV outing was made official with the launch of Google TV, which will see dedicated TV sets come with both an Intel Atom processor and Google Chrome built-in, letting you browse the web and drag  down some IPTV or for the people who already have a shiny new TV you will be able to buy a separate set top box to access the Google TV portal too.

Now we could bore you with the spiel of how Google TV is going to work… or we can let Google do it for us in a slick and “hip” video explaining how it all works… so that’s what we are going to do!

Here it is:

The TVs and set top boxes themselves will run on an Android operating system and this will incorporate a Chrome web browser, essentially turning your TV/living room into one massive video on demand computer, from which you will be able to access web provided video content from various sources (YouTube is a given but there are no confirmed other sources) as well as the standard TV/Digital that you receive and with other on demand services also bundled in.

Basically a one stop place for all of your video needs.

Google have so far announced Sony and Logitech as partners to create the TV and Set top box technology and the new service and hardware will be launching in the states in the autumn.

To watch the latest blockbuster movie without leaving the cozy confines of your home, you will need to hook up with a Samsung Internet@TV.

The new streaming service includes an impressive 67,000 titles in Lovefilm’s repertoire.

The service provides access to any number of movies each month for anyone with a Lovefilm unlimited subscription.

If you’re on one of Lovefilm’s capped packages, you’ll unfortunately have to stick to your postal ways of accessing a Lovefilm movie.

You can scroll through titles using your remote control, and arrange movies by title, genre and actor. There are also other categories for you to browse including Most Watched, Highest Rated and Pick of the Week.

Samsung has said that in the not too distant future, users will also be able to access Lovefilm through Blu-ray Disc players and home cinema sets.

Would you stream movies though Samsung Internet@TV? Leave us a comment and let us know.