High-Def Advisor

So it's that time of year again, and you've decided to treat yourself -- or surreptitiously 'treat' your spouse -- to a high-definition camcorder.

These days, most people are pretty serious about digital video, whether they realise it or not. With new technology entering the marketplace -- and camcorder prices constantly sliding -- the archaic embarrassment of the ‘VHS-cam’ has become a thing of the past.

Bang & Olufsen -- one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-end AV equipment -- has opened a flagship ‘glass cube’ showroom in the heart of Adelaide’s CBD. The two-story showroom features the full Bang & Olufsen (B&O) product range, as well as a BeoLiving Room built to demonstrate the experience of home cinema integration in your lounge room. For a peek at the new Apple-esque showroom, take a look at the following slideshow.

An HDTV is just a TV with a pretty picture until you add a few important accoutrements. The dozen add-ons shown here will greatly enhance your HDTV watching experience.

Plasma is dead. Front and rear projection? Fuggeddaboutit. LCD has a few good years left, and then it's sayonara, baby. TV technology's future lies in tiny phosphorescent molecules.

Two of the standout features of the upcoming TiVo HD are its Wishlist show searching system and its ability to recommend shows based on the user's viewing preferences. Both of these features have a huge amount of potential, if used correctly, to add to the television-watching experience.

Keeping up with the camcorder industry can be a pretty harrowing experience. It seems like a new video codec leaps out of the woodwork to confuse and frighten us on a bi-weekly basis. SD or HD? DV or DVD? HDV or AVCHD? If you're a first-time buyer, the choices can often be overwhelming. In an attempt to simplify matters, the following article will explain the major camcorder formats on the market, with links to our top-rated products in each category.

Seven's TiVo HD unit is the latest PVR to hit the Australian scene. It has all the credentials of a normal PVR, with the added bonus of an incredible amount of functionality from the TiVo service -- a built-in comprehensive program guide, show searching, and a complex show recommendation engine. We uncover some of the features of the device as well as stocking and pricing info.

For the last decade, TiVo has been the de-facto standard for personal video recorders in the US. At its core, it records digital TV broadcasts and saves them for later viewing, just like any regular PVR. What made TiVo stand out from the crowd of other PVRs was its ability to suggest -- and automatically record -- shows that were similar to the ones that the user had already flagged. This functionality is set to be unleashed on the Australian market when the TiVo service and accompanying set-top box are released in early July.

It was only a few months ago that Blu-ray emerged as the victor in the hotly contested war against the forces of HD-DVD. While HD-DVD is vanquished, Blu-ray can't rest on its laurels for too long -- the high-definition war is far from over. Both Internet streaming and digital downloads will compete with Blu-ray as time goes on -- with each offering different advantages and disadvantages in image quality, content and features.

With summer finally upon us, the sunshine's (sort of) beating down. The weather's getting (a bit) hotter, and so are the gadgets. Here's our top nine products announces in Japan this month.