Have Brits fallen for Netflix, or do they still LoveFilm?
Feature Stream engine: Internet television in the UK
BBC iPlayer turned five at Christmas, and the Corporation reported some pretty impressive usage statistics as it did so. While iPlayer is something of a juggernaut in the IPTV world, it’s only relatively recently made the leap from PC to living room and connected devices such as smart TVs and set-top boxes.
Arguably 2012 was …
Why do Smart TV UIs suck?
Feature Inconsistent, inconvenient and in my *!#!!?* telly
Years ago, TVs were simple. My grandparents’ set, for example, had a single channel-change button which clunked through to the next VHF preset each time you pushed it. My own family's TV had two standards, enabling us to “Switch to U for BBC 2” in time for Play Away.
Inevitably, matters have became much more complicated than …
Administrator eyes DVR firesale after TVonics collapse
Freeview HD recorder firm founders
UK DVR maker TVonics has gone into administration. The maker of Freeview HD recorders, including the DTR-Z500HD and DTR-HD500, was placed in the hands of Bell Advisory on 12 June. And, though it’s been in administration before and survived, back in 2008, things don’t look good this time round.
A spokesman confirmed today that …
Soup up your home network
Gizmo Week Tips for tuning a modern LAN
Reg Hardware Gizmo Week logo small
There can’t be many Reg Hardware readers who don’t have a home network. In fact, these days you’d have to look hard indeed to find an ISP that sells its connection as strictly single PC only and just tosses in a USB modem rather than some sort of router.
A decade or so ago, just about any …
The Hardware Hacker's Guide to Home Automation
Gizmo Week Doctorin' the house
Reg Hardware Gizmo Week logo small
The home of the future is a staple of both speculative fiction and comedy. Back in the 1970s, Frank Spencer caused havoc in an automated home during an episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em.
For some of us, the enduring image of home automation is either Michael Crawford chaos, worthy but dull …
WTF... should I pay to download BBC shows?
Feature Project Barcelona peeves the freetards
The outgoing Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, recently announced plans for Project Barcelona, a download store for material from the BBC archives.
At the moment, you can watch most BBC programmes for seven days after broadcast, free of charge using iPlayer. In a few cases, a whole series may be available for a little …
Roku 2 XS IPTV player
Review Smarten up your TV viewing
In the US, Roku has ridden to prominence on the back of services like Netflix and Hulu, and the phenomenon of ‘cord cutting’, where people discontinue pay TV services in favour of, well, paid IPTV services. That’s perhaps not surprising when their entry level box costs less than £40 including tax for US customers.
Roku 2 XS …
Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi RF thermostat
Review Hot property
With fuel bills ever rising, keeping an eye on your heating makes good sense, and Heatmiser’s Wi-Fi thermostat is intended to help you do just that. It’s based around a large, 3 x 2.5in touchscreen, which controls a timer/thermostat with its wireless features enabling configuration from an iOS device.
Heatmiser PRS-TS WiFi RF …
21st Century Sex: the shape of things to come
NSFW Are bits and bytes changing what we do with our bits and bobs?
Reg Hardware Sex Week
In the 1980s, when the first HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns were launched, alongside the crashing tombstones, leaflets gave frank advice about the risks involved in digital intercourse. In those days, of course, that just meant pleasuring someone with your fingers. Concerns about computers and sex …
Netflix vs Lovefilm
IPTV Week Streaming giants go head to head
IPTV Week logo
This month, at long last, US video streaming giant Netflix finally arrived on UK shores, with a £5.99 all-you-can-eat offering. It was swiftly matched by the local incumbent, Lovefilm. The Amazon-owned company pitched a streaming-only option at an introductory £4.99.
But which is the best option for Reg …
IPTV UK: what's on tonight?
IPTV Week Worth watching yet?
IPTV Week logo
2012 looks like it stands a good chance of being the year that IPTV really starts to go mainstream, with more services and a good range of content appearing built in to TVs and other devices, not to mention the web.
And, of course, the launch of YouView will help raise the profile of IPTV still further in the …
Strictly Come Dancing in 3D: the facts
How to avoid missing celebrity hoofers in three dimensions
Apparently some Brits are keen on the BBC's playground for sparkly attired hoofers, Strictly Come Dancing, which comes to its latest grand final this Saturday.
Tech watchers have an interest too: it's one of the first BBC shows to be transmitted in 3D via Freeview HD.
Don't want to miss the 'action'? Gone Digital's Nigel …
Smart TV shootout
Review The major players go head-to-head
It’s about 18 months since I last rounded up internet-connected TVs - or "Smart TVs" as they’re now being named by all the manufacturers these days. Since then, all the brands have upped their game considerably, and just about all of their offerings are much more powerful than the 2009 models I looked at last time.
As before, I' …
Inside the BBC's R&D Labs
From the Lab to the living room
Whatever your views on its programming, it is hard to deny that the BBC’s research labs have produced some pretty clever things over the years. Teletext, RDS and Nicam stereo are just some of the more well known ones, but the R&D Lab is also responsible for much of the work on the DVB-T2 standard that makes Freeview HD possible …
WTF is... Bluetooth 4.0?
It's in the iPhone 4S, but does it matter?
Apple's iPhone 4S, which went on sale last week, is the first phone to support version four of the Bluetooth standard. That makes it something of a flag-waver for the technology. But with most users happy to make do with Bluetooth 2 - Bluetooth 3 is out but seemingly little used - does this matter? And what the heck does …
WTF is... HbbTV?
Net connectivity for your telly done properly
Connected TV is all the rage. Every major brand has its own IPTV platform, such as Panasonic's VieraConnect or Samsung's Smart TV, offering a mix of catch-up services and additional content like movie trailers and YouTube access.
As it stands, content providers need to work with TV and set-top box makers to integrate their …
iRobot Roomba 780 automated vacuum cleaner
Review Rug munching machine
The Roomba is the most widely known of the robot cleaners, and with competition mounting, the company, iRobot, has not been sitting on its laurels. The Roomba 780 is the latest model, and boasts a larger collecting bin, built in scheduling and HEPA filters.
iRobot Roomba 780 iRobot's Roomba 780 boasts improved battery …
Neato Robotics XV-15 vacuum cleaner
Review Another sucker joins the robot wars
Robot vacuum cleaners are becoming increasingly popular, with a few companies joining Roomba in the market over the last couple of years. Neato is the latest to offer a product in the UK, with the XV-15 which boasts laser mapping, and a powerful vacuum – some of the other models are careful to describe themselves as cleaners …
WTF are... connected appliances?
I want my automated kitchen, and I want it now
The ‘internet fridge’ is a much-loved staple of futurologists. In some rosy and not-too-far-off future, many kitchens will have one, magically replenishing itself so that you never need run out of black pudding or milk.
When you’re low on such essentials, the fridge will automatically order new ones from the supermarket, and …
Get your network ready for World IPv6 Day
Hands On Survey the lie of the LAN
Today is World IPv6 Day, so you might be wondering just how easy it is to run IPv6 on your own home network. The answer is that it’s surprisingly simple, and even if you can’t yet get IPv6 connectivity from your internet provider, it’s still possible to connect your PC – or indeed your whole network – to the IPv6 internet. …
Echostar HDS-600RS Freesat HD recorder
Review DVR with Sling slung in
Freesat, launched three years ago, hasn’t quite caught the imagination in the same way as Freeview HD, but if you don’t have terrestrial coverage, or you want more channels than Freeview provides, without having to go for pay TV, it’s a good option.
Echostar HDS-600RS Echostar's HDS-600RS includes Slingbox functionality for …
How to choose the right screen size
Is your telly too small - or too big - for HD?
How big is big enough? It’s a question many of us have asked, as we cruise the aisles of Currys or John Lewis, looking for a new TV. It’s all too easy to be seduced by a special offer, or by extra features like net connectivity, and end up with a TV that’s larger than you anticipated.
And while you might make space for a jumbo …
YouView confirms Technicolor exit
Fade to black
Set-top box maker Technicolor has pulled out of the YouView internet TV project.
Originally announced as one of the "technology partners" that would be among the first to bring YouView-compatible products to market – a date that’s slipped from this coming summer to early 2012 – Technicolor has apparently decided not to go ahead …
Peugeot compo cam aids amateur espionage
I now know what you did last summer
Car company Peugeot has a competition on its website, in which you have to find hidden 3008s. It features some astonishing panoramic shots of London, taken sometime last summer, from the top of CentrePoint. You can zoom in, and if you go full screen, it’s pretty impressive.
Here’s an overview:
Peugeot cam
One thing that …
WTF is... IPv6?
Address to impress
On the 8 June, it’ll be World IPv6 Day – a coordinated effort by major services on the internet, including Google and Facebook, to provide their services using the new version of the Internet Protocol. It’s part of the plans to cope with internet addresses ‘running out'. But just what is IPv6 - and what does it mean for most …
TVonics DTR-Z500HD Freeview HD DVR
Review Solid set-top
Back in October 2010, Reg Hardware looked at TVonics’ first Freeview HD recorder, the curiously styled DTR-HD500. The DTR-Z500HD is a more conventional 'shoe box' shape, though much smaller than many of the others I’ve looked at, but it once again packs in a good spec.
TVonics DTR-HD500 DTR-Z500HD: a more sober design than the …
WTF is... 4K x 2K?
What, Full HD not good enough for you?
If you’re a keen Reg Hardware reader, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve already got a high definition TV, and possibly a Blu-ray player too. Technology, of course, doesn’t stop there. While the switch over from analogue 405-lines to 625-line broadcasts - and TVs - took decades, changes occur more swiftly in the digital …
WTF is... 3D printing
Roll your own
Head along to London's Design Museum and you'll find a remarkable shoe on display until August. Called the Melonia Shoe, it’s perhaps not what most Reg Hardware readers would wear, but it is remarkable, not so much for the design, but because it was printed by Belgian product prototyping company Materialise and Sweden-based …
Library e-books to become too tatty to lend
Digital copies must not outlast paper one, HarperCollins insists
Does an e-book wear out? If it’s from publisher HarperCollins and belongs to a library, then the answer is now 'yes' – and potentially in as short a time as one year.
New terms introduced by the publishing giant mean that instead of being sold with a perpetual licence, as they are now, e-books sold to libraries will be limited …
The Doctor Who Experience
Review The Greatest Show in the Galaxy?
Since the revival of Doctor Who almost six years ago, the BBC’s marketing machinery has been in full flow, with the programme spawning action figures, DVD box sets, plenty of other merchandise, alongside Proms concerts and exhibitions.
Doctor Who Experience
I remember my first Doctor Who exhibition, at Longleat in the 1970s, …
D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380 media streamer
Review Content provider?
D-Link’s Boxee box, also known by the catchy moniker of DSM-380, is aimed at a sector of the market that’s quite important in the US – streaming online media – but somewhat less so in the UK right now.
D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380 Media container? D-Link's Boxee box
It’s essentially a small form factor PC running the Boxee …
Icecrypt T2400 Freeview HD DVR
Review Media savvy?
Icecrypt is a little known name in the UK. Their T2200 Freeview HD box was made by Topfield and the T2400 is in fact a UK version of a product from Korean PVR maker HomeCast. It’s a twin tuner unit for FreeviewHD, available with hard drives of 500GB, 1TB or 2TB.
Icecrypt T2400 Icecrypt's T2400: the click wheel can be used to …
WTF is... wireless HDMI?
Look, ma, no cables
We’re now all used to HDMI, the digital equivalent of the once-ubiquitous Scart connector, the latest versions of which are capable of supporting multi-channel audio, 3D TV and a return channel, so you can feed the sound back from your TV’s tuner to a surround sound system.
It has, to be honest, some rough edges here and there. …
PS3 telly add-on update hit by splash screen crash
Sony shrugs shoulders over PlayTV woes
Rather a lot of users of PlayTV, Sony's DVR accessory for the PlayStation 3, have lost their recordings in an attempt to surmount bugs introduced in a recent update.
Following the release late last year of version 2.02 of the PlayTV software – which includes support for Freeview’s series link functions – many users have grumbled …
The year's best... TV media players
2010: it's a wrap What's top for set-tops?
2010: it's a wrap
Networkable media players aren’t new, but in 2010 the addition of BBC iPlayer and similar services to set-top boxes and TVs made more consumers aware of the possibilities of online entertainment pumped straight into the living room, while Windows 7 made it simpler to stream content from your PC’s hard drive …
WTF is... up with e-book pricing?
Price rises coming
Electronic books are a topic that never fails to generate comment on Reg Hardware – most often along the lines of, 'why are they so expensive?'
With the launch of Amazon's Kindle in the UK, many book buyers hoped that e-books would become cheaper. Together with the falling price of readers, and Amazon trumpeting large e-book …
Digital Stream DHR8203U Freeview HD DVR
Review Going with the flow?
Digital Stream is not a name that many people will be familiar with when it comes to PVRs – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; few had heard of Topfield or Humax before their very successful Freeview models appeared in the UK.
Digital Stream DHR8203U Fluid design? Digital Stream's DHR8203U
The Digital Stream DHR8203U is …
Humax HDR-Fox T2 Freeview HD DVR
Review The telly addicts' new best friend?
From a fairly slow start, the number of Freeview HD recorders is growing quite quickly; but the Humax has been one that many people have been waiting for. The company has a pretty good pedigree with DVRs for other services, and expectations have been quite high for the HDR Fox T2.
Humax HDR-Fox T2 Freeview HD recorder Humax's …
Panasonic TY-CC10W Skype camera
Review Video conferencing for couch potatoes
While purists might prefer a standards-based approach to Internet telephony, there’s no doubt that, for many people, Skype is much simpler to set up. Even so, with a few exceptions, most equipment is still tethered to a computer, especially if you want to use Skype’s video calling.
Panasonic TY-CC10 What's on TV? Panasonic's TY …
Sony Bravia KDL-46EX403 46in LCD TV
Review Big name, big screen, budget price?
Freeview HD TVs are fairly common these days, and Sony has put the necessary DVB-T2 tuners in most of the models in its range. The Bravia KDL-46EX403 is, as far as these things go, one of its budget models – it lacks the LED backlighting of the higher end units, which in turn makes it bulkier and less sexy, though from the front …
UK set for eBook pricing showdown
Waterstones misfires?
With Amazon taking pre-orders for the latest Kindle and opening a dedicated UK store, an investigation by Reg Hardware has revealed big differences in the pricing strategies of some of the major suppliers of ebooks in the UK.
Waterstone's, probably the highest profile UK seller of ebooks, has announced that the price of the Sony …
Panasonic DMR-XW380 Freeview HD DVR
Review HDD and DVD-R combo with DLNA sharing
Unlike the current wave of Freeview HD recorders coming on stream right now, the Panasonic DMR-XW380 is not just a twin tuner hard drive recorder, but a DVD recorder too. Pay a fair bit extra and you can have opt for DMR-BW880, the Blu-ray version Reg Hardware reviewed recently.
Panasonic DMR-XW380 Good all-rounder? Panasonic's …
Withings Wi-Fi bathroom scales
Review I tweet your weight
Sometimes, there are problems that cry out for a technological solution. Problems like “How do I remember my weight and BMI for the time it takes to go from the bathroom to the computer.” And the WiFi bathroom scales from Withings, sold by Firebox, are the solution to just that problem.
Withings WiFi Scales Weight and see: …
iRobot Roomba 581 robot cleaner
Review Dust devil?
As readers of my Samsung Navibot review will know, I’m not much of a person for housework, and tend to leave it for special occasions. So, it was with something of a sense of relief that I received iRobot’s Roomba 581 to test.
iRobot Roomba 581 iRobot's Roomba 581: dust-loving droid
The 581 is currently the most top-of-the- …
WTF is... Project Canvas?
A good thing, we say
The BBC Trust announced on Friday that it had approved Project Canvas, the internet-connected TV specification that’s backed by the BBC along with the other public service broadcasters, plus telcos Talk Talk and BT, and transmitter overseer Arqiva.
Project Canvas The Project Canvas partners
The decision follows months of …
BBC wins go-ahead for Freeview HD content controls
No need for panic?
Ofcom, the UK’s TV regulator, has today given the go-ahead for the implementation of content controls on Freeview’s HD service. The controls are designed to prevent HD content being copied, controls without which, broadcasters have argued, some programmes might not be able to be shown.
The proposals mean that, while there won’t …
Samsung LE40C650
Review
Samsung’s set is a sleek, good looking design, and out of the box the HD picture quality was stunning. Setup even ends with a handy reminder for the less technically savvy to connect set-tops and suchlike using HDMI for HD pictures.
Samsung LE40C650
However, the SD picture quality wasn’t as good, until the settings were …
Toshiba Regza 40RV753
Review
Toshiba’s 40RV753 is one of the less full-featured sets in this group test, really only offering DLNA media playback on top of the basic Freeview HD specs – there’s no online TV offering, for example. It feels chunkier than the other sets, too, with a solid plastic casing.
Toshiba Regza 40RV753
Setup is straightforward, …
Sharp Aquos LC-46LE821E
Review
Sharp’s main selling point for its Quattron-branded range of Aquos TVs is the inclusion of extra, yellow pixels, giving an increased range of colours. The set’s also a very modern looking design, and to my taste much more so than the others I’ve tested.
Sharp Aquos Quattron
The picture quality from the LED edge-lit display is …
Panasonic Viera TX-L32D28
Review
If you’re looking for a set that will cover all the bases, then with support for both Freeview and Freesat, the Panasonic TX-L32D28 could be for you. With some channels only available on one of these two platforms, having both tuners gives you the best choice of viewing options.
Design wise, the stand tilts the TV back at a …
