Sony has launched the “3D Experience” on-demand streaming service, offering promotional video clips for 3D-capable Bravia LCD TVs.  read more »

We'll solve your home cinema problems for you! Starting soon in Home Cinema Choice, the AV Clinic feature will give you the chance to put your problems to the experts - just tell us about your home cinema conundrums and we'll come up with the answers!  read more »

LG has launched the first autostereocopic (glasses-free) 3D mobile phone, the Optimus 3D. Available exclusively from The Carphone Warehouse, the phone has a 4.3” WVGA display supporting 2D images at up to 1080p resolution and 3D at up to 720p.  read more »

LG TVs have become the first in Europe to display the Carbon Reduction Label, awarded by the Carbon Trust. The label demonstrates LG's commitment to reducing its environmental impact at all stages of the TV's lifecycle.  read more »

An empty barn in Suffolk is not the obvious candidate for a home cinema, but if you've got one to spare the scope is considerable. Converting it was the task for UK installer FAB AV and one it approached with relish.

While an empty barn is something of a blank canvas, the job did come with one major caveat. A groundkeeper's cottage lies next to it, and in the words of the owner: 'Good groundkeepers are hard to find - so whatever we build mustn't disturb him.'  read more »

It's the weekend - the time all AV-holics look forward to. Your home cinema is waiting, AVR poised for action, speakers itching to get to work, and your screen ready to astonish and amaze. The only thing that's stopping you cranking up the volume, shutting the curtains and opening a monstrous bag of popcorn is that age old question: what am I going to watch? That's where HCC steps in - each week we'll trawl our archives to suggest something you should spin up. Might be horror or comedy, old or new, TV or film. This week we're taking a look at one of the year's most anticipated Blu-ray releases, the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But is it second time lucky for this film series in hi-def?  read more »

Panasonic is to close its UK Television Design Centre in Cardiff, making all 138 boffins and support staff redundant. The move is part of a global restructuring program that will result in the loss of around 13,000 jobs.

Nigel Thomas, one of the chief technologists affected, has been at the sharp end of Panasonic’s TV R&D for years. He told HCC: 'We were all really shocked to hear the news. To be honest, we never saw it coming.'  read more »

It's been revealed that manufacturers of HDMI to Mini DisplayPort cables have been told that their product is unlicensed and must be withdrawn from sale immediately.

Speaking exlucisvely to HCC's sister website TechRadar, a spokesperson for HDMI Org confirmed that the cable (primarily used by Apple in its Mac range, but also used by other AV manufacturers) doesn't meet the specifications that were defined for HDMI cables - which demands a cable that terminates with a male HDMI connector at both ends.  read more »

I fear the age of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll is all but forgotten. Today's society is safer, softer and greener; politically correct and sanitised. The label on my wine tells me to drink responsibly, speed cameras watch every mile so I don't speed, and the guilt-o-meter on my electricity supply tells me just how much planet I am killing every time I switch on a pathetically dim, EU-legislated energy-saving light bulb. And what really bothers me is that the same do-good, bleeding-heart attitude is coming to movies and home cinema.

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