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(Credit: LG Electronics)

Blu-ray players look to have turned a corner this year--until now, they've been overpriced, badly specified, and worst of all, tedious to use. The LG HB354 is the latest to raise the bar, promising to bring a touch of glamour to the proceedings with its attractive styling and impressive features.

Clearly, this system is designed for people who want to de-clutter their lives. While the four-box 2.1 system does add some extra hardware to your home cinema system, it could, in theory, replace a small hi-fi, a DVD player, and a few other bits and bobs. Its iPod dock will appeal to anyone with a compatible device, and could form the basis of a likeable lounge audio system.

Blu-ray profile 2.0 is supported for interactive and online Blu-ray fun. There isn't quite the codec support we've seen on other LG players though--don't expect MKV playback. There is, however, some more basic Xvid and DivX support, as well as MP3s and JPEGs, so all isn't lost.

We'll admit it, we've got a soft spot for DivX. The much-used video codec started as a hack of Microsoft's proprietary MPEG-4 codec, and was born out of frustration with Microsoft's video-playback lameness. DivX quickly became an important ingredient of Internet video, but in an HD era, something with a little more power is needed. Oh look, here's DivX 7. Just the ticket.

Although the origins of DivX are as a codec, the future is likely to be very different, and revolves around device certification. For example, you might notice that virtually every DVD player on the market now supports DivX playback. Well, the DivX chaps want to do the same with Blu-ray players, but extend the support to HD material too.

DivX 7 has, at its heart, an H.264 video codec and AAC sound. That means video encoded in 1080p will happily play, and if you want to get into the business of making your own video, the encoder tools will allow you to turn your footage into something you'll be able to play on any DivX Plus HD device too.

Hopefully Blu-ray player manufacturers will include the DivX Plus HD certification in future players, which will enable them to play MKV-encoded video. That would allow you to take advantage of downloaded video on your Blu-ray player. It's about time we got some MKV lovin' in the Blu-ray house, and although it's sure to upset movie studios, we're pretty sure the geeks will rush out and buy any player that can pull off such a trick.

Interestingly, MKV support will enable us to play 720p video on our D-Link DSM-330. Although this has been possible for some time with a series of complicated hacks, it's not been something most people would bother with. Our main irritation when we reviewed it revolved around the lack of MKV support, so this makes the 330 an even better buy.

(Source: Crave UK)

(Credit: Philips)

If you love Christmas lights and don't see why they should be restricted to just one time of the year, the Philips Aurea II is the TV for you. It boasts enough colored illumination to put Oxford Street to shame. The only disappointment: it costs more than a 50-inch Pioneer Kuro.

Yes, that's right, the 42PFL9903D has a list price of £2,500, or $4,300. So, as you can imagine, this is going to need to be one awe-inspiring TV to justify such a hefty price tag. To be fair, we did really like the original Aurea, which had excellent black levels and amazing picture detail. What's more, this one is actually slightly cheaper than its predecessor, which takes the edge off it.

The design of this TV is slimmer and more attractive than the previous model, which could charitably be described as looking rather plasticky. The new one is fashioned from non-reflective glass and the gap between the screen and the frame has been tweaked to be less jarring than its predecessor.

As with its forebear, the Aurea II features the more conventional, rear-firing Ambilight Spectra system, which will light up any wall it's placed close to. The "Active Frame" is the bit that matches what's on screen with the front-facing LEDs.

There's also been a significant increase in the number of LEDs used in the TV. The old model had 128, but this shiny new version has "over 150" LEDs, Philips claims. We're going to go right ahead and assume it means 151.

Philips also claims this is the fastest-responding LCD screen on the market, with a refresh rate of 2ms. That, combined with 100Hz picture processing, should mean this TV has very little motion blur and movies look tip-top.

Sound is produced by a six-speaker system, which fires audio forward with some invisible trickery. Meanwhile, bass is produced at the rear of the set from a pair of subwoofers, so even low-end sound should impress with this TV.

No word yet on power consumption, but what you spend on powering this TV, you'll save in blown Christmas tree lights.  

(Via Crave UK)

Water and electricity: that's a winning combination if ever we heard one.

Clearly Philips thinks it's a theme that has some legs--five of them to be precise--because it's created a mains extension socket it calls the "power squid."

Anyone with an encyclopedia would be able to tell you that a squid has 10 appendages--that's 8 arms and 2 tentacles, fact fans. The Philips SPR550BN also differs from aquatic reality in its color, which is black, rather than the more realistic white or slightly translucent skin tone of most squid.

Behold the squid of power.

(Credit: Philips)

Still, most real squid don't aim to protect your AV equipment from an electrical surge either. Nor do they offer you the opportunity to turn one plug socket into five--which means, despite its unrealistic color and incorrect number of limbs, the Philips power squid scores over nature's squid in a number of key areas.

The power squid should help you keep the area behind your TV a little tidier, which should in turn lead to a happier home life. Trust us, we've had plenty of arguments about wiring in our time.

One word of caution though: despite its oceanic inspiration, the power squid states very clearly on its rear that it can't be used with any sort of aquarium. Perhaps this is to prevent any real squid getting tragically over-excited by this exotic little chap and jumping out of their watery homes.

Could this be the start of a whole range of sea-derived home electronics? Could we one day see the electric eel-themed HDMI cable, or perhaps an octopus-inspired subwoofer interconnect? Only time will tell, but we're hoping so.

The U.S. version can be found here.

(Via Crave UK)

No, no, we haven't employed a giant, the Pico really is that tiny. Very handy if you need to conduct an impromptu presentation while out and about. Click on the image above for more photos of the projector.

(Credit: Crave UK)

If you don't live in a big city or have never used public transport, you won't be aware of the great British tradition of annoying people on a bus. To participate in this ritual you must be between 14 and 18 and a half and you must own a mobile phone equipped with speakers. You must then use this phone to annoy all other commuters hoping to enjoy a quiet journey to or from work.

Now, technology has brought us yet another one of its inevitable advances, one that will bring new levels of irritation to public transport: the Optoma Pico, a tiny projector for throwing video onto a near wall or other solid surface. About the size of a Nokia N95, the device weighs just about a quarter of a pound, is battery operated, and can project images and video from a variety of sources such as portable media players and mobile phones. Can you imagine what the kids are going to do with this thing?

We explore the possibilities in our photo gallery.

(Via Crave UK)

Japanese TV programs have more than their fair share of weirdness. But let's be honest--when you've seen one British or American game show, you've pretty much seen them all. Click on the image above to read about yet more ways the Japanese have the Brits beat.

(Credit: Crave UK)

We at Crave UK are, not surprisingly, British, so we know when we're being beaten at something. If we're honest, we're beaten at most things. Especially sports, and even more embarrassingly, the sports we invented. When it comes to technology, we do have a proud history of inventing such monumental gadgets as the modern flushing toilet, the television, and the ZX Spectrum.

But even with our glorious history, we'd never pretend to rival Japan for sheer technological nous. If you speak to people who have been to Japan, they're full of barely believable tales of shops selling things so futuristic they couldn't even comprehend what they were for. Or why they had a picture of a cat on them.

So we felt it was time to honor the Japanese by taking a good look at some of the many things they do better than us. Here are five of the most compelling reasons to sell all your stuff on eBay and move to the Land of the Rising Sun.

While Crave UK was visiting Sony at IFA, they were shown a trailer for a new Blu-ray movie--it was none other than the third installment of Starship Troopers and a landmark for both silliness  and interactive features. So impressed were they, that they asked for a copy of the film to peruse, and Sony Pictures obliged. Here's what ensued.

If you haven't seen the original Starship Troopers, you're missing out on one of the best B-movie action-sci-fi-comedy romps of all time. A movie that never takes itself too seriously and a genuinely enjoyable hour and a half, with plenty of bug shooting and some hilarious gore. If you haven't seen the second movie, good--it was little more than a cynical attempt to milk a successful title and should be ignored. But the third seems to be more in the spirit of the original.

(Credit: Sony Pictures)

It stars Enterprise's Jolene Blalock, a woman of several talents and one sure to adequately replace Denise Richards in all important areas. Denise, of course, was unavailable due to making a reality TV show and because she no doubt believes she's above such piffle.

This movie is both written and directed by Ed Neumeier, who wrote both the first two films, as well as being responsible for the original Robocop movie. This chap certainly has his own style. Anyway, the story revolves around a crashed ship deep in bug territory and a mission to rescue its crew. But who really cares? The point of this movie isn't the story--it's the horrific car-crash of bad acting and low-budget effects that we all came to see.

By far the most exciting and innovative feature is "Put Yourself in the Movie," where you, the viewer, can upload a shot of your head to the BD Live Web site and then, brilliantly, appear in a few select scenes.

Of course this feature is almost totally pointless, but frankly it's some of the best time-wasting we've ever seen. We couldn't load the disc in our PlayStation 3 quickly enough, and our hands were trembling with excitement as we uploaded our photo. Bingo--as if by magic, there we were in the thick of the action.

Other interactive features include a director commentary and something called Marauder Mode, which is essentially the traditional picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes affair we're pretty used to on HD discs. You'll need a profile 1.1 player to use this mode, and profile 2.0 to appear in the film clips. So a PS3 is still the best way to watch this film.

Anyway, if you liked the first one, there's every chance you'll get a kick out of this movie.

Via Crave UK

Sony's 200Hz Z4500, on display at IFA, isn't a radical-looking TV. Indeed, it appears to be essentially the same as the excellent 40W4000. Click on the image above to see more Sony sets being shown at the Berlin show.

(Credit: Crave UK)

After Sony's press conference at IFA trade show in Berlin, we at Crave UK took a quick look around the company's booth and snapped some of the new Bravia TVs expected to be delivered by this holiday season.

The most interesting product is the ZX1, a 9.9mm-thick LED "backlit" LCD TV, which takes a new approach to TV design, and means that there's plenty of scope to reduce the depth of the TV. This is achieved by having the backlight at the side and using some clever and top-secret jiggery pokery to diffuse and distribute the light.

The announcement that Sony would be producing a "Motionflow" 200Hz television in the near future, called the Z4500, was an interesting one too. Here in Berlin there's a huge and mysterious advertisement on the side of the Sony Center claiming that "everything would be clear." In reality, we don't see much of an advantage to 200Hz over 100Hz, especially given the magic number is 120Hz anyway--because this is the rate to properly do 5:5 pulldown.

Sony managed to get a good reception here at IFA, and even some laughter over its new Starship Troopers Blu-ray, but that's a story for another time. Click on the image above for more pictures of the new Bravia goodness.

Editor's note: These new TVs are made specifically for Europeans. But don't feel left out: Sony and others will likely have plenty of news of U.S. models to share at next week's Cedia.

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This week a package arrived here at Crave UK that weighed as much as a fairly hefty puppy, which was slightly confusing. Who had sent us a puppy, and why wasn't it barking? It transpired that it was in fact an HDMI cable. But not just any HDMI cable, a 49.2-foot-long Profigold PROV1015, which went some way toward explaining the prodigious weight.

(Credit: Crave UK)

The PROV1015 is very well-constructed, which is one of the reasons it has some girth to it. Plugging the connector into an HDMI socket resulted in a firm contact and no fear that the cable would fall out of the back of the TV at the drop of a hat--some very large electronics companies have sent us cables that threaten that, and we get quite cross at such shoddiness.

It's fair to say that a 49.2-foot cable won't be a priority for everyone, but if you've got a need for one--a projector ceiling mount maybe, or you want to wire something behind walls and keep your HD equipment out of the way--you'll want to make sure you drop some cash to get something sturdy. The Profigold comes with a 10-year warranty, so if something turns out to be amiss, you can get it fixed without fuss.

The PROV1015 claims full support for 1080p video and deep color. The contacts are gold and the cable is screened multiple times to keep noise out and thus prevent any potential data transmission errors. Distortion from an HDMI cable can look like white spots or, at the extreme end, high-definition snow--certainly something to avoid if possible.

We tested the cable by plugging it into our TV in the testing room and the other end into a Toshiba HD-EP35, which is just slightly less than 49.2-foot away on our desk. We're pleased to report 100 percent success, with a clean, noise-free signal received by the TV and a sense of achievement in our hearts--you'd have thought we made the cable speak to us.

The Profigold PROV1015 49.2-foot cable--and other lengths--will be available soon, but there is not yet any pricing available. Please don't send puppies to us either--we love them, but this office really isn't a good home for a dog.

(Via Crave UK)