Dreaming of making the next Avatar? Get cracking with a consumer 3D camera, officially announced today by Panasonic, 28th July.

Their HDC-SDT750 3D camcorder is aimed at the consumer market and uses a 3D conversion lens that captures right-eye and left-eye images simultaneously through two lenses. Users can remove the lens to shoot in normal 2D.

The camcorder comes packed with software allowing you to edit the 3D content at home, copy content to their computer or burn it onto DVD/Blu-Ray Disc. What doesn't come in the box is a 3D TV to watch it on. That you'll have to purchase separately.

Though once you do, the discs can be played from any 3D ready TV with a Blu-ray Disc player/recorder. Users with a Panasonic VIERA TV can insert the SD Memory Card from the camera straight into the set.

The price hasn't been announced but with the specs and this futuristic extra dimensional shooting we imagine it's going to cost a pretty penny. So it just depends how keen you are on having your home videos in 3 dimensions.

The Specs:
o 3MOS System for -
§ Improved noise reduction
§ Motion image pixel count of 7.59 million pixels (2.53 million pixels x 3) resulting in significantly improved colour quality, detail and gradation
§ Sensor and Crystal Engine PRO improve efficiency of light gathering, increased sensitivity and noise reduction to enable bright, low noise recording even in dim lighting
§ Leica Dicomar Lens suppresses 'ghosts' and 'flare' which minimising distortion and degradation of contrast and resolution - plus the lens has 35mm wide-angle capability making ideal for shooting groups indoors and landscape shots outdoors
§ 1080/50p recording for ultra-smooth images - it minimises 'after-images' and flickering caused by subject motions

o iA (intelligent Auto) mode with Face Recognition - automatically optimises and focuses on specific people's faces in the frame and tracks their movement. Plus up to three people's names can be displayed on the camcorder's LCD

o HYBRID O.I.S (Optical Image Stabilizer) to detect subtle blurring that occurs when users move during filming - plus the O.I.S. Lock provides even more powerful hand-shake correction which is ideal when filming bird-watching or content that requires zooming (only available without 3D lens) at a fixed angle

o LCD screen (2D) to view content being filmed which touch screen capabilities

o 5 x microphones for surround sound when playing back content

o Wind noise canceller

o Power saving technologies such as Auto Power LCD which automatically adjusts brightness of the screen (inside theatre or in bright room); Eco Mode to automatically switch off camera after 5 minutes of inactivity and Quick Power-On to capture spur of the moment shots

o Pre-Rec function which records content to the camera's buffer memory to enable users to add content to the beginning of different clips

o Time Lapse Recording

o 50 Frames/sec high speed burst shooting - perfect for analysing a swing of golf, tennis strokes or other shots of subjects in fast motion

See more here: Panasonic

If you are a home cinema fanatic who takes your projectors really seriously you may well be interested in Sanyo's latest top-end projector offering.

Professional in quality, the PLV-HF10000L is their top product in a new line of projectors just released.

With a phenomenal 10 000 lumen brightness and a contrast ratio of 3000:1 it's suitable for digital cinema, big events, simulations and the rental business. The PLV-HF10000L also boasts native 2K resolution, innovative QuaDrive technology. Its integrated edge blending function is useful for big-scale projections because it means that the image from the projector can be tallied up with images from other projectors to create panoramic images or just a huge screen.

Pictured above, the little blighter also claims to be robust, with the lens set firmly in the centre. Though the price will only be announced closer to the November release date, it looks likely to be pushing the £1000 mark.

At the more affordable end of the spectrum, they've also released two for simpler set-ups: offices, homes and schools. Their two new LCD projectors are called the PLC-XD2200 and PLC-XD2600. At 2200 ANSI lumens and 2600 ANSI lumens, these are less fiercely bright.

Sanyo say these are ideal for use in presentations in businesses or schools, with ceiling installation and embedded networking enabling remote monitoring and control across the network. They say a lamp life of up to 6000 hours will help to keep running costs down.

See the Sanyo Projector Range

SANYO PLC-XD2200 - £390 from LamdaTek
SANYO PLC-XD2600 - £550 from DigitalProjectorShop
SANYO PLV-HF10000L - price TBA, but expect something pushing a grand, out in November

TV makers and networks are scrambling over themselves to create more immersive and engaging TV experiences. While most innovations are on the high-tech side, Sky HD have gone a slightly opposite direction by releasing a unisex football-themed eau de toilette.

Deal is you watch the football on your wide-screen high-def Sky Sports connected TV, squirt some of the frangrance Eau de Stade onto yourself and suddenly the South African World Cup fills all your senses.

Eau de Stade was developed to combine hints of fresh grass, the leathery scent of a football and the musky odour of dressing room sweat and tears. It is being advertised by Rachel Stevens.

The perfume is definitely a bit cheaper than other ways to enhance your TV viewing experience - costing just £19.99 (available in Soccer Scene's pop-up store in central London) compared to a 3d tv for example which would set you back £1,799.

Somehow I don't see other broadcasters adopting this approach... can you imagine other programming getting experience-enhancing fragrances? What would Big Brother the perfume smell like?

And can I just say I have never met a woman who expressed a desire to smell like football boots.

[via brandrepublic]

Yes, it's coming, and I don't mean the Revolution. I mean the World Cup and in case you hadn't noticed, it will be televised. Given that I'm not that into football, I always end up watching huge numbers of World Cup matches, so I can only imagine how much TV time the World Cup must mean if you are into football.

The World Cup could be the reason you need to make the leap from standard TV into high definition. We've pooled together here 5 great TVs, from the budget friendly to the pricey, each with at least one stand out feature that would make it a great set to watch the tournament on.

Apart from all the hypnotic passing the ball around, great goals and the big stadium theatricals there are also lots of cuties running around taking their tops off so there are many good reasons to get all that in crisp detail. No 3D, the World Cup won't be broadcast in 3D, this time round at least.

GALLERY BELOW

[via TechDigest]

Sky are celebrating the World Cup broadcasting in High Definition on their sports channels with the release of limited-edition high-design boxes.

Where the Sky Box has always been useful, it has never been an interior design statement, so this takes it to a new level. Sky have comissioned three artists famous for their love of football to produce the cases. The three chosen artists are: Fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, celebrated illustrator Gerald Scarfe and actor Phil Daniels -who dabbles in print-making it seems.

Check out their artistic efforts in our quick gallery below.

The box that has been decorated is the Sky +HD 1tb box with a huge 1 terabyte of storage, allowing you to store 240hrs of live TV for rewatching. As with all Sky+HD boxes you will also be able to access Sky's new TV on demand service, Sky Anytime+, and watch 3D TV with a 3D ready TV - coming later this year. The limited edition design boxes cost the same as the standard ones.

The limited edition boxes, priced at £249 each, will be available from late May, ahead of start of the tournament on 11 June.
See more on the Sky website

Sky will turn its news channel high definition on UK election night, presumably hoping to make each bead of political sweat more highly defined and clearly visible.

The move to HD news broadcasts was always going to come and the election night is a high-profile time to make the change. The shift will come at exactly 9pm to coincide with the start of the channel's election night show Decision Time.

Sky News HD will be broadcast on Sky channel 517 and will be simulcast alongside Sky News' existing Standard Definition channel 501. Sky news is the last channel of the broadcaster's forty channels to make the shift to HD.

Those billboard adverts Sky have taken out with close-ups of the puffy eyes of some prime ministerial candidate saying "get closer to the news" rather put me off. But we can't always be looking at hummingbirds or Angelina Jolie on our TV screens and the roll-out of High Definition is a real benefit for everyone who likes good quality images - which is most of us.

Even if it means seeing each crevasse in Brown's face in closer detail, it's a move to look forward to.

With the launch of Sky News HD, all Sky channel brands are now available in HD, with 40 HD channels spanning all genres. As of 31st December 2009, 2.1 million customers had signed up to receive Sky's HD pack of channels.

See more on Sky's HD services on Sky.com

LG are promising the largest, glowiest OLED TV ever to hit the UK. The 15 inch EL9500 TV will be the largest OLED screen available for British consumers to buy when it launches this April. As part of the vogue for paper-thin sets, the screen will be a tiny 3mm thick.

Why are OLED screens better than LCD?
Well, the key difference is that OLED screens are self-luminous whereas LCDs require back-lighting. No backlighting means OLED displays are smaller in size, use less power, weigh less and cost less. That means they can be paper thin, like the 3mm LG set.

OLED also offers improved viewing image: with high brightness and contrast that LCDs can't match, they also have ultra-wide viewing angles, and a fast response time - an image sent is on screen quicker than in a LCD model. Where LCD screens look washed out in daylight, OLEDs don't.

This particular LG set will be water-resistant making it suitable for use in kitchens or bathrooms, among other places and also features HD, built-in digital freeview and includes a USB 2.0 input.

No info about the LG OLED TV (15EL9500) till release at end of April, but info on LG TVs here

I know 80s music and clothes are in fashion - that's why we're all listening to synth pop again and wearing drainpipes - but 80s video recording equipment? Seemingly so.

News from the video and music industries confirmed that the recession had hit music, games and software sales - as you might expect. All sales figures were down in 2009, but intriguingly, one area went up: videocassettes.

Sales of VHS cassettes went up from 44,377 in 2008 to 95,201 last year. Though the figures are tiny compared to the number of DVDs sold (the most popular film alone, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sold 2.2million).

I don't know if anyone's still making VHS but you can buy them on Amazon and on Kelkoo. 1987 video cassette of the Princess Bride anyone?

This sweet song by Brit band The XX called VCR came out in 2009, maybe that encouraged some VHS spending sprees, or more likely it's just another symptom of the nostalgia that keeps us in love with retro technology.

Are you lot into football? Well you're all in for a treat Saturday 3rd April. Sky will broadcast their first emission of their 3D channel then - showing the Chelsea v Man United Premier league game.

Find a pub equipped with 3d TV and a Sky subscription, pick up some of those dinky 3D glasses with your pint and you and your mates can sit in a pub while John Terry and Wayne Rooney lunge out of the screen.

Sky will show a further five live and 3D Premier League games before the end of the season.

According to Sky: "over a thousand pubs and clubs across the UK and Ireland have already signed up for Sky 3D, meaning that from Saturday 3rd April, hundreds of thousands of fans will be able to watch live 3D Premier League matches this season. More pubs and clubs are expected to sign up in the days and weeks ahead."

I'm going to go just to watch football fans wearing those silly glasses.

Lovefilm the DVD rental service have just released a new service which will dramatically change how we watch films.

Thanks to a partnership with Sony, it will let you watch films from their massive library of 67,000 titles on demand straight onto your TV.

No more DVD waiting lists or waiting for the post office to deliver the damn thing. Get the film you want in seconds for the same monthly subscription fee.

However the deal is currently only available on Sony's Bravia TVs - we're hoping that will change.

See more here on LoveFilm

Yes, if you do coat your TV set in rose gold and embed it with round cut flawless diamonds - it will cost more than average. In fact if you do it through Liverpool jewellers Stuart Hughes it will cost more than any other TV set in the whole world. A round £1.5 million.

Sigh. I don't know what the existence of this TV says about the state of British society, but let us tell you about it anyway. That's what it looks like up there, and this is what Stuart Hughes himself has to say about it:

"Top of the industry technology 55" screen with the most beautiful materials used. The base and outer frame consist of circa 28 kilograms of solid 18ct rose gold, outer frame is adorned with 72 brilliant round cut 1ct IF Flawless diamonds with the remaining area set with Sunstone & Amethyst. The inner screen layer is made up from Alligator skin , all hand sewn."

Yes I think you'll know by now whether you want this or not.

My verdict if you're considering buying this: immediately hand over control of your bank account to a trained accountant. You shouldn't be in control of £1.50 never mind £1.5 million.

PrestigeHD TV SUPREME Rose Edition, £1.5million from www.stuarthughes.com

Following the announcement of new 3D TV sets, Sky - the main providers of 3D TV content just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that their boxes will work with all 3D TV sets.

So let's just say that again: Sky boxes will work with all 3D TV sets.

In a bit more detail:

"Sky 3D, its forthcoming 3D TV service and Europe's first 3D TV channel, will be compatible with all 3D TVs being introduced by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG. Sky 3D will work with both 'active' and 'passive' 3D formats.

"When connected to a Sky+HD box the new 3D TVs will enable people to watch both high definition (HD) and 3D services."

Now you know, don't blame us for not telling ya.

For more see here

LG just announced that they are launching a portfolio of 3D TV devices due to hit UK shops in May - bringing the 3D experience of films like Avatar to the nation's sitting rooms.

The products were raced to shelves faster than intended according to Head of Marketing Stephen Gater: "We've seen such enormous interest and excitement from
consumers around 3D TV that we choose to bring the LX9900 televisions
to the shelves ahead of schedule, to meet the demand." he said.

The three products on sale are:

Full LED 3D Ready TV (the LX9900)
With a tiny frame, a massive screen and at only 3.5cm thick this is a striking-looking set. (Beauty shot above.) LG say it has better picture quality, a unique single layer ultra slim Infinia design, it's available in both 47in and 55in. The TVs can be so slim because they use active 3D technology meaning all the components that allow the picture to become 3D are housed within the glasses worn by the viewer.
*Glasses are sold separately*

3D Blu-ray Player (the BX580)
This adds an extra dimension to DVDs make normal films into 3D films. With HDMI 1.4, the BX580 plays 3D Blu-ray movies, as well as normal Blu-ray disks and DVDs.
It is wifi-enabled which lets you connect to YouTube and online photos for example and also gives you the ability to stream information from your home PC or mobile.

Sky TV compatibility set
Football matches, nature docs and other shows will now be broadcast on Sky in 3D, a Sky compatibility box for the set will enable viewers to watch this content.

See more on LG's website here

Microsoft will launch an on-demand video player in the UK tomorrow.

Deals with BBC World and other producers mean that the channel has bagged some big-name programmes: Skins, the Peep Show, Faking It, the Young Ones and Midsommer Murders - in total 1000 hours of programming.

The player will be called the MSN video player and all content will be free to stream or download. I'm not sure if there's an expiry date on downloads.

The MSN player will compete with SeeSaw a British service that also cherrypicks content from across different channels and lets you watch the programmes on demand.

MSN Video Player is uphere but the site doesn't officially launch till tomorrow

Shoppers in London retail paradise Westfield will be able to watch 3D tv in a special trial running from next week.

Sky will be handing out 3D glasses to shoppers and letting them watch a 3D demo tape of sports and catwalk fashion clips. The stunt is intended to boost demand for the service when 3D TVs hit shelves next month.

Sky's existing Sky+HD boxes, are already equipped to receive Sky 3D, so current customers will only need to upgrade their TV set. On the content side, Sky 3D will launch with a range of movies, sport, documentaries, entertainment and arts content in three dimensons.

See the trial in the Westfield at the Sky Retail Store on level 2
More info on Sky's 3D plans here: www.sky.com/3d

This is slightly mind-blowing - the new remote control accompanying Samsung's LED9000 set will have its own LCD screen on which you can watch TV.

The touchscreen on the remote can be used to simply control the large set but you can also use it as a second screen to watch another TV channel on. If you're into that sort of entertainment multitasking.

While the 3D images are the big new thing with Samsung's LED TV range - the series are all internet enabled and will feature apps - the first apps intended for televisions. Apps available include a LoveFilm one which lets users "rent" films by downloading them, a BBC iPlayer app and also access to social networking sites and the internet generally.

Thanks to an exciting new remote you'll be able to type in things like status updates from the remote controls on the sofa.

Or you will be able to link up a wireless keyboard to input text if you wish.

Check out this pretty retro TV from Korean company LG, usually more known for taking things forward rather than back. Love the chrome feet on this TV set, the orange casing (that shade of tangerine is pure 60s) and the perky little aerial.

A classy sitting room piece if you want to make a design statement with your TV set.

It's not widescreen though, the screen is only 14-inch screen; and big catch - the set is only currently available in Korea. However, the set has a digital tuner and an option to watch them all in black & white (cool or what?) and composite video connectivity means you can hook up a last-generation games console.

Want one? well, right now that will mean a trip to Korea, where the LG Serie 1 sells for around £134 (approximately $216). No news of a UK launch, but if we kick up enough of a fuss, who knows? See another image over the page.

LG Korean website

[via Retrogo]

Some of the online walls around BBC content are about to be broken down though thanks to a deal between BBC Worldwide (the BBC's commercial arm) and a site called See Saw, which will provide video on demand from the BBC Worldwide.

From the end of February, shows such as 'That Mitchell & Webb Look', 'Doctor Who', 'Cranford', and 'Lark Rise to Candleford', will be available for free on demand ie. they won't expire after week like iPlayer programmes do. Though, like iPlayer, the shows will only be available in the UK. The site is financially supported by pre-roll and mid-roll advertising. See Saw has taken over the rump of a company called Kangaroo which was blocked from launching a similar project by the Competition Commission earlier this year.

Now at last, Cranford will be perpetually available on demand.

[via Brand Republic]

ARTICLE CORRECTED: 16:20 25/1/10

Buttons have been replaced by touchscreens over the past few years, and now Toshiba are taking it one step further and doing away the whole idea of touching anything. All you need to do now is wave. Their new Gesture-Control TV uses a webcam and an infra-red motion sensor to detect what you're doing with your body. Your gestures then act as controls for the TV functions.

Pause the image by holding out your palm, tap your ear to change the volume, make breaststroke motions to scroll through a globe of content options. Play by holding your palm over one of the options.

From the video shot by Ashley at CES, the sensitivity seems a little shaky and as you would expect, Toshiba are working on making sure that accidental gestures don't get picked up by the TV. Toshiba estimate that the technology is about five years away from the consumer market.

See a video of the Gesture-Control TV in action on the Best Buy UK channel. Best Buy UK sponsored Shiny brother site TechDigest's CES 2010 coverage.