Telstra is rolling out the first stage of its Foxtel on T-Box service from Sunday, 26 June. Available initially to BigPond cable broadband customers in Foxtel metro areas*, it is expected to be more widely released to ADSL households in two months’ time.

The service will have 43 channels all up, with the 11-channel Get Started package priced at AU$19.50 per month. Four additional sport, entertainment and movie packages are on offer from AU$10 to AU$15 per month. Much like the changes announced last month to Foxtel’s offering through Xbox 360 Live, the streamed content will be unmetered, meaning there will be no charges against user’s data plans and no risk of exceeding data download limits.

Telstra expects the service to be attractive to its 120,000+ T-Box customers who do not want to pay for a Foxtel installation or sign up to a long-term subscription contract — there is only a one-month minimum commitment for Foxtel on T-Box. However, Telstra intends to make the service more attractive by offering it in new home voice and broadband bundles that will see the Get Started package discounted by AU$10 to AU$9.50 per month.

One limitation of the service via T-Box, as opposed to the full Foxtel iQ offering, is that users cannot record or pause any of the streamed content. T-Box recording capabilities will still be an option for free-to-air shows, but Foxtel’s streamed programming will be available to watch only through the catch-up service, with content availability expiring depending on the limitations of its licensing agreement.

Existing T-Box customers can subscribe to Foxtel online. When downloading a Foxtel channel for the first time, buffering to load the internet content has been engineered to take an average of eight seconds. Accessing the same channel thereafter should be even quicker.

*Foxtel and its offerings on T-Box and Xbox 360 are therefore not available in the Northern Territory or Tasmania.

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TEAC Australia found the going tough in the highly competitive LCD TV marketplace, but with the newly acquired backing of Singapore-based consumer electronics distributor TT International, it is reapproaching the industry with some clever niche products at entry level price points.

Acknowledging that there’s still a strong demand for sharply priced CRT TVs, TEAC is offering 15-, 21- and 29-inch tube televisions for AU$129, AU$199 and AU$299 respectively. It also has 15- and 21-inch CRT/DVD combos for AU$199 and AU$299.

TEAC’s LCD offerings are now also taking the integrated DVD route. The baby of the bunch is the LCDV1000M, a 10-inch widescreen TV with a built-in side slot DVD player. It is battery powered for outdoor use, but it is also 12V DC compatible and comes with an adaptor for use in the car. With USB and MMC, MS and SD memory card slots, the LCDV1000M is also a 10-inch de facto digital photo frame — and at AU$499, it is pretty close in price to many photo frames on the market that lack its TV and DVD capabilities.

(TEAC does have its own seven-inch digital photo frame, the DPF100 with DivX, jpeg and MP3 playback for AU$249).

There will also be 15- and 19-inch models in the TEAC LCD-DVD TV range. Both are AC/DC compatible and would suit use in caravans and boats or anywhere a 12V power supply is available.

TEAC’s LCDV range will be available in Australia in May 2007.

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Alien fans putting the remastered Alien Anthology Blu-ray set on their Christmas wish list will get a couple of new features that make diving into all the extras to be found in this collection much easier.

Something 20th Century Fox is calling Mu-Th-Ur Mode, is actually a way to access the index of custom viewing options and extensive content in the collection, which includes both the original release and special editions of all four films, plus 60 extra hours of special features and 12,000 still images.

Named for the Nostromo’s shipboard master computer in Alien, Mu-Th-Ur Mode will help guide you through the anthology, interacting with all six discs. Once activated, you can select alternative audio and visual options for the particular scene. You can also bookmark videos and images using data tags to organise your preferred scenes and special features. Items you’ve tagged, regardless of what disc you were watching when you tagged them, are available to review and revise in a playlist on disc 5 or 6.

The set also has an Unbound mode that “bridges your viewing between discs”. Essentially, you can swap discs in the set and bypass the standard logos and disclaimers and jump right into the content. It does so by storing the collections’s meta data on your player’s hard drive to avoid long loading times. It is designed to work across all brands of Blu-ray players, including the PS3. If you want to return to the player’s menu, you only need to press stop on the remote or shut down your player.

The six-disc set of Alien Anthology is available in a Facehugger case for AU$99 or with The Guardian, an illuminated Egg statue for AU$199.

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Foxtel and Microsoft have announced five subscription packages for the Foxtel on Xbox 360 service set to launch in November. It will offer users of the Xbox 360 Live service access to 30 channels of Foxtel content over the internet, without paying for a Foxtel installation or set-top box.

The basic Get Started package will cost “less than” AU$20 per month, with additional channel packages adding AU$10 each per month to the subscription.

In addition to a mix of live streamed content and catch-up TV, all subscriptions include access to Foxtel’s On Demand content of movies and TV series. Fees for renting On Demand programs range from AU$5.95 for new release movies down to AU$1.95 for children’s TV episodes. Foxtel claims that its On Demand library is scheduled to grow to 5000 movies and TV episodes by the end of 2011.

¹While there is no catch-up service per se, Fox Sports Play is an Xbox 360 unique channel that will be programmed to feature a collection of Australian sports programming including Hyundai A-League Football, Barclays Premier League Football, Rugby Union Spring Tour, KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, India vs. New Zealand Test Cricket, Live Boxing, ATP World Tour Tennis Finals and more.

Registrations for the service open in early November on Foxtel’s website providing you are in a metropolitan area of Australia covered by Foxtel, and you have a subscription to the Xbox Live service as well as a broadband connection with speeds of at least 1.5MB per second.

Editor’s Update: When this service was first announced in May, we were under the — incorrect as it turns out — impression that one of the benefits would be that it would make Foxtel content available in areas not currently serviced by the subscription TV provider. Today we’ve confirmed that to get Foxtel on Xbox 360, you must register an address that it is within the postcode boundaries currently serviced by Foxtel.

Foxtel also confirmed that the service will use up to 800MB per hour when viewing live television at the “optimum quality”, while catch-up TV and video on demand streams will vary in line with the length of the content.

It seems the decision on whether this somewhat less expensive service is right for you will come down to whether you are already paying the Xbox Live subscription (AU$8/month), can’t snag one of Foxtel’s free installation offers, don’t really want HD content, and aren’t concerned about potentially blowing out your broadband plan data caps.

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A by-product of the current love affair with 3D entertainment will be the growth of the Blu-ray format, according to Danny Kaye, executive vice president, Global Research and Technology Strategy at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Kaye says that only Blu-ray discs have the capacity to hold 1080p content in each channel necessary for high-definition (HD) 3D playback.

Blu-ray only started to gain traction in 2008, after it won the high-definition format war over its lower capacity rival HD DVD. While DVD sales have now started a gradual decline, Kaye says Blu-ray disc sales grew 125 per cent in 2009 and another 51 per cent in the first half of 2010, accounting for close to 10 per cent of all disc sales in Australia. He also noted that Australians spend the most per capita on movie entertainment, buying 13 titles per year over the second-placed Americans who buy just over 11.

Three-dimensional movies account for 22 per cent of all ticket sales worldwide and this strong consumer appetite for 3D is expected to flow from the megaplexes to home media with the launch of 3D televisions and home theatre systems this year. Despite the required investment in both 3D-enabled TVs and players, Kaye quoted figures that predict 3D will penetrate 45 per cent of Australian homes by 2015.

He contends that Blu-ray will have a fairly long life span; however, the rise of digital media will most likely see disc sales peak in 10 years. Current technologies and networks do not have the bandwidth to deliver 3D digital copies, but the executive expects those obstacles to be overcome in the next few years.

To stop piracy, studios are investing heavily in the development of content with embedded levels of digital rights management (DRM). 20th Century Fox, along with most major studios and consumer electronics vendors (Apple and Disney the notable exceptions), is part of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem consortium, which is soon to bring to market something they’ve dubbed UltraViolet. The idea is that you’ll buy movies — either physical discs or downloadable content — embedded with UltraViolet DRM, but this flavour of digital security will give you access to the content online to transfer it to any compatible device without interoperability issues. Kaye says to expect major launch announcements about UltraViolet nearer to CES 2011 next January.

Access to UltraViolet movies could come from digital kiosks, but Kaye also suggested that Blu-ray disc players will become de facto home servers, with digital rights on content discs allowing movies to be played not only on big screen TVs, but also streamed to portable devices such as mobile phones and tablets or transferred to high-speed memory cards and USB drives.

20th Century Fox is the distributor of the blockbuster movie Avatar, which almost single-handedly kick started the latest craze for 3D. While he indicated that sales of the Blu-ray 2D version of Avatar had broken records, Kaye would not be drawn on when we can expect the 3D version to be released.

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Update June 15, 2010: Sony has today announced the cancellation of the promotional offer on the HX800 outlined below. See Sony reneges on 3D TV promotion for further information.

In case anybody was missing the point that 2010 is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius 3D, Sony invited a swag of media types to a simulated “3D home” at a swanky harbour-front pile in Sydney’s Rose Bay last night.

In his opening remarks, Carl Rose, managing director of Sony Australia and New Zealand, claimed we are at a defining moment and “not since colour TV hit our shores has there been such enthusiasm for a home entertainment technology”.

The real point of the evening was to exploit Sony’s hitching of its 3D kick-off with the imminent FIFA World Cup coverage. The company is rushing in an early June shipment of its first 3D-capable TV, the Bravia HX800. To entice early adopters, it will come bundled with two pairs of Sony 3D glasses (AU$99), a Sony 3D transmitter (AU$69, not built-in for this particular TV model), a PlayStation 3 and two full 3D games for PS3 (WipEout HD and SuperStardust HD), which will be available through the PlayStation Network. Also available on the gaming front are three 3D episodes of Pain and a 3D demo of MotorStorm Pacific Rift. This the limited-time bonus offering is available from June 11 to July 12 while stocks last. The confirmed RRP for the Bravia HX800 is AU$2799 (40-inch), AU$3499 (46-inch) and AU$4699 (55-inch model). 3D glasses, the transmitter and games will all cost extra after the expiration of the introductory offer.

The hero Bravia for 2010, the 3D-ready LX900 Series, along with two full HD 3D Blu-ray players and three 3D Blu-ray home theatre systems are all due in July. Sony’s soon-to-launch NEX-3 and NEX-5 interchangeable lens cameras can also capture 3D Sweep Panorama images that can be viewed on compatible 3D Bravia TVs.

Once the 13 3D matches of the World Cup are finished, the issue of the still-limited selection 3D content raises its head again, so Sony showed off its upcoming animated title, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which will be available in July on Blu-ray 3D for AU$49.95.

The company is also pushing 3D music videos, and debuted for the crowd a new 3D music video from Guy Sebastian. The video for his upcoming single Never Hold You Down was filmed in 3D on the boardwalk at Los Angeles’ Venice Beach. The one-shot video involved 70 cast and crew, and did serve to highlight the potential of how 3D can enhance a video clip.

Also shown was a teaser of the first Sony 3D music video shot in Australia, the Rogue Traders’ Hearts Beat as One. The clip features Sydney FC team members and as it’s the Qantas Socceroos 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, it will be officially screened in full to the general public at the Sydney FIFA Fan Fest site in Darling Harbour on 13 June.

Are you excited by 3D? Is it the best thing since sliced bread/colour TV? Share your thoughts below!

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Fox Sports will claim bragging rights to the first Australian 3D broadcast with its live coverage of the Socceroos vs. New Zealand on 24 May from the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This nudges out of contention Channel Nine’s 3D broadcast of the NRL State of Origin game in Sydney on 26 May by two days, though Nine’s rugby league clash will still be the first free-to-air 3D offering.

While being first is nice kudos, the real drive to 3D will more likely come later through SBS’s extensive coverage of FIFA World Cup starting in June. SBS has yet to post its complete 15-game 3D schedule, but it will kick things off strongly with the Socceroos opening match against Germany on 13 June confirmed for 3D coverage.

The 24 May game is the final pre-World Cup home match for the Socceroos and it will be available to Foxtel iQ2 and Austar MyStar HD subscribers on a specially set-up 3D channel called Fox Sports 3D (Channel 200).

The kicker, of course, is that viewers will need a 3D-capable television too, and at the time of writing the only model available on the market is the Samsung C7000. For those who do not yet have a shiny new 3D-capable TV, the coverage will also screen on Fox Sports 3HD (Channel 205) and Fox Sports 3 (Channel 503).

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The formats are confusing and the standards don’t seem to be standard. Our simple guide unravels the mysteries of Australian digital TV.

Australia’s first “free to view” digital television broadcasts began in January 2001. The roll-out has been gradual, but now all five free-to-air broadcasters (ABC, SBS, Ten, Seven and Nine) are transmitting their digital television services in all capital cities — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin — 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The emphasis now is on expanding the coverage and content across the country, with over 20 major regional markets receiving at least some digital programming.

According to the original law, they must simulcast (ie, broadcast both analog and digital signals) for at least eight years in an area, so if you lived in any of the cities named above, you would be able to use your current analog television set to receive free to air broadcasts until the end of 2013. The deadline for the analog switch off was originally set for the end of 2008.

According to the industry body Free TV, over 90 per cent of Australians have access to digital television. However, it estimates that only 40 per cent of people currently watch it. To access these services, you will need to buy either a digital set-top box for your analog TV or invest in one of the growing number of integrated digital television sets on the market. Most TVs on the market today feature an on-board digital TV tuner, with high-definition tuners becoming increasingly common.

When the transition to digital is complete, our analog PAL system will be replaced by the DVB-T digital television standard, which was first developed in Europe. Note that again, our system will differ from the US, which is using the American-developed ATSC standard.

“Flavours” of digital broadcasts
The first thing to get your head around is that there are two types of digital TV transmissions, Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD). We’ll fill you in on the basics.

Standard Definition
SD broadcasts provide widescreen picture with DVD equivalent picture quality. The resolution is 576i (576 horizontal lines interlaced). It is broadcast with MPEG digital stereo sound (similar to CD quality) although some programs may be enhanced with Dolby Pro Logic or Dolby Digital surround sound. This is the standard that is now available 24 hours a day and it’s a marked improvement from the analog signal. Most analog sets are capable of displaying 576i when connected to a digital set-top box.

High Definition
HD broadcasts also provide widescreen pictures, but they have an even sharper image with up to twice the horizontal and almost three times the vertical resolution of SD. Due to bandwidth restrictions, there has been some debate by the public broadcasters over what constitutes “high definition”. Australia is one of the only countries in the world to consider a 576p image to be the minimum for HD. This means it is a “progressively scanned” version of the standard definition signal. SBS HD is broadcast in 576p, as is most of ABC HD — although Aunty now broadcasts some content in 720p.

As such, 720p is the universally accepted standard for a minimum HD picture resolution, and consists of a 1280×720 pixels at 50Hz progressive. The maximum resolution that the broadcasters transmit in is 1080i (1080 horizontal lines interlaced). Of course, this differs from the other HD standard 1080p. As flatscreens like LCDs are naturally progressive they won’t display an “i” image anyway, but will instead convert it automatically to “p”. The benefits of HD pictures are particularly noticeable on larger screen sets and
when using projection equipment.

The catch, of course, is that HD broadcasts are available on far fewer programs. The Government has imposed HD programming quotas on each broadcaster of at least 1,040 hours annually (but only for mainland metropolitan areas). The current rules will stay in place until the switch-off of analog in 2013. High definition is also currently available in Darwin and regional areas of Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.

The good news is that imposed quotas are being exceeded — and in most cases doubled — so there is a wealth of HD content on offer in any given week. Some of the programs are “native” HD (produced in the format), while others have been “up-converted” from SD format. If this top-of-the-line picture quality is what you want, make sure before you buy a new big flat screen TV that both the set-top box and screen you buy are HD capable — look for the HD Tick, or you will not be able to fully take advantage of the superior HD image. Expect too, that you will be paying a premium for full-HD equipment.

Standard definition-only equipment is becoming less popular, but there’s no need to despair if you decide to invest in SD gear. The Federal Government requires broadcasters to provide a digital SD signal at all times, even when HD programs are being broadcast, so you’ll always be able to receive a digital television service, even when the higher quality HD signal is being transmitted.

Multi-channeling and other benefits
In addition to the widescreen view and better pictures and sound, with digital TV you also have access to extra channels. In 2007, most broadcasters officially launched their HD channels, which are able to provide programming that differs from their “core service”. Any broadcaster in a non-remote area is able to provide one HDTV multi-channel under rules set down by the Government.

SBS is broadcasting the World News Channel for 20 hours a day in a variety of languages, selected radio channels are available, and most broadcasters are providing program guide channels. The ABC also offers a digital-only channel, ABC2, which features programs not seen on the main channel.

More intriguing is what may evolve from Sydney’s market trial of digital data-casting. In addition to extra news, weather, sport and shopping channels, useful community services are being broadcast. You can check out still shots of notorious traffic areas such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and surf-cam shots of the major beaches lets you see what surf conditions are like. There is also an audio feed from Parliament House in Canberra if you want to catch every minute of Question Time.

Austar, Foxtel Digital and Foxtel HD+
The three main Pay TV providers in Australia are Foxtel, Austar and Optus. However, through numerous content-sharing deals made over the years it is Foxtel which provides a lot of content to all three.

Foxtel Digital, the pay cable and satellite digital video broadcasting service, launched in 2004. This was followed by the introduction of the company’s first DVR, the Foxtel iQ, in 2005. It’s a digital recorder capable of recording two shows at once. Foxtel has retransmission agreements for cable and satellite with SBS (Australia-wide) and Nine (Eastern states only); for cable (not satellite) with the ABC; and Seven and Ten available on cable.

Earlier this year, Foxtel launched its HD+ service with the announcement of a new recorder, the Foxtel iQ2, and five new channels of HD content. In addition to all of the digital commercial channels subscribers in the eastern states also receive all of the terrestrial HD channels as well.

Although AUSTAR runs a cable network in Darwin, it is predominantly a satellite digital TV provider. It has a coverage area of approximately 2.4 million homes — or one-third of the total homes — in regional and rural Australia.

In February 2008, AUSTAR launched MyStar, its personal digital recorder. While it is SD-only it also includes two digital tuners enabling it to receive free-to-air programming as well.

The post Digital TV in Australia first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

We’ve previously given you a video overview of what TV calibration is all about and the benefits of properly tuning the image of your display. In part two of our Picture Perfect guide, ISF professional Aaron Rigg of Avical Australia this time takes you step-by-step through the four main calibration settings that you can adjust yourself — brightness, contrast, sharpness and colour.

To get the best results, we suggest you pick up a calibration disc called DVD Essentials. It’s available from most home theatre equipment retailers for AU$29.95.

Watch Aaron’s video below to see what each picture setting measures and how to adjust those settings on your television to get optimum results.

The post Perfect Picture: 4 steps to DIY TV calibration first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

While Panasonic is busy boosting its customer service capabilities through Twitter, Samsung is taking a more old school route by opening seven “Customer Service Plazas” (CSP) across Australia.

Two CSPs are already open in Melbourne and Darwin, with Perth and Brisbane due to open their doors by November. Two in Sydney and one in Adelaide are on the plans for early next year.

It’s costing the company $3 million to take this more face-to-face approach, as each CSP will house state-of-the-art testing and service areas for Samsung products. Those waiting for on-the-spot repairs can grab a coffee and browse the internet at cafes in the waiting area. They will also accommodate customer service admin offices and training facilities for retailers.

Samsung is contracting third-party providers in each location to conduct the servicing on its behalf. But in case you can’t front up to one of these centres, the company says it has increased staff numbers by 40 per cent in its national call centre based in Homebush, NSW.

Confirmed Samsung Customer Service Plaza locations:

Melbourne (open)

2/137 Rooks Road

Vermont, VIC 3133

Darwin (open)

Lot 8909 Tang Street

Coconut Grove, NT 0810

Perth (under construction)

990 Mordaunt Circuit

Canningvale, WA 6155

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