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Panasonic Freesat Blu-ray deck is a jawdropper, exclusive hands-on review of DMR-BS850 | Home Cinema Choice

Could ITV scupper the launch of Blu-ray recorders in the UK? As I exclusively revealed in my review of Panasonic’s amazing new Freesat Blu-ray recorder, the DMR-BS850 (click the link above to read it), the broadcaster is still flagging its hi-def Freesat content as Copy Never. Unlike the BBC, which has moved all its transmissions to Copy Once (and is even promising to adopt a policy of Copy Always during the Summer), ITV material cannot be archived onto Blu-ray media. This even applies to old back catalogue movies.
Although ITV does not contribute a massive amount to the monthly HD content on Freesat, its co-operation is vital if Blu-ray recording is to take off in the UK. Consumers simply won’t understand or appreciate why it is possible to archive Last Of The Summer Wine from BBC HD but not a Martin Clunes documentary from ITV HD. They’ll simply decide “Blu-ray recorders don’t work” and move on.
David Preece, who heads up Panasonic’s AV marketing operation, acknowledges the situation, telling me “It’s too early to give a definitive answer” about ITV HD’s strategy, adding  “this doesn’t mean that there will be no change – simply it’s in progress of discussion.”
Panasonic continues to have discussions with Freesat on the matter. Watch this space.

There’s a new version of XBMC available for download, version 9.04. I’m a big fan of the multimedia platform, which I still run on an original xbox. There are now versions which run on the  Mac OS X, Linux, Windows and Apple TV devices. Codename Babylon, it’s now available here.
XBMC promises improved stability and performance, especially for the Windows and Mac operating systems, and for playback of networked media. If you’re a Linux user, you’ll also get support for Nvidia’s PureVideoHD to access full HD playback.
There are also plug-ins for online videos, karaoke features, an audio decoder for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD and other neat stuff.

Looking for a new piece of AV kit or just want to window shop? Then the annual awards issues of most specialist press journals are a good place to start. At HCC, we’ve now produced a digital edition of the Home Cinema Choice Awards. It’s a Director’s Cut (if you like) of the version printed first featured in the magazine, slightly extended simply because we could. As with Living with Home Cinema (see below) it makes use of the Issuu pdf-to-flash platform. We’ve only been using Issuu for a few weeks but we’re already dominating that site’s Technology section, which is really gratifying, and I’ve no doubt that when we unleash our Free Digital Magazines initiative we’ll have some of the most popular (fre)e-mags on the site.

A little project I’ve given myself is to create an archive of digital magazines, which will be accessible from within the Home Cinema Choice website. These will comprise specials we’ve done, like Living with home cinema (browse above), plus samplers and ultimately entirely new, digital editions. The issue above was created using the Issuu platform, a free pdf-to-flash application that I think works supremely well. To take a browse through the hundreds of free magazines now available in this format, visit the virtual bookshelves at issuu.com.
I also have a half-baked idea to compile a retro publication featuring the writings of Bob Tomalski. Bob was a hugely influential UK tech journalist with an infectious enthusiasm for AV and an ability to craft stories in a way alien to most contemporary media commentators. Issuu seems a great way to give his archive some visibility.

Hey Sky, what the frack is going on with the sound on Battlestar Galactica?

I wrote the story above (click the link to read), after yet another disappointing hi-def transmission of Battlestar Galactica from Sky. For the second week running, the show was broadcast with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack. On my AV system, this makes a massive difference to the viewing experience. At its best, the show is the equal of any big budget SF movie. But in stereo, it just loses so much depth. And for a premium platform like Sky+HD, it’s just not good enough.
BSG broadcasts have been plagued with sound problems of late; only a few weeks ago the show went out with big chunks (several minutes apiece) of non-audio (that’s silence to you and me). As I was watching several days after the event, this sent me into a total panic, and I had to try and find SD repeats just so that I could follow the story.
For many viewers, Battlestar is a big enough show to justify Sky’s subscription fees alone. So this kind of foul up is infuriating. It’ll be interesting to see what response I get from the PR team in Osterley.