Foxtel has responded to intensified competition on the digital television landscape by unveiling a raft of new products, including a legal TV downloading platform.

The service, Foxtel Download, will be available at no cost to pay TV subscribers and will take 400 hours of content at launch from 38 channels. That will be expanded to 600 hours within a month.

It is intended to pave the way for a live streaming service. One channel - the sports channel ESPN360 - will be live streamed immediately. Others, including Foxtel's multi-channel coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic winter games, are expected to follow next year.

Foxtel chief executive officer Kim Williams also announced 12 new channels, LifestyleYou, a mystery channel 13th Street, Discovery Turbo Max, the Style Network, National Geographic Wild, an ad-free children's channel KidsCo, Eurosport and five new movie channels, Showtime Action, Showtime Drama, Showtime Comedy, Starpics and the Family Movie Channel.

Mr Williams said Foxtel would also expand its high-definition (HD) service to 15 channels, including three HD Fox Sports channels and ESPN HD.

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The major announcement, held in a soundstage at Sydney's Fox Studios and illustrated by an IMAX-sized movie screen, includes two new "active" red button-powered applications, a local news service, Sky News Local, and Weather Active.

Williams described Foxtel as "a revolutionary force in the television landscape". He said the company's mantra was "liberating choice to consumers" underpinned by the values of "control, choice and convenience".

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California has 35 million television sets — one for nearly every man, woman and child — and television use in the Golden State accounts for 10% of each home's energy bill. Alarmed that state energy consumption would spike as consumers switch from the old cathode-ray-tube sets to the new, energy-gobbling flat screen liquid-crystal display (LCD) or plasma televisions, the state's regulatory mavens have formally proposed regulations that would force the industry to make more energy-efficient models.

Following a 45-day public comment period and a vote by the powerful California Energy Commission in November, the first-in-the-nation TV efficiency standards would go into effect in January 2011 and would require televisions sold in California to use 50% less energy by January 2013. Strict-target limits on greenhouse gas emissions for 2020 are propelling policymakers to cut consumption of energy and increase renewable generation.
See the Top 10 Green Ideas of 2008.

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The Consumer Electronics Association argues the proposed regulations will result in a loss of sales and jobs. "We think this is the wrong paradigm to actually achieve energy efficiency," said Doug Johnson, senior director for technology policy for the industry association...

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Overview:

The Sony Bravia XBR45 range is one of the best TVs on the market. Despite its high price tag, it offers black levels better than any other LCD TV on the market and even better than some plasmas'.

Pros:

• Excellent black levels
• Brilliant feature set
• Attractive design
• Lots of inputs
• LED backlighting
• Made in Japan
• Powerful speakers

Cons:

• High price
• Remote is too long to use comfortably
• Sony logo backlight can be distracting (can be turned off)

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Design:

For the XBR45 series, Sony has again gone with the floating glass design. i find it quite attractive although others might not agree. It is made to look as if the speakers are floating. The speaker grilles can be removed for cleaning puposes and can be replaced with different coloured ones. Sony supply these at around AU$150. The aluminium bezel is covered with a glossy plastic which looks nice but attracts alot of fingerprints. The TV stand is very sturdy compared to some other LCDs and plasmas on the market. It stops the TV from shaking and also has cable management to hide the cables.

Features:

One of the resons for the high price on this TV is the LED backlighting. It uses clusters of 4 LEDs with two being green and the other being red and blue. These LEDs can switch off in certain parts of the screen to make dark areas of the screen appear almost pure black and bright areas of the screen to still be vibrant. It works very effectively although I am not sure how much more effectively than the Samsung A950 which uses just white LEDs but a similar technique. The XBR45 also comes with Motionflow 100Hz Pro. Although this doesn't seem comparable to the 200Hz Z-series, when compared side-by-side, the XBR outperforms the Z by miles. The picture is more vibrant and it offers a similar smoothness. However the 100Hz Pro isn't available on the 40" XBR.

The XBR also offers heaps of customisation options in the PS3 style menu. It has heaps of options to get the picture and sound just the way you want it. The TV can also act as a huge digital photo frame with a flash drive plugs into the USB port on the side or via an ethernet cable. It can also stream music but not video. The TV also features an inbuilt HD tuner which works really well. It has an inbuilt TV guide and you can set reminders for your programs. The sets speakers are also really good. They offer a complete sound experience but as always, is not as good as a full surround sound system though they are good enough to watch live TV and even listen to a bit of music.

Performance:

I found the TV fairly easy to set up and the first time you turn the TV on a series of screens guide you through the setup process. Once on, the default picture settings were quite good but you might want to play around with this a bit. As suggested with the LED backlighting, the XBR has excellent black levels. It is one of the best blacks I have ever seen reproduced by a TV. One minor issue is navigating to different inputs. You need to scroll through a huge list on inputs and there is a slight delay with the remote control. It becomes a bit annoying but you get used to it eventually.

Blu-ray movies were amazing. The picture looked very crisp and the sound, even with just the TV's speakers was lovely. The dark areas looked dark enough as well as bright areas showing up nicely. PS3 games were just as good. The detail is stunning and again the picture looked crystal clear.

Conclusion:

If you are thinking about buying this TV and have the money, i would recommend it to anyone. It is one of the best LCDs on the market and can beat many plasmas. The build quility is flawless and the TV looks amazing. The black levels are some of the best ever and colour reproduction is good. If you buy this TV you will not regret it.

For Some decent calibration settings for this TV please visit this website. These settings are good but not a substitute for a professional calibrator

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