ScreenScribe

As I write in this week’s The Box cover story for The Press newspaper, “Choosing the television that’s right for you can be as bewildering as trying to fathom the programming strategies of TV networks.” Among the considerations is the high-end option of apps, or widgets, such as those analysed in this CNET.com update of [...]

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, James Gandolfini, Anna Chlumsky, David Rasche, Steve Coogan. Director: Armando Iannucci. Screenplay: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche. Score: Adem Ilhan. Cinematography: Jamie Cairney. What Yes, Minister might have been to the Falklands War, In the Loop is to the Iraq War. Spun off TV’s The [...]

TelstraClear has renamed its soon-to-launch PVR the T-Box Personal High Definition Video Recorder. Long in gestation, the home media device promises to combine the best features of TiVo and My Sky HDi with the HD Holy Grail bonus of 1080p video. Five months ago the telco started demonstrating the T-Box in its Wellington and Christchurch [...]

New in Town: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. Renee Zellweger, JK Simmons and Harry Connick Jr star in a romantic-comedy about a hotshot city-slicker consultant from Miami who finds herself stranded in small-town Minnesota mid-winter. Quipped The Hollywood Reporter: “Strictly old hat — and a poorly assembled hat at that.” (2009) Four Holidays: Sky Movies, 8.30pm [...]

In addition to its new range of 3D-ready receivers, Denon is shipping its first 3D-ready home theatre system to Harvey Norman stores. The 5.1-channel DHT-391 comprises a receiver, five speakers and an active subwoofer for $1,299. The AVR-391 receiver has four HDMI 1.4a inputs for 3D video pass-through from all mandated 3D formats for movie, [...]

TV2′s abrupt rescheduling of Tuesday nights, replacing re-runs of The Mentalist with movies, failed to dent the momentum of Outrageous Fortune. TV3′s HD comedy/drama last night drew two-to-three times the viewership of Red Eye in all the key demographics, the gap being widest with TV2′s target audience, 18-39 year-olds (18.9% vs 5.8%). The trend continued [...]

The only new movie due on Blu-ray this week is one that bypassed cinemas, Repo Men. High-Def Digest praised the quality of the HD video and audio but, in line with other critics, said the Jude Law-Forest Whitaker vehicle devolves “from a thinking man’s action thriller to your basic futuristic sci-fi trash romp, so overloaded [...]

The 2009 relaunch of Star Trek has gone where none in the sci-fi franchise has gone before on Blu-ray: to win three major prizes in Home Media Magazine’s Third Annual High-Def Awards. It won Best Theatrical Blu-ray, Best Single Extra for its “Starfleet Vessel Simulator,” and the Consumers’ Choice Award for best overall Blu-ray Disc [...]

Denon’s first 3D-ready receivers will go on sale here next month, priced from $799. There will be two 5.1 channel models (AVR-391, AVR-591), a 7.1 channel model (AVR-791), and a 7.2 channel model (AVR-891). Features will include HDMI v1.4a repeater inputs with 3D (all mandated formats), CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) support, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD [...]

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage. Director: Matthew Vaughn. Screenplay: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn. Score: Marius De Vries, Ilan Eshkeri, Henry Jackman, John Murphy. Cinematography: Ben Davis, Mac Kenny. Rarely has a title summed up a movie’s exuberance as perfectly as Kick-Ass, a wildly kinetic superhero spoof with a dark and bloody sensibility [...]