ScreenScribe

TelstraClear is adopting Sky’s rental model for its new HD PVR, the T-Box. The home media device is still being tested while the telco sorts out teething issues. But when it is ready for installation, customers can choose between paying a one-off fee of $499 upfront or a monthly rental of $14.95. However, the T-Box [...]

Sky TV will screen the new HD gangster drama from HBO, Boardwalk Empire, two weeks after its September 19 launch in the US. The 12-part adaptation of Nelson Johnson’s book about the development of Atlantic City during the Prohibition era will air here 8.30pm Saturdays, on Sky Movies, from October 2. But because it will [...]

Prime TV at last is to start broadcasting in HD — but it may be only for the duration of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The free-to-air network is one of five channels that its owner, Sky TV, will use to screen more than 1400 hours of live coverage. Sky subscribers won’t have to pay extra [...]

TV2′s HD hit, The Mentalist, took a hit last night — from a double-barreled assault by TV3 and TV One. TV3′s HD premiere of the action movie, Hitman, was watched by 9.4% of the network’s target audience, 18-49 year-olds, compared with The Mentalist’s 11.7%. Both channels lost viewers to TV One’s premiere of Richard Hammond’s [...]

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 [...]

TiVo users frustrated by filling up their hard drives so fast with HD content can triple their storage for less than half the usual price from this weekend. Customers shortly will be advised of a special deal on the 1TB Western Digital Expander drive: $174.00 (plus $15.00 postage) — or $195.00 off the recommended retail price. Of [...]

Sunshine: TV3, 10.25pm Saturday. Only sci-fi diehards will enjoy this trip to the malarkey side of the sun (it has to be re-ignited with a nuclear payload). Duller than a cloudy day, it stars Cliff Curtis, Damages’ Rose Byrne, Inception’s Cillian Murphy and Kick-Ass’ Mark Strong. Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle directs another screenplay by his [...]

Nurse Jackie ended its HD run last night with fewer viewers than usual tuning into the season finale. It was out-rated in all the key demographics by TV2′s HD rival, Fringe, and TV One’s Real Crime doco about chimps that kill, and kept barely half of the viewership that HD lead-in Outrageous Fortune delivered. TV2′s [...]

If you were hanging out to see TV2′s long-delayed debut of the graphic novel action sensation, Human Target, in HD, you might as well hang out a little longer for the Blu-ray. The network will double-bill the newcomer with season three of Chuck from August 25, in the 8.30pm-10.30pm zone. Frustratingly, neither will air in [...]

Troy: Sky Movies Greats, 8.30pm Saturday. The Achilles heel of this lavish historical epic is its clichéd human dimension. But its spectacle, action and CGI effects are sensational, particularly the screen’s biggest pyrotechnics bash since Atlanta was razed in Gone With the Wind. Like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Troy used ingenious software that [...]