Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

With the sun at last seeming to be showing signs of being here to stay, we thought it would be a good time to highlight some MP3 players that you’ll be able to take with you as you enjoy various sporty activities.

To be a truely go-anywhere MP3 player, the most vital feature is that the memory - where the songs are stored - is a solid state flash drive, rather than than a hard disk. If you’ve ever tried to go jogging with a hard drive-based MP3 player, like an iPod Classic, you’ll know that it doesn’t take long before skipping becomes a problem. Flash-based memory is a lot more durable, but the disadvantage is that it costs more per megabyte, so storage sizes tend to be between 2 and 32 GB. For the active listener that’s a trade-off that’s worth making. Check out the Sony NWZS639F or Apple’s new iPod Nano.

Another key item for allowing you to get on with your run without worrying about your MP3 player is a clip so you don’t need to bother having the device knocking around in your pocket. And of course the smaller the better. The Apple iPod Shuffle is very compact, with a durable clip built into the aluminium body. The latest model is voice activated too, making it easier to control on the go.

Or for true comfort on the go, take a look at this wearable MP3 player/headphones combination from Sony:

Depending on what your favourite activities are, you might also want to look out for a waterproof model. You probably wouldn’t want to go swimming, but from mountain biking to waterfights, it’s as well to be prepared. Swimsuit specialists Speedo have entered into the MP3 player market with their Aquabeat Waterproof MP3 player, or you could try SwiMP3 player (geddit?).

Whatever you’re up to this summer, there’s no reason you won’t be able to bring your favourite music with you!

All week we’ve been running Reevoo’s first ever giveaway. We’ve got one model of the extremely hard to get hold off Tesco Hifi - voted ‘Britain’s Best Hifi‘ in the recent Reevoo Customer Choice Awards.

We’ve had lots of great entries on Twitter, but we reckon the prize should go to the person who went the extra mile and sent us a picture to show us why he needed a hifi so badly.

@reevoo I need to #winahifi because I’m a poor student currently stuck with this tiny little speaker — jamesctaylor

Well James, we’re happy to be able to help out a poor student, with - brace yourself - Britain’s best-rated hifi!

And if that wasn’t enough, we’re also going to throw in a copy of the White Lies album, To Lose My Life.

James, if you let us have your address we’ll send through the hifi, and you can look forward to having to make some room on your bookshelves for this:

Look out for more Reevoo giveaways coming soon!

Following on from the introductory post last week, we’re taking a look at the various web-enabled TV technologies offered by the big manufacturers.

Today, we’re looking at the manufacturer who’s got the first web TV system on the market: Sony, with its ‘Applicast’ system.

Applicast is currently available on UK models on the W5500, E5500 and V5500 series.

So what does Applicast offer?

According to Sony, Applicast offers a fairly uninspiring collection of basic computer programs: ‘an analogue style clock’, calendar, alarm, calculator, and world clock.

Fortunately for web-savvy shoppers, Sony has packed a key feature into the Applicast system - an RSS reader. This will allow you to “Get up-to-the-minute news from your favourite websites right on your TV screen. With more than 100,000 RSS feeds available worldwide, you can tune in to any hot topic without tuning out of the TV show you’re enjoying.”

The short version seems to be that you’ll be able to get Decide What to Buy on your TV! There are lots of other potential uses: as well as blogs, you could get news, weather info, stock markets, Twitter, etc.

As you can see from the picture below, the Applicast system presents the content in a pretty classy manner, but you won’t be able to read much on the RSS widget!





Overall, the Applicast system has some potential, but plenty of room for improvement. Still, at least the Applicast system is available on TVs that are on sale now, unlike many of the web TV offerings we’ll be covering!

If you’ve been following the world of TVs this year, you’ll have seen that one of the big trends that has people excited at the moment is the serious attempts manufacturers are making to bring web content to our TV screens. It’s often been predicted, but now it finally seems to be happening: the TV and computer are coming together.

So what is ‘web-enabled TV’ - nobody has been able to agree on a standard name yet - and why should I care?

Web-enabled TV is the ability to get some web content available directly through your TV, which is hooked up to an internet connection. As is often the case with new technologies, the kind and amount of content varies widely, from feeds from from sites like Flickr to weather reports, and potentially YouTube.

Web-enabled TVs should be of interest if you like the idea of checking your email or Facebook from your sofa without having to crouch over the PC at the desk, or if you simply like being on the cutting edge of media consumption: YouTube access in particular, could mark a real change in the content we watch on TV.

Web-enabled TV is an emerging technology, with web-enabled sets just beginning to appear. Over the next week or so, I’ll be blogging about the different technologies available from the key manufacturers, including Samsung with their Internet@TV system, Sony with Applicast, and Panasonic with VieraCast.

We’ll take a close look at the current features of each web TV system, and we’ll also try to predict where each system might end up in a few months time. We should end up with a pretty comprehensive guide to the best of the web TV experience. I hope you’ll be able to join us.

Today we’re continuing our guide to understanding TV model names. At first glance, TV product names are generally pretty complicated, unmemorable and unpronounceable combinations of letters and numbers. To the uninitiated this doesn’t help when you’re trying to find your way around the large television market.

However, closer inspection does often reveal some logic behind the names manufacturers give to their latest gift to the world. Today I’m going to walk through Sharp’s naming conventions, with the help of the friendly guys at Sharp.

- The first letters show the type of screen: LC for LC, which is currently the only kind of TV Sharp Aquos makes

- The first two numbers refer to the screen size in inches

- The next letters and numbers are the series. Higher numbers mean better models. For example:

LC19D1E - 19″ HD ready Freeview built-in
LC26D44E - 26″ HD ready Freeview built-in
LC46D65E - 46″ HD ready 1080p Freeview built-in
LC42DH77E - 42″ HD ready 1080p Freeview built-in 100Hz

- All of Sharp’s UK models end in E.

Here at Reevoo we keep an eye on what’s happening in market so we can make sure we’re helping you make the right decisions when you’re buying something. Here’s what’s crossed my desk in the past month or so:

* 3D TV - Manufacturers and broadcasters seem to be serious about pursuing 3D TV technology in the next few years. Panasonic, Philips, and LG all have prototype consumer 3DTVs, while Sky have hinted at launching a sports-only 3DTV service in the next few months. Panasonic and Sky’s version would require special spectacles, but the Philips and LG versions are goggle free.

Here’s a sample of the Philips 3DTV - of course it won’t look 3D on your monitor!

* New iPod Shuffle - Apple suprised us on Wednesday with the launch of a new iPod Shuffle. The Shuffle claims to be the world’s smallest MP3 Player, and the first one that speaks. Critics have noted that it’s now even harder to replace Apple’s notoriously bad headphones, as Apple have moved all the controls to a bud on the headphones. The speech effect allows you to select a playlist after hearing it read out to you by a computerised voice. It is a potentially nice trick, but it remains to be seen if it can make up for the Shuffle’s lack of a screen. Apple iPod reviews.

* Green entertainment - MEPs are voting this month on whether to extend energy ratings like those found on white goods to all consumer electronics products in the EU. This would effectively ban some energy guzzling products, potentially including plasma televisions.

Have you heard of Blu-ray? My mum thinks it’s a fish. My friend thinks it’s something to do with Wi-fi. Only the more clued up readers will know that Blu-ray is basically a high definition DVD format - allowing you to watch films in higher quality, provided you’ve shelled out for a Blu-ray player.

In fact after slow sales over Christmas for Blu-ray, the HD disc format may be in trouble according to our research. We expected sales of Blu-ray players to increase rapidly after Blu-ray killed off HD DVD in February 2008 in the biggest format war since VHS killed Betamax.

But over Christmas demand for DVD players actually outstripped Blu-ray players by a factor of 10. That’s despite some Blu-Ray players selling for less than £100. It looks like shoppers are turning to more convenient digital downloads and digital hard drive recorders instead. Looking at the customer reviews confirms that Blu-ray is waning in popularity as shoppers jump from DVD to downloads.

Here at Reevoo we think this could be partly a convenience choice. The death of the VCR and the cassette meant we saw the end of the chore of rewinding tapes.  The convenience of downloads and wider availability of flexible digital content suggests impatience with the eject button which may be partly why Blu-Ray isn’t capturing the imagination.

When you look back to when DVD replaced VHS, it didn’t take us long to realise how much better DVD players were and DVD quickly took over: you could almost see the video shelving shrink before your eyes in Blockbuster and HMV.  In comparision Blu-ray’s growth has been really slow.

Some of the top brands seem to be admitting the Blu-ray isn’t winning shoppers hearts. In November 2008, Sony announced that worldwide Blu-Ray player sales would fall short of expectations for the year.  They cited the high price of discs as one factor that had curtailed early adoption of Blu-Ray. Unlike previous format changes (e.g. audio tape to compact disc, VHS videotape to DVD), there is no indication that manufacturers will stop producing DVDs. 

Here are our top 3 reasons from customer feedback that explain why Blu-ray isn’t taking off:

1. Improved DVD players
A basic DVD player now costs just £20 (equivalent to the cost of a new release Blu-Ray disc alone), and you can also get high-end DVD players capable of ‘upscaling’ a standard definition image to near-HD, so the gap between DVD and Blu-ray has shrunk a lot.
Customer reviews of DVD players:
“The DVD upscaling is OMG look at that! Smooth, super smooth.”
“Excellent SD picture [and] great upscaling of my old DVD player made it hard to justify a [Blu-Ray player] to the missus.”
“[I] watch DVDs through a up scaling DVD player and the picture is to die for”

2. Blu-ray pricing and inflated disc prices
Blu-ray prices remain high. Over 6 months, the average price of a Blu-ray player was £239, more than four times the average DVD player at £53, and has remained largely flat, while average DVD player prices have dropped by 20% from July to January.

Blu-ray disc prices are also high, costing £16-18 for a new release, compared to £10-12 for a new release on DVD and an extensive back catalogue priced very cheaply.
Many reviews of Blu-ray players also mention frustrations with slow loading times and an inability to play certain file formats.
Here are some of the comments we’ve recieved about Blu ray players:
“Slow to read the BluRay discs but is this a feature of BluRay?”
“Still a bit slow to load discs.”
“Slow to read disks.”
“Takes a long time to load (compared to DVD).”

3. Households are downloading
The final reason we’re not sure Blu-ray will ever fully replace DVD is that there are other popular technologies that are competing for space in your living room. For example, you can download films and TV through services like Apple’s iTunes store which offers HD content for rental or purchase at a lower price than Blu-ray discs. Additionally, there other services such as Sky+ and Sky Movies that let you watch HD films virtually on-demand.  We’ve seen that hard-drive based personal video recorders (PVRs) sold twice as many units as Blu-ray in the UK over Christmas.

Reviews collected by Reevoo.com show that many of us are happy to skip Blu-ray altogether when they upgrade, instead going straight to a combination of downloads and hard drives:
“[My PVR] gives a fantastic picture, when in the HD channels the picture is as good if not better than my Blu ray player.”
“Easy set up. Seems to work well. Great Picture in HD. Good value […] Not just Great Picture quality, but Dolby Digital surround sound as well.”
“Excellent, cheap upgrade to HD television, especially if you have a Sky dish already installed - just plug it in, in place of your Sky box and use. Upscales SD tv to 576p/720i/720p/1080i.”

Today we’re continuing our guide to understanding TV model names. At first glance, TV product names are generally pretty complicated, unmemorable and unpronouncable combinations of letters and numbers. To the uninitiated this doesn’t help when you’re trying to find your way around the large television market.

However, closer inspection does often reveal some logic behind the names manufacturers give to their latest gift to the world. Today I’m going to walk through Sony’s naming conventions.

Our example product is the Sony Bravia KDL-32V4000.

Sony gives the KDL letters to all its LCD TVs. Sony makes no plasma TVs, and makes one cutting-edge OLED TV, the XEL-1.

The first two numbers refer to the screen size in inches.

The next letters indicate the series. Sony has a large number of different series. I’ve collected all the current series below, along with descriptions about each series series from Sony and the range of screen sizes the series is available in.

The final numbers refer to smaller variations within a series - so do check the detailed specifications!

You can browse Sony TVs on Reevoo.

Grim news today for home cinema fans, as the credit crunch really begins to show its teeth in the AV world. Pioneer, who make the highly-regarded Kuro range of premium TVs, will cease production this time next year in order to focus on in-car entertainment and less competitive home entertainment areas - like DJ kit.

Pioneer will also cut 30% of its workforce - a cool 10,000 jobs - and reduce its manufacturing capacity by 30%. Today’s news comes after Pioneer posted a £1bn expected loss for the year’s operations.

Until last year Pioneer focused exclusively on high quality plasma TVs, which were renouned for their deep black levels. The warning signs came in 2008, when Pioneer stopped making the plasma panels it was so well known for, instead using Panasonic panels, and releasing a new range of LCD TVs.

Pioneer remained a premium brand however. In 2008, Reevoo found that Pioneer was the most expensive TV manufacturer, with an average cost per TV of £1,258. That put the Kuro experience out of range of most TV shoppers, and may have put paid to Pioneer’s TV business.

As I said on Pioneer’s blog, this looks like an instance where the credit cruch has cut both ways. In the notoriously competive television market, the credit crunch has made it harder for Pioneer to manufacture their TVs at relatively small volumes, and it’s made it harder for shoppers to justify the Pioneer premium.

I’m sure there will be more details emerging over the next few days, but for now the message for shoppers is that 2009 could be your last chance to get your hands on a Pioneer TV, such as the Pioneer 5090 or a classic Pioneer Kuro PDP4280XD.

See Reevoo to buy, or just gaze at, the other Pioneer Kuros.

NB - this guide has been updated.  See the updated Panasonic TV model numbers post.

Today we’re continuing our guide to understanding TV model names. At first glance, TV product names are generally pretty complicated, unmemorable and unpronouncable combinations of letters and numbers. To the uninitiated this doesn’t help when you’re trying to find your way around the large television market.

However, closer inspection does often reveal some logic behind the names manufacturers give to their latest gift to the world. Today I’m going to walk through Panasonic’s naming conventions.

The first letters tell you a little about the type of screen:

- TH for plasma
- TX for LCD

The first two numbers refer to the screen size in inches.

The next letters and numbers are the series:

- P series are always plamsas
- L series are always LCDs
- A Z means the TV is Full HD
- An X means the TV is HD Ready, but not Full HD

Panasonic currently has the following series:

Panasonic Full HD LCD TVs:

- LZD800 (37″)
- LZD81 (32″, 37″)
- LZD85 (32″, 37″)
- LZD80 (32″, 37″)

Panasonic HD Ready LCD TVs:

- LXD85 (32″)
- LXD80 (26″, 32″)
- LXD8 (19″, 26″, 32″)

Panasonic Full HD plasma TVs:

- PZ800 (42″, 50″, 58″, 65″)
- PZ81 (42″, 46″, 50″)
- PZ85 (42″, 46″)
- PZ80 (42″, 46″)
- PZ8 (42″, 46″)

Panasonic HD Ready plasma TVs:

- PX80 (37″, 42″)
- PX8 (37″, 42″, 50″)

You can find out more about each series in Panasonic’s brochure (10mb pdf)

Finally, the B that’s sometimes included in the product name stands for region B – the UK.