A year in AV: Blu-ray won, Freesat launched, Sky went 3D

A year in AV: Blu-ray won, Freesat launched, Sky went 3D

A memorable year for AV

What a year it's been for the world of the home cinema enthusiast. The shady goings-on in the broadcast industry has meant that more often than not, the technology stories to hit the front page have been AV based.

Whether it's Sky falling out with Virgin Media, Freesat snapping up ex-satellite subscribers, or iTunes muscling in on the world of movie downloads, never have so many companies got down and dirty in the fight for viewing figures.

So with this in mind and with the end of 2008 approaching fast, we thought it best to take a look back at a year that started with a format war and ended in another dimension…

January

The year began with a bang with Warner deciding to show its allegiance to one HD format and backing Blu-ray. This meant that Toshiba's HD DVD press conference in CES was a little bit, er, frantic.

While all this was happening, Apple announced its latest version of AppleTV and unveiled its plans for movie domination, with the launch of its iTunes Movie Store.

February

HD DVD officially dies – Blu-ray is championed victor of the rather short-lived format war.

March

7Digital announces that it is to sell its Warner Music back catalogue completely free of DRM.

Panasonic decides to update its Viera line, with the rather impressive TX-LZD800. The plasma screen came in 32 and 37-inch sizes and boasted something called 100Hz Motion Picture Pro 2.

Not to be outdone, Loewe announced its Connect 37 DR+ LCD TV which came with built-in media streaming. Nice.

April

Tesco announces it is to launch a DRM-free music website, but can't quite get all the major music labels on board.

Pioneer and Panasonic shake hands in plasma deal, which sees the two companies share and share alike when it comes to TV technology.

Sony announces that it is to offer TVs with built-in Blu-ray players. So far, they still haven't materialised.

May

Freesat officially launches to much fanfare. Essentially the company is boasting that you can have free satellite, hence the Ronseal-esque name. All you need is a dish – which confuses a lot of consumers.

Sony's PlayTV is announced. Turn your PS3 into a PVR. No, we weren't excited either.

We were excited about super hi-vision, which debuted in Japan. Who said 1080p is the future? It looks positively opaque in comparison to super hi-vision.

Pioneer announces it's to release LCD TVs. Which doesn't sound that exciting, but it's a major step for a company who have always been seen to favour plasma technology.

June

The UK's iTunes Store gets movie downloads. Thanks for that Mr Jobs, it only took you, er, five months to sort out.

It was also a packed month for new TV tech. Philips announced its new range of 7603D Ambilight TVs. The range is so beautiful, that you'll spend more time looking at the frame than what's showing on the screen.

Mitsubishi also wowed the AV world with the launch of its first 3D TV.

July

Pioneer creates 400GB Blu-ray disc. This news is so important, so ground-breaking that it gets its own special slot in July.

Okay, we admit it, July was a stupidly slow month for AV news. It's bigger Blu-ray discs and that's your lot.

August

Moving swiftly to August, Sony launched its Bravia Z4500, EX1 and ZX1 tellies, but it was Toshiba who grabbed the biggest headline with the world's first upscaling HD TV. Well, it's not the world's first as all HD sets upscale, but the TV does boast about upscaling SD footage to near-HD quality. Nice.

September

September was the month of IFA 2008, this was where Samsung debuted something called UltraHD. The question remains, though, can our humble eyes take such clarity?

After being announced way back in May, PlayTV finally launched, which allows you to turn your PS3 into a… ah, we're bored just typing it.

September also saw the Freeview HD trials finish, with BBC successfully pushing HD content over DVB-T2. The results of which we should see in 2009.

In music download news 7Digital went completely DRM-free and RealDVD announces legal DVD ripping – only for it to be ripped away from them again.

October

Nintendo Wii got full-screen iPlayer access in October. This was a tad better than what Sky subscribers got – their iPlayer access turned out to be a rubbish hyperlink. Not that there's anything wrong with hyperlinking, as this marvellous article proves!

Panasonic sold its 300 millionth TV set and Sony announced the Blu-ray friendly Vaio TT-Series.

Not to be outdone Steve Jobs calls Blu-ray "a bag of hurt". This probably means that we won't see a blu-ray drive in a Mac any time soon.

November

Sky choose the wintry month of November to launch/re-launch its Sky Player service, which now includes live streaming. Theoretically it also means Sky for all, as you don't need a dish to watch Sky through the internet. You do have to pay, though – about the same as you would if you had a dish. Go figure.

YouTube also decided to go widescreen. There's not much else we can say about that.

December

Ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq became the face of Blu-ray in December, offering slightly condescending advice to us all.

Denon announced that it is to sell a Blu-ray machine costing over £3,000, at the same time Woolworths went into meltdown (completely unrelated, of course.)

The UK also saw its first Digital IMAX launch, and a select few journalists were allowed to see into the future of AV, and that future is 3D. Sky 3D in fact. Funny that the future of AV is reliant on technology almost 80 years old, but there you go.

And finally, the good ol' workhorse that was the VHS finally died, after a slow and rather fuzzy death.

All that's left to say after that is: roll on 2009…