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We interrupt your High Definition TV news, to bring you this important announcement.

Remember The Interceptor? Treasure Hunt? Challenge Anneka?* Well, next week Shiny Media's tech sites, Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny, will be joining in with a live Treasure Hunt that's going to be more thrilling than all three combined. (Who even knew that was possible, right? I know.)

Hunt organiser, Vodafone, has got us on board to help out with giving clues and searching for the "Live Guy", who will be rushing round to most of the major cities of Great Britain, giving away Dell Inspiron mini 9 netbooks to anyone who can catch him.

Tech Digest will be bringing you more exciting details on Friday, but in the meantime, you can check out the Live Guy website.

*Yes you do - you're just pretending to make me feel old.

Normal service will now resume.

Here at iPhonic we really love our surveys. Yep, we love nothing better than coming up with questions, wading through your responses, chuckling at your witty replies (well, sometimes) and generally finding out what you really think.

So here's a really good survey that has sent our excitement levels soaring. We have teamed up with Visual Networking experts Cisco to undertake some research into how you engage with online video.

You use your camera to shoot video. You use your phone to shoot video. You may even be capturing the world in high definition. Now's the time to get your footage working for you by entering our competition and scoring a great prize.

We have teamed up with Visual Networking experts Cisco to offer shedloads of cool prizes, and all you have to do is show us a video that illustrates "My Video Life".

Due to popular demand, and thanks to the high standard of entries so far, we've decided to extend our LG-sponsored competition until Tuesday 1st January 2008.

Just so you know, six people who are shortlisted will need to be able to attend a final judging session at the Shiny Media offices in London on the week commencing 14th January.

Here's another entry describing "What is style?":

All the details you need, plus the current videos you can vote on, can be viewed at the official contest web site.

Thanks to the lovely people at Play.com (which, incidentally, is somewhere you can still order Christmas presents for delivery, up until next Monday), we're giving you the chance to win a slinky, shiny new 16GB iPod Touch.

All you have to do is to head over to our reader survey, fill in a few answers, and submit. It only takes around three minutes to complete. As one of our valued readers, we'd love to know what you think, and it will help us create even better content in 2008.

Here are the important terms and conditions, and to get straight on with the survey, go here.

We've given you plenty of warning about the LG Video Media Talent Award, and now you've got just over a week left to get your video presenting/editing entry to us.

Closing date is Sunday 16th December, so if you want to win one of those six-month internships with Shiny Media, get stuck in with planning, shooting and editing video, go on a working trip to 3GSM next year, plus get your mitts on a shiny new LG Viewty mobile phone, then enter now. (UK entrants only, sorry.)

Below is a video of one of the early bird entrants that you'll be up against. Can you do better? Well, get on with it then!

All the details you need, plus the current videos you can vote on, can be viewed at the official contest web site.

Go to it!

Shiny Media (publisher of HDTV UK) has teamed up with LG (whose TVs we love, obviously...) to launch the LG Video Media Talent Award, which is a competition to find and train two interns to develop their skills at presenting, or filming/editing. The prize: a six-month internship at Shiny Media.

You can either submit a video of your presentation skills, or alternatively take the raw footage provided and edit it into a kickass vid.

Each week, the best entries will be showcased on a number of the Shiny Media sites, including Tech Digest.

The competition runs until 14th December, and full details can be found on the LG Video Media Talent Award website (click the button below) or on its official YouTube channel.

The latest in a line of eye-catching ads for Sony’s Bravia LCD HDTVs will be aired for the first time tomorrow night.

We’ve had bouncing balls in the streets of San Francisco and exploding paint showers on a Glasgow housing estate and now it’s Play-doh bunnies running rampant through New York.

Like the others, the latest ad carries the strapline, ‘Colour, like no other,’ and uses 200 animated bunnies ranging in size from 10cm to 10m in height, as well as an orange plasticine whale, to illustrate the point.

Click through for a link to the video

Channel 4 is the latest terrestrial broadcaster to announce a high-definition TV service. It will be the first of the ‘big five’ to launch a HD simulcast of its main channel.

The schedule is due to be launched in December and will be available free of charge on the Sky HD platform. So, although Channel 4 HD will be available without prescription, customers will still need a Sky HD box and viewing card.

MTV Networks will launch its first pan-European high-definition service next year.

Among the programmes that will available from launch will be MTV Unplugged, VH1 Storytellers and events such as the MTV Video Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards.

Bob Bakish, president of MTVNI, said, "We believe that the terrific clarity and surround sound aspect of the high definition medium are a perfect complement to our music, young adult and kids programming."

The freesat satellite service kicks off early next year in the UK and high-definition broadcasts will definitely be part of the mix. (freesat launched on 6th May 2008)

Sources at ITV have confirmed that they would start transmitting HDTV broadcasts on FreeSat, as well as investing in the FreeSat platform. Under an ambitious turn around plan by new ITV boss, Michael Grade, transmissions will begin with a two-hour slot during primetime and rising to three hours.

If it’s another rainy one then high street store, Woolworths, has offered something to brighten up your Bank Holiday weekend by reducing the price of its PS3 consoles to £375.

The usual price of Sony’s high-definition games console is £425, so this reduction represents the lowest price the PS3 has ever been available for in the UK – and it comes in a bundle that includes two games, two Blu-ray discs and an extra controller.

Mitsubishi is attempting to make high-definition even more realistic by developing a 3D Blu-ray player that actually outputs 3D images.

It’s not just used to play special films that were shot in 3D as we’ve seen in the past. Instead, the company claim they can make any 2D movie 3D using a pair of oversized 3D goggles that look like something straight out of Lawnmower Man.

Interesting concept but we’ll have to wait and see how well it works.

Related stories
Philips demonstrates 3D HDTV
Mitsubishi’s laser powered HDTVs
Mitsubishi unveil nine 1080p DLP rear projection TVs

With Ninja Theory’s first game for the PS3, Heavenly Sword, using 10GB for the audio alone, there’s talk that this game and others could start using dual layer Blu-ray discs in the future.

“We use a mixture of compressed and uncompressed, but lots were compressed for the reasons people have stated. Make no doubt, fitting all the audio in and not stuttering and being the highest quality we could get wasn’t easy, it was quite a problem even with the size of Blu-ray. At one point we seriously considered dual layer Blu-ray because of disk space issues,” the developer told Gamers-Creed.

In a bold move that could push the PS3 console ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony has announced that it will add digital video recording capabilities to the PS3 via an add-on called PlayTV.

The add-on will allow users to watch, pause and rewind live TV via their next generation consoles – something that the Xbox 360 can’t do, although Microsoft is apparently planning to deliver Internet TV in the future.

Walt Disney Studios has announced the first BD Live Blu-ray titles, due to be released in 2008. The discs, which include the animated classic, Sleeping Beauty, and Nicholas Cage’s National Treasure, will feature web-enabled bonus material and picture-in-picture extras.

Disney president, Bob Chapek, believes that the brand’s classic animation titles “are the crown jewels of the Disney Studio, and we do not take releasing them lightly on any format. The proven Blu-ray technology has allowed us to take our films to new heights, fully utilising the larger capacity and interactive capabilities for an incredible all-new consumer experience.”

BSkyB’s Sky One has announced details of its autumn programming schedule, which it claims is ‘unashamedly about entertainment’. There is a host of new shows from the UK and US including a new game show hosted by Noel Edmonds.

“We have never invested so much at any time in the channel's history and all of our new shows will be broadcast in glorious high definition, “ said Richard Woolfe, directors of programmes fro Sky One.

Sony has launched its largest ever high-definition marketing campaign in the US, featuring Super Bowl star, Peyton Manning, and NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt. It centres on its high-definition DNA, which it's coined ‘HDNA’.

The campaign focuses on how HD products in a variety of categories come together to create the ultimate entertainment experience. Sony can include professional cameras and projectors used by Hollywood studios, BRAVIA HDTVs, Blu-ray players, camcorders, notebook computers and digital cameras in its array of HD devices.

If rumours of leaked news across the Atlantic are to be believed, there’s a new Xbox 360 games console on its way – and it could include an integrated HD-DVD drive.

An employee at Gamestop has revealed that the retailer has been given information about a new Xbox SKU for the Xbox Ultimate. Apparently, since Microsoft decided to introduce HDMI connectivity to its Xbox Premium consoles, the latest Elite will replace the Premium – leaving space for a new high-end console.