Nov/090
AMIMON’s WHDI wireless HD for netbooks and laptops
The market leader in wireless High Definition semiconductor solutions(AMIMON), today announced the availability of WHDI™ modules which can be embedded into notebook PCs and netbook PCs. The WHDI modules are available today with a mini-PCI form-factor of 50mm*30mm and will also be offered with a standard Display-Mini card form-factor of 44.4mm*26mm based on the interface defined by the PCI SIG® which uses Displayport™. Additionally, these cards are designed for the WHDI™ (Wireless Home Digital Interface™) standard and are capable of wirelessly delivering full uncompressed 1080p/60Hz HD content throughout the entire home.
The AMIMON WHDI modules’ compact form factor enables seamless integration into PCs. The WHDI modules are also designed for low power consumption suitable for battery-powered devices.
Notebook PCs embedded with the new WHDI modules are expected to be in the market in 2010 offering consumers the ability to connect their notebook wirelessly to any WHDI-enabled HDTV or, through an external WHDI-to-HDMI adaptor, also to any HDTV. The new modules will also enable external wireless PC-to-TV accessories (’dongles’) which connect to the PC and TV via HDMI.
With WHDI consumers can view the entire content of their notebook screen on their TV. Content such as Internet video, flash media, digital photos, PC games can all be viewed and experienced on the TV with a convenient wireless connection.
“PCs are increasingly becoming a source of multimedia entertainment like Hulu, YouTube, etc. Consumers will be able to wirelessly connect their PCs and watch all this cool new content on their big screen TV anywhere in the home,” said Noam Geri, vice president of marketing and business development for AMIMON. “WHDI is gaining momentum with TV OEMs and now also PC OEMs set to offer consumers multiple WHDI enabled products in 2010.”
The WHDI modules are based on the revolutionary video modem technology operating in the 5GHz unlicensed band, pioneered by AMIMON and the backbone of WHDI. WHDI co-exists in the same frequency spectrum with Wi-Fi and uses similar RF building blocks and antennas. The WHDI synergies with Wi-Fi enable a roadmap to integrated WHDI + Wi-Fi semiconductor components which will offer notebook OEMs the prospect of a very low cost WHDI wireless HD link to the TV.
The WHDI Modules are designed and manufactured by AMIMON’s ODM Partners. Key features include:
* Based on AMIMON’s AMN 2120/2220 WHDI chipset, designed for the WHDI standard
* Compact form factor
* Support for full high definition resolutions up to 1080p/60Hz
* Practically no latency – less than 1 millisecond
* Hollywood approved HDCP 2.0 copy protection
* Low power consumption modes for portable devices
* Low cost
* 5GHz unlicensed band with support for Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)
Nov/090
Getting the best audio from PS3, without HDMI
Once you’ve actually decided what hardware to purchase, avoided the perilous purchasing decisions involved in finding cables, but actually setting it up can trip up the newbies among us. Suck is our friend David’s problem, trying to figure out if lossless audio is a possibility for his HDMI-less receiver:
“I read your article and I would like further advice. I have the brand new PS3, which I’m going to use with a 1080p Sony Bravia – the video is fine..HDMI to the tv. The problem is that I have an ONKYO THX 7.1 system (really 5.1), and there is no HDMI, so I plan on using an optical audio cable from the PS3 into the receiver. How do i get the best sound? Will the PS3 decode the trueHD (or whatever it is) and send the full spectrum of sound across the optical to the receiver? Will NOT having the HDMI to the receiver affect my sound, or will the PS3 internal decoding send a perfect lossless sound to my non-HDMI receiver?”
Just in case our HD 101 explanation wasn’t enough (First off, S/PDIF transmission — over either optical TOSLINK or coax — does not have the bandwidth to carry Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA signals. If you connect your Blu-ray player to your receiver with optical or coax, the audio will “fall back” to Dolby Digital, DTS or two-channel PCM — lossless, but only two channels,) any tips on how David can get the highest audio quality possible out of the equipment he has? Of course, if you think replacing one of the components is a better choice, that’s always an option as well.
Nov/090
Samsung’s TV combination monitor with inbuilt TV tuner
Remember the Samsung P2370HD monitor? Well, this is it at 27 inches. How’s that for concision? Oh, you want more — well, Samsung must’ve expected you to, because it’s also added a TV tuner and a HDMI input to its latest Full HD display, to go along with a 5ms response time and a 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. There’s also a pair of 3 watt stereo speakers that can simulate 5.1 channel sound — good for emergencies or if you just can’t stand speakers cluttering up your desktop. Filling out the goodie bag are Picture In Picture and Picture By Picture modes, which should make good use of the extra real estate on the screen by combining, for example, your desktop with a TV source. The price is set at 549,000 Won (or about $473) for Korea, though global availability looks imminent so don’t rush to import it just yet.
Nov/090
ViewSonic’s VMP70 media player
The WD TV is still more or less the king of the tiny media player boxes, but now Viewsonic is getting into the game at a lower price point — and minus the whole network compatibility bit. The VMP70 is a “direct connect” media device, so it will play content from your choice of USB-compatible storage, pumping it at up to 1080p to your display over HDMI or component cables, also sporting composite for lower-def fare. It packs an S/PDIF port to get clean audio, and supports a slew of formats including the usual suspects (DivX,Xvid,H.264) along with some slightly less usual ones (RM/RMVB, DTS, OGG). It’s all available for an MSRP of $129.99, but order now and you’ll get special holiday pricing of $98.99. Operators are standing by… somewhere… probably.
Nov/090
Forget HDTV and 3DTV, In-Stat’s speculation on UHD (Ultra High Definition)
While the market for High-Definition TV (HDTV) has hit the mainstream, the industry has already started speculating about the commercialization of Ultra-High Definition (UHD). Market research firm, In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com, believes there will be a lengthy time period before the UHD market reaches a critical mass of 5% household penetration. However, as the initial market debuts over the next five to ten years, there will be ample opportunities for technology companies, manufacturers, service providers and media companies to experiment with business models and strategies to make UHD a strong business in the long term.
“UHD formats provide between four and sixteen times the resolution of Blu-ray or 1080p high definition as well as 22.2 multichannel three-dimensional sound,” says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. “This is a vast improvement over the currently available end user viewing experience in the home.”
As originally proposed, UHD comes in two levels of resolution: 7680 x 4320 pixels (i.e., 8K resolution), and 3840 x 2160 (i.e., 4K resolution).
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
- The rising popularity of high resolution digital cinema will expose consumers to high resolution content. Then, early UHDTVs will be made available to provide a digital cinema high resolution viewing experience in the home. Ultimately, broadcasters will start offering UHD content to an addressable market of UHDTVs, between 2017 and 2022.
- In-Stat expects the total installed base of UHDTVs Europe to approach 5% household penetration until 2021, and increase to over 28.2% penetration by 2025.
- In Asia-Pacific, Japan will be among the early adopter countries.
Nov/090
VIA Nano 3000 CPU series to rival Intel’s Atom
We suppose dreams really do come true. Nearly a full year after we heard that VIA was toiling on a new processor line to really give Intel’s aging Atom a run for its money, the company has come clean and confessed that those whispers were indeed true. The Isaiah-based Nano 3000 Series is a range of six new CPUs clocked between 1GHz and 2GHz, all of which boast an 800MHz FSB, 64-bit support, SSE4 instructions, Windows 7 / Linux compatibility and power ratings that check in some 20 percent more efficient than existing VIA Nano processors. There’s also the promise of 1080p multimedia playback, and VIA swears that we’ll see these popping up in all-in-one desktops as well as thin-and-light laptops in the very near future. How soon, you ask? Samples are shipping now to OEMs, with mass production slated for Q1 2010.
Nov/090
HDI’s laser-driven 3D HDTV
Low-Cost, Extremely Energy Efficient 100-inch Diagonal Displays Fast-Tracked for 2010
October 28, 2009 – Los Gatos, CA – HDI Ltd. announces it has entered into a manufacturing agreement to mass produce their proprietary 100-inch diagonal Laser-Driven 2D/3D Switchable Dynamic Video Projection Televisions. HDI Ltd.’s 2D/3D switchable system delivers a stunningly superior 2D image, with a 50% greater resolution than today’s digital cinemas, and derives its greater-than-high definition stereoscopic 1920 x 1080p “3D” image quality from two RGB laser-illuminated Liquid Crystal on Silcon (LCOS) micro display imagers. At full 1080p HD, the HDI Ltd. screen refreshes at 360 fields per-second on each eye, the fastest refresh rate on any mass produced television or projector.
HDI Ltd. has completely eliminated the adverse effects, such as migraines, dizziness, nausea, and motion sickness, long associated with inferior and expensive shutter glasses and substandard 3D technology. HDI Ltd. delivers the most immersive, comfortable, and natural 3D viewing experience in the world with low-cost and light-weight proprietary polarized glasses. Technology journalist Richard Hart called HDI Ltd.’s picture quality, “the smoothest yet, and smoothness means no headaches,” and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers, stated, “Without a doubt, the best demonstration of 3D technology I have ever seen.”
In addition, HDI Ltd. displays draw 80% less power than existing 2D plasma displays of the same size, offer a 95% reduction in manufacturing pollution, and a 100% reduction in harmful chemicals and radioactive components currently used in existing televisions. At 10-inches thick, HDI’s 100-inch diagonal display weighs 75% less than equivalent Plasma and LCD displays, and is anticipated to have a street price potentially 60% less than current 2D flatscreen Plasma and LCD displays.
HDI’s September 2009 announcement of their potential new standard for switchable 2D/3D television technology came on the same day several major manufactures announced plans to release new energy-guzzling plasma televisions with 3D capabilities via shutter glasses, all of which featured price tags as much as 100% or more than current 2D televisions.
HDI Ltd. quickly caught the interest of the consumer electronics industry and, as reported on Variety.com, top execs, engineers and S3D experts from six of the eight leading television manufactures recently crowded together into HDI Ltd.’s tiny Los Gatos lab to see their prototype 100-inch, rear-projection S3D television.
David Cohen of Variety.com reported, “HDI’s approach shows the promise of laser-driven 3D TV could be a reality surprisingly soon,” and Sean Portnoy of ZDNet said, “We could be looking at a Holy Grail of sorts for the next generation of television.”
According to co-founder Ingemar Jansson, “The first production-run of 100-inch HDI Ltd. 2D/3D switchable displays should quickly put product into a multitude of B2B and public demonstration venues.” He’s mum as to when leading American retailers will be able to put units into homes, but stresses that the simplistic and inexpensive design and manufacturing techniques required to produce HDI Ltd. televisions, “will have product in the marketplace faster than one would expect,” and adds, “either with the HDI logo or that of another leading manufacturer.”
Offering a thought on the fact that California appears poised to be the first state to ban power-guzzling big-screen TVs, Jansson states, “In light of the energy efficient products emerging from companies such as Apple, the lobbying efforts of the Consumer Electronics Association strikes me as almost criminal in promoting antiquated technologies that the ‘Grid,’ and the planet, simply cannot sustain.”
Oct/090
The latest 3D technology is coming home
Now wait one second before you start on the whole “I’m not wearing any stupid looking glasses,” because no matter what you say, there are more people paying extra to go 3D movies than ever and the reason is simple; it’s because this isn’t like the crappy 3D you saw during the Super Bowl last year — or that our parents grew up with. No, the 3D that Sony, Panasonic, and others are promising next year is like nothing you’ve seen. We’ve come a long way since the old anaglyph red and blue glasses that come in cereal boxes, so before you knock the new technology before it’s even out, click through and read about the technologies that might bring us a real 3D revolution.
We have two eyes for a reason and while we’ve enjoyed stereo sound since-like-forever, stereoscopic images haven’t quite arrived. At its core, 3D is as simple as using two cameras to capture the data that our eyes would, but it’s the display part that’s proven tricky. Ultimately, the technology has to find a way to present each eye with a different variation of an image, at that point our eyes and brain do the rest.
Circular polarized or active LCD shutter glasses
The one thing that hasn’t changed about 3D is the need for glasses — if you’re holding out for 3D on a big screen without glasses, you’re going to let this generation of 3D pass you by. The technology in the glasses varies by a lot and the main two types these days are circular polarized and active LCD shutter. Both serve the same purpose, to ensure each eye sees a different image, but in much different ways.
LCD shutter glasses
So in comes the LCD shutter glasses — the technology itself has actually been around for some time, in fact there were eight Sega Master Systems games that worked with shutter glasses dating back to the 80’s. But the technology was limited by the display technology of that era which could only show 480i at 30 frames per second, which worked out to about 15 FPS per eye in 3D — so yeah, the flickering could make you sick.
It’s not all good though, besides the cost of the glasses and the added emitter in the TV, some say that there is added flickering, and with the shutters closing in front of your eyes, the image is dimmed a bit. Both Sony and Panasonic claim these are no longer issues in thanks to the super fast refresh rates and brightness available on the latest HDTVs.
Yes, you read that right, all four of these tech giants are pushing the same home 3D display technology. While Samsung and Mitsubishi have been demoing its DLP HDTVs with shutter glasses for-like-ever, both Sony and Panasonic have been showing LCD and Plasma (respectively) HDTVs that can display 3D HD at CES, CEDIA and other shows. In fact Sony and Panasonic promise to release the first consumer 3D capable displays next year. That last part is an important one, so listen up: both will offer HDTVs next year that will work just like any other HDTV today, but will also work with 3D. So not only are the HDTVs going to be fully backwards compatible, but supposedly the new sets won’t cost much more than a normal HDTV. In fact Panasonic believes that in the next few years most of its HDTVs will be 3D ready.
We know what you’re thinking, you just bought a new HDTV and you want to know why it can’t handle 3D. Even if it was possible to add an IR emitter to keep the shutter glasses in sync, the experience at 30 FPS per eye wouldn’t be as enjoyable. And just like when the first 1080p HDTVs hit the shelves without the ability to actually accept 1080p input, the current crop of 120hz HDTVs can’t actually display 120 frames per second — only show each frame of a 60 fps signal, twice.
3D sources
Of course, 3D-capable displays don’t do much without 3D content, and the good news is that most of the infrastructure needed for 3D in the home is already here thanks to HD. With the new 1.4 spec, HDMI has been updated to accomdate 3D and the first source is almost guaranteed to be Blu-ray. In fact as we speak the BDA is working on standardizing the storage of 3D movies on a Blu-ray Disc. It actually isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds, because what is essentially needed is to up the spec from 1080p at 30 FPS to 1080p at 120 FPS. In fact a 50GB Blu-ray Disc has more than ample capacity to handle a 3D HD movie thanks to the wonders of video compression where only the difference of each frame is stored. So 3D movies only require about 50 percent more space, and the one thing about the new 3D Blu-ray standard that has been determined, is that every 3D Blu-ray Disc will include a 2D version of the movie.
But not everyone can see 3D
When we say that 3D isn’t for everyone, we mean it. In fact it is estimated that 4 percent of us are actually physically incapable of seeing 3D no matter what the display technology. And even worse, according to the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, “Research has shown that up to 56 percent of those 18 to 38 years of age have one or more problems with binocular vision and therefore could have difficulty seeing 3D.” So if you are one of these affected, it might be time to see an opthamologist and get screened for amblyopia. And if you happen to be blind in one eye you can still watch 3D, but it’ll just look normal to you — assuming of course you have the glasses on.
Where we go from here
One thing we weren’t able to learn in our quest for 3D knowledge was how compatible these different technologies are. Essentially we assume that the functional compatibility between the two main 3D display technologies described above are like the differences between LCD and Plasma — in other words, they both connect to the same HD set-top-box and Blu-ray player — but until the BDA announces the final details of the 3D specification there isn’t really any way to know for sure. But it seems that if Blu-ray was compatible with both circular polarized and LCD shutter glasses, then certainly whatever broadcast standard or game console announced down the road would also work with both.
Like it or not, 3D is coming and just like HD before it, there will be plenty of technology pundits predicting its demise. The problem right now is very few have had the chance to check out the technology and if you have been lucky enough to see it, it is hard to convey how cool it is to others. On top of this, 3D has a long road ahead because most people think they have seen it because they’ve tried the anaglyph glasses during a Super Bowl Commercial. The other big hurdle is the whole stupid looking glasses argument — which doesn’t make that much sense since you’ll be wearing them in the privacy of your own home. Now we know that the same technology lovers who read Engadget would never hate on any new technology without experiencing it first hand, but tell your friends and family that something new is coming, and no it isn’t like anything else they’ve seen.
Oct/090
Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player
WD(R) Unveils WD TV(TM) Live HD Media Player With Network Capability and Enhanced User Experience
Consumers Can Stream HD Content from USB Drives, Network Drives and Popular Internet Sites to Their Big Screen TVs
LAKE FOREST, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV Live HD media player featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution. The new WD TV Live HD media player makes it easy for anyone to play HD (high definition) videos stored on USB and network drives, as well as Internet content from popular Web sites, on the biggest screen in their home — their HD television. Building on the success of the WD TV HD media player, the WD TV Live HD media player offers a new, more responsive interface to help consumers enjoy a world of digital content in their living room, without a computer.
The network capability of the WD TV Live media player enables users to stream or transfer movies from PC or Mac® computers or a network-attached storage device such as WD’s My Book® World Edition(TM) and WD ShareSpace network drives to their HD TVs. The WD TV Live media player also allows users to stream rich content from YouTube(TM), Flickr® and Pandora®. The HD onscreen menu brings together all of the users’ available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface.
Consumers are amassing large libraries of digital videos, photos and music on their computers. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average consumer had 123 GB of videos, photos, and music in 2009 which will grow to 1.3 TB by 2013 (Digital Lifestyles: 2009 Outlook). In addition, an increasing number of consumers are looking for seamless access to their personal media, as well as to Internet media. According to Parks Associates, the sales of connected consumer electronics devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).
Consumers are investing millions of dollars in HD TVs, with HD televisions representing more than 50 percent of TVs sold in the U.S., according to Parks Associates (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009). But consumers’ digital content is often relegated to the relatively small screen on their PC or Mac computers. The WD TV Live HD media player is the newest member in the family of WD TV media players by WD, which make moving digital content from a computer to playing it on a big screen TV simply plug-and-play.
Like the popular first-generation WD TV HD media player introduced last fall, the WD TV Live media player connects directly to a users’ HD TV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport(TM) portable drive. The WD TV Live media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live media player also will play movies and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.
“The media enthusiast community has embraced the first WD TV HD media player and given us tremendous feedback,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “With the new WD TV Live media player we’re giving them what they asked for — network connectivity and Internet-content streaming capabilities — and offering them a simple way to enjoy all of their digital media and enjoy it on their HD TVs.”
WD TV Live HD Media Player
Features of the WD TV Live HD Media Player include:
- Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
- Play a wide variety of file formats including support for a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
- Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio;
- Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection(1) to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
- Turns a USB drive(2) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
- Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
- Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type;
- Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
- Picture Transfer Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera or video camera and or any digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
- Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
- Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
- Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
- Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
- File copying between USB devices;
- HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output(3) for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
- SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
- Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.
Pricing and Availability
The WD TV Live Media Player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Media Player is $149.99 USD.
Oct/090
LG’s Blu-ray 5.1 home cinema system with iPod dock
LG have announced a new home cinema system, and if you’re a fan of globular satellite speakers and have an iPod then this might be worth a look. The LG HB954SP Blu-ray HCS packs a Full HD 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound audio system into a compact, blue-tinged box, with 1,000W of audio tuned by ear-wizard Mr Mark Levinson.
A slide-out dock at the front takes your iPod or iPhone, and allows for control from the HB954SP’s own remote, while the system can also upscale standard definition DVDs to 1080p. An ethernet connection hooks the LG up to the internet, for streaming YouTube content and accessing BD Live content, plus there are two HDMI inputs and a USB port.
The company obviously knows that a big audience for home cinema systems are families short on space, since they’ve preloaded seven different audio tweaking profiles including one which shuts off the subwoofer; as LG say, then you won’t wake any sleeping children. LG haven’t announced pricing for the new system, but it’ll apparently land at retailers in November 2009.
LG rolls out the red carpet to bring Hollywood home
The HB954SP Blu-ray home cinema system brings the best high definition picture, sound and online content into your living room
Berkshire, 8 October 2008 LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, has launched its new Blu-ray home cinema system (HCS) – the HB954SP. With Full HD 1080p playback, 1000W of power and 5.1 channel output, the player is neatly packaged in a stylish design with five oval satellite speakers.
With Blu-ray technology and full HD (1080p) up-scaling, the quality of the image and sound have never been clearer, enabling you to enjoy every detail on the screen from your Blu-ray movies, as well as improving the quality of your existing DVD collection. Having specially tuned the system, Mr Mark Levinson, the international authority of high-end audio, ensures that the sound quality is nothing short of perfection – guaranteed to enhance the cinematic experience.
Enhancing its reputation of manufacturing cutting-edge technology, LG’s latest system is packed with amazing features to access additional video and audio content. With one click access to YouTube, the world’s favourite contents sharing site is available at your fingertips, giving access to more than 2.5 billion videos online from the comfort of your living room. The addition of BD Live means you also have access to extra content and downloadable features from filmmakers’ websites. The HB954SP is also able to dock and charge your iPhone or iPod, allowing you to play your music collection through the home cinema system.
Sarah Thompson, marketing executive for digital media at LG Electronics, says, “LG brings the explosiveness and realism of the Hollywood blockbusters into your living room with our latest home cinema system. It is a testament to our endeavour to push the boundaries and create home entertainment solutions to suit everyone’s needs, whilst incorporating the best quality image, sound, and online capabilities”
Designed for ease-of-use, the inclusion of the LG Sound Gallery offers seven simple options to enhance the sound being played to help you create the perfect ambiance in your home, complimenting any mood, so you can activate night mode to turn off the bass so you do not wake sleeping children. With 2 HDMI inputs, this also allows you to hook up other devices such as a game console, DVD recorder or HD satellite box offering great connectivity,
This system will be available from November 2009 from major retailers and independents.
HB954SP
Features:
· 1000W audio system, specially tuned by Mr Mark Levinson
· Playback Blu-ray discs in Full HD
· Stream YouTube videos
· iDock – connect your iPod or iPhone and control it all from the remote control
· 2 HDMI inputs
· Full HD 1080p upscaling of standard DVDs
· LG Sound Gallery
· BD Live – download extra movie content via the internet
· Touch sensitive controls
· USB playback
· Optical input