Mar/100
Netgear’s HD streamering AV adapters
Another month, another blockbuster trade show. CeBIT’s show floor doesn’t open up until tomorrow (and yeah, we’ll be storming it like no other), but Netgear’s wasting precisely no time in unveiling its latest wares. The two pieces that are nearest and dearest to our hearts are the WNHDB3004 and WNHDB3004, the former of which is an 802.11n HD Home Theater Kit and the latter of which is a universal WiFi adapter that adds wireless support to any AV product with an Ethernet jack. Users interested in streaming “multiple, simultaneous, jitter-free 1080p HD video streams wirelessly throughout the home” should certainly give the first a look, as it enables instant wireless streaming from your existing router to any component with an Ethernet port; think of this as the beautiful alternative to running a 50 foot patch cable through your living room and simultaneously eroding your relationship with Mr. / Mrs. Significant Other. The outfit also doled out a few SMB-centric ReadyNAS devices and a couple of HomePlug AV boxes with AC outlet passthroughs, all of which are detailed there in the source links.
Mar/100
Mac mini with HDMI
A Mac mini with HDMI. Makes sense, right? Well, it hasn’t to Apple so far, but it looks like it just might be ready to change its tune. That’s according to AppleInsider, at least, which has it from “two people familiar with the matter” that prototypes of a Mac mini with an HDMI port have been seen making the rounds in the usual inner circles. At least one of those prototypes was also said to be based on NVIDIA’s MCP89 chipset, which means that any forthcoming Mac mini revision would pass over the latest Core i3, i5 and i7 processors in favor of older Core 2 Duos if it is indeed the chipset used in the final product. Unfortunately, there’s nothing more specific than “this year” in terms of a rumored release date, and this is still just one rumor about what would be a fairly big shift in Apple’s strategy — so, you know, keep that in mind before you start ripping apart your current HTPC setup.
Jan/100
CableLabs starts testing 3D
The cable industry’s research and development arm has proudly announced that 3D testing is on. This will allow TV manufactures and cable companies to begin having their equipment tested for 3D interoperability. Along the way CableLabs has also confirmed that many of the existing set-top boxes will work with “frame-compatible” 3D formats — like side by side pictured above. This is exactly what DirecTV announced it would use and is the very same standards that HDMI added to the spec. Basically it allows providers to dedicate the same amount of bandwidth to 3D as it was to 2D. Of course this means that the resolution is cut in half (horizontally in the case of side by side) but we’re told that sharpness isn’t as perceivable in 3D as it is in 2D and after seeing the DirecTV 3D demo at CES, we believe it. Unlike the adoption of HD, it doesn’t look like the cable industry is going to let the satellite companies run away with the new technology unchallenged like last time.
Jan/100
Digital Cube works WiFi, HD playback
It’s pretty obvious what it takes to play in the current generation of PMPs: enough juice to process HD videos, and an HDMI port to get it off the player and onto the big screen. Unfortunately, the new i-Station T9 from Digital Cube sort of stops there. It has great codec support, and even WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity (to be enjoyed by what OS is unclear), but unlike its big brother S3’s WVGA display, the mere 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 screen on the T9 will have us looking for an HDMI port a bit early. No word on price or availability.
Dec/090
HDMI 1.4 spec gets revision for 3D Broadcasting
The drumbeat for HD 3D continues to pick up the pace, and with broadcasters around the globe pushing forward 2010 plans to bring 3D home HDMI has updated the course of its latest HDMI 1.4 spec to ensure compatibility between displays and boxes. Quite simply, existing cable and satellite hardware isn’t going to be held to the same requirements as Blu-ray and videogame equipment rocking the 3D sticker and expecting compatibility with displays on the way, since they won’t be passing the same high quality, high bandwidth dual-stream 1080p images anyway. Additionally, some broadcasters are pushing for HDMI to officially support “Top/Bottom” 3D transmissions they plan to use, which sacrifice resolution while saving bandwidth by shoving left/right images into a single frame. While that should add an entirely new angle to the line counting and claims of “HDLite” (get ready for 3DLite) all viewers can do is wait to hear when or if their hardware will get a software upgrade to 3D (like the one we expect will allow the PS3 to play 3D Blu-ray discs) in the months and years to come, once there’s a standard everyone can adhere to of course.
Dec/090
Yamaha sound system soundbar, sub-infused receiver
We’re always leery of “world’s first” claims, but we’ve definitely never seen an AV receiver with a ginormous port on the front. The unorthodox device you’re inevitably peering at above is one part of the two-piece YHT-S400, which looks to provide cinema-like sound in areas where space is hard to come by. The 31.5-inch long soundbar measures just 2-inches high and is designed to fit in front of most 32- to 50-inch HDTVs without blocking the screen, while the accompanying “first-of-its-kind subwoofer-integrated receiver” provides the power, the bass and the connectivity. A trio of HDMI inputs are included, and HD audio signals from Blu-ray Discs are accepted via linear PCM transmission. It’s up for grabs now at $599.95, and if you’re hoping to add iPod or Bluetooth support, Yamaha’s YDS-11 and YBA-10 adapters are fully compatible.
Dec/090
RAmos T11TE PMP Offers 1080p HDMI Output at a Modest Price
When it comes to portable media players, there are a lot of them on the market! Not the amount that you can find on the Asian market but I think Europe and the U.S. are doing pretty good in terms of offered devices. Especially seeing how from time to time, we get an infusion of gadgets with Asian origin so as to allow us to live the dream at a much lower price. Because the problem with the European and U.S. market is this: most really good devices cost a lot.
This is where the Asian imports come along and offer us decent items at less than half the price of what we can find locally. Such as the RAmos T11TE Full HD PMP, a portable media player (as the name says) that does not only come with above decent specs but also the possibility to output videos via HDMI to a resolution of 1090p. Yes, indeedy, ladies and gents, it can handle Full High Definition. The price? Well… about 177.45 USD.
It sports a 5.0-inch touch TFT LCD with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, has an OTG function, weighs about 320g, comes with stereo speakers and even dual 3.5mm audio jacks. It also doubles as an e-book reader, has 16GB of built-in memory and the storage can be further expanded via the microSD expansion slot. As far as format support goes… if there is something that this device doesn’t have support for, then I don’t know it.
You can watch just about any type of video ranging from DAT, MPG, MPEG, VOB to WMV, MKV, TS, RM, RMVB, it can read JPEG, BMP, PNG and TIFF images and will allow the user to also listen to a number of audio formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV or FLAC. All this for 177.45 USD? You got it, ladies and gents!
Dec/090
Blu-ray comes to iMac
Although it’s technically possible to use the gorgeous IPS display in the 27-inch iMac as a standalone monitor, the feature’s been pretty limited in practice, since it only works with other DisplayPort devices like the unibody MacBooks. That’s about to change thanks to Apogee, which just posted up a video demo of an as-yet-unnamed HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter being used to play Xbox 360, PS3, and — yes, it’s true — Blu-ray movies on Apple’s latest all-in-one. Never thought you’d see the day, did you? Apogee hasn’t disclosed pricing or availability yet, but we’re told more info is coming soon –we’d guess sometime around CES.
Dec/090
Wireworld’s $1,000 HDMI cable
You idiot. Where did you buy those cables? Walmart? You probably think you’re getting the whole 1080p, don’t you! Boy, you couldn’t be more wrong. What the big box doesn’t want you to know, with their cheap-ass $150 cables is that there are, um, waves and some, uh… electromagnetic spectrats. And they eat your pixels! Yeah, that’s right! Pixel-eating EM spectrats! Not even making this stuff up. How much did you spend on that TV? $1,000? You did buy that $1,800 power cable from Furutech, right? Well, don’t you think you should spend at least that much on the all-important cables that are going to funnel the dynamic 1080p transmissions from your Blu-ray player to your TV? Here, try this Platinum Starlight HDMI cable from Wireworld. It has a patent-pending DNA Helix conductor design formed by the gods themselves out of 24 solid silver conductors. Hell, $1,000 is probably a bargain for one of these one meter cables. Your eyes are worth it, after all. You’re welcome.
Nov/090
Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter
When Belkin killed its FlyWire, it also put a serious hurtin’ on the hopes of wireless HDTV ever truly taking off in the near term. Granted, the device was horrifically overpriced, but it was easily the most well-known product in the fledgling sector. Now, however, it seems that a few other players are sneaking into the limelight, with Philips recently introducing its sub-$1,000 Wireless HDTV Link and Sony pricing its DMX-WL1 for the everyman. Today, Best Buy’s own Rocketfish has introduced its WirelessHD Adapter, a two-piece set that enables a single HDMI device to be connected to an HDMI-enabled HDTV sans cabling. You simply plug your source into one box and your HDTV into another; so long as the two are within 33 feet of one another, 1080p content can be slung without wires. It’s up for order right now at $599.99, which — amazingly enough — is actually more expensive than that 30-foot Monster HDMI cable you were secretly eying.