Televisions, computers, DVD players, VCR players, video game consoles, compact disc players, external hard drives, stereo components, speakers… they all just end up creating a bunch of ugly wires that some people try to stash behind stands, hide under cases or wrap up in cable wraps and it can get downright frustrating. To add to the wire count, imagine wanting to play your downloaded content streamed over to your television or stereo. Seems like Wisair has come to the rescue.

The Wisair Wireless USB Audio/Video Adapter Set — an easy-to-use USB adapter system that allows home and office users to “cut the cord” and wirelessly stream content from their laptop—including pictures, movies, presentations and online media—to any HDTV, projector or monitor without the tangled mess of cords and complicated setup.

Featuring HDMI video/audio support and VGA connectivity with stereo audio support through a 3.5 mm audio jack, the Wisair Wireless USB A/V Adapter Set delivers 32-bit True Color depth and up to 1400×1050 screen resolution for high-quality images. With 48 kHz, 16-bit stereo sound and HD video resolution up to 720p, movies (Blu-ray excluded) and videos look sharp and sound crystal clear for an optimum viewing experience.

Although limited to only 720p and excluding Blu-Ray, invariably due to needed bandwidth, the Wisair Wireless USB Audio/Video dongle system seems to allow for ample room for downloaded music, movies and other streamed media that normally resides on your PC for viewing and enjoyment in your living room setting without the need or use of wires.

By now it should be known that I truly hate wires and avoid them at all costs – this definitely probably warrants further research. I’m not sure about the lack of Blu-ray support – but it still looks interesting nonetheless. Priced from $129 – $149 at various online retailers, the Wisair Wireless USB dongle will hopefully remedy having wires run from your PC to your TV.

[ Links: Wisair ]

Atlona Technologies, solutions based manufacturer of Audio Video products, announced new USB Powered VGA to HDMI Scaler/Converter, the AT-HDVieW.

Atlona Technologies has consistently created products that will allow users easy and affordable means of connecting their PC to their HDTV without spending a fortune on new video cards or expensive boxes that perform this task as a secondary function.

Atlona has added to their ever growing product line with their newest Switcher/Scaler, the AT-HDVieW. This new unit designed to take both video and audio signal from a PC or Laptop, and upscale it to a digital HDMI output, was specifically made for the retail market. Users looking to upscale their computer viewing experience through their home entertainment center can now use the HDVieW to easily adapt their VGA outputs into HDMI. Operating this device is as simple as plug and play, due to the units ability to automatically sense the native resolution of the desired display and scale the computer’s output to match it.

The HDVieW offers a wide-range HDTV and PC resolutions, up to 1080p or 1920×1200 and will take audio signal from the computer and embedded it into the HDMI signal output, so that user is able to enjoy both audio and video though one cable. The HDVieW is a scaler-converter, which means that it will always work without any adjustments to the video card software in addition to that the video quality will be dramatically increased due to the built-in high quality scaler. Unlike many other scalers and converters on the market, this product has pigtail extensions attached with VGA, Audio and USB cables as to save the hassle of purchasing more cable. USB powered, this unit does not require additional power supplies. With limitless applications for both consumer and commercial applications, this competitively priced Scaler/Converter will find its way into any home.

The new AT-HDVieW will be available at the end of February with an affordable MRSP or $119.00 and is currently available for pre-order.

Link to the original article…

It seems like 2010 will be the year of the set top box that gathers all of your media that you’ve collected over the years – be it music, video or web based media – and places it in high-definition on your television for all to see. LaCie has introduced their LaCinema Mini HD Media Center, about the size of a standard DVD – it fits in your palm, easily:

LaCie today unveiled LaCinema Mini HD, the all-in-one Wi-Fi High Definition media center. Its amazingly small and stylish design packs a big punch, bringing your HD movies, photos and music collections to your widescreen TV in full 1080p resolution.

LaCinema Mini HD bridges the gap between the computer and entertainment worlds in full HD quality. Featuring built-in high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi, LaCinema Mini HD brings a DLNA® media player and server to your home without wires.

Transferring content to the LaCinema Mini HD is easy through the bus-powered USB connection for maximum transfer speeds, or by connecting the drive to a home network. Users can conveniently load files wirelessly from their computer or via the Ethernet connection.

Currently available in Europe for $299 with worldwide availability coming soon.

[ Links: LaCie LaCinema Mini HD Media Center ]

Although recently soft-announced, having the price finally announced – it’s going to sell for $199 – and seeing that they’ve expanded the Adobe Flash player to include the forthcoming 10.1 enhancements… I’m interested. The D-Link “Boxee Box”, model number D-Link DSM-380, is indeed becoming the little box that could do it all.

The Boxee Box by D-Link takes the same popular software and offers it up as a great device — the perfect companion to a high definition TV. The Boxee Box by D-Link provides access to more than just traditional TV content. It includes a huge library that spans the Internet, such as university courses, panel discussions, academic lectures, presentations, web-only videos and more from TED, Stanford, FORA.tv, Kid Mango, Next New Networks and more. Boxee also makes it easy for users to add their own favorite entertainment sources with simple RSS or XML feeds available for most online video.

In addition to video content, Boxee users can access great music from sites like Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, and We are Hunted as well as fun photos from sites like flickr, Picasa and the Facebook.

HDMI, SDHC slot support/expandability, composite audio connectors and more all in a rather small case that allows you to take the experience of internet media to your television for a rather small price. Safe to say that I want one.

[ Links: Boxee Box by D-Link ]

LaCie has introduced another one of those monolithic looking external hard drive with the “in style” Blue LED and what not. But the LaCie Lacinema Classic HD has HDMI outputs, 1080p playback and a remote control.

The LaCinema Classic HD offers a timeless and sleek design making it a great addition to any TV setup. Providing the widest media format compatibility, LaCinema Classic HD will play all your files without concern – from the most popular DivX format to high-quality MKV H.264 video format via its HDMI 1.3 connection. Uncompromising support for Dolby Digital audio quality enhances the LaCinema Classic HD, as well as your entertainment viewing experience.

The LaCinema Classic HD keeps it easy – use it as an external hard drive to load media from your Mac or PC. Then, simply connect the LaCinema Classic HD to your HDTV for instant playback.

Acting as a DLNA media player, LaCinema Classic HD can conveniently play movies, music, and photos from your computer or network storage. LaCinema Classic HD even offers network access to easily transfer files from your Mac and PC, while keeping it connected to the TV.

Drool. Do want. Comes with a 1TB drive and will cost $249.99 when it comes out shortly at your typical LaCie resellers.

[ LaCie ] [ LaCinema Classic HD ]

Samsung Electronics expects to release its 27-inch full HD LCD monitor ‘SyncMaster P2770H’ in Japan market. It supports 2ms response speed, 300cd/m² of brightness, 70000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and 170-degree viewing angle with DVI-I(HDCP) and HDMI ports.

This thing is sadly bigger than my television…

Link to the original article…

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — Toshiba Korea launched its premium ultra-thin notebook pc ‘PORTEGE T130′ in Korea market, which is designed to meet the demands of everyday mobility.

Measuring less than one inch thin at its slimmest point and weighing 1.7kg with 6-cell battery pack, it adopts a 13.3-inch Clear SuperView 16:9 widescreen. Powered by Windows 7 OS and power-efficient Intel ultra-low voltage processors, the PORTEGE T130 is equipped with ultra-fast DDR3 memory and lots of expansion ports, including HDMI-out.

Toshiba Korea launched its premium ultra-thin notebook pc ‘PORTEGE T130′ in Korea market, which is designed to meet the demands of everyday mobility.

Link to the original article…

If you listen to some certain monstrous cable company, their overpriced and oft-litigated cables are worth every penny. I disagree. As do a lot of other people and companies that have been proving that same company claims to be more marketing hype than quality product. Sure, all you have to do is Google the phrase “high price cable challenge” to verify that the ongoing debate about high priced cables versus lower-priced cables is still ongoing as of today. But in the end… it just boils down to what works well for you and what you can afford.

With some cables coming with esoteric terms and overly expensive prices, let’s face it… nobody can really afford a bad experience due to the cables if they’re expensive or not.

So for this review, I got to do something extremely fun. Instead of going through a bunch of electronic scopes to measure the effectiveness of a cable or two… no time for that nerdy nonsense. I just grabbed the nearest LG 47LH90 [ site here ] and a Sony PlayStation3, a Monster THX 700 4′ HDMI cable [ Best Buy link here ] and an Optimized Cable 6′ HDMI cable [ site here ]. For the record, I also included some thin 6′ HDMI cable that came with some other piece of hardware I’ve had laying around that came with some piece of equipment as my “control group”.

With the unnamed cable, the thing had one end that absolutely refused to fit properly into my television. It was warped slightly but it would “fit”. I expected the video from this ill-fitting HDMI cable to be rather bad but it was rather clear… as long as I didn’t touch the cable. This is far from ideal. So I replace Mr. Unnamed Cable for the Monster cable… mind you, as unscientific as this review has been so far, the video was infinitely better and the audio was clearer. Things just worked better, as it should. But let’s’ be clear… this is an $80.00 cable. So it had better work as advertised.

After a full hour of playing Uncharted 2 on the PlayStation3 with the Monster HDMI cable, I had to give the Optimized Cable Company 6′ HDMI cable a chance. Won’t lie… for $13.00 bucks, I wasn’t really expecting much. Sure, the company has a good idea – bringing good cables to good people for less money. That usually works for me… it means more money for yet another PlayStation3 game, or a few Blu-Ray movies. But there is a thing as too cheap… such as that unnamed, thin HDMI cable that I had laying around. That unnamed cable was just… too bad. I’d lose my religion if that were the only cable I had laying around.

Looking at the specs on the Optimized Cable HDMI cable, it has specs that go head to head against the Monster THX 700 cable:

Cable Type: HDMI Male to HDMI Male Cable
Length: 6 Foot
Most Current HDMI Version: 1.3b1
Gauge: 28 AWG (American Wire Gauge)
Bandwidth: 340 Mhz 10.2 Gbps / 120 Hz Refresh Rate
Connector Finish: Gold
Shielding level: 3x Triple
Shielding type: EMI (Electromagnetic Interference)
Certified HDMI: Yes
HDCP Compliant: Yes
CEC Compliant: Yes
ROHS Compliant: Yes
Backwards Compatible with HDMI Version 1.2: Yes
Supports Blu Ray & HD DVD 1080p: Yes
Supports 480p, 720p 1080i, 1080p, 1440p: Yes
Supports Lossless DTS 8 Channel Audio: Yes
Supports TrueHD & DTS-HD: Yes

So how did the Optimized Cable Company HDMI cable do? It fit properly, was heavier than I expected, and didn’t feel cheap or flimsy. And I didn’t see a difference with it and the Monster one. Not one bit. No loss in sound, no loss in color, no bleeding, no static, it didn’t get in the way of me playing Uncharted 2 for another 2 hours ignoring the phone and bypassing a couple of bathroom breaks nor did it really seem like it was a less superior cable.

Sure, I could hook up all kind of machines to show that this cable probably can only use about 95% of the proposed 10.2Gbps throughput, but as far as I can tell you as a consumer… it is $68 dollars cheaper than the Monster Cable and delivered the same exact experience. And in this economy… that’s enough savings and positive experience to recommend cables from Optimized Cable Company.

4.5 out of 5 (Highly Recommended)

[ Optimized Cable Company ] [ Optimized Cable HDMI Cable ]

Meridian Audio Limited has chosen the 2008 Electronic House Expo (EHX), held March 11-15 in Orlando, Florida, to debut its latest high-definition video projector, the MF10. Meridian, a British firm long accepted as a world leader in advanced digital audio and video technologies for music and home-theater systems, has already established itself at the top of the high-end projector market; with the new model, this position is sure to be enhanced.

“Over the last two to three years, core technologies for HD video projection have advanced to significant new performance capabilities,” says Norm Steinke, Chief Operating Officer of Meridian America. “With Meridian’s unique engineering experience and proprietary design, and with our rigorous hand-selection and calibration programs, we are now able to offer fully reference-grade equipment at rational cost, enabling a new level of home-theater excellence.”

Building on the success of the award-winning MF1, the new MF10 uses the latest-generation D-ILA light-engine technology, in a maximum-performance three-chip 1080p array. Based upon an all-new, 0.7-inch DILA device, the MF10’s refined new optical package delivers an important reduction in stray light, producing industry-best black levels (in excess of 30,000:1 native contrast ratio) without the use of a servo iris. This means powerfully stunning blacks and superbly dynamic visual “pop,” with no sacrifice in light output—or of the MF10’s remarkable shadow detail. The result: rich, film-like textures and depth, and an entirely involving, cinematic visual experience.

Another key to the MF10’s unexcelled video excellence is its exceptionally accurate, 16-element, all-glass lens. This ensures sharp, fully focused imaging across the entire screen, edge to edge and top to bottom. Its 2x zoom delivers a large, bright image even in smaller environments with curtailed throw-distance dimensions, delivering image size from 60 to 200 inches. Like Meridian’s MF1 projector, the MF10 will feature the optional 2.35:1 (Cinemascop®) conversion kit from lab-quality optics maker Schneider.

While video performance is indisputably the MF10’s key feature, Meridian has also engineered numerous intelligent design touches. An extremely low-noise cooling system maintains quiet installations, with both intake and exhaust located on the front panel, making location close to the rear wall practicable, for tidy layout and maximal throw-distance. Lens-shifts of 80 percent horizontal and 34 percent vertical further enhance design and installation adaptability, while the MF10’s side-access lamp compartment makes renewal simple even for ceiling-mounted installations.

Meridian’s unequalled selection and calibration standards and stringent quality control make the MF10 the most consistent high-end projector available. This is an important point to system designer/installers offering reference systems, and promising calibrated performance at multiple venues or rooms.

The MF10 incorporates powerful DSP for high-performance video processing, including deinterlacing and image scaling, making it a virtually “plug-and-play” solution for high-end, full-HD image reproduction. For installations requiring a range of fully state-of-the-technology abilities, the MF10’s “pixel-for-pixel” unprocessed mode is tailor made to work in tandem with Meridian’s newest digital video processor, the DVP2351. For its part, the DVP2351 is specifically engineered to deliver maximum performance when paired with the new Meridian projector, or with an equivalent model of similar potential. The DVP2351 provides a full range of inputs including 4 HDMI ultra-high-bandwidth 1080p paths, with flexible switching and a host of input/output aspect ratio options, taking full advantage of its powerful scaling/deinterlacing digital-video processing abilities. Totally programmable, and controllable via infrared or RS-232 communications, the DVP2351 is equally adept optimizing the MF10 projector within an all-Meridian system or in a multibrand layout.

Meridian is offering the MF10 Digital Projector and DVP2351 Digital Video individually. Both models are available immediately. MSRP: MF10 projector: $14,995; DVP2351 processor: $3,995.

Time to cut ‘n paste:

Silicon Optix announces that Gefen will use Realta HQV to power its new scaler solution, the Gefen TV Scaler Pro. (MSRP: $699)

Using the power of Emmy® award-winning HQV processing, the Gefen TV Scaler Pro can be connected to set-top boxes, DVD players or any piece of video equipment, providing an instant upgrade to HQV image quality in a very cost effective package. The result is dramatically improved picture quality with a simple one-box addition.

The Gefen TV Scaler Pro offers an extensive set of selectable input and output ports to enable a plug and play solution that works with the widest assortment of equipment. This includes dual HDMI v1.3, component, S-video and composite inputs, as well as an HDMI v1.3 output for an easy connection to any digital television. Optional digital audio support complements the selection of video for an engaging audio/video environment. Once connected, whatever source is selected may be up and down scaled with impressive video refinements to ensure the most vivid imagery possible.

With a suggested retail price of $699, it’s designed for both prosumers and industry savvy consumers who demand the very best from their high definition audio and video systems.

Now… what does that mean? It means that your new HDTV television will friggin’ sing when you plug stuff up into this – think Nintendo Wii finally getting a good upscale to 720p or so – and then into your HDMI enabled television that your video will now look lovely as all get out.

File this under: me want

Ok, it’s finally under one week to go for Christmas and you’re probably wondering what to get your bothersome significant other that either has an iPod already, probably works in an office, or just doesn’t have a lot of room in that closet they call an apartment.

In a series of quick reviews for “Last Minute Gadget Gift Ideas”, one per day until Christmas Eve, hopefully you’ll find that one object that you just might have overlooked.

Via Best Buy’s in-home brand named Insignia comes the first gift idea. It’s their small-ish 75W shelf CD/DVD/HD Radio system, model number NS-HD2114. At first, it’s bright green box arrived and I thought that it was entirely too light and probably going to be made quite cheaply to be honest.

I was wrong.

Before this unit, I had an Aiwa unit that was more than likely too expensive for what little features it offered. The speakers on this Insignia unit had rubber surrounds on the woofer/midrange unit which last much longer than the cheaper foam surrounds that end up just cracking and getting old the moment you go from one season to another. The small speakers had a nice sized bass port in the back, were actually made out of wood – don’t laugh, some of the cheaper shelf systems out there have plastic back sides or the entire speaker is encased in plastic which to me tend to vibrate if you ever decide to get all jiggy loud with your music and there’s a considerable amount of vocal midrange singing or bass, if not both. Try it… hit up the local Best Buy and turn up a small speaker that’s made out of plastic and notice the vibration. Wood is where it’s at.

The speakers were easy as heck to hook up. In fact, they had a cool plastic connector that clearly stated the positive and negative connections to the back of the main unit. I’m seriously tired of having to use a pair of wire cutters, strip the wires and then try to thread that into the back of a receiver as I have done so many times over and over in the past. This newer method was fun, quick, and even I understood it. I r smart.

The main unit, again… I thought it was waaaay too light to be quality built. Again… wrong.

It was made of a black anodized aluminum and was thick enough to resist me pushing in on the sides and denting it like a coke can. Again, I have to go back to the Aiwa… I leaned on it just a little and you could see where I had placed just a little bit of pressure. The display before I turned it on was flat black alongside the rest of the flat black finish on the main unit. Once plugged in, it’s very bright, almost TOO bright in fact. Easily readable across the room and/or office. And per the typical gadget LED decorum as of late, the volume knob and DVD/CD tray and other buttons have that popular blue LED glow to it. mmmm, blue-y.

Total hookup of all of the bits took me less time than it did to open the box. Serious. In fact, I had to go back and read the manual after I put it together because it couldn’t have been that easy. It is.

So let’s turn on this bad boy… the remote control carries over the black and blue from the display, but it doesn’t light up unfortunately. But the smurf blue buttons actually make it easy as heck to make sure I don’t grab it instead of my other remote controls. Once I set the time, I pop in a Wu-Tang CD… gotta bring the ruckus. And guess what… it didn’t bottom out, it didn’t sound cheap, and above all, this little shelf system is banging out Method Man like a bigger system. I immediately think this is a fluke, so I switch over to the HD Radio and find the local rock station. Amazingly enough, they were broadcasting in HD which means that I can see the station name, and while music is playing, the song name, artist name, as well as the section of music they’re playing… if the station sends that information out. The whole experience of HD Radio is much like you would get from a MP3… information wise that is. Again, I’m find myself rocking these little bookshelf speakers like they’re my Polk Audio speakers that I’ve had for years… simply put, I’m amazed that these little speakers didn’t buckle under the pressure of rocking some rock and roll. Clearly I might add.

The weird thing you’ll notice though, there’s an USB port on the front of this shelf system. Well… if you have an USB MP3 device, you can hook it up there and actually control the thing through the front panel or through the remote control. Or… you could do like I did and just plug it up, see the information of the songs that were on the device, sit there and drool for a bit because you didn’t expect that and suddenly feel bad that you had Michael Bolton on your MP3 player…

I put it there to change the pace of my workout. I promise.

On top of the shelf system comes the cool part… the iPod interface. Also included in the bright green Insignia box was just about every dock connector/adapter for the 1G through 5G iPods, iPod Photo, iPod Nano – which seems to be only the 1G Nano, not the smaller, squat 2G Nano, and oddly enough one that fit my iPhone perfectly even though despite not being listed in the items included in the bright green Insignia box – trust me, this box is visible from outer space.

So I plunk down my iPhone and after a second, it acts like it’s charging and next thing I know, I see stuff that’s on my iPhone playing through the system a little bit louder than the HD Radio and the CD I was listening to earlier. Oops… looks like there’s some gain on the MP3′s off of the iPod stuff. But again, the sound is very clear and I’ve yet to even touch the equalizer and settings.

Oh… this thing isn’t just about music either. On the back of this small system are video composite outputs as well. So I grab a few RCA cables and toss them into the back of my TV. Not only can you set up this thing visually, but it plays DVD’s too via the Y, Pb/Cb, Pr/Cr component outputs. Also lining the back of this small stereo system is fiber optic outputs, left/right audio inputs for other devices you might want to hook up to the stereo, S-Video output and a regular video output. So you can pretty much hook this up in a ton of ways outgoing and incoming. Combined with the front USB ports, I’m quite surprised this little thing had so many hookup options. Once hooked up, I throw in “The Departed” and about one hour later forgot that I was supposed to be reviewing… that’s such a good movie.

Also, you can throw in a disc that has JPEG images, or a PhotoDisc; you know the kind you can get if you take in your digital camera or one of those disposable film cameras to your local drugstore. You just have to go into the directories and then via the remote control select which image you wish to view on the screen. An odd, but quite cool addition to a small shelf system that’s really trying to become the do-it-all system it aspires to be.

Not all is great though. The menus during DVD setup, JPEG viewing, and whatnot are decidedly ugly. I’m talking about 1987 VCR ugly. Functional, yes. But ugly. We’re not talking about fully animated and fluffy like the PS3 interface. But the menus are very easy to maneuver and use. If you get confused in this pragmatic menu, just go ahead and call that egghead nephew or neighbor of yours. After a few laughs at you, you’ll see that the menu system is quite easy to use.

Just a tad bit ugly.

The switch to iPod sources seems to be a bit louder than the rest of my audio sources. And by a bit, I really felt the lyrics of Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” in my nether region intimately when just a few moments prior I was listening to Tool at the same volume without really feeling threatened. Perhaps it’s just an odd situation, but one I noticed nonetheless.

Another issue was that the remote control had to be pointing directly at the face of the system. Sure, we tend to get a bit lazy and point the remote control in the general direction, but while being real lazy, I couldn’t just point and click quickly and lower the volume. I would have to actually point the remote control directly to it. Oh, and another weird goof… while setting up the clock, apparently I set it up to turn on each day at 06:57pm. While resetting/removing the time was an odd affair of having to hit the reset button and wait for it to reset totally – I had lost my awesome bass and treble tweaks by doing this, but having this thing turn on the moment I walk in the house was downright spooky – and there’s no light to show you that there is a set timer. For this, I had to turn to the manual, but even this skimpy manual had the answer right there on page 26.

Overall, this thing actually does it all. And does it quite well. Not perfectly, but for the price, the quality of the build and the sound quality is actually pretty darn decent. A must buy for that person that wants a small shelf system and has a ton of gadgets that they could use with the shelf system, or a desire to not waste space and use such an item double-duty. College kids need apply as well.

This would definitely rock in yo’ dorm. And at a pretty good, easy to swallow price. All in all, I give this a 4 out of 5 (Recommended).

See you tomorrow.