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All posts tagged "hdmi"


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Logitech And Skype Team Up On TV Cam

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 10:00 AM

http://gizmodo.com/5931526/this-200...-a-skype-center

"The TV Cam HD is compatible with any HDMI-equipped TV, and can use either Wi-Fi or ethernet to hook up to the internet. The device is pre-loaded with Skype-running on what we're not quite sure-so you can just use it to log in to your existing account and make video calls, or proper phone calls using credit."

If you've ever wanted to use your TV as a Skype-compatible device then this product may interest you. You'll need an HDMI-equipped TV to connect this device to, but as long as you have a Wi-Fi or ethernet connection to your TV you will be all set. Simply log in to your existing account and make video calls, or proper phone calls using credit. If you get a call while your TV is off it will still ring, alerting you that someone wants to Skype. Some expect that this sort of capability will be built into future TVs, but if you just bought a new one and plan to keep it for years to come, this option may be very attractive.


Friday, January 13, 2012

Roku's Streaming Stick Boosts TV IQ into the Land of Smart

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 08:00 AM

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/04/ro...v-much-smarter/

"Smart TVs are great and all - who doesn't want a dash of WiFi with their daily dose of reality television? - but the segment will face challenges in the market. For one, a $49 Roku LT is a much better value proposition than a $1,000+ smart TV. Secondly, the hardware moves at such a rapid pace that even with solid software updates, your smart TV will likely be outdated much sooner than you're ready to buy a new one."

There's nothing worse than a dumb TV right? Most TVs are pretty low-IQ in terms of what they can do - it's a recent development that we have TVs capable of running apps, streaming media, etc. The Roku looks like an interesting solution, but TechCrunch points out a key problem: it requires an HDMI port that supports the MHL standard, which only newer TVs do. For a product like this to be successful, it should work with the oldest, most basic HDMI port there is from years ago. Anything less than that and Roku might have a hard time selling many of these...


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Is There A Difference Between A $5 and $100 HDMI Cable?

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 06:00 PM

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2...p?hidPrint=true

"You've probably experienced this when shopping for a new HDTV: A store clerk sidles up and offers to help. He then points you toward the necessary HDMI cables to go with your new television. And they're expensive. Maybe $60 or $70, sometimes even more than $100 (You could buy a cheap Blu-ray player or a handful of Blu-ray discs for that price!). The clerk then claims that these are special cables. Superior cables. Cables you absolutely need if you want the best possible home theater experience. And the claims are, for the vast majority of home theater users, utter rubbish."

When I saw the source article on PC Magazine's website it immediately had my attention. Simply put, I'm in the market for some HDMI cables, and this could potentially save me some money. The "sales" scenario that the author, Will Greenwald, describes has played out many times as I've bought electronic items (particularly audio-based). What's nice about this article is that they have backed up (with tests) their contention that in most cases the cheaper cable will do just fine. Of course, there are a few cases where a more expensive cable will be better (e.g. for long connections between a video source and the display it is connecting to), but for the vast majority of people with a typical TV setup in their home, the cheaper cables should work every bit as good. The article does explain what the current HDMI specification (1.4a) supports, and how that may or may not be important to your situation. This article is a good reference piece to keep handy, and to comfort you the next time you buy a "cheaper" HDMI cable.

Tags: cable, hdmi

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Psst...Your TV is Kind of Dumb: Make it Smart

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 09:00 PM

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/researc...ekly-ALL-110419

"It doesn't take a genius to appreciate the benefits of the new LG Smart TV Upgrader. With one little black box you can turn your current TV into a Web browsing, movie streaming, media sharing machine. Enjoy surfing the Internet from the comfort of your couch, check your FacebookTM and TwitterTM feeds on your flat-screen display and watch videos stored on your computer's hard drive without leaving the living room. The LG Smart TV Upgrader is all you need to make your TV a Smart TV, with all the online features of the latest models. If that's not brilliant, we don't know what is."

I heard about the LG SmartTV Upgrader ST600 during CES, and it looks like it's here - Best Buy in Canada is selling it for $149.99 CAD. From the looks of the specs and what it can do, it's much more sophisticated than your typical media streaming device - it's sort of like a Boxee Box in some ways (and about $50 cheaper to boot). It supports a wide variety of video file formats (MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, DivXHD, MKV, TS TP, M4V, WMV) though I don't see ISO files on that list, which pretty much kills it for me. However, with a Web browser and a growing selection of applications, this could be just the ticket for making that TV of yours just a bit smarter.


Friday, August 20, 2010

And You Thought The TVs Were Expensive!

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 03:00 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3873107...ch_and_gadgets/

"In fact, a TV's refresh rate has nothing whatsoever to do with the signal flowing to that set. The refresh rate is determined by the set's circuitry once the signal gets there, so how can different HDMI cables be manufactured for different refresh-rate sets?"

I think that most of the people who read Digital Home Thoughts are well aware of what can make a difference when it comes to your cable connections for your home theater. For those of you who have not yet been educated, there has been a long standing debate over where extremely high priced audio/video cable, especially digital ones, are any different, from a practical perspective, from low cost alternatives. Manufacturers and studies sponsored by manufacturers will tell you that it does make a difference. A lot of others, such as Gary Merson from MSNBC, many other techies and myself, will tell you that that is complete bunk. Even if there were a difference, it is not worth paying the often 500% difference. So next time you're shopping for a new home theater, remind yourself that those fancy cables that cost as much as your TV may not give you the kind of satisfaction you are looking for. You may not want to cheap out so much as using a coat hanger, but good video does not need your friend to co-sign a loan for you in order to afford it.

Tags: hardware, hdmi

Monday, June 28, 2010

Awful Looking Text Over HDMI on Your TV? Turn Down the Sharpness

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 07:00 AM

Are you seeing awful-looking text on an LCD or plasma TV after connecting your laptop or desktop to it via HDMI? Here's a tip that might help. First, some back story...

A couple of weeks ago, I swapped out video cards in the desktop PC that I use as my Windows Media Center computer. A few months earlier, I'd removed my aged Dell 26" 720p LCD TV and replaced it with an LG 32" 1080p LCD TV. I was running over DVI, using a DVI to VGA adapter since the LG TV didn't have a DVI port. Everything looked great, though I wasn't sure if I was really seeing 1080p resolution when I was watching Blu-ray movies - the NVIDIA 7950GT video card was a couple of years old, and I wasn't sure if it would support HDCP over DVI > VGA. I spent a few hours trying to determine if I had an HDCP-compliant chain of devices (computer to video card to display) and found it impossible to find anything that allowed me to easily test this. I'd already purchased the new video card - a low-end, passively cooled ATI 5000 series Radeon card - so I figured "What the hell, I'll just put it in". Read more...


Monday, March 8, 2010

Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Reviewed

Posted by Ron Hostetter in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 08:00 AM

Product Category: HD Digital Media Player
Manufacturer: Seagate
Where to Buy: Amazon (affiliate link)
Price: $149 USD
In the Box: FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player, Remote Control, 2 AAA Batteries, Component video cable, Composite A/V cable, Ethernet Cable, Power supply, FreeAgent Theater software CD, Quick start guide.
Specifications: Video codecs: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG-4 (DivX/Xvid), DivX HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC-1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T. Video resolutions: TNSC 480i/480p, PAL 576i/576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p. Audio: AAC, MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, ASF, FLAC, WMA, LPCM, ADPCM, WAV, OGG. Playlists: M3U, PLS. Photo: jPDG files up to 20 megapixels, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF. Output: Composite, Component, HDMI 1.3, Stereo Audio, Optical S/PDIF audio, HDMI 1.3 audio. Ethernet 10/100 mbps, 2 USB 2.0 ports.

Pros:

  • Easily connects to your TV using a variety of connection types;
  • Vast codec support;
  • Internet connected with a variety of content available, and more on the way.

Cons:

  • Optional wireless adapter difficult to configure;
  • Primitive user interface;
  • FreeAgent Go portable hard drive connection seems cumbersome.

Summary: Many companies are rushing to provide a means to make digital content easily accessible in your living room. The FreeAgent Theater+ easily connects to your TV using HDMI (although an HDMI cable is not included) or a variety of other connections, and allows access to your digital media. The Theater+ also provides Internet connectivity to access a limited selection of online content. While the interface leaves a little to be desired, the device performs as advertised, and opens up another avenue for living room entertainment.

Read more...


Friday, May 29, 2009

Solution Looking for a Problem - Locking HDMI Cables

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 07:00 AM

http://www.sync2play.com/20090528/l...les_really.html

"Taking HDMI cables to new marketing heights is the new Locking HDMI Cable from PPC. It's designed to stay in an HDMI slot better than standard cables using special patent-pending locking technology. According to the marketing hype, these locking cables are: "Especially important for highly-active games that feature constant movement, the PPC Locking HDMI Cable stays in place with exclusive patented technology that secures the cable onto a port 3 times stronger than with conventional cables." I don't know about anyone else, but even with a game like DDR I'm keeping the console firmly in one place, not strapped to my back as I jump and spin to the music."

These guys need to get together with the snake oil salesmen at Monster Cable to peddle their crap. Under no circumstances should you be allowing your TV or connected equipment to be jostled to the point where cables are coming loose. I even look at a locking cable as being a negative. Let's say under some strange circumstance that my cords get tugged on. I'd rather them come loose than risk breaking the connector.


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Creative Vado Now Available In HD

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 09:00 PM

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/0...-now-available/

"Creative introduced today the Vado HD, the successor to the Vado released back in May. It captures video in 720p and is the only pocket video cam to feature HDMI connectivity and an included HDMI cable that provides 1080i output to an HDTV. It also comes with 8GB of built-in memory that can hold up to two hours of HD video. The Vado HD also features a 2-inch LCD screen and a built-in USB connector so you can quickly connect to your PC and share your videos using YouTube or Box.net."

While I don't have a camcorder myself, the release of these tiny digital HD camcorders makes them more tempting each year. I'm sure there's still a large market for large, high quality video cameras, pocket camcorders are much easier to carry, making it that much more likely for me to have it when opportunity knocks. The big attention getter about the new Vado for me is the HDMI connectivity, which makes it easy to connect it to a TV. Unfortunately, I find the estimated two hours of recording time a little tight. Anyone who has gone on vacation knows this means you'll have to cart along your laptop to offload every day or two.


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