Enjoy.

About 1.5 million silver-colored Durabrand DVD players were recalled August 20, and Wal-Mart expanded the recall September 1 to include pink and purple versions of the same player. About 4.2 million total units are now under recall.

Owners should immediately stop using the players and call Wal-Mart at 800-925-6278.

According to the CPSC, the DVD player’s circuit board can overheat. Wal-Mart received seven reports of fires sparked from overheating causing property damage. No injuries have been reported.

The Chinese-made players were sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores nationwide from January 2006 through July 2009 for about $29.

Electronics store RadioShack has announced that it has added T-Mobile wireless phone services to compete with AT&T in its more than 4,000 stories.

“Our mobility strategy is rooted in customer advocacy and allows us to offer the best solution for consumers’ needs across multiple carriers, plans, phones and accessories,” said Julian Day, RadioShack’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. “In a highly mobile world, keeping our customers seamlessly connected to one another is a commitment we are very focused on delivering.”

RadioShack generates about 30 percent of its sales revenue from wireless phones.

Every time you purchase yourself a little tuxedoed flash drive, Active Media Products will donate 5% of your purchase to the World Wildlife Fund. They’ve also promised to make a minimum $25,000 donation no matter what; pretty solid, if we say so ourselves.

The materials that make the flash drive are PCV, lead, and mercury free, so they’re eco-friendly, too. The drives range in size from 2GB to 16GB for $12.95 to $42.95, which means it won’t break your bank to help your conscience. The drives are available now at most retailers and online.

No really. You should run far, far away.

Although Circuit City won’t be returning in a physical capacity anytime soon, last month Systemax purchased the Circuit City brand and website, and they’ve since developed it into an online retail venture. The website has a wide selection of electronics, as would be expected, and some of the deals aren’t half bad. The website looks very familiar and is rather easy to shop.

What you actually need to watch out for are the same horrible consumer practices that drove Circuit City into the ground in the first place. For example, the Consumerist points out this quote from Circuit City’s return policy.

Products from manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Epson and others are not returnable to CircuitCity.com FOR ANY REASON.

(Emphasis ours, distasteful caps theirs). Basically, this little caveat means that Circuit City can refuse any return for any reason. Do we need to explain why this is bad? What about if you want to sue them for crappy service? Good luck — you also agreed to binding arbitration. You may as well just bend over for them — it would probably be easier.

Compare this policy with those of sites like Amazon or NewEgg and you realize that Circut City is alone in their draconian policies. You know, maybe that great deal at Circuit City won’t turn out to be such a deal at all as soon as you need help with it. Just do yourself a favor and purchase your gizmos and gadgets from a respectable retailer that hasn’t recently filed for bankruptcy.

Teams, divided by gender for maximum entertainment value, will travel across the US and Canada promoting Sennheiser’s products in a competition to quote, “put headphones on as many people as possible connecting them to the true sound of Sennheiser.”

Yeah, I don’t know what that means either, but it still sounds like fun. The benefits include getting paid to travel across thirty cities for ten weeks this summer while becoming a Youtube and Internet sensation. How you ask? Sennheiser will record these charades and edit them into weekly webcasts and upload them to their Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/sennheisersoundtour) for all to see.

To get in on the action you need to whip out your best reality show personality-I suggest reviewing a few seasons of the Real World as well as a heavy dose of Battlestar Galactica to drum up your nerd quotient-and make a video explaining why you’re the best candidate for the job. Submit your job resume to Sennheiser@thejetstargroup.com, include the location of your video, and finally, cross your fingers. Hurry: submissions are due by May 1.

Submissions extended to May 8

Documentation shows that the Department of Justice is accusing Hitachi of trust-like activities and violating the Sherman Act.

The lawsuit alleges that Hitachi held meetings to discuss the prices of the TFT-LCD panels being sold to Dell.

No other information was released, and Dell has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Ok, so I’m probably being a bit hard on Apple, but the shuffle has consistently seen the least love of Apple iPod line. People definitely need a small, flash-based iPod for heavy impact activities where you don’t want the shocks and stress to damage the moving parts of the hard drive of your iPhone, but without a screen, the iPod Shuffle has never been a good buy. There have always been equivalently priced mp3 players available that actually show you which song is playing. Or you could just buy a Nano.

Apple’s new Shuffle has “VoiceOver,” which will read the name of your song or your current playlist to you-in fourteen languages over dimmed volume. While I admit that this is nifty, and I’m glad the shuffle finally supports multiple playlists, I’m already afraid robots that robots will take over the world as it is, so I don’t need my iPod to talk to me, thank you very much. And while this likely will work like a charm on a neatly manicured iTunes library from Apple’s marketing department, I think it will prove less successful on tween libraries that are full of songs like “britnay speers 03 HiT mEEE BaBy 1 MoRe TimEE,” all squeezed into the metaspace tag for album.

The controls for the new Shuffles have been moved from the device itself to the earbuds. They’re the same earbuds that come with the new iPods as well, so you can skip tracks, change the volume, and active VoiceOver without actually fiddling with the device. Useful for those on the go. Less useful for those that think the white earbuds sound like crap. Or for those who have a tendency to get the cords caught on things and break them frequently. Or for those who lose them.

Functionality aside, the new Shuffle looks impossibly small at less than the size of a key, and is certainly very svelte. It comes in a stainless gray or black for $79. While VoiceOver won’t replace the screen on a Nano, the new shuffles will probably sell well with those who already purchased a Shuffle in the past and already decided that a screen is discretionary. (Confession: that person is me.)

One of my big beefs with carriers (or even phone makers-I’m looking at you Apple) are carriers that cripple their phones because they’re worried that missing income could erode their bottom lines. Early on, Verizon crippled the RAZR so that uploaded mp3’s couldn’t be used as ringtones, forcing people to purchase expensive twenty second clips of songs that they already purchased for $0.99 from iTunes. Even still, most Verizon phones do not allow personalized mp3 ringtones, and customers must purchase them. On the flip side, Cingular customers, who have access to many of the same phones, are free to use their phones as they see fit.

Of course, this lead the grassroots efforts that lead to consumers hacking their phones. Apple routinely blocks apps from the App store that they find threatening. Such was the case with Podcaster which Apple blocked for “duplicating functionality.” Nevermind the clock apps, and calculator apps, and stock watching apps, and … Need I really continue? On a similar vein, AT&T forced Apple to remove NetShare because tethering your iPhone as a modem violated their contract. Of course, solutions to both of these missing apps are available to users who jailbreak their phones, leaving AT&T and Apple without any income.

While AT&T has allowed VoIP apps to run on iPhones, they have to restrict data to Wi-Fi networks only, eliminating the possibility of using data networks for free minutes. However, not all carriers are so generous. Nokia wants to bundle Skype on their upcoming flagship device, the N97 in Europe. Clearly, this would make the phone quite attractive to consumers already strapped for cash. However, O2 and Orange have refused to even stock the device unless Nokia strips the software out.

Businesses need to stop treating their customers like shoddy criminals and realize that it’s our nature to try and save money any way we can. If the technology exists, why can’t we use it? Carriers should realize that by allowing the software with a small surchange would sell more phones, bringing in more customers and more money. What about that situation isn’t attractive? Could this be why the US and Europe have some of the most underdeveloped wireless networks when compared to Asian countries?

Change may be scary, but it’s time for carriers to embrace new technologies and move forward. People are paying good money for devices-they’re going to want to use them to their fullest extent.

Navigon, maker of some of the more attractive GPS devices available is releasing an even more intelligent GPS navigator. Granted, most of the drivers in the world who use GPS devices already trust their lives to a small piece of machinery that’s just one simple voice command from driving them over a cliff and into certain death. But while you many not think that your GPS navigator needs to be smarter, Navigon disagrees.

Available this summer, the Navigon 4300T is a fully featured GPS device that packs all the usual features-a wide touch screen, text to speech, construction and traffic updating, Bluetooth for handing phone calls-the device also comes with an intelligent driving computer that learns the routes you prefer to take at which times of the day, and uses this data to better serve you with a route, all while taking into account traffic and accident warnings. The device will even suggest up to three different routes, and let you choose the one you want to take. Even better, live spoken traffic updates are included free for the life of the device-not shabby, considering that it costs $99 to add onto other models.

Similarly, the Navigon 3300 Max is a slimmed down device with the basic navigation software. Several add-ons will be available for the device when it’s released, including map updates and a Zagat application that will show restaurant ratings and reviews.

An Ethernet switch is a simple solution to adding more devices—be they computers, Xbox, or TiVo—to a network internet connection. Set-up is simple: connect any port on the device to the network and then connect the switch and the device via an Ethernet cord. You’re all set—no software input required. Connecting your computers via a switch not only shares your internet connection between devices, it also allows for ultra-fast transfers between networked computers, allowing gigabit speed transfers of large files.

Energy savings come from the devices’ ability to intelligently sense not only which ports have devices plugged in, but also their power state and the length of Ethernet cord connecting the switch and device. If the computer is off, the switch ramps power down to that port. Shorter Ethernet cords require less power, and the switch adjusts accordingly. D-Link even designed the packaging for the DGS-2205 to be eco-friendly, and the device is Energy Star compliant.

The router comes with a plethora of other features, including the ability to work with all existing 10, 100, or 1000 Mbps Ethernet devices as well as traffic sensing mechanisms that eliminate congestion to keep LAN games lag free and VoIP calls jitter-free.

D-Link currently offers four switches with these green features. The DGS-2205 and -2208 are aimed at home and small office users with the ability to connect 4 and 7 devices, respectively. The DGS-1016D and -1024D, which connect 15 and 23 devices, can be rack mounted. While only the DGS-2205 is available now, the other switches will be updated with the green features later this year.

Remember that if you connect to the internet via a cable or DSL modem, you’ll need a router that can assign multiple IP address to your devices; an Ethernet switch shares one IP address between your devices. Also, if you tend just to just put your computer to sleep instead of shutting it down, D-Link admits that you won’t see significant power savings.

Even still, the D-Link router series is an affordable, low-effort way to cut power costs and energy use. And since you’ll feel less guilt, maybe you can splurge for a bigger, brighter display too.

(ARA) – Are you a television junkie? Do you hold viewing parties for season premieres, award shows or season finales? On June 12, 2009, at 11:59 p.m., analog television will cease to exist — but what does this mean for you?

Is this the end to your viewing parties? Or to free TV? Will you need to replace your current TV with a newer, digital model? What are the benefits — will you be able to watch higher-quality TV?

Armed with information and resources, technical professional organization IEEE offers tips to help Americans understand the switch to digital TV broadcast movement, and has prepared some frequently asked questions below; ensuring you have a signal to watch your favorite shows — from Oprah and the local news to CSI and championship sporting events.

Q: Is digital television more expensive than analog television?
A: No. Traditional, non-cable television programs will continue to be free!

Q: If I currently have cable service, is there anything else I need to do to prepare for the switch?
A: If you have cable service, there is nothing else you would need to do. However, if other TV sets in the house are not connected to cable and they receive their signals with an antenna, each of these sets will need a digital TV converter box.

Q: What is a digital TV converter box?
A: A digital TV converter box hooks up to a conventional analog TV set, allowing it to receive digital broadcasts.

Q: Will my current television still work with off-air signals after June 12, 2009?
A: Yes, as long as you have a digital TV converter box and an appropriate antenna. In general, if your antenna works well with analog signals, it will possibly work with digital signals that are in the same television band (low-VHF, high-VHF, or UHF).

Q: What specific techniques can I use to determine if my current television antenna is acceptable for digital reception or whether a new antenna is required?
A: In general, if your current antenna (outdoor or indoor) provides good or excellent reception quality, that antenna should be acceptable for DTV reception. This presumes that the current antenna covers the same television bands (low-VHF, high-VHF, UHF) that are being used by the digital stations.

Q: Is there such a thing as a “digital” antenna or an “HDTV” antenna?
A: No. While the box in which the antenna is sold may be called “DTV Antenna” or “HDTV Antenna”, the analog and digital television signals can be picked up (i.e., received) with the same antenna.

The complete IEEE FAQ can be found online at www.IEEE.org. Additionally, the FCC has issued a number of very helpful consumer advisories on the DTV transition at: www.dtv.gov/publications.html.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

“As the February date for the DTV transition approaches, a myriad of technical problems continue to surface for people with disabilities,” says Karen Peltz Strauss, founding member of COAT. “These include problems with receiving and displaying closed captions, difficulties with the pass through of available video description (narration added to visual program elements during natural programming pauses), and troubles with the hook-up of digital equipment. Consumers have experienced frustration in their attempts to obtain resolution of these issues from TV programming providers, equipment manufacturers and retailers.”

The thoughts were echoed by a prominent Deaf group also.

“Our members report missing and disappearing captions, overlapping captions, captions appearing in the middle of the television screen and blocking images, garbled captions, captions running off the edge of the picture, and captions either exceedingly small or too large,” said Rosaline Crawford of the National Association of the Deaf. “We are very concerned that the analog cut-off scheduled for February 17 will result in members of our community completely losing access to television news, information, and entertainment programming for an indefinite period of time.”

And the blind:

“People who are blind or with vision disabilities are experiencing huge difficulties, not only with hooking up the converter boxes but also serious problems with new digital TV equipment that is not passing through any available video description,” said Eric Bridges of the American Council of the Blind. “The lack of knowledge about how to resolve video description concerns is a major barrier to our community’s access to digital television.”

COAT blames the alleged problems on “any one of a combination of technical failures, including difficulties with local broadcast station signals or transmissions, cable network or provider transmissions, satellite transmission signals, poor adjustment of end user consumer equipment provided by cable or satellite companies, and/or improper encoding and transmission by caption providers.”

On February 17, television will stop being broadcast on analog signals. People using antennas to watch TV will have to use a converter box, but cable and satellite customers should notice no differences.

Also in the high-priced range is the Tributaries T12 power strip, with eight rotating power receptacles and Ethernet, phone and cable protection.

It’s $120, which is too expensive for anything labeled a “power strip” that doesn’t include a uninterruptible power supply/battery backup for your gadgets. I don’t care what brand or label it falls under.

That said, it’s a damn shame the T12 costs over $100, because it’s one of the handiest power strips/surge protectors I’ve ever used.

Eight of the 12 sockets rotate 90 degrees to get whatever AC adapter you’re using out of the way of everything else. The 12 also delivers 4320 joules of surge suppression. It’s rated for 15 amps for up to 1875 watts of load — enough for several computers or your entire home theater and much more. It also offers a $25,000 warranty on plugged-in devices.

We’re basically rounding out the year with this review, because we started 2008 by introducing everyone to the Powramid — an innovative pyramid-shaped power strip.

Like the Powramid, the T12 is superior in almost all ways (except cost of course) to traditional power strips. The sockets are arranged — and move — to accommodate all of your many gadgets.

Plenty of people on the blogs have asked why you need 12 plugs. I’m a big nerd, but I don’t run a multiple display setup or keep my video game consoles on my desk. I managed to basically fill up the T12 with what I would think is a normal amount of computer junk:

• Computer
• Monitor
• Cell phone charger
• Wireless mouse charger
• External hard drive
• Cable modem
• Router
• Printer
• Computer speakers
• Digital camera charger

So it’s not the plugs that are the problem.

Price is the problem, and there are somewhat comparable products out there for less.

Just be careful. Don’t go to the dollar store and buy “Joe’s brand surge protector” and be aware of the cheap imitations of the cheap imitations with fake UL certifications.

Bottom line: you don’t absolutely need to spend $120 for a decent power strip, but if you’re spending thousands on a home theater with all the trimmings, don’t think you can get away for a $5 one either.

We have over a dozen Plantronics Audio 350 gaming headsets that we’re just throwing at our readers right now. Enjoy the ultimate gaming headset for free!

What do you have to do to get one of these freebies? Write a review! Review a new movie, music album, video game, software, hardware, gadget, laptop, camera, pretty much whatever you want. Write up a review that’s at least 400 words, and if we use it, you’ll get a freebie!

Email all reviews to newsroom@blastmagazine.com, and include your name, address, website address if you have one, the review, any photos you have of the product and don’t forget the 1-5 star rating!

First, late last month, UL warned industrial contractors and distributors that a 1000-foot communications cable made by a Hangzhou Xingfa Transmission Equipment Co. Ltd. bears a counterfeit UL Mark for the United States. The communications cable has not been evaluated for safety by UL and is not eligible to bear the UL Mark.

Hangzhou Xingfa is based in Zhejiang Province, China.

The cable displays the following description: KWC RG59/U 20AWG BC (UL) CM E236949 ***FT, which is counterfeit.

Then Friday, a Taiwanese company, Ho Wah Genting Kintron, issued a recall for a standard consumer/home extension cord.

The recall affects 27,000 units of triple-plug receptacle extension cords made in 2004 and shipped all over in 2005. The problem here is that the plastic casing may not be properly secured together, and if it separates it could cause fire or a deadly shock.

The cord’s blue packaging features the description “Snug Plug” in orange lettering.

The company says to return the product where you bought it — but that was three years ago right? Throw it away and buy a new cord.

In this case also, the extension cords were labeled with counterfeit UL-listed marks and do not actually comply with UL’s safety requirements.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. is an independent product safety certification organization that evaluates more than 19,000 types of products, components, materials and systems every year. More than 21 billion UL Marks appear on 72,000 manufacturers’ products each year in 99 countries.

The batteries, just like the portable audio and video players they recalled last November, were made in China.

Coby warns that the rechargeable batteries can overheat and catch fire. There have been four reports of fires from the batteries overheating, resulting in what the company called “minor property damage.” No one has been hurt yet.

The batteries were sold with Coby’s TF-DVD 1020 portable swivel-style music and video player. Last year, it was the TF-DVD170 and TF-DVD176 players that were recalled entirely — 12,000 units — because of fire worries.

Recalled Batteries Serial Number Ranges:
DG240043D503000001-1006
DG240006D503000001-400
DG240039D603000001-3000
DG240111D603000001-2000
DG240143D602000001-3000
DG240106D602000001-2000
DG240106D702000001-2000
DG240183D942000001-100
DG240071DB02000001-1400
DG240115D702000001-1726
DG240115D702000001-2500

The products were sold at discount toy and electronics stores for about $170 from May 2007 through this July.

For additional information, contact Coby Electronics toll-free at 866-945-2629 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s Web site at http://www.cobyusa.com/.

See also: Consumer Product Safety Commission listing.

By the way: In a reporting error. We spelled Coby “Colby” by accident in an early version of this story.

The Horizon Fuel Cell Bio Energy Discovery Kit is a simple enough product. It allows you to put water and alcohol in solution — like, say, diluted vodka — to create an electrochemical reaction.

“Unlike methanol, or past attempts to use alkaline ethanol solutions, Horizon’s device can use plain water and alcohol which is easily accessible to consumers,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “Tiny amounts of alcohol can thus be placed in contact with Horizon’s fuel cell and slowly converted to electricity that can power small devices.”

The promise is that this is a step toward fuel cell-powered devices.

The kit is available now for $99.

On November 5, the Open Handset Alliance was created.  This alliance, consisting of 34 hardware, software and telecommunications companies was founded with the collective goal of furthering the standards of mobile technologies.

A few years ago Google acquired Android Inc. and from there they’ve been building a product that is now just a few weeks away from reality.

“Google’s Android platform will launch in the next several weeks. It will be an HTC phone, likely the HTC Dream, and will be launched internationally on the T-Mobile network. A window of between Oct 15 and Nov 30,” says www.veturebeat.com.

According to ZDNet, September 15 is the release date of the phone at $150, which will be, “available to existing T-mobile users,” on that day. A more expensive version of the phone, at $399, will be available sometime in October.

For those of you who don’t know, Android is a program based off of the Linux OS which has the potential to increase the ease of web based applications on the go.  Likewise, this program is free and Google has been offering the tools to create programs for this system for a while now.  At launch, it’s got the potential to knock the iPhone out of your hand due to the ease of development and reliability of its software.

At this time there are no actual specs; nor are there any pictures of a potential model for this, “Gphone,” but considering the proximity of its actual release, they’re bound to come up in the next couple weeks.

Maybe more than pretty good, the Powersource crosses over to “good” now that the price has come down from a whopping $139.99 to just over $50.

The Powersource Mobile 100 gives you a three-prong plug and two USB ports to charge your laptops, cell phones, iPods, and just about any other portable device up to 80 watts. It’s guaranteed to work with iPods, Palm devices and BlackBerry phones and will work with most others as long as they take USB or standard “wall socket” power.

The device advertises two hours of laptop power, and that’s definitely possible with modern, low-power computers with the monitor turned down. Like anything else — if you’re running an Alienware monstrosity laptop, you’re not gonna get a lotta juice.

So I tested this puppy out, and my favorite part about it is that it’s not just a battery but a power inverter too. This means I can plug it into the car socket and run my Laptop at full power for as long as I need it. As a news reporter, that’s a invaluable asset on the road.

I’m glad the price came down on the Powersource Mobile 100. $50 is just about right for this product. It’s about double the cost of a normal power inverter and gives you a boost in your laptop bag or suitcase.

This is a great impulse buy. If you’re looking for something to put in the car, it’s a great idea. It works as advertised.

Yes, the Powersource is a toy. It’s not entirely necessary. It’s extra. I like it. Would I necessarily go out to the store and buy one?

I dunno.

For Martin Schubert, a 25-year-old doctoral student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, discovering a new way of looking at the LED, or Light-Emitting Diode, is going to change the way the world sees. That accomplishment earned him the $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Prize for 2008.

Precisely, Schubert discovered that ordinary LEDs produce polarized light – a lot of it. That means more energy-efficient, compact displays for everyday tech objects. Before Schubert’s find, normal LEDs had never been known to produce polarized light. Schubert, on a hunch, decided to take readings from the sides of diodes, as all other readings were done from the top, and found the previously undetected polarized light literally pouring out. Even senior experts in his field didn’t anticipate that development.

Schubert then created a reflector that directed the light vertically; creating a truly and potentially cheap source of polarized LED.

“Discovering that normal LEDs emitted polarized light at a ratio of 7:1 from the side, that was big moment,” said Schubert. “Shortly afterwards we made a reflector in a certain way so we could use that light. Those were two big moments.”

Why is accessible polarized light with the possibility of cheap manufacture a big deal?
In order to put Schubert’s accomplishment in perspective, an explanation of the way current lighting technology works in such things as laptops is beneficial. In most laptops, the LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display, is sandwiched in, “a stack of thin films,” said Schubert.

First, there’s the source light, which is generally fluorescent and not polarized. From there it goes through a liquid crystal polarizing filter. After that, it goes through a second polarizer, and then the light hits your eyes.

Some of the drawbacks to this method have to do with the lighting source itself, fluorescence, which utilizes highly toxic mercury. Another is that a significant amount of energy is needed to create light that is sufficiently bright to penetrate the polarizing filters.

While the some recent LCD displays have utilized LED as source lights, such as the extremely thin LCD on the MacAir and some high definition televisions, a polarizing filter is still required, adding not only to the overall thickness, but energy consumption.

In creating an LED that’s polarized at the source, the filtering layers are bypassed, leading to greater energy efficiency and a potentially razor-thin display.

“You lose at least 50% intensity starting with unpolarized light,” said Schubert. “Basically, that’s what motivated me to create a polarized LED. I decided a it would be a great thing to have in LCDs.”

While Schubert’s method isn’t the only way of creating a polarized LED light, it is the cheapest and least labor intensive. The reason has to do with two fundamentally different manufacturing methods.

In order to create a single LED, special crystals are first grown using one of two methods, C-PLANE or M-PLANE.

C-PLANE is currently the industry standard, as growing crystals using the C-PLANE method is faster and lower cost. In order for polarized LEDs using the M-PLANE method to become a reality, the entire manufacturing industry would have to convert to that method – an unlikely possibility, according to Schubert.

“One of my limitations when I first started out was that I couldn’t use that sort of esoteric growth technique. That was a self-imposed limitation,” said Schubert. “I would consider this the first practical way to make polarized LED lighting. You can take what’s being made on assembly line today and just change the chipset.”

And the benefits of readily available polarized LED lighting extend beyond LCD displays.

Schubert cited robotic applications as one example. In trying to teach machines to translate visual data in a way similar to the human eye, polarized light is the holy grail, as it is far easier for robots to interpret. Widely available polarized light could lead to cheaply manufactured robots that have high visual acuity, roaming the halls of, say, a hospital carrying medications or charts.

Schubert’s plans don’t stop with polarized LEDs, either. His plans for the future include researching ways to create LED lights capable of enough power for standard home lighting applications. Currently that is not possible, due to what’s known as, “efficiency droop.”

One of the limitations with LED lighting is that after achieving certain brightness, the power needed to increase the level of light increases by orders of magnitude. So, more power can be given to the LED, but the return in brightness drops quickly to levels that make the power input impractical.

He is also interested in developing more efficient Ultra Violet LEDs, as currently UV LEDs burn out at a rate that hinders their use in widespread applications. Long-life UV LEDs would be beneficial in a plethora of applications, from water sanitation, hospital sterilization, to tanning beds.

If Schubert or other scientists solved the efficiency droop issue and created LEDs for standard household lighting, the power savings are potentially enormous: LEDs use 10 percent of the energy of a standard bulb.

“I saw a statistic that 20 percent of all energy consumed in this country is for lighting. If you increase efficiency by switching over to LEDs, you could shut down hundreds of power plants,” said Schubert. “LEDs are also very long lifetime. They almost never burn out.”

And if Schubert has anything to say about it, you’ll never have to change a light bulb again.

The “Guide+Play” GPS-510na is a widescreen choice that handles navigation, traffic with a built in TMC receiver, text-to-speech instructions and audio/video playback with SD and SDHC card support.

One thing I liked about the 510na was that it found the satellites right away, locked onto my position and was ready to rock in under a minute.

One thing I noticed about the 510 was that it has a lot of parts, and that tends to get a little complicated. Even the power adapter comes in two parts. You have to plug the prongs into the adapter and then plug a USB cable into the adapter. I guess, technically that means there are less cables to deal with since the USB pretty much handles everything, but I can see people losing those two little prongs.

I don’t see much of a use for audio and video playback on a GPS unit, but it does support MP3, AAC, WMA, MPEG-4 and WMV formats, so you could technically keep the passengers entertained with a video. You’ll never, ever use it for audio playback in the car, so let’s just skip that part.

The speaker is decent, and the video quality is very good, and if you’re one of those gadget folk looking for an all-in-one device that will cook you dinner and tuck you in at night, you’ll be happy. I just want navigation. If I want to spend $400 on audio/video features added to a product line not traditionally made for audio/video, I’ll buy an iPhone. Or for $200 cheaper, an iPod touch.

The tragic thing about the GPS-510 is that it has excellent navigation, accurate maps, tons of points of interest, a sharp, color display, vital text-to-speech (it says street names and stuff) functionality, handles traffic and is very easy to use. Why tragic? Because at $399, no one is going to buy the Harman/Kardon GPS-510 because they can buy a Garmin for about that or a TomTom for much less.

That’s why Amazon and other retailers have slashed the price of the 510 by $100, and it’s still priced right out of the market. The GPS-only GPS-310 model was also slashed, and it’s available for $250. Harman/Kardon should make a widescreen GPS like this for $149 or $199 with the traffic receiver. That should have been their approach. Nail the navigation; lowball the price; cash in when people like me say it’s great.

The GPS-510 is great, and should have been a great value-priced GPS, but instead it’s an overpriced toy. It has a few minor drawbacks like the bucket-o-parts it comes with is the fact that the the docking cradle doesn’t charge it. You have to plug and unplug the power cord from the device when you remove it. Also, the touchscreen isn’t as responsive as it is on Garmin and TomTom devices. On my Garmin, I can fly through 3-4 commands in a second and be ready to go. On the 510, you have to kinda methodically make sure you fully press each command, and that’s a bitch while driving

Not that you should do that…

Quick hits:

Publisher: Harman/Kardon
Launch Date: October 17, 2007

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

A company in Sunnyvale, Calif. named Kovio Inc introduced advancements in the microchip field. The company released an all printed, high performance silicon thin-film transistor which will greatly improve print quality and reduce ink costs while providing a faster cycle time. The technology inside this product is very advanced, consisting of dropped silicon, metals and insulators for a more precise and detailed print, compared to standard lithography-based silicon.

Providing better print quality while reducing the price isn’t all Kovio’s goal. The company also will offer low-cost Radio frequency identification tagging system (RFID).

Essentially RFID is a tagging system, which contains detailed product information, far more advanced than a traditional UPC code. The information is then broadcast wirelessly, where RFID readers in range can identify the product, unlike bar code readers where the UPC must be individually scanned.

Because each RFID uses serial identification numbers and is able to identify each individual product regardless of the style or brand, stores will no longer need to count how many products are in stock. RFID technology is soon to be implemented an in variety of places like retail locations, hospitals and transportation facilities.

In recent news Dillards Department stores will be installing and using RFID technology keep track of their inventory, resulting to an overall better shopping experience for their customers. As more and more companies adopt RFID technology, our shopping experience will soon get better and companies will be able to quickly realize that their running out of product supplies and submit additional orders accordingly.

The Magicmirror is one of the first devices to use RFID tagging technology to assist in a better shopping experience. The product uses the RFID technology, which is embedded within the tag of the retail products to quickly identify a given product. The mirror can then offer suggestions of similar products or allow the customers to request a size change.

Kovio’s new innovative technology will have a large impact in the Technology and Science industries — and maybe the common world as well. The tech may change the way users interact with machines doing their everyday tasks, like ordering a travel or show tickets or shopping for groceries.

Because developers are able to construct microchips so small so to be embedded in product tags or transportation fare cards, the overall process should provide customers a simpler, more automated way of completing everyday tasks.

This new advancement may also have impact in the science industry, because we are able to reduce the size of microchips which will result to constructing, smaller, powerful robots that can do dangerous tasks, in effort to save lives.

Kovio’s new technologies are eco-friendly as well, due to the fact that they consume less energy than existing technologies. Kovio has already signed deals with Toppan Forms Co. LTD., a large company and Cubic Transportation System that plans to utilize Kovio’s RFID technology in their fare collection systems, all in effort, to better serve their customers. Eventually, I look forward to buying a printer that uses Kovio’s new, silicon thin-film transistors as well as having a mirror or other device that can identify the any given product wirelessly.

The patent pending 29 LTD BT is the first-ever CB radio is aimed at making communication easier and safer on the road by bringing your cell phone calls wirelessly into the CB unit.

This isn’t your normal Blast Magazine uber gadget, iPod, MP3 whatchamacallit, but the nerd in me squeals at the sight of this baby.

“With Bluetooth technology, the 29 LTD BT allows drivers a better way to have phone conversations on the road because calls from a mobile phone are synched with the CB radio. A noise canceling microphone allows calls to be heard loud and clear, even over a noisy engine,” Cobra said in a statement earlier this week. “Incoming audio is routed through the radio’s 5-Watt CB speaker making it easy for the driver to hear the caller. The Bluetooth feature also gives drivers the ability to answer and terminate calls by pushing one button on the CB microphone, allowing drivers to stay focused on the road.”

The new 29 LTD BT also has the standard CB complement including access to emergency channel 9, and tactile controls to allow the driver to feel where the dial is in its rotation without taking his eyes off the road.

The new unit also offers 4 Watts AM RF power output, the maximum amount of power allowed by law. (Insert Tim Allen grunt here)

The 29 LTD BT will be available this summer for $189.95.

My favorite: 4. Buy the Blu-ray player of your choice, put it in the box, attempt to return it as “defective.” or 9. Lock it alone in a room with a few lethal weapons… let it die honorably.

Congrats to Sony for winning the format war on their fifth or sixth try. They have gained a much-needed victory in the history of format wars.

What does that mean for the average viewer? Well, it’s more than a behind-the-scenes technical adjustment. Once the new requirement kicks in, most older TV sets that aren’t connected to cable, satellite or a special converter box, will not display programs from local broadcast stations.

More simply put, an old “analog” TV that still relies on rabbit ears for a picture will go black. The good news is that cable customers can relax. Every TV set connected to cable will continue to display local stations, even after TV broadcasters launch the new transmission format.

Why the Change?

Here’s what’s happening: Under a federal mandate, after Feb. 17, 2009, TV stations must cease their analog transmissions and broadcast only in digital. Since their inception more than 60 years ago, stations have sent out signals in analog format, but as the world is becoming digital, so is broadcast TV.

The federal government is requiring the change for two reasons. First, by converting to digital from analog, a valuable communications spectrum will be made available to emergency responders, such as police and fire departments. Second, digital technology renders improvements in over-the-air TV, including clearer pictures, more channels and high-definition TV images.

The catch? Many television sets in use today — particularly those purchased more than five years ago — were built to receive the original analog signals over-the-air, not the new digital signals. Those sets must be connected to a cable or satellite service, or to a special converter that will be sold in electronics stores.

The converters are expected to cost around $50 to $70, and to help households pay for them, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is managing a nationwide coupon program that will provide up to two $40 coupons to each household that requests them.

Good News

Although the digital transition could cause some confusion, there’s good news on two fronts. The first is that most new TV sets, especially digital and HDTV sets manufactured since 2004, feature built-in digital tuners that will accommodate the new digital broadcasts.

Also, the transition will be relatively seamless for consumers who have their TVs hooked up to cable, because cable companies will take care of the technical translation for them. There’s really only one thing cable customers need to know: After Feb.17, 2009, any TV set connected to cable will continue to display local TV signals, and won’t require the purchase of a new converter to continue receiving favorite broadcast TV programs.

For more information, go to www.dtvtransition.org or call (888) DTV-2009.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

The “Powramid” is a six-outlet cone of a power strip that’s actually pretty smart. It lets you plug large power adapters into each socket and is extremely compact.

Kreative says several models of the product are coming, but right now, their website only shows one, the E-900H.

Now, there’s not much to say about a surge protector, but you have to give these guys some credit for doing something different in the relatively vanilla world of surge protectors.

The E-900H will retail somewhere between $17-25, said Bonnie Jiang, Kreative’s sales director, in an interview Wednesday. The product will come in a wide variety of body and indicator light colors as well.

They’re also offering free t-shirts to anyone who preorders.

Kreative plans to highlight their new toy at CES, January 7-10 in Las Vegas.

Technical specs:

Outlets: 6
Cord length: 8′
AC Plug style: Right-angle
Joules: 900
Clamping Voltage: 330V
Max spike current: H-N 15,000A, H-G 15,000A, N-G 15,000A
Electrical ratings: 125V, 15A, 60Hz, 1875w

Wall mounted TVs are the latest trend in home improvement, and for good reason. They free up floor space; provide the option of wiring bulky, unattractive cables inside the wall — making for a clean, wireless appearance; they are affordable; and best of all, they are easy enough for a do-it-yourselfer to install, but first you need to come up with a plan.

“When deciding on the type of mount you want, there is some important information to gather,” said Jim Wohlford, general manager for Sanus Systems, a leading mount manufacturer. Here are the guidelines he recommends people follow:

1. Know where you want to put it. If you plan to mount your TV on a wall in the living room, for example, the general rule of thumb is to make sure you have at least twice as much wall space as the width of your TV. This will allow the TV to fill the space nicely without seeming too large, and leaves you extra room to hang art or speakers.
2. Have your TV information handy when you shop. It’s important to match the mount to the size, weight and mounting-hole pattern of your TV, so have your TV brand and model number with you. Generally, TVs that are less than 42 inches in size have a VESA-standard hole pattern for mounting and TVs 42 inches and larger have random hole patterns that require mounts with universal hole patterns. Any competent electronics store salesperson can help you find the right TV/mount combination.
3. Choose one with the most flexibility. Do you want a mount that sits flat against the wall, or would you rather have one that allows you to tilt, swivel and extend the mount in any direction? Titling and full-motion mounts offer far more flexibility than a low-profile or “fixed” mount and make it easy to hook up cables to the back of your TV.
4. Consider all possibilities. Ceiling mounts and under cabinet mounts are great alternatives.
5. Safety first. Make sure you are capable of installing the mount yourself, before choosing the do-it-yourself route. Reputable mount manufacturers make most mounts so they are relatively easy to install as long as you follow the directions and have someone else there to help you lift the TV. There’s always the option of hiring a professional to install your TV. Ask the store salesperson where you purchase your mount if they offer an installation service. If they don’t, they may be able to suggest a local company that specializes in mount installation.

Whether you choose to mount the TV yourself or work with a professional, here are some additional things to be aware of:

• TV mounts are installed by securing them to wall studs or into concrete. Make sure you know where you want the TV placed ahead of time so you can avoid marring the wall by drilling multiple holes.
• Do your research. Make certain the mount you choose is the best option for your needs but when in doubt, pick the mount with the most flexibility. This is where full-motion mounts are ideal because you can tilt, swivel and pan them in virtually every direction and some even extend and retract from the wall. Full-motion mounts with extension allow TVs to be mounted in the corner of a room.
• For optimal viewing, mount your TV at eye level from where you will watch TV. If that means eye level when sitting on a couch, then mount it there. However, it may make the TV look low when standing next to it. A simple solution is to mount it at normal height when standing and tilt it to eye level (providing you have a tilting or full-motion mount) when sitting down.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Many of our customers are involved in doing a thorough home theater installation, and have questions regarding what sorts of cables they’ll need for that home theater installation. It’s not unusual for cabling to be the very last thing that comes to mind — after drywall, after equipment placement, after acoustic treatment. While it’s hard to get a complex job organized in a completely logical sequence, cabling certainly should be among the first subjects that gets addressed in planning a home theater installation, rather than being among the last.

Why is that? Well, the cleanest installations, and the most professional-looking, are generally those where a good job has been done to conceal such things as cables from view. But concealed installation of cables, in walls or otherwise, is easier to do early in the job when large parts of the job haven’t been completed. If you’re doing drywall, acoustical treatment, or even just a coat of paint, it’s easier to get cable cleanly installed before, not after, your finishes are all on and your walls are all closed up. As an added benefit, a well-thought-out home theater installation will tend to eliminate the need to go back and add more cabling at a later date.

At the outset, to be able to approach cable planning in a logical way, one has to consider the layout of the home theater installation. Sometimes, all equipment is well-contained on a single rack, with the display on top, which presents very few cabling challenges; other times, the equipment may be on a rack and the display in another location; cables may be run in surface-mount raceways, or through walls or ceilings, to the display, and this may present issues for cable concealment. Also, it’s important to consider how and where signals enter the room; lines from outside sources, such as a satellite dish, an off-air antenna, or a CATV system need to be taken into account in planning for routing and concealment. Lastly, consider speaker wires; will they be run along baseboards and behind furniture, or will you need to run them inside of walls or in other concealed locations?

What Cables Do I Need?

In doing a home theater installation, it’s important first to consider the placement and installation of those cables that will be difficult or impossible to install at a later stage of the job. Patch cables reaching from one component to another on an equipment rack are easy to deal with at any time, all the way up to the day equipment is put in place; but in-wall runs to displays, speakers and the like are best dealt with early.

The most puzzling problem for many people at this point in planning a home theater is deciding what sorts of cables to run to the display. Obviously, you’ll need to determine what types of signals — component, DVI, composite, HDMI, s-video — you’ll be running to the display. A couple of tips here:

• It’s important to keep in mind that certain equipment does not, and likely will never, support component video, DVI or HDMI output. If you’re running a standard VHS deck, for example, the output will be available as composite or RF modulated video only. An S-VHS deck will ordinarily support either composite or s-video; and many satellite receivers do likewise. If you’ll need to be able to play VHS tapes, or run other composite or s-video lines to the display, you’ll want to make sure that the appropriate cabling.
• DVI and HDMI cables, due to the relatively large connector size, are particularly difficult to install after-the-fact. Even if your current display doesn’t use these signals, you may want to consider installing cable in the interests of future-proofing.
• Does your home theater display have speakers, and will you ever use them? If you’re running cable to a display with built-in speakers, but never plan to use them, you can just run video, and no analog audio. However, if you’re only going to use your surround receiver with some sources and not others, and want your display’s speakers to work when you’re just catching a little morning news, you’ll want to run right/left analog audio to the display.

Conduit or No Conduit?

Many people do the wiring for a home theater installation by first running a lot of conduit in walls, and then pulling cable in as needed. As often as not, this turns out rather badly. It’s easy to underestimate the size of conduit required, and we have had countless calls from people who suddenly, at the peak of their installation work, need to pull a large amount of cable through an undersized conduit. If you’re going to use conduit, we recommend installing the largest conduit your wall cavity will accommodate; 3/4 inch conduit will give you lots of grief unless your cabling needs are exceedingly modest.

The best use of conduit in most home theater installations is as a future-proofing device rather than as a primary means of installing cable. Rather than installing cable in conduit, consider installing cable and conduit. As long as you have access to the space where the conduit will go, it’s generally easier to install the cable alongside, and the conduit then provides some assurance that, in the event that you need to run new types, or duplicate runs, of cable, you’ll have a convenient way to get them in.

If, however, you need to run conduit and then pull cable through it, there are a few tips that will make life easier:

• Again: install the largest conduit your wall cavity will accommodate. If you’re having this work done by an electrician, and he balks, assure him that this is what you want. Electricians rarely, in residential work, need to install large conduit, and are often skeptical of the need for it — but they’re usually not dealing with cables with limited pull strength, large dimensions, and pre-installed connectors.
• Don’t use bundled cables if you can avoid it. Cables like the “structured wiring” products found in home improvement stores, or the multi-coax bundles from Belden (e.g. 7710A) aren’t flexible enough to be installed in conduit, especially if there are bends in the line.
• When pulling cable, be sure to stagger connectors, so that there isn’t one wide “blob” of connector bodies at the leading edge of the pull.
• Always have someone able to “feed” the cable at the source as it’s being pulled. Coaxial cables won’t twist easily, and so it’s important to be sure that they’re being fed straight into the entry rather than, say, being left in a coil on the floor and being pulled through the conduit in a twisted fashion.

NEC Fire Code Ratings for Home Theater Cable Installation:

Code compliance in home theater cable installation is another important consideration; many local governmental jurisdictions use the National Electrical Code, which sets requirements for fire safety for wiring to be installed in buildings. These requirements don’t apply to patch cords between devices, because those are not deemed to be “installed” wiring, but anything that will be run through walls, behind baseboards, under floors or over ceilings needs to be NEC-rated for the installation.

As a general rule, any of the following NEC ratings — which are usually printed on the cable jacket — are suitable for home wiring: CMP, CL3P, CL2P, CMR, CL3R, CL2R, CM, CMG, CL3, CL2, CMX, CL3X, CL2X, CATV, CATVR, CATVP, CATVX. There are some limitations and special circumstances, however; for more detail, see our article on NEC ratings.

Pass-through Wall Jacks: Neat Entry and Exit Points

Another question to be considered is how cable will come out of a wall. There are basically two choices: one can run cables out of an open hole in a wall, straight to the device being connected, or one can use a pass-through wallplate jack, and connect the device to the jack with a cable. The latter, of course, is a familiar solution — most cable tv installations are handled in just that way.

There are advantages to the passthrough wallplate jack that are often overlooked, and so we’ll touch on some of those here. First, since many different applications can use the same cables, it’s possible to have an extremely versatile installation by using passthrough jacks. For example, one Belden 1694A cable can accommodate digital audio, composite video, a CATV input, or a satellite antenna line; two can take stereo audio or s-video in “breakout” form; three can take component video; and so on. In our own theater room at home, we have ten 1505A cables running about fifteen feet from a couple of wallplates down to a sort of “patch panel” setup in the basement, so that any of the ten BNC jacks can be assigned any function just by plugging in the appropriate cables and devices. All ten were measured to the same length prior to installation, so that there can be no issue of mis-timing. We use some to bring in satellite signal, one to bring in cable TV signal, one to carry out a mix of RF-modulated signals so that we can watch content from any source at any location in the house — and we have more in reserve should we want to route, say, component video and digital audio out of that location to another display elsewhere in the home.

The passthrough jack arrangement is also remarkably flexible in terms of equipment placement; if cables are run directly out of the wall to where devices are, Murphy’s law holds that sooner or later, you’ll realize that you want to move all of the devices another five feet away, and that can be a mess. If instead you’ve used passthrough jacks, it becomes just a matter of buying a somewhat longer set of patch cords to go from the wall jacks to the equipment.

Passthrough jacks are available in a variety of connector types, and that raises the question of what sorts of connections you’ll want to make if you use passthroughs. For some applications, it’s fairly obvious; for speaker connections, for example, you’ll probably want binding posts rather than any other connector type. But for other applications, what people tend to do is use the connector types they’re most familiar with — F for RF connections, RCA for audio and baseband video, mini-DINs for s-video. The best approach generally is to simplify the situation by using only one connector type for all of your coaxial-type passthrough jacks, and what we recommend is to use nothing but BNCs. The BNC has the best locking characteristics of any of the commonly available connector types (RCAs don’t lock at all, and F connectors sometimes need to be tightened quite far to make solid and dependable connection). Since half of your connections are actually inside the wall and inaccessible, it’s very nice to know that you don’t have to worry about connections coming loose, and only the BNC provides really good assurance on that point. We can build any patch cord for any coaxial-type cable with BNC connectors at one end, so it’s not difficult to procure the patch cords (and adapters, should one need them, are readily available).

We’ve found in talking to our customers that a lot of people have a fundamental discomfort with passthrough jacks. They have heard that every connector in the signal path “degrades” the signal, and they worry that running one cable from the source to a wallplate, another inside the wall from wallplate to wallplate, and another from the wallplate to the destination, will cause some sort of loss of signal information. We don’t know what the source of this anti-adapter view originally was, but the concern is vastly out of proportion to the issue. Basically, the only concern with adapters is that they should be mechanically sound (so that the connections made with them don’t suffer from intermittency) and, for video and digital audio signals, they should be impedance-matched to the cable (that is, they should be 75 ohm impedance adapters if possible). 75 ohm passthrough BNCs are readily available; and even a 50 ohm BNC passthrough isn’t going to cause enough impedance mismatch to get concerned over. Adapters, if they make for a good mechanical and electrical connection, do not degrade signal.

Cable Color — a Handy Option for Low-Cost, Low-Effort Concealment

If boring lots of holes in walls, floors and ceilings for a home theater installation is something you’d like to avoid, here’s another simple cable concealment suggestion which often works well: cable color choice to match your room. Many of our cables are available in a variety of jacket colors, which can be selected by using the dropdown option boxes when shopping. If you have white baseboards, white cable sometimes will be almost invisible to a casual observer when run closely along the baseboard — especially if the baseboard itself is sometimes obscured by furniture. Although color match can be an issue, the same of course goes for the various other cable jacket colors.

Have Fun!

Above all, of course–have fun. In the middle of cable installation, that’s always not easy to do; there can be a lot of scuttling about in crawlspaces, sawdust in the eyes, and minor frustrations along the way. When you’re in the middle of those sorts of little challenges and difficulties, it’s always heartening to know that you’re doing your home theater installation right the first time–which, of course, means that you might not have to do it again for a long while, and that there’ll be lots of bags of popcorn in between now and then.

This article has been reprinted with permission

As video games and home video units adapt high definition technology, most televisions still only carry one HDMI port while many affordable receivers come with one or two ports. So if you combine your Playstation 3, HD-DVD, high-definition cable/sat television and enough money leftover for an Xbox 360, you’re out of luck in the HDMI department.

“Home entertainment devices continue to come to market with HDMI capabilities, and as our survey illustrates, end users are finding it difficult to support the number of products in their living rooms,” said Miranda Su, vice president of sales and marketing at IOGEAR. “It is important for consumers to experience the high-quality audio and video that HDMI provides, as it enables them to have the richest home-theater system possible.”

According to the email survey, 300 out of the 1,000 respondents only have one HDMI input, while nearly 60 percent surveyed want to simultaneously connect up to four a/vl products to their TVs.

“This presents consumers with a home-theater conundrum, forcing them to either disconnect a device every time they want to access a new one, or not take advantage of the robust HDMI features incorporated in their digital entertainment products. Having multiple interfaces on HDTVs is increasingly vital as more than 600 makers of consumer electronics and PC products worldwide have adopted HDMI1, with products including set-top boxes, DVD players and gaming consoles,” IOGEAR said.

While it’s not common for users to have three or more HDMI devices, more and more consumers require at least two — one for high-definition television and one for a video game or home video (upconverting DVD, Blu-ray or HD-DVD) setup.

The result: look for more and more home theater receivers to include 2+ HDMI ports and added component video inputs too. Remember, HDMI and DVI use the same video interface — and you can buy an adaptor cable to use any DVI device on an HDMI port.

“Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed,” according to a statement by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

The Maspeth, N.Y. company sold 12,000 of the units at discount electronics, music, toy, and office supply stores as well as wholesale distributors, the CPSC said. They sold for $140 and $170 respectively.

The products were manufactured in China.

Coby is offering a full refund to all customers. For additional information, call them toll-free at 877-231-9240 or visit the their website at www.cobyusa.com.

The company recalled 15,000 MP-CD475 boomboxes in April for the same reason.

Every Friday this month till the infamous Friday after Thanksgiving, they will be selling five items for a greatly discounted price. This week, they have Fisher Price Nascar Ride-On for $144.72, Sanyo 50″ Plasma HDTV for $998.00, Acer Laptop $348 and a few HD DVD’s for $14.96.

But the most interesting offer is that the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player will sell for $98.87. They all say while supplies last, and the HD-DVD player and the HDTV are only available at select stores.

Unfortunatly, they don’t specify which select stores….

Best Buy is offering the same HD-DVD player for $99, but their website lists it as sold out.

That all changed with the advent of a series of technologies: cable television; the VCR; the S-VHS VCR; the LaserDisk and DVD players; the satellite receiver; the PVR; the Home Theater PC; and High-Definition TV. Now, instead of video coming into the home and being handled in a single run of twin-lead antenna line, we have a huge assortment of video standards to handle, and a variety of cable types, terminations, and configurations to deliver them.

One of the most common sources of confusion in all of this is the tendency to mix terms when talking about three distinct concepts: signal formats, cable types, and connector types. Often-asked questions like “can I get a cable to go from RCA to s-video?” or “can I go from component to BNC?” suggest that the mixing of these terms hasn’t aided understanding.

Connectors are one thing; internal cable structures are another; and signal types are yet another, and it’s important to separate out these concepts in order to understand what can, and can’t, be hooked together, and how. It’s almost always possible to fabricate a cable which will physically join two components; but whether that cable, once installed in the system, will actually successfully convey a signal from point A to point B is another question, which has more to do with signal types than with connector types.

A cable is a transmission line; its function is to get signals from point to point without meaningful alteration. Consequently, when one has incompatible source signals and destinations, a cable won’t solve the problem. One can’t simply wire up a cable with an F-connector at one end and a DVI-D plug at the other and expect to pull digital video out of an antenna. What’s more…and more confusing: connections that look perfectly compatible with one another can be completely incompatible. A device with red, green and blue jacks running sync-on-green RGB can be plugged into a device expecting Y/Pb/Pr component video, but the two can’t make sense of each other. But two devices both running Y/Pb/Pr component video, one through BNCs and the other through RCAs, can be hooked together with a cable and will work fine, despite the dissimilarity of connector types.

A Whirlwind Tour through the World of Signal Types:

Because the best way to understand what can, and can’t, be hooked together is to understand just what kind of signal is running through the line, here’s a quick description of the common signal types–some you’ll see on almost every piece of gear, and some are not so common. If you have two pieces of equipment, one putting out and the other receiving the same signal type, they can talk to one another as long as you can come up with a cable to join them.

1. RF (Radio Frequency) Modulated Television:

RF, or Radio Frequency, is the type of signal that comes through the air by antenna or through a cable tv connection. In standard-definition broadcast and analog cable, a composite video signal and accompanying audio are mixed, at the transmitting end, with high-frequency radio waves, and are broadcast through the air or distributed through a cable system. To be viewed on a display, these signals have to be separated from the other channels in the line and converted to unmodulated “baseband” video and audio signals using a television tuner (found in any conventional television set or VCR). RF is used as a distribution medium because (1) it propagates through the air very well, making it suitable for over-the-air broadcast, and (2) many video signals can be modulated at many different frequencies, it’s possible for us to have many “channels” available simultaneously without having them interfere with one another.

2. Composite Video:

Composite Video is a single signal which carries both the chrominance (color) and luminance (brightness) components of a video signal, along with sync information, on a single wire. Unlike an RF signal, a composite video signal does not need to be demodulated to be understood by a video display. Like other baseband video formats, a composite video signal does not carry any audio content, which must be handled separately.

3. S-Video:

S-video is a format which splits the chrominance and luminance out onto two separate lines, “C” and “Y,” each requiring its own cable; the sync pulses are carried on the luminance line. Why, then, does an s-video cable usually look like just one cable rather than a pair of cables? We’ll get to that further below.

4. Component Video:

“Component Video” is an unfortunate sort of name, in that other formats have used this name over the years, leading to some potential for confusion; but today, the expression “component video” ordinarily refers to “Y/Pb/Pr,” also known as “YUV,” video. In Y/Pb/Pr Component Video, there is a luminance channel, “Y,” which carries the luminance along with the sync pulses, and two color-difference channels, which carry signals representing Blue minus Luminance (B-Y, or Pb) and Red minus Luminance (R-Y, or Pr). From these signals, the display device separates out the sync information and reconstitutes the red, green and blue components of the picture. Just as s-video requires two signal-carrying wires instead of one, component video requires three to convey the whole signal.

5. RGB and its variants: RGsB, RGBS, RGBHV:

The original “component video” was RGB, which appears in three principal varieties, each requiring a different number of connections. The most common type is RGBHV, with five lines: one for red, one for green, one for blue, one for the horizontal sync and one for the vertical sync. RGBHV is the standard used in VGA and other analog PC computer monitors. RGBS, having four connections, differs from RGBHV in having the vertical and horizontal sync combined on a single channel, while RGsB, or “sync-on-green,” places the sync information on the green channel–not unlike, but still not compatible with, Y/Pb/Pr component video.

6. DVI and its several flavors: DVI-D, DVI-A, DVI-I

DVI is a tad confusing because the term is identified both with more than one signal type and more than one connector type. “DVI-A” is nothing but RGBHV in a funny connector, and isn’t digital at all. “DVI-I” isn’t really a signal type, but refers, as we’ll review later, to a connector type which combines DVI-A and DVI-D. DVI-D is a parallel digital standard–a nasty little tangle of wires in a nasty little plug–which consists of up to seven balanced lines (all other common video standards are run unbalanced) carrying the video itself, and five miscellaneous conductors carrying other information. Because this is a digital rather than an analog signal, it can only be converted to another format through a device that is equipped to decode the digital bitstream and render it in analog form. Similar to DVI is HDMI, a standard intended to be backward-compatible with DVI and employing the same encoding/decoding scheme.

7. SDI:

SDI is serial digital video, run in an unbalanced line unlike DVI, and used primarily in professional production environments. You’re unlikely to see it in a conventional home theater application, but we can always hope…

Cable Types:

The cables for the applications above differ, but not so much as one might think. All of the unbalanced analog and digital standards, from RF down through SDI, are run in 75 ohm coaxial cables. This fact, in itself, seems to confuse people; it is widely assumed that “coax” is something used for RF, or for SPDIF digital audio, and that composite video or component video are run in a different type of cable suited particularly for those formats. In fact, the only differences are small; RF is frequently, but not always, run in cables using copper-coated steel conductors for higher strength and lower cost; SDI is generally run in “precision” video cables because its wide bandwidth requires very tight impedance tolerance; but these cables are all “coax.” Even s-video is only apparently an exception. A round s-video cable is just a round jacket over two miniature coaxes, one carrying luminance and the other chrominance.

What makes a coax a coax is simply that the signal and ground conductors are “co-axial,” that is, they share a common axis. At the center of a coax is a wire; at an even distance from that wire, surrounding it and separated from it by an insulating dielectric, is a shield. Because the axis of the cylindrical shield is the same as the axis of the center conductor, the structure is said to be coaxial.

DVI and HDMI are run in cables which are particular to their own applications. The Digital Display Working Group, which designed the DVI standard, chose to run high-bitrate parallel digital video through a set of twisted-pair balanced lines, which by spec are supposed to be 100 ohms plus or minus 10 percent. Running high-bitrate information through tiny parallel twisted pairs with no possibility for error correction is something of an invitation to disaster, and the poor design of the standard has much to do with the uneven reliability of DVI cables in general. Simply running the signals unbalanced and using coaxial cables, with their far tighter impedance tolerance (+/- 2% as spec’d, much better in actual practice) and consequently better return loss performance, would have resulted in a far more robust standard capable of longer runs.

Connector Types:

As we’ve pointed out, it’s always possible to hook up two devices that employ the same video signal type, regardless of whether they use the same connector; the only problem is in making sure you’ve got the connectors you need at both ends. When trying to puzzle out a connection problem, therefore, the important issue is always, first, ensuring that you’re really sending a signal of type A into an input of type A. There’s no such thing as “RCA video,” but there is such a thing as composite video coming out of an RCA jack, or component video coming out of three RCA jacks.

Here are some common connector types, and what they are commonly used for:

1. The RCA Plug and Jack:

The RCA is the most common connector type on consumer gear for composite and component video, as well as for both digital and analog audio. It’s not a very good connector, as connectors go, but as it’s what equipment manufacturers have given us, it’s what we often have to use. RCA jacks color-coded yellow on a device usually are composite video inputs or outputs. If you’ve got a single RCA jack on the back panel, labeled “video” or something similar, that’s almost certainly composite. Component video is usually represented by three RCA connections color-coded green (Y, or Luminance), blue (Pb) and red (Pr). RGBHV will usually, though not always, be color-coded red, green, blue, yellow (horizontal sync) and white (vertical sync). Some devices will have labeling for both RGBHV and Y/Pb/Pr; this signifies that the device is capable of supporting either RGBHV or Y/Pb/Pr, using all five or only three connections; read your manual for details.

2. The BNC Plug and Jack:

The BNC is the standard connector for most video signals on professional gear, and is showing up increasingly on high-end consumer gear as well. It will be labeled similarly to the RCA, indicating composite video (one connection), Y/C s-video (two connections), Y/Pb/Pr (three connections), or one form or another of RGB. The most common confusion with BNCs, in our experience, is that people often assume the female connector is a male; the problem is that both the male and female connectors have what looks like a pin in the center. On closer inspection, however, you’ll see that a female BNC’s “pin” is actually a receptacle for the male pin. A panel-mounted BNC will ALWAYS be female; a cable-mounted BNC will almost always be male, though there are exceptions (such as our breakout adapters, which have female BNCs to join with standard cable-mount male BNCs).

3. F-Connectors:

The F-connector is the screw-on type connection used for most antenna and cable TV connections. F-connectors are rarely used for anything other than RF; the one notable exception being that they were used as digital audio connectors on some laser disk players.

4. The 4-pin mini-DIN Plug:

The common s-video plug on consumer gear is a four-pin mini-DIN plug, and is, frankly, an awful choice for video. It has a tendency to unplug itself at the slightest urging, and its small profile mandates the use of tiny video cable to allow two coaxes into the cable entry hole. It does, however, at least have the merit of being readily recognizable.

5. The HD15 / mini dSub 15 / VGA connector:

An increasing number of devices are showing up with 15-pin connectors; there are about as many names as pins for this connector, which is well known as the plug used with most PC computer monitors and consequently is often called a “VGA” plug. Since VGA is an RGBHV-type video signal, however, this usage is a bit confusing; this same plug is used not only for RGBHV, but for RGBS, RGB sync-on-green, and Y/Pb/Pr Component video. Because the plug can be used with so many different video standards, it’s very important, when you want to use a 15-pin connector on a device, to be sure you know what sort of video it can put out or take in. Many projectors currently on the market, for example, can accept either Y/Pb/Pr component video or RGBHV through a 15-pin plug, but some will accept only RGBHV. Fortunately, the “pinout” is the same either way; a cable designed to carry RGBHV will carry Y/Pb/Pr on the Green/Blue/Red lines, respectively, so that all one needs to do is match up the color-coding on the plugs.

5. DVI Connectors:

DVI Connectors come in a few types; the most important, in general, are DVI-I and DVI-D. The difference between the two is that a DVI-I connector has extra pins at one end, which carry most of the analog video signal. A DVI-I cable can be used either for a digital or analog signal, because it contains both the digital and analog pins. But a DVI-D socket, being designed to take a DVI-D plug, will ordinarily lack any place for the analog pins on a DVI-I plug to go; accordingly, it’s important to be sure that the cable you buy will actually plug in to the equipment you own.

So, What Do I Do if My Signals Are Incompatible?

The above may help you figure out whether your connection problem can be solved just by buying a cable to link two devices together, or whether the problem is deeper, involving a difference in signal types. If you do need to connect dissimilar signals, what can you do?

In general, the answer to this question is that you need a device capable of converting one signal format to another. First, let’s look at some simple cases. If you’re trying to convert an RF signal into composite video and analog audio, any tuner will do; even a VCR with a broken tape transport can be pressed into service here. If you’re trying to do the opposite, a VCR can be used to modulate a composite video and analog audio input into an RF signal, typically only on channels 3 or 4; the one drawback being that, if you’re running a Macrovision copy-protected source, the modulator will work very poorly and produce a picture you won’t want to watch. Alternatively, one can buy a cheap RF modulator–commonly available because of the lack of RF outputs on most DVD players–or, for a bit more money, an “agile” modulator which will put out a signal not just on channels 3 or 4, but on any of a range of channels. If you’re trying to convert s-video to composite, or vice versa, a simple passive converter can be had for a few dollars.

Beyond those simple conversions, it gets dicey. The most common request we see is for a device to convert Y/Pb/Pr component video to RGBHV, to run a DVD player through a computer monitor, or the reverse–RGBHV to component–to run a computer through a TV display. For complicated tasks like that, one needs a device called a “transcoder,” and these range in price from a hundred dollars or so up to thousands, depending on the flexibility and signal quality required. In many applications, it turns out to be less expensive to simply replace the incompatible device than to buy an outboard transcoder to solve the connectivity problem. Devices like these are generally available online from broadcast-industry supply houses, such as Markertek.

In Conclusion:

We hope this tour through the subject of signal types, cable types, and connector types hasn’t been too confusing, and that we may have answered a question or two. If you have a connectivity problem you can’t work out, feel free to give us a shout.

This article has been reprinted with permission

So I went to AT&T’s website, where it says “Find iPhone at an AT&T store,” plugged in my address and I was off to the nearest Apple retailer.

By noon on June 29th–the iPhone’s release date–I was hearing tales of long lines at all the Apple stores, but I figured that the small store I was headed to wouldn’t get many shipments, but would also see less people in line. The employees at the store told me that I was the first one there, so I left and got back in line at 12:30 p.m. The employees wouldn’t share a single detail about the iPhone until 6 p.m., when the store opened, including how many shipments the store was getting or any of the specifications about the phone.

Around 2 p.m., a few more people showed up, and by 3, there were six people in line. The line grew to the point that mall security moved the line behind a roped area. At around 4:30, the employees got a box of stuff from FedEx. Having seen this attempted secret delivery, the eagerly waiting customers became excited that it was stuff for the iPhones, or even the iPhones themselves.

Then, at a little before 5, the bad news hit.

The manager of the store, Eddie McGee, came out of the store, escorted by a security guard, to talk to everyone. He said they would not be getting any iPhones. It turns out that there was a problem with the shipment in that only the bigger AT&T stores would be getting ten shipments of the iPhones, but the smaller ones wouldn’t be getting any. As if pouring salt into an already open wound, he said that, by now, if anyone rushes over to another store they’ll just be at the end of the line and probably won’t get one.

He also said they were not allowed to compensate anything to do with the iPhone.

According to McGee, the only thing that customers could do was to order the phones directly though the store’s computers.

All he offered was free ground shipping or $14.95 for overnight shipping.

Understandably, the rest of the crowd and I were very annoyed, since the AT&T website had claimed that this store would be selling the iPhone. In reality, it was only ordering them for customers. He assured the crowd that they would get the iPhone before anyone else. He also said that those opting for the overnight shipping will get higher priority on shipping than those that don’t.

“I’ve been waiting all afternoon for an iPhone, knowing the store was going to have a supply. When we were told of a shipping error, we were very disappointed of the way it was carelessly handled by Apple. Now my feet hurt,” said Alex Abdou, an angry crowd member.

“We’ve been lied to, and something should be done,” said Elior Dawson, waiting in line with his father and brother.

While customers were signing up for the direct fulfillment–ordering the phones directly from Apple–Abdou asked to check on the priority of the orders, and whether or not these orders are higher up on the queue.

“That’s what they tell me,” McGee said.

He further elaborated, saying that he was told all this on a conference call before they told the customers.

The corporation knew that there would be a shortage long before 5 p.m. Friday. They should have notified the people waiting in line that they weren’t going to get any at this store, so everyone could’ve gone to another store to wait, and save the tremendous disappointment. Furthermore, AT&T should have been more direct on their website. The employees at the store were courteous, but they should have known and been able to tell customers earlier that there was a major problem.

Off to a bad start, iPhone.

Editor’s note: Brad hunted for the rest of the night Friday, and he did eventually find his very own iPhone. Blast Magazine staff writer Daniel Peleschuk contributed to this report.

Is everybody on the AT&T-formerly-Cingular-network ready for the iPhone?

In a statement more fit for Hollywood than Silicon Valley, Apple announced that their cell phone/portable multimedia gadget “premieres this Friday night at Apple and AT&T retail stores.” Said stores will be opening at 9 a.m. all summer long to offer “support for iPhone at the Genius Bar and personal training through Apple’s new One to One program.”

This is material that’s too good to be made up.

In response, Verizon-which isn’t compatible with the iPhone-fired back, saying their own retail stores will be open all day tomorrow, letting customers test drive the Verizon network and their own set of 18 multimedia/music phones.

The popular LG VX9400 is now available for $99, and Verizon is giving away a “music essentials kit,” which includes a 2GB memory card, headphones and a data transfer cable to anyone who buys it.

They’re also offering “name that song,” which allows users to hold their phone up to any speaker with a song playing. The software identifies the song and lets the user instantly download it to their phone.

The iPhone is expected to have a strong burst of immediate sales, but some experts are skeptical about its ability to attract a strong market share among regular consumers.

“The underlying drivers for converging music, multimedia, and communications capabilities in a device such as an iPhone are certainly prevalent in today’s market,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst with Parks Associates. “However, the high price point may prevent the iPhone from achieving greater adoption over the short term. It may be an early-adopter product that appeals to technophiles but initially leaves other interested users on the outside looking in.”

Parks Associates recently put out a study showing only 3% of consumers surveyed are strongly interested in spending $499.99 on the iPhone including a two-year contract.

iPhones will be available in a 4GB model for $499 and an 8GB model for $599, and will work with either a PC or Mac, according to an Apple statement.

Playboy is eagerly on-board with the announcement of iPlayboy. The adult entertainment magazine’s package for the iPhone will include free wallpapers, photos, videos and MP3s customized for iPhone users. Several images, including non-nude images of popular playmates, will be available.

“We have always tried to stay ahead of the curve by delivering the fun, sophistication and sexiness of Playboy to our fans on the newest and hottest media platforms,” said John D. Thomas, editor of Playboy.com, in a statement. “And with so much buzz surrounding the all-in-one Apple iPhone, we knew we had to develop something specifically designed just for this device.”

The iPhone itself will bring a wide array of features to bear on the cell phone user. It’s based on a new multi-touch display controlled by a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. Apple says the iPhone is a combination of a widescreen iPod, mobile phone and portable Internet device. While these features aren’t new in and of themselves, consumers can’t help but realize that portable music existed before the iPod came to dominance.

Time will tell, but for now, we wait during final hours of Earth without the iPhone.

I mean, I really, really hate cords.

Being a gadget fiend means that my desk is cluttered with power cords, ac-adapters and audio/video cables. Since a simple pair of wall plugs doesn’t really satisfy my addiction to electronics, surge-protectors and various other adapters fill the void.

But our friends at MIT may soon put this all in the past.

For years, teams of researchers have worked towards methods of delivering electricity without the use of copper wires. They had failed.

The most well known method originally tried involved electromagnetic radiation. This involved transmitting electricity in the same fashion antennas shoot FM radio waves across cities and to your stereo. The problem with this is that the power transmitted flies all over the place, most of it ending up wasted in space. Scientists have attempted to make this more efficient using lasers, but this requires a line of site between the piece of machinery producing the laser, and the gadget receiving the power. This is more or less unusable in the real world as it is dangerous and more of an inconvenience than cords.

A team made up of individuals from several departments within MIT have come up with a new approach, calling it WiTricity. In an experiment, the team lit a 60W light bulb wirelessly from a power source seven feet away. Even more impressive, the team stood in the middle of the source and the bulb, demonstrating their method’s ability to deliver electricity wirelessly even through an obstructed path.

How does this work?

Magnetically coupled resonance.

Uh…What?

MIT explained some of the extremely complicated physics behind WiTricity using an analog of wine glasses and opera singers.

“Imagine a room with 100 identical wine glasses, each filled with wine up to a different level, so they all have different resonant frequencies. If an opera singer sings a sufficiently loud single note inside the room, a glass of the corresponding frequency might accumulate sufficient energy to even explode, while not influencing the other glasses. In any system of coupled resonators there often exists a so-called “strongly coupled” regime of operation. If one ensures to operate in that regime in a given system, the energy transfer can be very efficient.”

According to researchers, this could not only eliminate cords that charge the batteries in popular household electronics such as ipods, laptops, and cellphones, but eliminate batteries all together.

So Energizer and Duracell might be pissed, but I am pumped. Household WiTricity is still several years away from realistic use, but this is a huge step in the evolution of technology which would undoubtedly change the way we live.

First, to clear away one element that can be confusing: DVI and HDMI are exactly the same as one another, image-quality-wise. The principal differences are that HDMI carries audio as well as video, and uses a different type of connector, but both use the same encoding scheme, and that’s why a DVI source can be connected to an HDMI monitor, or vice versa, with a DVI/HDMI cable, with no intervening converter box.

The upshot of this article–in case you’re not inclined to read all the details–is that it’s very hard to predict whether a digital DVI or HDMI connection will produce a better or worse image than an analog component video connection. There will often be significant differences between the digital and the analog signals, but those differences are not inherent in the connection type and instead depend upon the characteristics of the source device (e.g., your DVD player) and the display device (e.g., your TV set). Why that is, however, requires a bit more discussion.

What are DVI, HDMI and Component Video?

DVI/HDMI and Component Video are all video standards which support a variety of resolutions, but which deliver the signal from the source to the display in very different ways. The principal important difference is that DVI/HDMI deliver the signal in a digital format, much the same way that a file is delivered from one computer to another along a network, while Component Video is an analog format, delivering the signal not as a bitstream, but as a set of continuously varying voltages representing (albeit indirectly, as we’ll get to in a moment) the red, green and blue components of the signal.

Both DVI/HDMI and Component Video deliver signals as discrete red, green, and blue color components, together with sync information which allows the display to determine when a new line, or a new frame, begins. The DVI/HDMI standard delivers these along three data channels in a format called T.M.D.S., which stands for “Transmission Minimized Differential Signaling.” Big words aside, the T.M.D.S. format basically involves a blue channel to which horizontal and vertical sync are added, and separate green and red channels.

Component Video is delivered, similarly, with the color information split up three ways. However, component video uses a “color-difference” type signal, which consists of Luminance (the “Y”, or “green,” channel, representing the total brightness of the image), Red Minus Luminance (the “Pr,” or “Red,” channel), and Blue Minus Luminance (the “Pb,” or “Blue,” channel). The sync pulses for both horizontal and vertical are delivered on the Y channel. The display calculates the values of red, green and blue from the Y, Pb, and Pr signals.

Both signal types, then, are fundamentally quite similar; they break up the image in similar ways, and deliver the same type of information to the display, albeit in different forms. How they differ, as we’ll see, will depend to a great extent upon the particular characteristics of the source and display devices, and can depend upon cabling as well.

Isn’t Digital Just Better?

It is often supposed by writers on this subject that “digital is better.” Digital signal transfer, it is assumed, is error-free, while analog signals are always subject to some amount of degradation and information loss. There is an element of truth to this argument, but it tends to fly in the face of real-world considerations. First, there is no reason why any perceptible degradation of an analog component video signal should occur even over rather substantial distances; the maximum runs in home theater installations do not present a challenge for analog cabling built to professional standards. Second, it is a flawed assumption to suppose that digital signal handling is always error-free. DVI and HDMI signals aren’t subject to error correction; once information is lost, it’s lost for good. That is not a consideration with well-made cable over short distances, but can easily become a factor at distance.

So What Does Determine Image Quality?

Video doesn’t just translate directly from source material to displays, for a variety of reasons. Very few displays operate at the native resolutions of common source material, so when you’re viewing material in 480p, 720p, or 1080i, there is, of necessity, some scaling going on. Meanwhile, the signals representing colors have to be accurately rendered, which is dependent on black level and “delta,” the relationship between signal level and actual as-rendered color level. Original signal formats don’t correspond well to display hardware; for example, DVD recordings have 480 lines, but non-square pixels, and they have color recorded in color-difference format, while HDMI ordinarily runs in RGB colorspace. Few displays correspond very well to any common output resolution; instead of 720 lines or 1080, they often will have 768, or 1024, or some other number of lines. What all of this means is that there is signal processing to go on along the signal chain.

The argument often made for the DVI or HDMI signal formats is the “pure digital” argument–that by taking a digital recording, such as a DVD or a digital satellite signal, and rendering it straight into digital form as a DVI or HDMI signal, and then delivering that digital signal straight to the display, there is a sort of a perfect no-loss-and-no-alteration-of-information signal chain. If the display itself is a native digital display (e.g. an LCD or Plasma display), the argument goes, the signal never has to undergo digital-to-analog conversion and therefore is less altered along the way.

That might be true, were it not for the fact that digital signals are encoded in different ways and have to be converted, and that these signals have to be scaled and processed to be displayed. Consequently, there are always conversions going on, and these conversions aren’t always easy going. “Digital to digital” conversion is no more a guarantee of signal quality than “digital to analog,” and in practice may be substantially worse. Whether it’s better or worse will depend upon the circuitry involved–and that is something which isn’t usually practical to figure out. As a general rule, with consumer equipment, one simply doesn’t know how signals are processed, and one doesn’t know how that processing varies by input. Analog and digital inputs must either be scaled through separate circuits, or one must be converted to the other to use the same scaler. How is that done? In general, you won’t find an answer to that anywhere in your instruction manual, and even if you did, it’d be hard to judge which is the better scaler without viewing the actual video output. It’s fair to say, in general, that even in very high-end consumer gear, the quality of circuits for signal processing and scaling is quite variable.

Additionally, it’s not uncommon to find that the display characteristics of different inputs have been set up differently. Black level, for example, may vary considerably from the digital to the analog inputs, and depending on how sophisticated your setup options on your display are, that may or may not be an easy thing to recalibrate.

The Role of Cable and Connection Quality

Cable quality, in general, should not be a significant factor in the DVI/HDMI versus Component Video comparison, as long as the cables in question are of high quality. There are, however, ways in which cable quality issues can come into play.

Analog component video is an extremely robust signal type; we have had our customers run analog component, without any need for boosters, relays or other special equipment, up to 200 feet without any signal quality issues at all. However, at long lengths, cable quality can be a consideration–in particular, impedance needs to be strictly controlled to a tight tolerance (ideally, 75 +/- 1.5 ohms) to prevent problems with signal reflection which can cause ghosting or ringing.

DVI and HDMI, unfortunately, are not so robust. The problem here is the same as the virtue of analog component: tight control over impedance. When the professional video industry went to digital signals, it settled upon a standard–SDI, serial digital video–which was designed to be run in coaxial cables, where impedance can be controlled very tightly, and consequently, uncompressed, full-blown HD signals can be run hundreds of feet with no loss of information in SDI. For reasons known only to the designers of the DVI and HDMI standards, this very sound design principle was ignored; instead of coaxial cable, the DVI and HDMI signals are run balanced, through twisted-pair cable. The best twisted pair cables control impedance to about +/- 10%. When a digital signal is run through a cable, the edges of the bits (represented by sudden transitions in voltage) round off, and the rounding increases dramatically with distance. Meanwhile, poor control over impedance results in signal reflections–portions of the signal bounce off of the display end of the line, propagate back down the cable, and return, interfering with later information in the same bitstream. At some point, the data become unrecoverable, and with no error correction available, there’s no way to restore the lost information.

DVI and HDMI connections, for this reason, are subject to the “digital cliff” phenomenon. Up to some length, a DVI or HDMI cable will perform just fine; the rounding and reflections will not compromise the ability of the display device to reconstruct the original bitstream, and no information will be lost. As we make the cable longer and longer, the difficulty of reconstructing the bitstream increases. At some point, unrecoverable bit errors start to occur; these are colloquially described in the home theater community as “sparklies,” because the bit errors manifest themselves as pixel dropouts which make the image sparkle. If we make the cable just a bit longer, so much information is lost that the display becomes unable to reconstitute enough information to even render an image; the bitstream has fallen off the digital cliff, so called because of the abruptness of the failure. A cable design that works perfectly at 20 feet may get “sparkly” at 25, and stop working entirely at 30.

In practice, it’s very hard to say when a DVI or HDMI signal will fail. We have found well-made DVI and HDMI cables to be quite reliable up to 50 feet. But because the ability to reconstitute the bitstream varies depending on the quality of the circuitry in the source and display devices, it’s not uncommon for a cable to work fine at 30, 40, or 50 feet on one source/display combination, and not work at all on another.

The Upshot: It Depends

So, which is better, HDMI or component? The answer–unsatisfying, perhaps, but true–is that it depends. It depends upon your source and display devices, and there’s no good way, in principle, to say in advance whether the digital or the analog connection will render a better picture. You may even find, say, that your DVD player looks better through its HDMI output, while your satellite or cable box looks better through its component output, on the same display. In this case, there’s no real substitute for simply plugging it in and giving it a try both ways.

This article has been reprinted with permission