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Sony's Bravia Theatre RHT-G500 3.1-Channel Hi-Fi is a TV Stand Too
Posted by Kit Eaton at 6:08 PM on August 6, 2008
Stand your precious new HDTV on a simple, old-fashioned plank of wood? No, that's way too low-tech... or at least you might think so after seeing Sony's RHT-G500. It's an "invisible home cinema" TV stand. "A TV stand with a product code?" you might ask. Yes. And an integrated 3.1-channel audio system with S-Force PRO Front Surround technology, HDMI inputs with pass-through, a special PMP connector, and both Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity. And you can stand TVs on it: it's designed for 32-inch to 40-inch sets. No word on pricing or availability. [Sony Europe via I4U]
We put up with too many cables. There are at least four different kinds of USB plugs, two kinds of FireWire and like a million different ways to connect something to TV or monitor. Modern gadget life can be kind of retarded in this way. Why not one kind of cable, or just a couple? I don't know. But until everyone gets on the same appendage-to-hole scheme, in the meantime, you can use this: an illustrated guide to pretty much every kind of cable you will see in current gadgets and what it's used for (unless, you know, Sony springs a new one on us overnight, which is honestly possible).
Sarotech's' 2.5-inch ABigs player seems to be designed by an engineer with a gigantic budget. Why? Because it's got a 2.5-inch display, H.264 and MKV support, 1080p over HDMI and 5.1-channel out, a built-in FM transmitter, a photo viewer, an e-book and both PAL and NTSC compatibility. The 160GB version is available for US$278 and the 320GB version is available for US$328 from Korea, which isn't all that bad considering everything you get from it. If you still want the Korean flavour of this Sarotech but a bit more US availability, there's always 
Be happy: A new wireless HD video standard guarantees that major brands including Sony, Sharp, Hitachi, Samsung and Motorola will have interoperable wireless video streaming. Amimon--the chip makers behind the "video modem" wireless HD tech 
If you're wall-mounting your TV in tight quarters and don't have a free side or downward-facing HDMI input on your set, these Panasonic HDMI cables will probably come in handy, once they're released this August. No word yet on price; Panasonic's standard 5ft cables go for around US$30 on Amazon (and we all know you can do 
If you gotta go the desktop route, Acer's got three mini-PCs packed heavy with ports that don't take up a ton of space. Measuring 10.6" x 4" x 14.4", about the same as a hardcover book, the X1200s have an HDMI port—like 
We just got a briefing on Monster's Wireless Digital Express HD System, a UWB system that transmits video wirelessly in the same room, If you want to send it to another room, it'll use already-in-wall coax to transmit high-def signal. Sigma Designs, known for its Blu-ray player chips, is on board, using its Wireless HDAV cable replacement to upconvert, encode and then decode the 1080p video signal on the fly. It's going to cost US$600 for a transmitter and receiver pair, which may sound like a lot for you to connect your Wii to your 32" LCD in place of a 30-cent AV cable, but considering what it's capable of doing—and the technology it's using—it's not awful.
Sure the Bravia Internet Video Link is a 
The Xonar HDAV 1.3 might the first sound card to claim to full HDMI 1.3a support, but ASUS has a few more tricks up their sleeves that could make it interesting to non-audiophiles. The Xonar is capable of performing some corrective post-processing effects on HD video with its "Splendid HD" chip, saving precious CPU cycles.
