Holiday season reminder: Buy cheap HDMI cables

In the bustle of holiday shopping, it's easy to be persuaded by the salesperson at your local retailer that you need to buy a S$100 (US$72.02) HDMI cable to make your new gear work. They might say the expensive cable "supports faster speeds," "has better video quality," or that "cheap cables don't support 1080p"--pretty much anything to get you to throw that high-margin HDMI cable in your shopping cart. But the truth is that expensive HDMI cables aren't worth it and the cheap cables available online are just as good.

The full guide explains all the reasons in detail, but the main takeaway is that you should never pay more than S$50 (US$36.01) for a standard 2m HDMI cable. Cheap HDMI cables can be found all over the Web--we've had good experiences with both US Monoprice and Amazon.

Read CNET's Quick Guide to HDMI cables.

Via CNET Crave

TV has license to kill movies at iTunes, Netflix

Apple is an Internet retailer and Neflix is a US Web video rental service, but Hollywood treats them as if they were potential competitors to TV broadcasters.

In the past two weeks, customers of iTunes and Netflix's streaming digital-movie service have noticed that a growing number of titles are disappearing from the sites or are scheduled to be removed. MacWorld wrote a story last week about how one of the site's contributors noticed that of the 15 films he bookmarked for future viewing at iTunes, nine were no longer available. Among the movies that vanished were Charlie Wilson's War, Eastern Promises, and Michael Clayton.

"One would presume that there is some sort of licensing issue at stake here," wrote MacWorld's Dan Moren. "But it's a little odd that these movies just vanished into thin air. Man, it's like a bad horror movie."

Yes, Dan, it is. And the culprit here is a system that for decades has pumped billions of dollars into the coffers of Hollywood studios and the television industry. What has happened is Apple and Netflix have crashed into windows. Release windows is the term used to describe periods of time a certain media is allowed to show a movie. Typically, a feature film is first released in theaters, then on DVD, followed by pay-per-view channels and finally on broadcast TV.


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Is Blu-ray becoming a commodity?--Ask the Editors

"These below-US$200 price points are great for sales, but what happens six months from now? Will Blu-ray become a commodity?"--Matthew

Just one year ago, HD-DVD was selling tons of US$99 players, Blu-ray players cost an unreasonable US$400 or more, and we were advising buyers to hold off going Blu because the format wasn't quite ready yet. Now we're already wondering if Blu-ray is a commodity. It's a great illustration of how far the technology has come in just one year.

When a product is referred to as a commodity, that generally means that the differences between brands is so small that buyers treat all brands as essentially the same. For example, many would consider DVD players a commodity, and to a large extent we'd agree--aside from high-end models that offer exceptional DVD playback, most people don't care about the differences between players. That's we we've mostly stopped reviewing them.


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A speaker worth its weight in gold

Literally, too! That's because the Ascendo System ZF3 gold edition loudspeakers are cast from the actual precious metal. If the shade is too "glaring" for you, the German company is also offering a choice of silver, platinum or glossy piano lacquer as alternatives. While there's no official specs, it's pretty obvious that these floor standers feature a two-way design with a woofer and what seems to be a ribbon horn tweeter--the latter is renowned for extended treble reproduction. On the other end of the spectrum, there's a port (black hole in front) for enhancing low frequency bass.

A quick check on its Web site did not reveal any international distributors, but you can always drop them an email for a quotation. And do let us know if they reply with the pricing. We'd love to find out the damage comes to.

Via Born rich | Photo credit: Ascendo

Denon debuts universal disc player

Looks like Denon has beaten Oppo in launching what could be the world's first player that spins Blu-ray, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD and CD. The new Denon DVD-A1UD is not only a "true" universal player, it's also fully equipped to unlock the full potential of Blu-ray. It's BD-Live-ready to support Web-based interactive features and decodes high-resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks.

For hardcore enthusiasts with dual displays such as a separate projector and flat-panel TV, the DVD-A1UD's twin HDMI 1.3a terminals are sweet additions, while professional-grade balanced audio output will integrate effortlessly with any premium home theater system. As for pricing and availability, this player's Japan launch is scheduled for January 2009 at a whopping 546,000 yen (US$5,900). Details for markets outside of Japan were not ready at press time.

Via Akihabara news | Photo credit: Denon

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