Pioneer has all sorts of home theater gear from AV receivers to HDTVs and stereo equipment. Most of the Pioneer gear is often higher-end equipment with larger price tags. Pioneer has unveiled a couple new AV receivers today and one supports the iPhone. The new receivers are surprisingly affordable and include the VSX-520K and the VSX-820-K.

Both of the receivers feature optional Bluetooth to allow wireless transfer of audio from smartphones and other devices with a $99 Bluetooth device. Both of the devices are also 3D ready with support for HDMI 1.4. The 820-K receiver is works with iPhone Certified as well.

Both of the devices support 5.1 surround sound, Dolby ProLogic IIz decoding, and have automatic room calibration. The 520-K will sell for $229 and has three HDMI 1.4 inputs and more. The 820-K will sell for $299, has four HDMI 1.4 inputs, and has an onscreen display. Both units have 110W of power on five channels and will ship this month.

Both of the devices support 5.1 surround sound, Dolby ProLogic IIz decoding, and have automatic room calibration. The 520-K will sell for $229 and has three HDMI 1.4 inputs and more. The 820-K will sell for $299, has four HDMI 1.4 inputs, and has an onscreen display. Both units have 110W of power on five channels and will ship this month.

Every major technology company is now in Hannover flaunting their latest inventions to the world of tech-geeks. So, here is what Netgear has to offer to them, two new wireless products designed to make home entertainment a richer experience, these being compatible with everything from gaming consoles to set-top boxes.

The names of these two new products are quite obvious, for instance, the High-Performance Wireless-N HD Home Theater Kit (WNHDB3004) and the other product that Netgear trumpets in Hannover is called the Universal Wi-Fi Internet Adapter for Home Theater Systems and Gaming Consoles (WNCE2001)

“Our High-Performance HD Home Theater Kit provides wired-equivalent connectivity and whole-home coverage using wireless,” said Som Pal Choudhury, NETGEAR director of product marketing for Core Networking Products. “The technology is way ahead of the competition. With its groundbreaking speed, range and reliability, it is like WiFi on steroids.”
  We do know that besides the fast speeds of the new adapters from Netgear, they are also plug and play, which is really good news because being able to connect to a multitude of devices, there will be a similar quantity of cables missing from the room where you have your entertainment center installed. So, connect your Xbox 360, your PlayStation 3, Wii, Blu-ray Disc players, Internet-capable TV set, Apple TV to this 4 x 4 multi-input, multiple-out (MIMO) adapter and get 5 Ghz wireless speeds on the devices you wish.

The WNCE2001 doesn’t connect to an existing router; instead, it is more compact, being a USB-powered adapter. It is universally compatible with any Ethernet-enabled CE devices. It will be available in May at an MSRP of $79 USD and the WNHDB3004 will be available later.

AMD Unveils Versatile AMD 890GX Chipset for High Definition Entertainment on Virtually Any PC Budget

New Chipset Serves as the Foundation for 2010 Client Platforms Featuring ATI Radeon™ HD 4290 Graphics, Advanced SATA 3.0, and USB 3.0 Connectivity for an Outstanding Out-of-Box 3D Graphics and HD Entertainment Experience

SUNNYVALE, Calif. —3/2/2010
AMD (NYSE: AMD) and its motherboard partners today unleashed ATI Radeon™ HD 4290 Graphics with the AMD 890GX Chipset, a versatile, affordable and exceptionally energy efficient solution for an incredible, high definition visual computing experience.

The AMD 890GX chipset redefines the way you play with versatile graphics configurations, including DirectX® 10.1 graphics on the motherboard and support for up to two high-performance ATI Radeon™ Premium Graphics cards with ATI CrossFireX™ technology. The same AMD 890GX motherboard which can be used to build an efficient and slim home theater PC using the integrated ATI Radeon HD 4290 Graphics, can be augmented with ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 Graphics for a dual-graphics performance preview, or upgraded to a gaming powerhouse with ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 Graphics and the visual realism of DirectX® 11.

With Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4290 Graphics, family and friends can enjoy accelerated and enhanced high definition and 1080p Blu-ray™ playback including dual-stream PiP (Picture in Picture) on Blu-ray™ 1.1. 1 Standard DVD movies can be viewed in near high-definition quality with DVD upscaling with post-processing to enhance standard and low resolution videos and movies on HD displays. ATI Radeon™ HD 4290 Graphics are designed to decode and play back Blu-ray™ and other HD content with support for MPEG2, VC-1, and H.264 formats.

The AMD 890GX Chipset supports the SATA 3.0 6Gbps hard drive interface to help speed application performance, decrease boot times, and provide faster access to information, HD video, photos and more.2 SATA 3.0 technology on the AMD 890GX Chipset can help speed application performance and Windows 7 data access speeds with high-bandwidth SATA 3.0 solid state drives and in multi-drive RAID configurations.

Many AMD 890GX-based motherboards feature SuperSpeed USB 3.0, quickly synchronizing and transferring digital media files on the new generation of USB 3.0 devices.2 With USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 support, these platforms are designed to be ready for a new generation of high-speed hard drives and high resolution digital camcorders and media players. The AMD 890GX Chipset also includes support for Gigabit Ethernet, HyperTransport™ 3.0 technology, and PCI Express® Generation 2.0 to create a system designed to provide fast data flow resulting in speedier transfers of work, games, and entertainment files.

The first of the AMD 8-series chipsets, these technologies serve as the foundation for 2010 VISION technology for AMD desktop platforms that are scheduled to be announced in the second quarter of 2010 and are designed to be compatible with the upcoming AMD Phenom™ II X6 six-core processor.

I am really looking forward to 3D TV in my living room. I have already talked about the Samsung 3D TVs that are coming to Europe and the US soon. I also mentioned that the sets don’t come with 3D glasses; you have to buy those separately.

I have been worried that Samsung and other TV makers will all stick with active technology, not because it is better, but because they can charge us an arm and a leg for the active 3D glasses. It seems with Samsung at least, I was correct. Each pair of active glasses for Samsung TVs will sell for $150. That means a family of four will spend an extra $600 on glasses alone after dropping $3,000 or more on the 3D TV.

I had hoped that there would be lots of passive 3D screens offered too. Then I could just keep the glasses from my local movie theater rather than cramming them into the recycle box after the flick. Another bad thing about the glasses from Samsung is that they aren’t sized for kids and they aren’t rechargeable, they use CR2025 batteries. I really hate Samsung right now.

After last year’s release of the Nokia N97 mini Raoul Limited Edition and a white version, it is about time that the N97 got another makeover that is even better looking than the previous ones, entitled simply but firmly “Gold Edition.” No point in carrying all those gold bracelets, neck chains, finger rings, toe rings, etc. if you do not have a mobile phone to match them. Even I know this and I am not in the fashion business… yet.

It’s not that I have something against fashionistas, they are not to blame for the appearance of such designs. The producers, however, are the ones that should simply stop trying to transform the gadgets we love so much into fashion accessories. The mobile phone, and particularly the N97 mini, is a useful tool for web browsing and social networking, not an earring. Although its price might be the same of that of a jewelry piece.

So, the small Wi-Fi, HSPA, GPS, Facebook connecting mobile phone gets a makeover so that it pleases the “artistic” eye of fashion-conscious users. What this means exactly is that the N97 mini Gold Edition has been given an 18 carat gold dress that it wears when its users are connected to the latest gossip and trend-related news via the “ELLE 360Fashion” application. As you can see from the picture, its headsets have been modified this way, as well as their controller, which is now shinier.

The mini smartphone with 5 MP camera and 8 GB of internal memory has the same 360 x 640 resolution, 3.2-inch screen and, of course, helps fashion passionate people get to special events with the maps that Nokia has developed for its Nokia Maps app. The official release date is unknown yet, but the price has been announced as $845 USD.

I’m pretty sure that many of you have experienced mobile data transfer outages when visiting some busy tradeshow, for example, simply because the existing infrastructure couldn’t handle the amount of data being transferred at any given moment. And in order to help mobile operators avoid such issues, BelAir Networks has just released at the Mobile World Congress 2010 its BelAir100N access point (AP), a device that allows telcos to quickly deploy targeted, high capacity Wi-Fi coverage in areas of high user concentration such as downtown and shopping districts, arenas and stadiums, college campuses, hotels and resorts and at special events.

With a network of BelAir100N APs, mobile operators can add 20 Gbps of incremental mobile data capacity per square mile, enabling tens of thousands more users in a given area to concurrently enjoy broadband mobility without creating network congestion. Plus, the device has a rugged, environmentally hardened design, which makes it a very good solution for outdoor installation.

The BelAir100N supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz access to address the newest generation of Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Its dual radio design can also be configured for both access and mesh or point-to-point backhaul. It can be deployed in combination with any BelAir Networks indoor or outdoor APs and leverages the same BelAirOS operating system and BelView network management to deliver high performance, scalable wireless networking for mobile operators.

“With dual mode smartphones and other devices increasingly driving mobile network traffic, leveraging the Wi-Fi capabilities of these devices to offload data is a no-brainer, but mobile operators also want to manage the network quality and brand experience of their customers,” said Greg Williams, senior vice president, corporate and business development, BelAir Networks. “The BelAir100N is designed to provide high performance wireless networking and a seamless user experience and it’s fast, easy and cost-effective to deploy – it’s a real win-win for mobile operators and their customers.”

SAPPHIRE Technology is now shipping a new family of graphics cards in the highly successful HD 5000 series. The SAPPHIRE HD 5670 is a new low power model aimed at the mainstream market, whist sharing many of the exciting features of the latest high end series.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5670 is based on the latest graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, the second generation of GPU to be built in its 40nm process. It supports the advanced graphical features of Microsoft DirectX 11, and delivers spectacular video clarity, speed and visual effects, whilst consuming very low power levels.

SAPPHIRE will offer several variants of this product. All of them have 400 Stream processors and support Microsoft DirectX 11 as well as ATI Stream. As the core technology is low power, no external power connection is required, making this series ideal for system upgrades or mainstream PCs that do not have high end power supplies.

The two top models of the SAPPHIRE HD 5670 series offer a choice of 1GB or 512MB of DDR5 memory, with clock speeds of 775MHz core and 1000MHz (4GHz effective) for the memory, and a specially designed cooler from Arctic Cooling to keep noise levels to a minimum. The output configuration on the bracket is Dual-Link DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. In addition to a DVI to VGA adapter, an HDMI to DVI adapter is included, allowing two DVI monitors to be supported, and these models will also support three monitors in ATI Eyefinity mode with a suitable DisplayPort monitor or active display adapter. Native CrossFire support allows two or more cards to be used together for additional performance on a suitable CrossFireX compatible mainboard.

Two additional models will again offer a choice of 1GB or 512MB of memory, but will be configured with the popular output configuration of DVI, HDMI and VGA on the bracket, allowing a choice of monitor types without the use of adapters.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5670 series not only boosts performance in current DirectX10.1, DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0 games and applications, but will support stunning new levels of detail, transparency and lighting effects in newer releases of software using DirectX 11. All of this comes with low active power consumption and Dynamic Power Management delivering super low-power operation in 2D or idle.

This series of cards supports the latest features demanded by Microsoft DirectX 11, including DirectCompute 11 instructions, hardware Tessellation and multi-threaded communications with the system CPU. These combine to provide new capabilities for the interaction between transparent objects, new lighting and accelerated post processing effects as well as physics calculations and accelerated video transcoding. They also support ATI Stream, accelerating supported applications such as video transcoding and rendering tasks by executing instructions on the GPU architecture rather than the system CPU.

Like the previous generation, the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series has an on board hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder) considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files. In the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series the UVD has been enhanced to be able simultaneously to decode two 1080p HD video streams and to be able to display HD video in high quality with Windows Aero mode enabled. HDMI capability has also been upgraded to HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series is supported by AMD’s DirectX 11 WHQL certified graphics driver which delivers support for all of the key DirectX 11 level features required for new gaming experiences and acceleration of next generation high performance applications.

Surprisingly, Sony has announced that they’re going to be sending full 1080p 3D signals over existing cables. Of course, that’s not the whole story.

Sony revealed recently that their new players are capable of a lot more than we thought. Mainly, they’re able to process a 1080p 3D signal.

There’s been a lot of confusion with the advent of 3D and HDMI 1.4, and the initial word was that HDMI 1.3 just couldn’t handle 3D in 1080p. As Sony pointed out though, that’s not really the case. Their new Blu-ray players can hack a 1080p signal using your existing HDMI cords.

So what’s the deal? Well, there are two real factors here. First off, while Sony’s new player doesn’t bear the HDMI 1.4 branding, it sounds like it will still be HDMI 1.4 compatible. As a Sony rep said, “The players and theater systems support the HDMI 1.4 spec for 3D playback, but may not support all of the qualifications of spec.”

So the players won’t support everything required to get HDMI 1.4 branding, but you’ll still be able to get the 3D benefits of HDMI 1.4 while using an HDMI 1.4 cord. The player doesn’t work with the other features of the new spec though, such as an audio return channel, which means it doesn’t get HDMI 1.4 branding.

The second thing, and perhaps the most important, is that HDMI 1.3 will indeed carry a 3D signal at 1080p. It can’t handle 3D at sixty frames per second though, only thirty. Of course, while watching movies on most Blu-ray players, the output is set to 24fps, which HDMI 1.3 can handle just fine.

ukhdmi.com is excited to announce the arrival of new HDTV accessories. The HDMI Coupler.

The HDMI Coupler(Female to Female), swiveling type is for connecting the two male ends of two HDMI cables to make a longer cable. Features 90 degree angle.

ukhdmi.com offers high quality, discounted HDMI cables, DVI cables, HDMI Wall Plates,HDMI Switches, HDMI adapter, HDMI Splitter, HDMI matrix, Component cables, Speaker cable and many more… ! All of our HDMI and DVI cables are HDMI certified, just like the expensive ones. They eliminate the huge markups, and save people thousands each year.

The recent additions to AMD’s HD 5000 graphics card lineup still haven’t brought the series to a close with talk of the entry top-end HD 5830 still on the way.

We first heard about this model over a month ago, with word that it would arrive in early Feb, but AMD appears to have delayed the release by up to several weeks intentionally and won’t give an exact date of launch.

The Cypress LE core which is used in the HD 5850 models is also used for the HD 5830. However, where the 5830 differs is in the way of fewer shaders (1280 instead of 1440), less texture units (60 vs 72), but surprisingly this model apparently runs a higher core clock speed than the HD 5850 at 750MHz vs 725MHz.

The memory configuration will remain the same; 1GB of GDDR5 memory operating at 1000MHz. Physically it will look very similar as well, most probably sticking with the same PCB and cooler design.

Early online store listings reveal the cards pricing to be around the £190 / 216 Euro / $297 mark, but keep in mind that none of the aforementioned information is official as yet.