John Donovan, MD 3view Ltd, said “With the channels of BBC HD and ITV HD being available in two UK regions since the beginning of December, people will be able to take advantage of this using the new 3view box to watch a whole range of content in high definition through their aerial. Not only this, but the 3View box also makes it even easier for people to access all the benefits of the Internet through their television, letting them surf the web and even use emerging communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook.”

This all new universal charger will be based on a micro-USB connection, which more and more devices are being built with as standard. The goal by 2012 is that the majority of all mobile phones sold, will now support this universal charger. Will they now look to address a similar issue with a universal battery? Watch this space.

We currently stock a full range of USB cables, and will also stock this new style universal USB charger when launched.

So here we are, almost ten decades later and back to where it all started. We now have the IMAX 3D cinema, which shows movies on screens spanning the height of almost two Double-decker buses. The Blu-ray disc that brings real life high-definition video in to our homes and Dolby Digital Surround sound that will thrill your ears and make you think you are in the thick of the action. Our desire to truly experience what we view on television and at the cinema, has now directed the progression of 3D back in to our lives.

If you haven’t been to see the most recently released 3D movie Avatar, you should stick a note in your diary to do so now. This 3D movie is being talked about as leading the way, in terms of movie making technology. It has become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, banking $77 million over its opening weekend.

Avatar can surely be looked at as the holy-grail of 3D movies; surely we are now ready and want 3D?

The CES 2010 show, which took place on January 7^th-10^th, in Vegas this year, has proven to be the stage for many of these new LED Backlit TV’s. One super spec’d, high-end model being the Samsung 9000 series, supporting 1080p, 240Hz, local-dimming LED and Wi-Fi ready. Samsung has certainly set the bar for other vendors to aim for. It ships with a full colour touch screen remote, which works via Wi-Fi; the best part is it allows you to check out what is on another channel in the palm of your hand whilst something else is playing on main screen. You won’t be loosing this remote down the side of your sofa in a hurry.

With a launch date not yet set, if you are one of the lucky people in life who will be able to go out and buy this shiny silver monster when it hits the shops later this year, then you are going to be faced with finding an HDMI cable that will allow you to hang this paper thin beauty on your wall, measuring in at 0.3inches, it will be as thin as an HDMI cable. Our range of right angled HDMI cables will make installing your TV a piece of cake.

HDMI Port Usage

Despite the clear benefits of HDMI connectivity and its impressive penetration into both consumer electronics and PC market segments, many HDMI ports remain unconnected. Multiple Service Operators (MSOs) do not routinely connect their digital set-top boxes using the HDMI port during installation. And home theatre installers may use the analog component connection where comparable video resolutions are available. Why? Primarily because there is a perception that connecting the HDMI ports may be prone to interoperability problems.

HDCP Interoperability

Many potential interoperability issues are related to content protection. The HDMI Standard, like many digital interface standards, has a companion high-definition content protection system. HDMI uses the HDCP specification licensed by Digital Content Protection, LLC. There are many details about HDCP authentication, hot plug and EDID that developers have to get right to ensure interoperability, especially when repeater devices are involved. When authentication fails, consumers may be left in mute, watching a blank screen, blinking video, or snow. Historically, most HDCP handshake problems can be traced back to missing infrastructure. Test equipment and certification procedures are critical to any new technology.

A New Ecosystem Based on HDMI Connectivity

The advent of a new A/V interface standard such as the HDMI Standard has been likened to an ecosystem. All the various inter-related pieces—interface specifications, compliance test specification, authorized testing facilities, test equipment—for all functions—have to come together to achieve interoperability. For product development and interoperability testing, a variety of test equipment is needed. For the most part these test instruments exist for the HDMI technology; but not all. There have been no commercially available test instruments—until now—that provide complete visibility into, and analysis of, the encrypted HDMI protocol transactions including all infoframes, audio packet headers, etc. Without visibility into the HDMI protocol, developers are blind to the root cause of interoperability problems and as a result have a more difficult time resolving them during product development.

An HDMI “Protocol Scope”

The ideal solution to eliminate most if not all potential HDMI interoperability issues is an HDMI “protocol scope” that would enable developers in R&D to see all the transactions across the DDC and all data within the encrypted TMDS stream, as well as the timing relationship between DDC transactions, data island packets, video data, and mode changes.

One of the challenges in creating a test instrument such as an HDMI protocol scope is ensuring that a user can capture the particular frames of data within which a specific event occurs. Pre-capture filtering along with user defined triggering on multiple values and changes in value(s) of any HDMI metadata, is critically important to ensure that the required data is captured.

Once the capture and trigger criteria are met, the instrument should log and display all data types including DDC transactions and video and audio metadata. Search and navigation mechanisms to locate specific events, in the vast collection of captured HDMI frames, are necessary to facilitate rapid location of data inconsistencies.

A protocol scope should depict the relative positioning of the video, audio and control data through an intuitive time-based interface. For example, showing encryption controls in relation to the HDCP transactions, data islands and sync controls is very useful for solving certain potential HDMI interoperability issues.

In addition to providing basic visibility and techniques for examining the data, an HDMI protocol scope should provide a set of useful analysis tools that address common problem types. Analysis tools that provide basic timing information and detect timing instabilities are essential. But much more is required. For example, analyzing audio data and comparing the sampling rate derived from multiple sources, is important to ensure consistency in the data.

An HDMI protocol scope test instrument is a key element of the HDMI ecosystem. By providing visibility into the HDMI data this type of instrument can greatly reduce potential interoperability problems and thereby ensure that HDMI interfaces are fully utilized in both Consumer Electronics equipment and PC applications.