Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
3D HDTV Coming Soon to Your Living Room
Monday, December 28th, 2009
This year it seems that there are more and more movie titles being offered in 3D. No, this is not the red and blue, plastic glasses 3D of yesteryear but rather a newer generation that uses polarization to separate the right and left eye images. From a slew of CGI animated children’s movies to action and even a horror movie, in 2009 there seemed to be no slowing down our appetite for 3D cinema.
The entertainment industry and consumer electronics are hoping consumers will want to bring 3D movie technology into their homes too and soon (they need the money!). Last week, the Blu-ray Disc Association announced a finalization and release of “Blu-ray 3D” specification. Look for the first HD 3D systems from Sony and Panasonic to be released in 2010.
So by now you must be asking: “what will I need to run 3D on my home system?” The first item you’ll need is a 3D capable HDTV (due out next year) . Your current Blu-ray player will also need to be upgraded to a 3D capable version. But what about the cables? The good news is that we already offer the right A/V cable for the job. Our new HDMI v1.4 cables are fully 3D capable, in addition to offering 4k x 2k resolution and deep color capability. Since they are backward compatible, they will work with your current and future equipment equally well.
We will have to wait and see if 3D lives up to its hype as the next big thing for TV. But at least you know you’re good to go from the cable point of view.
Happy holidays from MAC!
Sign of the Times…
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
There is a trend that has become pervasive in our society… as people everywhere demand products at cheaper and cheaper prices, manufacturers have begun giving them what they ask for. What suffers? Quality, of course. We’ve seen this trend in cars and appliances for years, and in electronic equipment as well, of course. But now we’re starting to see it more and more in the cable industry. Unscrupulous manufacturers start cutting corners, figuring a cable that performs 90% of the time is good enough. “Let’s use a little less shield, a bit of interference never hurt anyone!” “Let’s use a bit less copper in that network cable. So what if the file transfers slower!”
Manufacturers who cut corners, who shave a bit off the materials used, can often produce a cable that “works”, but doesn’t perform as well as it should; they rely on the probability that customers won’t notice. The defense I usually hear is, “we’re just giving the customer what they’re asking for!”… which, while technically true, is probably not what the customer wants.
It’s disheartening to witness, and CableWholesale will have no part of it. Personally, I sleep better at night knowing that we can produce a good product at a great price, and give it a lifetime warranty. Yes, I would fly in a plane that had been wired with my products. Would that all companies took such pride in their products.
USB 3.0 musings
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
So… USB 3.0 is coming out. What is it, and why do we care? Well, basically, under ideal conditions, computers will talk to USB devices up to 10 times faster than our current generation of USB devices. Many of these devices will also take less power to run. (We here at CableWholesale also care because the cables are going to need to be designed a bit differently, with extra wires inside to handle all that data.) I’m not going to get into all the technical particulars, since I don’t want your eyes to glaze over. Basically, starting next year, we’ll have stuff that runs faster than today’s stuff, and uses less juice.
I have to admit, I like simple technological advances that I can explain to my Uncle Dominic.