Accell’s UltraAV HDMI 4:2 Audio/Video Switch is either a Dr. Jekyll or a Mr. Hyde of a home-theater product. If you intend to use it with a PC, call the company to find out which personality will manifest itself to you. If you'll use it only with consumer-electronics products (e.g., a stand-alone Blu-ray player), don’t worry—you’re golden.
Accell's switch would be a great solution for folks with multiple HDMI sources and multiple HDMI displays--too bad Accell can't guarantee it'll work with your PC.When we integrated the powered switch—which has four HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs—into our entertainment system, we discovered a bug in its firmware that prevents it from establishing a proper handshake between some PC videocards on one side and display devices on the other. The switch worked fine when the PC was first booted up, but if we switched to another input and switched back to the PC, our two displays (a ViewSonic n4280 HDTV and an Epson PowerLite Cinema 500 projector) went black. The switch wouldn’t work at all when connected to the HDMI output of an HP Pavilion HDX notebook PC.

Accell tells us the bug doesn’t affect every videocard, and that it doesn’t affect consumer-electronics devices at all. Indeed, when we tested the device with a stand-alone DVD player, it worked like a charm. The problem apparently resides with the firmware’s inability to correctly serve an EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) profile to the PC’s videocard. The EDID informs the videocard of the display’s basic capabilities, including the timings that the display will sync to. If the switch fails to pass the EDID to the videocard, as in our experience, you won’t get a picture.

It’s an unfortunate problem for Accell, because the switch is an otherwise excellent value. The $175 device can not only switch between four HDMI inputs, it sends audio and video to both its HDMI outputs (at resolutions up to 1080p) at the same time. An onboard signal booster enables you to send an HDMI signal much further than the 32 feet the HDMI spec supports (Accell claims a maximum cable length of 82 feet). In our scenario, we connected our playback device to the switch using a three-foot cable, and then ran a six foot cable from the switch to a wall-mounted HDMI jack. This jack is connected to a 32-foot in-wall cable. We then used another three-foot cable to connect the projector.

An infrared remote control is included, and the switch has an IR extender jack and a five-foot cable, so you can hide the box away in an equipment closet. But for all the features and excellent performance the switch delivered with consumer-electronics devices, there’s no way we can recommend this device in its present, flawed form.

Accell expects to ship a new version of the switch in September. This will include new firmware that resolves the PC-compatibility issue (the packaging will sport a helpful sticker that reads “Works with PCs”). We’ll update this review—and our verdict—as soon as we get an evaluation unit.

NEC introduces two new projectors namely NP905 and the NP901W. Both these projectors differ in the resolution and brightness offered. Thus NEC offers you an option to choose the one that suits you. Let’s look at them one by one. The projectors are enriched with the Silicon Optix HQV software which removes motion artifacts and improves picture quality.

The NEC NP905 offers a native resolution of 1024 x 768 (XGA) and the NP901W has 1,280 x 800 (WXGA) resolution. But the best part is both these projectors offer 1600 x 1200 (UXGA)as their maximum resolution.

The brightness by the NEC NP905 is 3,000 lumens while the NP901W offers a brightness level of 2000 lumens. Some of its other features are a couple of VGA, HDMI 1.3, RCA and S-Video inputs. They offer an audio output courtesy of RCAs and mini stereo plugs.

The NEC NP905 and NP901W projectors are available for a retail price of $2,000 and $1,300 respectively. They are said to be available in July.

One of the key elements that can "make or break" a presentation are the tools used for delivering the information, which, in most cases, are represented by projectors. And since we're living in an ultra-mobile, wireless world, the people over at Panasonic have decided to launch a couple of projectors (the LB80 series) that will make life a lot easier for their users, since they can be carried around quite easily and accessed wirelessly from up to 128 computers.

The highly portable LB80 series projectors, which include the PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB80U, PT-LB75NTU, PT-LB75U projectors and their widescreen counterpart, the PT-LW80NTU, feature a special, compact and dust-resistant design to reduce maintenance costs and increase mobility. The PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB75NTU and PT-LW80NTU also feature built-in wireless capability, which means that users connected to a wireless network will be able to access these devices in a very fast and easy manner.

The quality of the displayed images is, as expected, the main selling point these devices have to over, and it's quite interesting to note that Panasonic's new projectors fare pretty well in this particular area. Thus, while the PT-LB80NTU and PT-LB75NTU projectors generate images at 1,024 x 768 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio, thenew PT-LW80NTU comes equipped with wide-aspect (16:10 aspect ratio) LCD panels for reproduction of WXGA (1,280 x 800) images from a computer, which makes it a very good solution for those users who need a projector that can display wide-screen images from a DVD video source or wide-aspect computers.

Furthermore, the PT-LB80NTU and PT-LB80U generate 3,200 lumens of brightness each, while the PT-LB75NTU, the PT-LB75U and the PT-LW80NTU models provide 2,600 lumens. All of the new projectors pack other attractive features as well, as for example quiet operation, 3-second speed start, direct power off, built-in closed-caption decoder, an array of in/out A/V connection terminals, anti-theft features, an easy-to-use remote control and much more.

"We understand that to create a next-generation portable projector, the design has to be compact, full-featured and cost-effective", said Thomas Zitelli, president of Panasonic Projector Systems Company, when talking about the company's latest announcement. "With the Panasonic LB80 series, mobile presenters benefit from advanced PC and Mac-compatible technologies coupled with a mobile, cost-saving design that delivers nothing but remarkable picture quality."

And Mr. Zitelli is actually rather right, since these projectors are available in a pretty "friendly" price range, from around 3,500 US dollars (the PT-LW80NTU) down to around $2,000 (the PT-LB75U), which will probably make them quite attractive for an enhanced category of consumers.
Source: Softpedia.com