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GefenTV Wireless for HDMI slings 1080p over 60GHz airwaves
The wireless HD war is far from over, but 60GHz is sure making a push for becoming the top dog in the race. Gefen's latest relies on SiBEAM's wireless tech in order to transfer uncompressed 1080p footage up to 30 feet sans lag. You simply connect one box to an HDMI-equipped source (like, say, your minty fresh Blu-ray player) and one box to your HDMI-equipped HDTV; from there, you can watch in amazement as the signal is beamed from one unit to the other without any cords in between. 'Course, this whole solution would seem a lot more elegant if these wireless modules were just baked into said BD deck and the aforementioned television, but hey, the retrofitters take what the retrofitters can get. It's all yours right now for just under a grand.
The GefenTV Digital Audio Decoder -- an answer to a question we're afraid to ask
We can't remember the last time we had a piece of gear that supported Dolby Digital but didn't have a pair of stereo out jacks on the back, but if an unforeseen (read: just plain crazy) use-case is going to pop up, it'll be this Friday. And wouldn't you know it, Gefen has a box just for these contingencies. The GefenTV Digital Audio Decoder will take a Dolby Digital audio stream over optical or coax and, presto, turn them into a stereo signal on a pair of RCA phono plugs. Specific custom install situations aside, we can't help but think there are better -- and at $129, cheaper -- ways to crack this nut.
Gefen's CES bounty squealed about early
Gefen knows all too well how easy it is for new wares to get lost in the shuffle at CES, so it's opting to disclose its freshest gear a few days beforehand. This year's show will see four new devices in particular, so we'll start from the top. The Digital Audio Decoder with Dolby will be used to combine older, analog-based audio systems with digital devices of today by converting 5.1 audio to L/R analog audio. Next, the Volume Controller is a completely elusive "fully automated solution which equalizes audio to maintain the same levels consistently." The 2x1 Digital Audio Switcher makes it easy to hook up two TOSlink cables to one AV receiver, while the 1:2 Digital Audio Splitter does the opposite by splitting a single TOSlink signal into two streams. The full spill is just after the break.
GefenTV Ethernet over Powerline Extender does what it says
Pretty easy, right? Gefen's new $199 GefenTV Ethernet over PLC Extender takes regular ole Ethernet and passes information through your home's pre-installed power lines in order to nix those plans of running 200-foot strands of CAT5 down the middle of your foyer. The device enables up to four Ethernet connections to be extended over power lines, and everything can be sent without quality loss (and at up to 200Mbps) as long as the sender is within 1,000-feet of the receiver. Put down the Ethernet spool, and slowly back away.
