Granted, we've cast our glances upon DVI Extenders before, but IOGEAR's latest comes in just south of the magical $500 price point and is apt to warm the hearts of digital signage professionals everywhere. The simply titled DVI Video / Audio Extender Kit consists of a pair of DVI units, a local transmitter and a remote receiver, which owners connect with a CAT5e / 6 Ethernet cable. You'll also find an analog 3.5-millimeter jack for hooking up stereo speakers, and the three-year warranty should help you rest easy all the while. Available as we speak for $499.95.

We know, Apple's been selling these video-out adapters separately for awhile now, but at least it saw fit to toss 'em in with its new $1,799 (or much, much more) machine. Still, those to-be owners of the MacBook Air who want extras will have to shell out $19 a pop if they're interested in snagging an additional Micro-DVI to DVI Adapter or Micro-DVI to VGA Adapter (both pictured after the jump). For those scouting composite / S-Video outputs, you'll have to cough up $19 in addition to your lappie's purchase price in order to claim a Micro-DVI to Video adapter. Per usual, these suckas won't play nice with any piece of hardware other than the MBA, but you saw that one coming a mile away, now didn't you?

Read - Micro-DVI to Video adapter
Read - Micro-DVI to DVI Adapter
Read - Micro-DVI to VGA Adapter

Ready for yet another 22-inch LCD? How 'bout if it was pumping 4 times as many pixels as just about every other monitor in its class? We're talking 3,840 x 2,400 pixels for a WQUXGA display. Unfortunately, the specs fall off quickly (but not too quickly) from there: 235cd/m2 brightness, 300:1 contrast, and a weak-sauce 120-degree top/bottom and 100-degree left/right viewing angle. Of course you'll need a dedicated (dual-link, presumably) PCI graphics card to drive that resolution over the monitor's single DVI input. Shipping in Japan before summer for an anticipated ¥2,079,000. Right, a staggering $17,500 or about 50 of Dell's 22-inchers.

P.S. Sorry, no picture, that's just a generic 22-incher to the right.

Update: Toshiba will sell you a PCI graphics card for an additional ¥312,000 ($2,783). How nice.

[Via Impress]

Korean display-maker Alphascan, a company of dubious and confusing origin, has apparently licensed Samsung's flat-panel technology and applied it to its new 22-inch slim monitor, the J2210W. The stylish, 16:10 display features a brightness of 300cd/m², a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 1680 x 1050 resolution, 5ms response speed, and D-SUB / DVI jacks. No word on price or availability Stateside, but we wouldn't recommend holding your breath. Feel free to peruse the monitor's "translated" info page on the read link.

IGS of Japan has released a hard drive-based media player that supports up to 1TB internal drives, and plays back various high-definition video and audio formats. Similar to the MediaGate line, the Rapsody N35 supports DivX and XviD, MPEG-1,2, and 4, and WMV HD at up to 1080 lines of resolution over DVI, component, or S-video outputs. The Rapsody also plays back OGG, MP3, and WMA audio over its digital coax and optical connectors. With the 10/100-speed Ethernet jack and included NDAS software, you can connect to remote computers on your network, and the local USB port allows for connecting devices directly. The N35 is available for 28,000 ¥, or $235 US.

Get ready for hot, hot convergence kids 'cause the DisplayPort 1.1 specification was just approved. The new VESA-approved digital interface standard is meant to replace DVI and VGA ports while co-existing with HDMI for HDTV connectivity. As you can see in the picture above, it's about the size of a USB connector yet offers 2x the performance of DVI in a much smaller package. They also bake in a nasty dollop of HDCP 1.3 content protection to keep the Blu-ray and HD DVD kiddies happy. The wee size allows the interface to be included in smaller handheld electronics while enabling direct-drive LCD panels thereby eliminating the need for non-panel LVDS electronics in the monitor designs. Of course it also supports pass-through of DVI and HDMI signals via simple adapters similar to DVI-to-HDMI variety on the market today. So which of our esteemed manufactures will bite first? We're not sure, but VESA isn't shy about using Dell's high-end XPS systems in their marketing collateral. Of course, the question they don't answer is, why not just move everything to HDMI? For that, you just have to look at who backs royalty-free DisplayPort (the PC industry) and who backs HDMI (the consumer electronics industry). Yeah, we know.

While AMD's 690 chipset has already been put through its respective paces, it looks like the marketing team took the easy route when labeling its apparent mobile counterpart, but the M690 is here regardless. The firm's latest laptop chipset touts the same snazzy integrated graphics technology as its desktop-based sibling, as an ATI Radeon X1200 series graphics processor is built right in for your convenience. Additionally, it'll support the dual-core AMD Turion 64 X2 processors, and you'll also find an "innovative memory technology known as Display Cache," which reportedly allows the CPU to function in low-power mode without accessing system memory. Of course, the built-in ATI Avivo compatibility ensures both HDMI and DVI support for the media-centric set, and while it will supposedly end up in Asus and Fujitsu offerings in the future, you can test it out right away in HP Compaq's 6515b and 6715b.

[Via Laptoping]

A few months and a new operating system later, it looks like I-O Data is upping the ante on its 17- / 19-inch LCDs in a couple big ways. Both of the firm's newest displays, which come in at 19- and 22-inches, sport a black or silver color scheme, dual 1.5-watt stereo speakers, VGA inputs, HDCP-compliant DVI ports, audio inputs, and of course, the obligatory Vista certification. The smaller of the two boasts a 1,440 x 900 resolution, 300 cd/m2 brightness, 800:1 contrast ratio, five-millisecond response time, and a viewing angle of 170-degrees. The 22-inch variety, however, steps up to a WSXGA+ resolution, but aside from that detail, remains identical in terms of specifications to its smaller sibling. Both monitors are scheduled to hit the Japanese market in late March, and while the LCD-AD192XW/B will run you ¥39,800 ($330), the model your eyes truly desire (read: the larger LCD-AD221XW/B) will demand an extra ¥10,000 ($83).

[Via Impress]
Read - I-O Data's LCD-AD192XW/B
Read - I-O Data's LCD-AD221XW/B

After DisplayLink hit us up with a cordless monitor care of Wireless USB, things really can't get much simpler for connecting LCDs with PC towers, but for those not quite ready to jump into all that, Samsung is reportedly readying a USB-only monitor that'll be showcased at CeBIT. Yep, according to reports, the 19-inch SyncMaster 940UX will be axing the DVI and VGA inputs in favor of a USB 2.0 connector, which means you can finally do away with those flakey USB to VGA adapters of days past. Slated for a May release, the display should sync up with Windows XP initially, with Vista drivers (no OS X love?) to follow shortly thereafter. No other details regarding contrast ratio, resolution, or whether a 0.25-page installation manual will be included is currently available, and more importantly, we're not so sure how your CPU is going to feel about its newfangled processing duties when you plug this sucka in. Still, Samsung claims between "three and five" of these monitors can be plugged in and used at any given time based on the amount of processing requirements your applications have, but the real question is how quickly can ATI / NVIDIA can crank out a next-generation GPU with USB 2.0 outputs, eh?

[Via Slashgear]

Talk about your incremental upgrades: PC hardware manufacturer IO-Data has just introduced an update to that 24-inch LCD-TV241XBR WUXGA display we saw last spring, but for the life of us, we can't figure out exactly what improvements the LCD-TV241XBR-2 offers. Just like its predecessor, this new full HD monitor sports a 1000:1 contrast ratio, maximum brightness of 500cd/m², built-in analog TV tuner, and a DVI input supporting HDCP encryption. Sure its not the most stylish 24-incher around -- if aesthetics are your main concern, BenQ, Dell, and heck, even Gateway offer snazzier looking models -- but with a suggested retail price of only €740 ($972), you'll be able to pick this one up for well under a grand. And hey, this must be the "upgrade" that IO Data's talking about: the XBR-2 is going for at least $250 less than the XBR did at its debut.

While tossing an Intel Core 2 Duo chip into last year's rig isn't enough to impress anyone anymore, Shuttle's hoping to catch the eye of studio-bound media freaks who need that HTPC flexibility in a very tight space. Upping the ante on last year's X100, the XPC X200 comes in two flavors (X200MA and X200BA), and measures in at just 5.5-centimeters tall and taking up "no more space an A4 sheet of paper." Externally, the form factor has remained similar, but this rendition has received a trendy black makeover (including a vertical stand) on the outside, and a whole new lineup of hardware on the inside. Powered by your choice of dual-core / Celeron M Intel processors, this wee machine also touts Intel's GMA950 integrated graphics set, a hybrid TV tuner for analog / DVB-T reception, SATA hard drive, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 7.1-channel HD audio, FM radio tuner, dual-layer DVD burner, built-in 802.11b/g, PS/2 connectors, DVI output, multi-format flash card reader, an audio input jack, and an IR remote to boot. Notably, it managed to lose the FireWire and S-Video ports found on the X100, but it does boast five USB 2.0 ports in a feeble attempt to compensate. Both versions should be hitting the market soon, and while the somewhat stripped X200BA will run you just £499 ($972), the beefed-up X200MA will demand at least £637 ($1,240) depending on options.

[Via RegHardware]

Although the average consumer isn't likely to be in dire need of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels on their monitor, the competition is still very alive in the expansive LCD market, and while Dell, Quixun, Samsung, and Apple all have highly-regarded units of their own, it's about time HP's LP3065 hit the test bench itself. Touted as "late, but great," HP's rendition of the 30-inch monitor managed to top the 3007WFP in "brightness, contrast ratio, and color uniformity tests," though it was noted that results were still below expectations. ExtremeTech found the screen "easy on the eyes" and very tweakable using NVIDIA's control panel via their GeForce 8800 GTX; furthermore, Photoshop editing, DVD viewing, and handling basic, mundane office tasks all provided "results that were nothing short of spectacular." Overall, the LP3065 provided a "wider color gamut," a trio of HDCP-compliant dual-link DVI ports, and "gorgeous image quality," which may or may not be worth the extra $400 over Dell's basic 30-incher to you -- and while it received an "8 out of 10" rating as well as a coveted "Approved" label, you're still better off throwing down this type of coinage on twin 24-inchers if screen real estate is your number one priority.

Although NEC would rather your CEO order a few of its new MULTEOS LCDs to impress those big shots coming in to seal the deal(s), these "business" displays wouldn't look half bad in any living room / home theater. These Series 2 displays both feature "full HD" (read: 1,920 x 1,080 resolution) panels, HDMI, DVI, "high efficiency" backlights, VESA mount compatibility, screen savers, automatic video input detection, 450 cd/m2 brightness, 18-millisecond response time (there's your "business" sign), and a 178-degree viewing angle. The 40-inch M40 boasts a 1200:1 contrast ratio, while the 46-inch M46 touts just 1000:1, and both units rock a sleek, sexy silver bezel to compliment the black expanse. While both screens should hit the Japanese market on January 31st, the "little" fellow will run you just ¥672,000 ($5,820), while the larger sibling will demand ¥924,000 ($8,002).

[Via Impress]

There's always room in our jaded hearts for another low-cost, 19-inch widescreen LCD especially when it can deliver on specs. The Iiyama ProLite E1901WS/B features a panel resolution of 1440x900 (WXGA+) and throws down a 5-ms response, 850:1 contrast, 300cd/m2 brightness, and a D-Sub15 input for getting old school RGB or 2x HDCP-enabled DVI inputs to keep HD videos dancin' in Vista. Available in white or black with a super-thin bezel for going multi-paneled. At just ¥35,800 (about $304) maybe you don't have to wait for Dell.

[Via Impress]