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VESA Mount adapter kit for 24 inch iMac
If you thought that hovering LCD in our Rig of the Day was cool, and I certainly did, then check out the VESA mount adapter kit for the 24 inch iMac. Imagine that gargantuan iMac just floating above your desk, or on your wall (perhaps in your livingroom?). Totally sweet.The kit costs $29 and it just makes the iMac mountable, it doesn't include an arm or wall mount.Thanks, john.
Vogel's new LCD stand
LCDs are so small and light they can be placed anywhere. You can put them on mantels, on nightstands, or on the wall. But what if you want the TV on the wall but are having committement issues on where? Vogel has a new mounting system that might just work for you. This really isn't inovative but rather just practical. This is basicly a stick for LCDs to mount on, but you know what? It works. The mount will support up to a 24-inch VESA complient LCD panel and is available for $479.
DisplayPort's back -- with Dell, HP, and Lenovo
Ruh roh, just when you knew for a fact you were all settled in with the latest generation of video interconnects for your laptops and peripherals, then VESA comes along and gets three of the most influential companies in the PC business, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, to rally behind its new video interface: DisplayPort. Ok, so it's not that new (we wrote about it last year), but it looks like it's finally ready to rumble starting May 8th. We called up VESA to get the skinny on the port, and they were kind enough to hit us up with that graphic and the following deets: it'll not be backward compatible with with DVI / VGA (ouch), it'll have wire-line encryption developed by Philips -- that's not compatible with HDCP (double ouch), but has a very small plug and scales well (eh). So why create DisplayPort when we've all already settled into DVI / HDMI with or without HDCP for plugging in our plasma or LCD TVs or monitors? Well, because VESA wanted the market to have a unified, license-free video interconnect standard that did a few things current systems don't do, like have a standard low power, low pin count, low profile connector for use on portable device internals and external monitors alike, or scale indefinitely to resolutions, color depths, and refresh rates possibly yet unthought of by systems integrators. Ok, fair enough, but where were these guys in 2001, huh? You know how we feel about nascent standards trying to butt in once we've all finally gotten settled on something decent.
DisplayPort: Because what we really needed was another connector
Ok fess up, who requested another digital interface for video and audio content? Since UDI, HDMI & DVI weren't complicated enough, VESA has come out with their own digital connector to replace VGA, DisplayPort. They originally announced it a year ago, but it is now ready to go, the only question is does anyone care?This article from Digitimes breaks down the challenges DisplayPort faces and what (few) benefits it offers. Unlike DVI/HDMI/UDI, it isn't backwards compatible with anything. If you replace your PC, DVD player TV or monitor with a DisplayPort device you'll have to replace anything connected to it. It also has it's own content protection scheme, much like HDCP, but once again not compatible.We don't really see this standard taking off with no backwards compatibility (however this release from Dell/HP/Lenovo indicates it is "possible" to have legacy compatibility with DVI 1.0) and both high definition DVD formats using a different copy protection format. With its only apparent advantage being a lack of licensing fees, is there a space for DisplayPort?