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People were posting about audio receivers the other day, so I thought I'd share this very good price I just took advantage of:
Refurbished Onkyo SR-606 receiver (which has, among other nice features, 4 HDMI inputs and the ability to upconvert ANY analog signal to 1080i HDMI out) for $299 at accessories4less.com, with full 1-year warranty. New, this puppy has a MSRP of $499 and actually sells for somewhere right around $400.
I got $17 UPS Ground shipping and no tax, so it was $316 total. Now I just need to visit a nice audio store and do some listening; I've decided to build up my audio system one component at a time, starting with fronts, and just get really good speakers as I can afford them.
Pop tarts to say: that Palm phone does look really cool. It seems like every major US phone company now has a New Fancy Magic SmartPhone of Choice. AT&T has the iPhone, Verizon has the Blackberry Storm, T-Mobile has the G1, Sprint now has the pré. Cool. Of those, the G1 and the pré push my buttons, but I'm pretty sure my next one will be the G1 since I'm happy with T-mobile.
PC, the NYT did a review of cameras under $300 and recommended the Canon Powershot SD880 IS.
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Most macs have a standard VGA 15 pin d-sub connector for about the last 10 years now. Most also have a dvi connector.
The "Adapter for Macintosh" has not been needed on any Mac since at least 1999.
More A/V questions! This is the reciever I'm currently looking at - it's got more than enough HD and audio in/outs for me, and it's under $200. (And it's not some shady off-brand I've never heard of.)
My question is about this:
Powerful HDMI Connectivity allows for uncompressed 1080i video to pass through directly to your HDMI capable television.
Does this mean that 720p content will get converted to 1080i by the receiver and then back down to 720p by my TV (since that's the native display mode of most 32" TVs)? Or does it mean that 1080i is the highest resolution this receiver can handle?
Daniel, that was my hope, but the dvi connector on the back of the Mini (scroll down for the graphic) doesn't look the same.
Jess, that's what ours does, and from what I can tell, HDMI pass-through means that the A/V receiver isn't doing any video conversion at all on that port. So 720p will go straight through as 720p, 1080i will stay 1080i, etc.
I don't know about the highest resolution question, since that's the highest resolution our TV can do anyway...
bonny, that's a standard DVI connector. Many monitors only come with VGA, but you can get an adapter at any electronics joint (and included with some Apple models, but I have no idea about the mini -- one came with my laptop, for instance.)
from what I can tell, HDMI pass-through means that the A/V receiver isn't doing any video conversion at all on that port. So 720p will go straight through as 720p, 1080i will stay 1080i, etc.
Excellent, that's what I was hoping - that "1080i" in that context really means "up to 1080i" (which, as I said, is perfectly fine for a 32" set).
