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 December 1, 2006Stocking Stuffers 2006 The holiday season is upon us, and I’ve been having a ball trying out various ways to make my home theater better-looking and more convenient. Of the many gewgaws I’ve tried, four keep working their ways back into my system. None costs very much, and each is a total winner in its category.
Accell is located in Silicon Valley, but its manufacturing is done in China. They designed these HDMI cables with a built-in signal booster that permits lengths of up to 146' (45m). The cables are UL-listed as approved for in-wall installation, but just to ensure that their claims can be believed, Accell sent all of them to the HDMI Authorized Test Center for certification. There are eight such test centers in the world; the US test center is represented by Silicon Image. Accell’s cables received the highest marks. I requested a 25m HDMI cable. It arrived beautifully packaged, feeling like a much more expensive product than its $330 USD price had led me to expect. In fact, I’d expected it to have bugs of some kind. I mean, for years we’ve been told that any HDMI wire longer than 18’ won’t work. But the 82’-long Accell cable worked perfectly, and without a hitch. I tried it against a 6’-long, high-end HDMI cable and saw zero difference on my JVC LT-32X787 LCD display. I love it when products do what their makers claim they do. I’ll be getting some more Accell cables soon to see if this level of quality is consistent throughout the range, but this is an auspicious start.
Again, I worried that somehow the Gefen would interfere with the HDMI handshake required to prove to the electronics Gestapo that both ends were HDCP-compliant. And would it have a problem driving an 82’-long cable? Removing the HDMI cable from the Gefen and directly plugging it into the DirecTV HD box should have been the toughest test of all, but not to worry -- the Gefen passed the signal without any problems. I saw no difference whatsoever. Suddenly, $699 didn’t seem like all that much. By the way, if you are waiting to see what equipment is compatible with HDMI 1.3, have no fear. I spoke with Leslie Chard, president of HDMI Licensing. He told me that in the near future, HDMI would be specifying whether a cable could pass the full-bandwidth, 1080p signal as constructed. He said that will give consumers the information they need to be assured that long cables and splitter/switchers are fully compatible with the highest spec of 1.3. Cables that can't pass 1080p but offer a perfect picture at 720p will be offered a lower designation. This is great news for consumers. In the meantime, he recommends talking with manufacturers to be sure that their current products will pass a full-bandwidth 1.3 signal. Both Accell and Gefen claim these products are compatible.
SpyderTV works effortlessly, taking about half an hour for a full calibration. The system measures contrast, brightness, color, color temperature, and tint, computing the extremes, then recommending any necessary adjustments. I couldn’t see much difference between SpyderTV’s recommendations and what I’d arrived at using Video Essentials -- which means that SpyderTV does its job, as far as I’m concerned. I’d still prefer a full-blown calibration by an ISF technician, but this came awfully close, and you only have to buy it once. (I found it for about $200.) Anyone toying with the idea of leaving his display’s presets where the factory set them will find DataColor’s SpyderTV a revelation. I like the idea of being able to switch off as many things as possible with one flick of one switch. I like it even more when that switch filters the electricity, isolates delicate signals from digital grunge, and is smart enough to know in what order to turn things on and off, to prevent woofer-busting thumps. Oh, and I’d like it to be bullet-proof.
Which is becoming a mantra for me in my search for good home-theater equipment. In these days of failed debuts, such as Samsung’s Blu-ray player, and endless puffery about why one thing is better than another, I ask just one thing: Tell me the truth. Each of these pieces of the home-theater puzzle does exactly what its maker promises it will do while creating no problems downstream. All are at fair prices, and each offers a helpful push along the path to home-theater perfection. Remember, Mrs. Claus is making her list and checking it twice. …Wes Marshall
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But to send an HDMI signal to multiple
HDTVs, I needed a splitter. I also wanted to be able to send the signals from either my
DirecTV HD or my Oppo Digital DVD player to all the TVs. Voilą -- 
I set up most of my displays using Joe
Kane’s Video Essentials test DVD. In general, I feel I get excellent results,
though some of the tests are now dated because they were originally designed for CRT front
projectors. Digital projectors (DLP, LCD, D-ILA) have different problems, such as
completely different issues with blooming when the Contrast control is set too high. In
January 2006, at the Consumer Electronics Show, I visited the booth of DataColor, who were
showing their 
The list of products that meet all of
those criteria is short, and most are made by Monster Cable. I chose the 