MHL

Onkyo's 2012 midrange receiver line goes up to 8 HDMI inputs

If you thought midrange AV receivers were going to max out at six HDMI inputs, you were wrong.

Onkyo announced its 2012 line of midrange AV receivers this morning, with the TX-NR515 and TX-NR616 each featuring eight HDMI inputs, enough to handle your cable box, PS3, Xbox 360, Roku LT, Apple TV, and three other home theater gadgets. The front-panel HDMI input on those two models is also MHL-compatible, which means you can connect a compatible smartphone or other MHL gadgets like the upcoming Roku Streaming Stick.

Here's a quick breakdown of the new models and most important features:… Read more

Pioneer AppRadio 2 adds Android support, larger screen

LAS VEGAS--Pioneer's smartphone-centric AppRadio impressed us when it launched last year, but we had our complaints. We wanted more apps, better hardware, and Android support.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, that's exactly what we got with the announcement of Pioneer's AppRadio 2.

The most interesting new trick in this second-generation hardware's bag is Pioneer's announcement of support for Android devices, specifically those that are equipped with either a Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) or Micro-HDMI connection. This is an interesting twist, as I assumed that Pioneer would be taking the wireless Bluetooth Serial Port … Read more

Roku's Streaming Stick shrinks the Roku box into a dongle

I've called the Roku LT "tiny," but it's about to look downright chunky.

Roku announced the Streaming Stick this morning, which essentially squeezes all the functionality of a typical Roku box (including Wi-Fi, processor, and memory) into a a device that looks like a USB flash drive. It doesn't require an additional power cable or a separate remote, instead allowing you to use your TV's standard remote to navigate Roku's software. Roku's platform currently supports over 400 channels, including Netflix, Amazon Instant, Pandora, MLB.TV, HBO Go, MOG, and Rdio.

Roku sees … Read more

Kanex ships 10-foot MHL cable

A few months after making the first MHL-HDMI adapter available for existing HDMI displays, Kanex announced today that it's now shipping a 10-foot MHL Passive Cable for use with HDTVs that have built-in support for the MHL standard. … Read more

MHL demo: Samsung Galaxy II turned home-entertainment system

Around about this time in 2010, I blogged about WHDI and its potential to change the way we entertain ourselves in a big way when this wireless display is implemented in mobile devices. Now a year later, that reality is still in the distant future.

Fortunately, there's something else to take its place. It's already here, and chances are your phone and HDTV at home come with it. It does require a wire, however, but that's a good thing.… Read more

Kanex MHL HDMI adapter: Smartphone's screen on an HDTV

If you want to view your smartphone's content on an HDTV, you can either wait for one that supports wireless display technology, such as WHDI, or get what Kanex started shipping today, an MHL HDMI adapter.

This tiny adapter has one end that plugs into the phone's existing Micro-USB port and the other end is a standard HDMI port. When used with an HDMI cable, you can use the phone with any HDMI-based display. The adapter enables users to view videos, games, photos, and other media from their mobile devices in high definition up to 1080p at 60Hz … Read more