Monster Technology

I own a Mitsubishi 65″ DLP TV, and researched for a long time on how to watch my laptop on the TV – without any compromise on quality. S Video stretches the screen and the picture cracks up totally. So I had to order this one – though expensive. There are other cheaper products which promise the same functionality – the one from CE Link is a very visible one, so I went about researching what exactly is different. I came to believe that the cheaper ones cannot convert all PC resolutions to HDMI. So what’s the use of buying something if I am forced to scale down my laptop resolution?

However, after ordering this one from Amazon (basically from TigerDirect through Amazon), the unit that came to me turned out to be faulty. It was simply not working, all I got was a blue screen on the TV. I called Atlona technical support, and they guided me step by step through the connections, and also asked me to reset the unit. Nothing worked. They offered a replacement if I filled in the warranty card, but I have to ship it back at my own expense. So I politely declined them, and called TigerDirect. I was pleasantly surprised by their customer service, and they emailed me a prepaid shipping label, and refunded me the entire amount speedily. Amazon refunded back my credit card within 4 days of me shipping it out.

I was not to give up, but hesitated to order another online – as I now had to be open to the possibility of returning if I found even the second one to be non-working. My confidence had taken a beating. So I walked into fry-s. With tax, I paid $216 (whereas it had cost me $193 on Amazon). I was surprised to see that the one I got from fry-s had the minijack to minijack audio cable included (whereas the one from Amazon did not have one, but both of them had the VGA cable included).

I hooked it up and bingo! The easiest to use gadget at my fingertips. There is a video on youtube which shows how to use this – just search with ATHD500 on youtube. Picture and sound quality are very good.

Only thing that is “not working” for me – I cannot seem to route the sound to the home theater system. The audio is coming out of my TV, which means the HDMI output is carrying both the video and audio.

Another possible concern: it does get a little hot. But it is ok. Just keep the room well ventilated and cool. You will be fine. I have used it for hours, it does not seem to matter.
Rating: 5 / 5

Free platform TV is a new frontier that not everyone has yet caught on to. I feel this will soon change. Currently, bandwidth is the major limitation in delivery of full HD over the internet. This will change as fiber optic cabling becomes more available and content providers stream more quality HD content. I bought the Atlona HD500 because:

1. I did not want to be constrained to a size-limited, non-scaling, proprietary device such as the Apple TV or Roku.

2. I wanted to be able to store lots of information on a computer that was integrated with my sound system, and then play/stream video and music from that system up to my TV.

3. I wanted to configure the aforementioned system on Boxee.

4. Compared to the Atlona HD-Pix, this unit possessed a greater capacity to recreate images through the 15-pin VGA hookup (over USB 2.0).

Limitations:

1. While this is a remarkable unit, it is a work in progress. An earlier commentator stated the FINE TUNING options don’t exist (actually, their firmware has been changed). Atlona collapsed some of the Hue/Saturation functions (insofar as this device) as they were redundant reconfigurations that could be achieved through color, contrast and brightness. I know these are not the same, per se, but again, display options can be approximated.

2. Again, to embellish on what an earlier commentator stated, YES, it can be a headache to configure your computer output settings. My wife’s laptop native display is closer to 4:3 while my own is closer to 16:9. Just in using the Hulu website, there are separate configurations for each computer on the Atlona Device AND our television (we have a 32″ Sharp Aquos).

3. Sound quality is fairly good, but one can increase sound by separately using a “Cables to Go” 5.1 USB 2.0 optical audio adapter and then selecting for that input on the Atlona Menu (unless you already have an audio optical out port on your computer).***Update on this: I’ve learned the HD-500′s circuitry cannot support carrying a 5.1 signal! However, this method can still be used if you use the external 5.1 device and route the sound through an available optical input on an amplifier. [Good luck!]

AND YET….

I think one really has to see this for what it is: a great way to upscale a given computer video/image signal to your television. To truly make this unit work for you, it works to set it set it up with a dedicated computer, perhaps the Boxee platform (a free operating system, look for it) that then can funnel and play all of your media. Although it’s small, the cabling coming into and out of each end make it an eyesore, and finding an out-of-the-way place for it is ideal; I was expecting something less cumbersome. The advantage to the singular streaming program is that you only have to configure it one time with the video settings on the Atlona and television.

IN SUMMARY

This is a great device that will get better in future iterations AND with the increased quality of streaming content. Although not completely plug and play, this device stands out as perhaps one of the greatest developments in the last 3 years.
Rating: 4 / 5

I’ve been trying for several weeks to obtain a product that can take a standard PC analog video output, and convert both the audio and video into HDMI for my new HD TV. This involved searching the internet, ordering products that don’t work, finding out that they don’t work, sending them back and doing it again.

I received a Atlona AT-HD500 today. After taking it out of the packaging, I hooked it up. It needed an HDMI cable, and I had to find a mini jack to mini jack cable in my junk box. I hooked it up, and bam, HD on my Mitsubishi DLP, with full audio through my home theatre. Five minutes of adjustment and it was perfect. I selected 1920×1080 on my VGA (I had previously updated my VGA driver for previous failures). I set the AT-HD500 to “Underscan” to fix the Mitsubishi overscan, and adjusted the brightness up a few percent. And it was perfect.

ABC.COM has an internet HD feed for all its programs, and this gives me a chance to try the series I had previous ignored during the summer gap.

If you are trying to hook your PC up to your HD TV, this is the answer.

Rating: 5 / 5