CEDIA 2009

Walking around CEDIA, you'll see tools you never knew existed designed to solve problems you never knew anyone ever had. Although I've always believed that (1) you should always use the right tool for the right job,(2) you can never have enough tools, and (3) battery/electric tools are always better than ones that require my own muscle power; there are some tools on display here that even I can't justify having at home. My wife will probably say I have a hole in my head when I say I need this tool, but I can't help wanting the awesome Hole Pro Adjustable Hole Cutter drill attachment. It's capable of cutting smooth holes in all kinds of materials (dry wall, plywood, even some metal). But wait - there's more! As the name implies, it's adjustable; so this one tool can be used to drill anything from a 1 7/8-inch hole to a 17-inch hole. And the clear plastic housing not only catches all the dust and debris as you're cutting - it also serves as a support housing that makes sure you drill the hole perpendicular to the plain of the surface you're cutting. A built-in depth gauge prevents you from drilling too far into your wall and into a water pipe or speaker wire. Models range from $119.95 to $164.95 depending on the maximum size hole the tool will cut. Check out the videos of the Hole Pro in action at the company's web site www.holepro.com.

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Chord Electronics’ Chordette Gem is a really cool USB DAC. But as cool as that is, that’s not even what’s coolest about it. Have an iPod Touch or iPhone? Yeah, me too. I opened my iPhone's BlueTooth settings and saw the Chordette right away and paired it with a 4-digit code expertly supplied by Sumiko’s Norbert Schmied (granted, it was the 1-2-3-4 default, but my man was all over it). Right away I was playing tunes through the stereo speaker system connected to the Chordette over BlueTooth (and Light Sabers, Star Trek phasers, and other, um, iPhone app related sound effects, some of which may have been regarded as unsavory). We don’t need no stinking white cables! $799 and you’re living the dream!

The new IDT HQV "VIDA" advanced video processing IC improves on the performance of the Previous HQV processors with advancements in noise reduction, adaptive de-interlacing, scaling and detail enhancement.

Samsung wasn't showing much new that we hadn't seen or reported on before, but one new introduction was the LN 65B650 65" LCD HDTV. Nothing 2010 cutting edge here--no LEDs, no local dimming, just straight engineering with a claimed peak contrast ratio of 100,000:1, online TV widgets, 120Hz features, fast 4ms response time, Energy Star compliance, and more. $6000, available now.

Yet another entry in the LED-illuminated, single-chip DLP projector sweepstakes is the Mico 50 from SIM2. Said to deliver 800 lumens, the PhlatLight LEDs have an expected lifespan of over 30,000 hours. It's name means "sparkle" in Italian, but I saw no sparkles in the demo on a Da-Lite Affinity screen, which is a good thing. Not so good was the demo material—a clip from a concert video featuring singer Seal. The colored stage lighting was not conducive to evaluating color accuracy, though Seal's dark skin looked about right when he was in white light. The Mico 50 should be available in November for $25,000.

SIM2's C3X line of 3-chip DLP projectors has a long and venerable history, capped by the latest model, the C3X Lumis. A custom implementation of Texas Instruments' Dynamic Black feature leads to a claimed contrast ratio up to 35,000:1, and a new dimmable 280W lamp can output up to 3000 lumens. The demo was very impressive, with excellent dark detail in a clip from <I>The Dark Knight</I>. The C3X Lumis is available now for $36,000.