MSI paraded three concept all-in-ones (AIOs) at last month's Consumer Electronics Show. A 24-inch 3D Wind Top was also among that very intriguing trio. The 3D Wind Top is now going to get another opportunity to wow tech-savvy onlookers at CeBIT 2010, which begins on March 2, 2010 in Hannover, Germany.

The 3D AIO will feature a 24-inch 120Hz LED display and full HD resolution, with the 3D shutter glasses included with the PC quite literally adding another “dimension” to the home entertainment experience. However, nothing is known about the innards of  the“world's first large screen, full HD 3D all-in-one PC.”

“MSI's Wind Top All-in-One 3D PC integrates advanced 3D display technology with powerful CPU processing to deliver smooth, clear and vibrant 3D images with a high level of image detail and clarity," the company announced.

The Habey BIS-6620 is petite, and it certainly does offer options for connectivity and integration, but is it ready to compete with the big boys as a digital entertainment center?

Specs are reasonable. The BIS-6620 has an Intel Atom Z510 CPU running at 1.1GHZ, with a 400MHZ front-side bus, and an Intel US15W chipset with GMA500 graphics. It can hold up to 2GB of memory in a single DDR2 slot.  Storage is whatever you can fit into a 1.8-inch internal HDD/SDD SATA II bay. Built-in is a hardware decoder that allows full hardware acceleration of H.264, MPEG2, MPEG4, VC1 and WMV up to 1080p. And it can be mounted to a TV or LCD with the included VESA mount kit.

Connectivity includes four USB 2.0 parts (two front, two rear), a PS/2 port (you never know), a Compact Flash and SD card slot, headphone and microphone jacks, 10/100/1000Mbps ethernet, an S-Video port, and a VGA port. (There’s a second version of the BIS-6620 which replaces the VGA port with an DVI port.) Wi-Fi is optional, via an internal USB connection.

Shortcomings? The BIS-6620 only supports Windows Embedded, Windows XP, Vista & Linux--but it doesn’t ship with any of the above. Nor does it come with a hard drive. And it might not come with RAM. Of course, if you plan to actually enjoy your 1080p output, wouldn’t HDMI make more sense than VGA?

If the BIS-6620 a must have for you, it's available at Newegg for $299.99.

Image Credit: Habey

Ever wanted to convert a VGA signal to HDMI? Well no, neither have I, but just in case you fall into this niche category of users you might be interested to know that Atlona Technologies has just launched a video switch/scaler that will accomplish all the aforementioned feats. The box is powered over USB, and will turn any VGA signal, regardless of its input resolution into full 1080p HD, and will even take care of the audio pass through.

This device might come in handy if your looking to use an older laptop, or perhaps even a netbook with an HDTV, but don't expect any magic here we haven't seen before. The output can only ever be as good as the input. Atlona plans to begin shipping the AT-HDVieW by the end of the month, and it will cost approximately $119.

Can anyone else come up with an interesting use case for this?

Hey, did you hear? Netflix plans to bring 1080p streaming and 5.1 surround sound to its streaming HD video service to later this year. Pretty rad, right?

It would be, except Netflix is taking a mulligan on the recent announcement, and now says that it incorrectly acknowledged 1080p streaming in the company's 2010 roadmap. Boo, hiss! Netflix didn't say why it pulled the about-face, though it probably has to do with bandwidth. While not official, Netflix says the requirement to stream 720p HD content on an HD-compatible box is "typically" 5Mbps. It's a safe bet that 1080p would require more, and maybe Netflix feels there aren't enough streaming subscribers with fast enough broadband speeds.

That means for the foreseeable future, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners are stuck with "underwhelming" 720p. That's right, in somewhat related news, Steve Swasey, VP of Corporate Communications for Netflix, downplayed the streaming service when discussing what Wii owners are missing.

"PS3 and Xbox users have 1 in 17 titles available in HD, and it's streamed in 720... it's not in 1080, and it's not in 5.1 surround sound or anything," Swasey said during an interview with The Wire. "So the HD experience at Netflix Instant Watching isn't that overwhelming. It's a little bit underwhelming. So the Wii folks aren't going to miss that much."

What a sales pitch!

It appears Syabas had some unfinished business with its Popcorn Hour media hub, and so the company has just announced a follow-up version called the Popbox, which replaces the Popcorn Hour as the company's flagship device.

Syabas completely overhauled the design, including a revamped and much more polished user interface. The UI now includes little applets called Infoapps that show weather, Twitter updates, and various other data whenever the user pauses the onscreen action. And just like previously available Popapps, expect to see more Infoapps added as time goes on.

But that's not all that's new. Syabas added support for 1080p video up to a 100Mbps bitrate, while also retaining several file formats, including MPEG, H.264, VC-1, WMV, and XViD. It can also handle containers like MKV, and supports multiple subtitle formats, Syabas says.

Look for the Popbox to go on sale sometime in March for around $130.

Image Credit: Syabas via Electronista

It’s getting to be the time of the year when iPhone rumors start showing up. Sure enough, DigiTimes is reporting that the next generation of Apple’s successful smartphone will rock a 5 megapixel autofocus camera. The current 3GS model has a 3.2 megapixel sensor. DigiTimes was also responsible for breaking the news of the 3GS camera this time last year.

The hardware will reportedly be supplied by OmniVision, just like the current sensor is. The 5 MP sensor should be the same size as the 3.2 MP version in use, about 1/4 inch, but have better low-light performance. This particular camera hardware is also capable of taking full 1080p video at 30 fps. This is a massive jump over the VGA resolution video in the current iPhone. But remember, just because the hardware is capable, doesn’t mean Apple will enable it in the final product.

It was announced earlier this month that YouTube would soon allow uploading of HD content in 720p and 1080p, and that time has come. Would you have guessed that a Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody would be one of the first 1080p clips to find its way onto YouTube?

You can view the video here and switch between 720p and 1080p at any time. While perhaps not dramatic or always obvious, there's a definite difference in quality noticeable in the finer details. Switch between the videos in full screen to see what we're talking about, or take a gander at these screenshot comparisons Gizmodo posted.

Have you found any other 1080p videos on YouTube worth watching? Post a link in the comments section below.

In recent years, 1080p camcorders have found their way into more consumers’ hands. Now YouTube will allow people to take advantage of all those pixels. Starting next week, the HD options on the popular video sharing site will include both 720p and 1080p, provided the original source allows it.

There is a test video already up here. Performance seems to be good, but it doesn’t look tremendously different from current YouTube HD offerings. If you have an HD camera, YouTube would like you upload some 1080p video. They will be highlighting some of the best footage on the front page soon.  If you shoot HD video, will you take the extra time to upload your videos in 1080p?

In the small form factor graphics market, Nvidia’s Ion has been stealing the headlines lately, but it turns out VIA might be gearing up to give them a run for their money. Built on a new standard known as “Pico-ITXe”, the company has released their EPIA-P710, which claims to be capable of full 1080p video playback using nothing more than passive cooling. Of course we were skeptical at first, but they have finally backed up their claims by posting a short clip on YouTube showing the board in action.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this new part is how full featured it is given the size. It sports 3 USB 2.0 ports, has both SATA and IDE, as well as Gigabit Ethernet support. As you might expect, the current build is pared up with a VIA C7 1.0 GHz processor, but apparently this is still more than enough to handle anything the VX855 Media System Processor can’t handle video wise.

Looks like this might make for a decent Home Theatre PC motherboard, but we won't know until we see one for ourselves. What do you think?

Onwers of LG's LH50 LCD series and PS80 plasma series can now access VUDU's library of on-demand 1080p movies via LG Netcast.

"LG is proud to lead the charge on delivering high-quality streaming movies for the high-def family-room experience," said Peter Reiner, senior vice president, marketing, LG Electronics USA. "VUDU offers content in 1080p resolution with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound, enabling the ultimate streaming movie experience on premium LG HDTV models."

After applying the automatic software update (if applicable), owners of the above mentioned models will be able to rent the first HD or HDX movie free of charge. After that, normal rental charges apply, which ranges from $0.99 to $5.99 per movie with no subscription or monthly fees.

Full press release here.

Image Credit: LG via Engadget