Travel Adapters

Travel Plans in the near future?  Finding the correct Travel Adapter for your travel destination can make for a difficult shopping trip.  Sales staff at electronics stores often have difficulty advising beyond the packaging description, and until you’re half way across the world plugging it in, there’s no guarantee the Travel Adapter will work.

Some of the confusion surrounding Travel Adapters comes from the terminology. Quite simply a Travel Adapter isn’t always the correct term.  Other descriptive names include AC Adapters, Voltage Converters and Universal Power adapters.  Don’t let the product names confuse you, instead shop for a travel adapter by product functionality.  There are two main things to consider when using an electrical product in a different country: 

1.     What voltage and frequency range does the product accept?

2.     What types of plugs and sockets are in use at my destination?

Range of Voltage and Frequency

Most countries throughout the world operate on a system somewhere between 220V to 240V with an intended standard of 230V.  Only a small selection of countries, including the United States and Canada, have a 120 standard voltage.  Before buying a voltage “transformer” or “converter,” check the voltage accepted by your electrical product.   Many electronics such as laptops and cell phones include their own power bar or AC adapter. These laptops and cell phones are sold worldwide and the manufacturers produce an AC adapter that accepts voltage worldwide, anywhere from 110V to 240V and a frequency of 50 or 60 Hz.  Some products, like Hair-dryers, come with a dual voltage switch that will accept both 120V and 230V.

If an electronic device has its own 100-240V, 50/60 Hz adapter, your only other requirement is the physical plug adapter.  Plug adapters are often referred to as a Universal Adapters, but don’t always offer worldwide adaptation.  Commonly these adapters are designed to convert one particular plug, either the UK or North American plug into any other world standard.  Better Universal Adapters can accept any style of plug and convert into any other world standard.  Recognize that some countries have no standard and even when a plug appears to match the socket the electricity still will not flow (speaking from experience with a long layover in an airport in Asia).

If the voltage for your device is not the same and doesn’t include an adapter, then you will need to buy that voltage transformer.  Some physical plug adapters will also provide an in-house voltage converter, but these will be more expensive, or they will limit the conversion to two styles of plug.  Frequency is less of a concern and worldwide is always either at 50 Hz or 60 Hz.  The difference in frequency doesn’t affect the operations of an electronic unless it has a time sensitive operation such as an analogue music player.   

5 Things to Consider when buying your new Flat Screen

So you’re thinking of upgrading the old TV.  Perhaps you’ve seen the new Sharp 80 inch Flat Screen LED TV and you can’t stand another day without it?  Well hold up just one second.  If you intend to buy the TV, one must consider the toys that go with and most importantly choose the right TV.  So maybe you can go without a new X-box 360 but a PlayStation 3 could be considered a ‘necessity’ for a brilliant new Flat Screen setup.  So without further ado…

While it may appear like Flat Panels have been out for years and not much has changed that is not in fact the case.  Just like any other hot technology item, manufacturers are racing to come up with the best and biggest (or thinnest) flat panel displays.  Previously the popular choice was between an LCD (liquid crystal diode) and Plasma.  A third choice, LED (light emitting diode) has recently become the most sought after.  What’s the difference between LED and LCD?  Well both technologies in fact use the liquid crystal diode (LCD)technology, however the LCD’s use fluorescents for lighting as opposed to the light emitting diodes of the LED.  LED’S advantages include lower energy consumption, longer life, thinner, faster switching and darker darks.  Of course all these advantages lead to quite a price increase for an LED over its comparable LCD.  Other options to consider are the clarity (1080p is currently the best), 3D, and the sound quality (assuming your not purchasing a sound system).

The ubiquitous cable box has once again made its way back into our homes.  However these new cable boxes are no longer required to convert cable channels into a single channel (remember channel 3 or 4).  Instead the new cable boxes often referred to as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder), are used for various functions including an On-screen menu, High Definition Channels, Pay-per-view channels, and for recording, managing and storing our favorite shows.  These relatively simple functions have shot the PVR into mainstream popularity.

Remember VCR’s?  They were those big cassette tape looking things (everyone 20 years old and younger is now wondering what a cassette tape is).  Well those VCR’s are largely extinct (in the landfill) as DVD’s and now Blu-Ray’s have quickly taken over.  There are many Blue-Ray players out there now available for under a $100, but be careful, the quality of some are quite low.  An easy way to avoid these quality issues is to buy your son that PlayStation 3 he might have been asking for as a Christmas or Birthday present.  That PlayStation 3 made by Sony is actually a high quality Blu-ray player.  One rule required, the PlayStation stays with the big screen TV. Your happy, your son’s happy, win-win.

At the home electronics store, your 2 minutes away from purchasing your flat screen and the salesman suggests you have a quick look at the wall-mounts and “oh by the way, we carry some great HDMI cables too.”  What should you do?  Runaway, run-Away!  Don’t even think about spending $50 on a 3ft HDMI cable and $200 on some fancy wall mount.  Instead before you go buy your new flat screen have a quick look on-line at a specialty cable retailer such as www.bestpricecables.com.  Online retailers carry great quality HDMI cables for as little as $3.00, and wall-mounts for $40.  Top end HDMI cables will carry features such as high speed, Ethernet, 3D and 2k resolution.  Any HDMI cable will support current best standards such as 1080p resolution, digital audio and digital video.  You’ll need an HDMI cable for each connection, one for the Blue-ray and one for the PVR.

Ok so you’ve got your go to list.  Flat screen, preferably LED and 1080p, but in the end buy what you can afford.  A PVR for watching and recording HD shows.  Blu-ray player for HD blue-ray discs or perhaps a PlayStation 3.  HDMI cables and a wall-mount purchased online to save some additional cash.