Now, A Dongle That Converts D-Sub to HDMI and Vice Versa

If you're feeling the pinch of lack of HDMI inputs on their monitors, you'll find this little dongle from the bi-lanes of Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district handy. The TEC HDCOM-001, as it's called, has a male D-Sub connector on one end, which plugs into the D-Sub connector of your monitor, and an HDMI input. The HDMI connection can carry both video to the monitor and up to 6 channels of audio, which are given out by the dongle as analog audio outputs. The gadget could come handy when pairing Ultrabooks (which lack D-Sub, and provide HDMI) with analog monitors, or those which lack HDMI inputs. It can also be used the other way, to convert D-Sub to HDMI, using an included male to female cable. Its DAC supports display resolutions as high as 1920 x 1080, with 60 Hz refresh rate. Measuring 41 x 72 x 18 mm, it weighs about 120 g. It is priced at 5,480 JPY (US $68).