When we first heard about the Kanex HDMI + digital audio converter a few weeks ago, I was eager to give it a trial run and see if it managed to deliver on the promise of integrated audio with HDMI video. I've been playing with the $70 unit for a few days now, and the answer is a qualified yes: it does the job, but depending on your home theater setup you may be able to get by with a less expensive option.

The digital-audio Kanex unit ships without a manual and is largely self-explanatory (although the company has now posted a basic user guide and FAQ) -- a female HDMI port on one side of the roughly iPod-sized unit, and three male cables coming out the other side. The cables connect to the mini DisplayPort, optical audio out, and USB port of your Mac; while Kanex does sell a $60 unit that handles audio over USB, this version only uses that connection to power the adapter and does not provide a USB audio interface. If you're running short of open powered USB ports you might opt to plug it into a USB power adapter instead.

In operation, there's not much to worry about: I plugged in all three ports to a unibody MacBook Pro and connected an HDMI display, then went to the normal Mac OS X Displays preference pane, where I found a full assortment of resolutions for my enjoyment. The top few 'television' options may vary with your connected gear; on my test set (a Vizio 42" 720p display) I was able to choose 720p and, oddly enough, 1080i and 1080p. Below that you have resolutions ranging from 640x480 up into the 1600x1000 range.

When we published our "Ultimate Mac mini Home Theater" guide in August, I drooled along with everyone else at the idea of supercharging my HDTV with a mini for movie and music playback. Something nagged at me, though, as I looked over the options for going from the mini's video-out ports (the current model sports both DVI and Display Port) to the HDMI standard connector that most TVs expect nowadays... how to get that digital audio signal onto the HDMI link, and avoid a second set of cables to handle sound? It seemed less than graceful.

If you want to skip over a clunky external converter box like this one, current minis and other Macs featuring the Mini Display Port connector now have a new option for HDMI; Kanex's two audio-included connectors can put the sound onto the HDMI link where it belongs.

Kanex is selling two models of the connector (both are on extremely limited availability right now, the company says). The $60 Digital Audio version includes a TOSLINK optical connector for premium quality sound, and the USB Audio version delivers analog audio for $50 [as of 10/20, the price has gone up on this unit to $60 as well]. Both let you put all your eggs in the HDMI basket and clear your cable clutter, while simplifying your TV remote input dance as you try to get the audio and video sorted.

We're hoping to get our hands on one of these units soon and we'll let you know how it performs.

Thanks to Michael W. for the tip.

Got a fancy new Mac with some flavor of DisplayPort connector and a shiny new copy of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installed? If you do and you also happen to hook said Mac up to an HDTV via an HDMI adapter, then head on over to System Preferences to check out the latest uncovered Snow Leopard nugget of awesomeness.

Three new resolution options are now available for your HDTV-viewing experience: 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. This should be good news for anyone rocking the HTMac set-up, or even for anyone who wants to check it out and may not be fully-versed with some of the issues.

We've tried to reproduce the above using a DVI -> VGA adapter and have thus far found bupkis. We're not sure if this works with DVI -> HDMI either, but we do know it works with DisplayPort -> HDMI. Check it out for yourself and let us know your results.

Thanks to Jay for sending this in via Twitter.

The world of pocket video cameras is heating up. Kodak announced today a September ship date for a new competitor to the much loved Flip line, and more broadly, the iPhone 3GS, with a rather astonishing 1080P output at 30 FPS. The camera, the Zi8, can also output 720P at 60 FPS, or 30 FPS 720P. WVGA is also supported, along with built in image stabilization.

The camera has a macro mode, and will shoot 5.3 MP stills. It also supports an external microphone for stereo recordings, and of course, still sports a mono mic built in.

Video is H.264 which is very Apple friendly. Kodak says the camera requires OS X 10.4 or higher, and wants to see a 2.8 GHZ processor or greater, 1 GB of RAM, and 300 MB of hard disk space. The processor speed spec is pretty high end, understandable for 1080P 60 FPS playback. The camera comes with AV cables, but also HDMI cables, which many people have been clamoring for with these video enabled pocket cameras.

This camera could be a worthy competitor to the Flip Ultra HD. The cost is expected to be about US$180.00. The iPhone 3GS camera is decidedly un-HD capable, and this Kodak camera, like the Flip line, will surely be of interest to Mac video mavens.

For those of you that haven't heard me tell the beginning of this story on the TUAW talkcast, you might recall that my dad the switcher upgraded his Mac mini to a sweet new Mac Pro. So what could I do with an extra Mac mini? Maybe a server? Maybe a doorstop?

I know! A media center!

I had cable service, a DVD player, and a TiVo Series 2. My goal was to combine all of those things into one set-top-box -- the Mac mini -- and maybe even unsubscribe from some of the monthly services.

After I bought the Mac mini from my dad (the switcher), I hooked it up to my old, standard-definition TV. The Mac mini Media Center -- M³C for short -- was born.

The video experience was sub-optimal, owing mostly to my 10-year-old CRT that occasionally turned black-and-white (or lost video altogether). I knew it was time for a new TV. I promised myself that as a reward for finishing a series of challenging home improvement projects (replacing a bathroom sink and installing new floors, to name two) I would get myself the high-definition TV I always wanted.

That TV arrived on Wednesday. Now, I can share with you how to set up the easiest, most awesome M³C of your own -- for less money than you think.

We're back with another shot of Ask TUAW! This time we've got questions about getting WiFi in an older G4 PowerMac, creating photo contact sheets, blanking a display, automatically opening downloaded files, managing iPhone apps in iTunes, and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!