If you're mounting your flatscreen TV on the wall, or the HDMI socket is on the side, it can be awkward having a cable that sticks out too far.
Ixos's solution is a pair of right-angle HDMI adapters, the £30 Ixos Studio XS218 (pictured) and the £15 Ixos First XS118.
The 218 model has Ixos's patented iVEC technology designed to boost the HDMI signal and enable a cable to transmit a 1080p signal up to an additional four metres.
The XS118 does without iVEC, but like the XS218 does include a patented four-layer PC board to minimise Far End Cross Talk (FEXT) by stabiising impedance at the plug.
Panasonic's solution to the same problem is the introduction of 1.5m and 3m 'Free Angle' HDMI 1.3a cables with a plug that can be turned through 180 degrees. This limits the space required at the back (or side) of the TV to 3cm.
Panasonic says its Free Angle cables guarantee 1080p high-definition compatibility with a high-speed data transfer rate of up to 10.2Gbps.