The Dawn of High Definition

Show me HD!

We have been publishing news about High-Definition (HD) televisions and have even previewed the advantages of Blu-ray and HD-DVD video playback. The big question is, has HD finally arrived? Are all the building blocks required to build a HD entertainment arena in your own home really here?To cut the chase short, HD is already here and it's live and kicking with the launch of new HD capable devices such as the Xbox 360 and the more recent PlayStation 3 (PS3) gaming consoles, digital video camcorders such as the Canon HV10 and monster display panels like the Pioneer PDP-5000EX Plasma television that's able to support a full 1080P display resolution. In today's article, we are putting aside the technical nitty-gritty for once and showing you what you can personally expect from the world of high-definition in the area of video playback, gaming and video capturing. To demonstrate that, we'll quickly run through the HD capable equipment that's in our lab at the moment for this visual showcase:-

For high-definition video playback, we had the PlayStation 3 (which also doubles up as a Blu-ray player too) and a PC equipped with HD DVD drive to show you what we have been missing out from regular DVDs. For this purpose we have one movie but two versions of it ? a HD DVD variant and a standard DVD. As for gaming, we sampled the difficult-to-obtain PS3 along with some 1080p capable game titles such as Ridge Racer 7. Last but not least, we took the Sony HDR-SR1 HD camcorder for a spin and took footages using SD and HD resolutions. Hopefully, this will give you a glimpse of how high-definition can impact the way we view our home videos.

But before we get on with our HD showcase, let us backtrack a bit to recap what HD really is. To put it simply, HD is anything greater than Standard Definition (SD), which is the resolution used on current TV broadcast and DVD videos. There are three main HD resolutions/standards at the moment: - 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The best reproduction quality (and the most demanding) of the lot is the 1080p standard, which is also commonly referred to as "Full HD". With that in mind, let's kick-start this article showcasing Blu-ray and HD DVD movie playback on the Sony Bravia 40X200A HDTV which supports Full HD resolutions (1080P).

Show me the HD Movies

HD DVD vs. DVD

In this segment, we will compare the difference between a standard DVD movie and a HD DVD movie using Swordfish from Warner Brothers Studios starring John Travolta, Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman. And yes, the scene where she bares it all is available on both media, but of course that's for private viewing only. Here are some other shots we captured from the movie using a DSLR camera:-

Blu-ray Movies

Not forgetting movies on the Blu-ray, we also have some screen captures from the movie XXX from Columbia Picture starring Vin Diesel. However, there are apparently some issues with the first generation of Blu-ray movie titles because of the different format and transfer used. As a result, we can still notice noise (grains) visibly all over the screen and it doesn't live up to HD movie viewing standards such as what we've seen with HD DVD (which thankfully worked very well). Our first encounter with this issue was over a month ago in a previous article where we tested the House of Flying Daggers, Stealth and Ultra Violet. To showcase the noise we observed on the Blu-ray movie evidently, we chose this darker scene where XXX jumps off from the roof with a mountain bike.

Take note that the screenshots shown on this page are not exactly what you would experience first hand because these are snapped from a DSLR camera and the quality reproduced is dependant on the camera's lens and setup parameters (both physically and the camera's own setup). Nevertheless, since we've snapped the pictures in the exact same conditions (apart from the differing media used), it is clear that the high-definition video from the HD DVD looks much clearer and detailed. Viewing the DVD version of the same movie on the HDTV looked disappointing after experiencing HD DVD and we have no doubt that you would concur with us once you start to get pampered as well.

Show me HD Games!

There are currently two gaming consoles that are capable of rendering / projecting HD resolutions. Microsoft's Xbox 360 launched a year ago was the first console to push gaming resolution to 720p with titles like Ridge Racer 6, Dead or Alive 4 and the recent Gears of War. Today's focus is naturally centered on the newer Sony console that was just launched in USA, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is capable of rendering games and Blu-ray movies at 1080p natively.

To show you the capabilities of the PS3 in gaming, we have some screenshots below of the new games like Ridge Racer 7 and Resistance: The Fall of Men. Unfortunately, since we do not have an older display panel dating back to before the HD days and neither can we force this brand new 1080p display to adapt to a lower resolution game mode (as it automatically syncs with the game's best supported option), we can't perform any HD versus SD cross referencing in this section. However we believe that the screenshots below have enough details to relay that this experience can only be had in a proper HD setup:-

Show me HD Home Videos Captured with HD Camcorders!

Now that you have seen 1080p gaming and movie playback, the last part of this article focuses on home videos captured in HD format compared to the SD format most camcorders support. Currently, the latest consumer HD camcorders can only capture at 1080i resolution, but that's still a big leap up from the capabilities of regular video camcorders. Shown below are some screenshots of the difference between SD and HD video capturing on Sony's HDR-SR1:-

Closing Thoughts

Using the latest equipment in the market available now to play games, watch movies and capture home videos in HD formats, our test run on these various aspects has unanimously conceded that the era of HD has dawned upon us. To sum it up, the HD experience is all about bringing clarity, details and sharpness that was previously lacking on SD resolutions. This is especially evident on large screen displays these days.

However for HD movie viewing, Blu-ray and HD DVD haven't really taken off in many parts of the world yet. To-date, most of the early adopters are shipping their players and movie titles from U.S. online stores. We estimate that it would probably take a few more months before we can see the paradigm shift from SD to HD in other parts of the globe. Also, the first-generation Blu-ray titles are still present in the channel as we obtained a new copy of the movie XXX, but it was still marred with noise and graininess. On the other hand, we got off to a good start with the sole HD DVD title we've tested.

For gamers, the visuals in the latest consoles also took a leap with games and hardware supporting HD resolutions, allowing the game designers to pack in far more detailed models and environments for a more immersive gaming experience. Expect more titles to come with full HD support as this is just the beginning.

Besides ready content from the above-discussed forms, you can now also indulge in creating home videos in high-definition format with camcorders supporting 1080i resolutions like the Canon HV10, Sony HDR-SR1 and HDR-UX1. Based on our experience as we've shared, the image quality of HD camcorders undoubtedly supercedes those taken with regular camcorders as the details and clarity have notched up notably. Our personal choice where possible would of course be capturing videos in HD resolutions for the rich details, but beware that they eat up more space as well. That's something you would need to plan and balance out before shooting.

Without a doubt, HD is the next big upgrade trigger thing that will change the way we watch and play content in the future, but the rate it which it's penetrating worldwide isn't uniform yet as the equipment are generally still new and pricey. Thus not all regions would be able to bring in these goodies for consumers. Of course as with all technology, when it matures to become more affordable, it would reach an inflection point where the masses are willing to splurge for their justifiable benefits of HD. Once they ride the wave of HD technology and especially with HD content, it would be hard for them to fall back to SD content. Looking at how buying trends have been prevailing in developed and some of the developing countries, 2007 might be the year when HD capable hardware really takes off as people are getting more aware of the theoretical benefits; If HD content and variety does spike in the same year, this would surely be the case. After all, we are pretty sure this mini HD showcase we've put together has enticed you to venture into the HD world, if you've not already done so.

Intel ViiV vs. AMD Live!

In the war to see who establishes a standard for digital entertainment computers archenemies Intel and AMD present their weapons: at one corner Intel with their ViiV platform – which is the digital home concept that Intel is pushing for ages with a new name – and at the other corner AMD with their Live! Platform. In this article you will learn the main specs for each platform and will see what you will be able to do with them.

A digital entertainment computer proposed by Intel ViiV and AMD Live! platforms is in charge of distributing digital content (data, music, movies, photos, etc) to other electronic equipment such as TVs, notebooks, MP3 players and PDAs. This digital entertainment computer should be able to record TV shows, videos, music and photos in DVD or CD. If you have this kind of PC at home it is possible for one person to watch a DVD movie being transmitted by it at one room of your house and, at the same time, another person listening to MP3 music at another room, also being transmitted by this computer, both using wireless communication.

This digital entertainment computer needs a minimum hardware requirement to be able to process, store and distribute all digital content available. Not all computers can be used as a digital entertainment computer. This computer, for example, must be able to deliver different digital content to several different electronic equipments at the same time.

Keep in mind that ViiV and Live! aren’t isolated technologies, but digital entertainment platforms. Their concept is the same of Intel’s Centrino, where in order to be considered “Centrino” a laptop must meet a certain hardware requirements. On Intel ViiV and AMD Live! platforms a computer can only be considered a digital entertainment computer if it meets a certain hardware and software requirements. In fact, Intel ViiV and AMD Live! define the minimum requirements needed for a digital entertainment PC. Think of these platforms as an “approval seal”, where if a computer meets certain requirements it can be called “ViiV-enabled” or “Live!-enabled”.

AMD Live! platform is based on technologies available on the market and other that will be available soon, while Intel ViiV platform is based on technologies available today.
Let’s now take a look on Intel ViiV and AMD Live! specs.

Intel ViiV Specs

For a computer to be compatible with ViiV platform, it must have at least the following components:

• One of the following CPUs: Pentium D (except 805 model), Pentium Extreme Edition or Core Duo.
  
• One of the following chipsets: 975X, 955X, 945G, 945P and 945GT, all using ICH7-DH (82801GDH) south bridge, or 945GM chipset.
  
• One of the following network connections: Intel PRO/1000 PM, Intel PRO/100 VE or Intel PRO/100 VM.
  
• Quick Resume Technology driver for the south bridge ICH7-DH installed.
  
• SATA hard disk drive with NCQ technology.
  
• Intel Matrix Storage technology (i.e. RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 support).
  
• High Definition Audio 5.1 or above. Analog or digital connection can be used. If digital connection (SPDIF) is used, 5.1 or above analog connection is optional.
  
• Operating system: Windows XP Media Center Edition.
  
• Remote control (optional)
  

If a computer is equipped with these components (CPU, chipset, networking and operating system), it can be considered “ViiV-enabled”.

What is different on this platform from a “normal” PC is the use of ICH7-DH south bridge (DH comes from “Digital Home”), except on the case of 945GM chipset, which doesn’t use this circuit. What is new on this chip is a technology called Quick Resume, which allows the PC to imitate the behavior of TV sets, where by pressing the power button located on the remote control the screen goes dark, the sound is muted and the keyboard and mouse stop responding.

In a ViiV-compatible computer you can access all your digital content (photos, music, movies, videos, etc) thru a remote control (if the computer has one, of course), thanks to Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system. As the name implies, it is a version of Windows XP targeted to entertainment PCs. It allows you to record your favorite TV shows, share your pictures and songs, listen to radio, download music and movies from the Internet, and also install your favorite programs and games.

As you can see, ViiV platform is simply a set of technologies (processor, chipset, network adapter and operating system) combined to make an entertainment PC.

Gigabyte (with their GA-8I945GMH-RH) and ECS (with their 945G-M3), among other manufacturer, have already launched ViiV-compatible motherboards.

For more information: http://www.intel.com/products/viiv/index.htm

AMD Live! Specs

For a computer to be compatible with AMD Live! platform it must have at least the following components:

• CPU: Athlon 64 X2 or dual-core Athlon 64 FX.
  
• Motherboard: Socket AM2 or 939
  
• Operating system: Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows Vista Premium
  
• Audio: 5.1 high definition audio with SPDIF output
  
• Networking: Gigabit Ethernet or wireless 802.11b/g (optional)
  
• Hard disk drive: SATA (NCQ technology recommended). Two SATA hard disk drives with RAID on computers based on Atlhon 64 FX.
  
• Memory: At least 1 GB DDR2 667/800 MHz.
  
• Ports: At least six USB 2.0 ports and also Firewire (IEEE 1394) ports.
  
• TV tuner card with remote control: Optional.
  
• Wireless keyboard and mouse: Recommended.
  
• Video output: VGA, DVI or HDMI with HDCP (optional).
  
• Optical unit: DVD±RW
  
• Power supply: high efficiency with low rotation fan.
  

It is interesting to note how AMD specify several details of their platform, like the amount of RAM memory. It is also interesting to note how several items are optional.

The name way that occurs with ViiV technology, a Live! entertainment PC can be accessed thru a remote control (if the computer has one), since it uses Windows XP Media Center Edition.

AMD Live! platform should be commercially available in the middle of this year – note how AMD specified the use of DDR2 memories, which the current AMD CPUs don’t support.

For more information: http://amdlive.amd.com/

Air or Watercooling?

It seems like the market makes it harder and harder for the average consumer to make choices. You have 20-30 different video cards, you have 10 different brands of memory which all claim to be the best, and then in the end you have around 100 different air coolers for your socket type. You finally make your decisions and find out that maybe watercooling or a Vapochill might be something for you, I mean this is really a mess for the average consumer that just wants to put together a new setup for him/herself. I think that it’s safe to say that a Vapochill is out of the normal consumers budget so we can skip it as the a price is over 500$. However for those who have the money and the skill to use the Vapochill I definitely recommend it.
Tip of the day!!

But what is the difference between air and watercooling then? Does water and electricity go together? The questions are pretty much endless and we are going to try to answer some of them to give you an idea on what to go for and the pros and cons of each. Basically watercooling is something that is not needed for a normal user. Watercooling is used when you overclock your computer or want an extremely quiet computer.

Watercooling on the other hand takes quite a bit of maintenance and check ups. Water should be changed about twice a year to prevent alga and other junk from growing in the system. You also need to check from time to time that the tubing clips are tight and that the tubing is in place otherwise you might get a leak like I had this summer. I had a problem with the silicon tubing expanding during the hot summer heat which ended up leaking out over a liter of water in my case. Luckily it only killed my sound card and didn’t ruin anything else. With watercooling you always take a chance so if you are a normal consumer I would not really recommend it as taking that chance is not worth it. Air cooling on the other hand is pretty safe compared to water since the only thing that can go wrong is the fan dying but you realize it when the noise dies so you have time to save the cpu. With water it might be to late when you realize the accident has happened

You cannot get as quiet of a computer with air though which is a small setback since more and more people want a quiet computer. This can be fixed though by buying something from Zalman or Arctic cooling for example which are experts on quiet air coolers, otherwise there are 5V adapters that lower the fan speed and by that way give you a quieter computer This however comes with a minor setback since lowering the fan speed gives you a bit warmer computer. This can also be fixed though with buying some case fans and mounting them but of course those also cost more to get. For a decent air cooler you pay around 40$ and for a decent water setup you pay over 150$ so there is quite a bit of difference even though you might have to buy some more fans for the air. I have gone through most types of cooling in my days, to start with I had a Fop38 with a Delta 60 mm fan which ran at 7000 rpm and was around 45 decibel loud. After that I toned it down a bit and ran some generic air cooling for awhile until I started with watercooling. Now I have ran several different watercooling setups and came to the conclusion that I am going back to a good old air cooler soon again. It is so much easier to have aircooling since the case weighs A LOT with water and you always take a risk when using it and when moving it.

But what air cooler should you go for then? I said Zalman or Arctic Cooling before but those guys release quite a bit of coolers also so there is some to choose from. Here are some examples of very popular and good air coolers.

The main thing to do if you are going to choose an air cooler is to read up on the specific one you think would suit your needs, and check out several website reviews to see how they perform. You can usually find links on the manufacturer’s website or just search on google. We have to remember also that thermal paste is something that counts as an option. Normal standard thermal paste does not cool as well as Artic Silver 5 or Coolermasters thermal paste. With the right “goop” as it’s also called you can get a few degrees lower temperatures and by that way be able to run the cpu cooler on lower fan speed.

There are recommendations on how hot the cpus can run but normally an AMD cpu still runs decent on 60 celsius (140 Fahrenheit) and the same thing with Inte. I would dare say that when you start coming up to 65 celsius (149 Fahrenheit) during idle or load it’s time to start looking at your cooling.

The other thing is what we brought up a bit about earlier which is case fans, I would go for slow rpm fans in the front and rear of the case to get a good airflow in the case which also then cools down and transports the hot air from the cpu. For this there are fan filters that filter out most of the dust and helps keep you case clean. These filters have to be cleaned from time to time though but it’s a lot easier that removing the fans and cleaning them off. The cpu cooler listed before are good performance and quiet noise wise. I would not recommend you using anything that makes more noise than 30 dB which is still in my ears quite loud. To conclude this I have to say that for the casual user to go for air cooling, for the extreme user go water. Check reviews about the coolers on different websites to form your own opinion and go for whichever cooler you have in mind. Remember also my recommendations on the brands you should look for with cooling and noise performance.

Blu-ray and HD DVD: Is Your PC Ready for it?

Introduction

You've probably heard of convergence at some point or another by now. It's loosely used to convey the merging of personal computing and digital entertainment with home theater. You may even already have convergence products in your living room, purchased or setup your own HTPC system with networked media streaming throughout your house. The next step is obviously to upgrade and support new generation formats and media. For home entertainment, this would be Blu-ray and HD DVD - the two battling successors of the DVD era and have been hot topics of conversation for the last year at least. These two formats are now available, but are you ready for High Definition (HD)? Getting yourself a set-top box is probably the most straightforward solution for Hi-Fi aficionados, but what about the HTPC brethren? Blu-ray and HD DVD support is not as simple as buying a Blu-ray or HD DVD optical drive. In this guide, we introduce the technology and requirements to get your HTPC 'True HD'-ready.
*Note that the scope of this article is as an elementary guide to setting up a Blu-ray/HD DVD capable PC and not to serve as a technology or performance analysis of HD standards, HD DVD vs. Blu-ray, ATI vs. NVIDIA or Intervideo vs. Cyberlink.

HDTV vs True HD

By HD, we're not talking about HDTV or the HD clips available on the net such as Quicktime trailers. Users should be aware that there is quite a vast difference between the various types of HD content there is out there, since the word is a general term to define any video source that is encoded higher than 480p (720 x 480 progressive), which is the current NTSC DVD standard.

In terms of standards, the two most common HDTV broadcast specifications are delivered in 720p (1280x720 progressive) or 1080i (1920x1080 interlaced) with average bit-rates of 10Mbps. User encoded HD clips or those found on the web can come in various non-standard sizes and bit-rates using the multitudes of CODECs such as Quicktime, WMV, x264, etc. Blu-ray and HD DVD however, is standardized MPEG-4 Part 10 a.k.a. H.264 or AVC and can be delivered up to the full 1080p (1920x1080 progressive) resolution (commonly termed as True HD) with average bit-rates that are twice that of HDTV at 20Mbps and is within specifications to be capable of reaching a whopping 40Mbps.

Remember back in the time where PCs required a dedicated MPEG-2 card to properly playback DVD videos? We're at a similar juncture with Blu-ray and HD DVD. While most modern PC hardware, including previous generation GPUs and CPUs can playback HDTV without much problem, there is no GPU or CPU alone that can handle decoding of Blu-ray and HD DVD's H.264 streams in full resolution.

*Both Blu-ray and HD DVD have in their capacity to support MPEG-2 and Microsoft's VC-1 formats as well, but we will focus on H.264 hardware acceleration support in this article as it is the most taxing of the three.

Running Two Systems with a Single PSU

Two Systems with One PSU?


A lot of users often asked if it was ever possible to run two systems with a single power supply unit. While some users reported success, it wasn't something that we would encourage since most of today's processors would be too power hungry. It may still be possible to power up two of the latest Intel Pentium D or Athlon 64 X2 systems but you may need to get a pretty powerful power supply to get it working.

Fortunately for today, both AMD and Intel have introduced new processors that are less power hungry. Intel's upcoming Conroe processors (known as Intel Core 2 Duo) would draw only about 65W while AMD's low power Athlon X2 processors that were recently announced would draw 65W for the Energy Efficient model and 35W for the Energy Efficient Small Form Factor model. These processors are powerful dual core CPUs which gives you a lot of mileage in terms of compute performance and would make great machines for all sorts of purpose, be it gaming, video rendering or even a workstation.

In order to get two systems running from a single power supply unit, one would need to construct a customized 20-pin ATX power cable with a single female connector on one end and two male connectors on the other. This would multiply the regular 20-pin power cable in your power supply unit to support two motherboards. We went to a regular electronic hardware store and purchased a couple of male and female connectors along with the pins that go along with these connectors. Constructing the cable is just a simple and long-winded process of crimping the cables together.

To really quicken the process, we took two old 'about-to-discard' power supplies and cut out the ATX power cable. This will give us the ready made end of the two male connectors along with corresponding color coded wires. The next step would be to match the cables pin for pin and have them crimped with the pins. You just have to make sure that all the wires are crimped correctly (e.g. pin 1 should go to pin 1) and you'll have a Y-shaped ATX power cable as shown in the picture below.










Stacking Up the Two Systems


We then took two of MSI's latest Intel P965 full-ATX motherboard and have them installed with Intel's latest Core 2 Duo processors running at 2.66GHz. In order to make the stacked systems in a smaller profile, we removed the fans from the coolers. We also used smaller half height graphics cards so that the systems would require less space. Hence, we picked MSI's GeForce 7300 GS graphics cards and removed the I/O bracket. The following series of pictures would give you a clearer idea of how the two systems are stacked.
Here's a couple of things that one should note :-

• Since we did not use fans on the processor coolers, for reasons of building a really silent PC, we recommend that you install a 12cm chassis fan right beside the two processors. The processor may feel hot at full load, but it should still be within operating limits.
  
• We would recommend using a heatsink with straight fins aligned along the direction of the chassis fan's air flow direction. This would be a more ideal cooling strategy for such a setup. Of course, radial heatsinks are way much nicer in terms of appearance.
  
• We picked 2.5-inch SATA notebook drives because we think they are neater. Of course, if you want larger storage capacities, a full size 3.5-inch hard disk drive would be suitable too.
  
• If you want better airflow across the system, we recommend that you use a board with integrated graphics.
  
• This setup could also be achieved with AMD Athlon X2 low power processors too, not necessarily one that's based on Intel's latest Conroe processors. It's just that Intel's Conroe processors were more readily available than AMD's Energy Efficient processors right now.
  
• You can connect the Power On headers of both the boards to a single switch, so that they are both turned on at the same time.

So, how much power does the entire system draw? We measured it using Cooler Master's built-in power meter and it came out to be a little over 200W. Pretty amazing, isn't it? This gives users a lot of headroom for other more powerful devices.

Now, for those wanting to explore clustering (using OpenMosix on Linux), this would be an ideal setup. Of course, users can do anything they want with each of the two systems as the types of usage would only be limited to one's imagination. Now, we just need a funky casing to go with it....