Techgage :: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Home Theater PCs are the fastest-growing trend in home computing. Here’s an in-depth look at enthusiast case maker NZXT’s first HTPC case, the Duet. With its tasteful looks, clever design, and ample cooling, this case has serious potential.
Moneual MonCaso 932B HTPC Case Review
XYZ Computing :: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Home entertainment is a very interesting thing. Enthusiasts are willing to spend large sums of money to get the right gear and a small upgrade to parts like tuners, televisions, and speakers can easily bring them from being reasonably expensive to downright unreachable for most consumers. HTPCs have followed this trend- while there is still a very strong enthusiast community lot of companies are beginning to sell expensive pre-built HTPC solutions that cater to hobbyists who want the best and are accustomed to spending a considerable amount of money on their equipment. This review will be taking a look at a company that most people have not heard of before, Moneual. These guys make a range of computer hardware, most of it aimed at home theater builders, and also sell full systems. The case we will be looking at, the MonCaso 932B, is their flagship HTPC enclosure and it is the same one used on the company’s $4995 902T2 system.
Midi Keyboard Project – Moo6
Metku Mods :: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
“When not modding, I usually compose some music. As an input device for the music software, I use old Casio CTK 530 keyboard. One day I realized how ugly it really is, so it’s time for modding, once again! In this project I’ll continue to use minimalistic design which I find attractive.”
Logitech Wireless Music System for iPod Review
Think Computers :: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
“So many people have an iPod. It is the most popular MP3 player out there. So say you have a ton of music on your iPod and you want to listen to it on your brand new home theatre system. Well you could go out and buy the iPod AV cables, but those are limited by the length of the wire and who wants to have wire stretching across their room. This is where theLogitech Wireless Music System comes in. It enables you to move around without the limitations of wires and listen to your iPod on your home theatre with ease.”
HIS Radeon X1650XT and X1950PRO – Quiet Gaming
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, January 31, 2007
“We have with us a pair of cards from HIS, one the Radeon 1650XT and the other a Radeon 1950PRO. We will see what these particular cards from HIS have to offer us along with what card is best for you. If you’re on an LCD monitor that only supports a resolution as high as 1280 x 1024, is it worth the extra money to move to the X1950PRO? We’ll discuss this and more.
Normally we see a lot of IceQ type graphics cards from HIS but this time around while we do have an IceQ edition in the shape of the Radeon X1950PRO we also got the chance to check out the new iSilenceII cooling design on the Radeon X1650XT.”
LG BH100 Blu-ray Disc/HD-DVD Combo Player – Product Review
About.com :: Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The BH100 is the new hybrid Blu-ray Disc / HD-DVD combo player from LG. Dubbed “Super Multi Blue”. The BH100 plays both Blu-ray Discs and HD-DVDs at full 720p, 1080i,… 1/30/2007 2:00 AM
Home Theater Gifts For Lovers
About.com :: Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Instead of giving your lover jewelry, flowers, candy, or lingerie on this Valentine’s Day, why not give a gift that will not only last, but provide the perfect catalyst for…
How To Avoid Common Home Theater Mistakes
about.com :: Tuesday, January 30, 2007
You spent a lot of money and time setting up your new home theater system, but something just doesn’t seem right. Did you make any mistakes? To find out, check… 1/27/2007 2:00 AM
Improving Skype Audio in Windows
Big Bruin :: Monday, January 29, 2007
Skype is arguably the most popular Web telephony service out there… One common complaint is that the quality of the calls varies widely. There are a number of simple changes that you can make to both your system settings and the settings of your Skype client software to improve the audio quality of your Skype calls.
The Rise of the LCD
PC Mech :: Monday, January 29, 2007
Remember those days when 17″ LCD’s used to cost over $250, for an off-brand, extremely basic model? Remember that bulky CRT that is quite possibly obesely sitting in front of you as you read this article? Well, let me tell you — the days of those obese monitors are shrinking slowly away into history. As LCD prices continue to fall, and new developments and advantages continue to roll off the assembly line, the time is getting increasingly ripe to replace that toxic-waste producing CRT with a bright, crisp LCD screen.
XFX 7600GT Fatality Review
Gamepyre :: Monday, January 29, 2007
The 7600GT Fatal1ty card has some good and some bad points. The good is that it is the fastest available 7600GT card on the market today with clockspeeds exceeding the other 7600GT cards by a good margin. The card is quiet, meaning that if you’re wanting a silent system, this card is the card for you. It also carries the “Fatal1ty” brand, which kids may see as cool as this gamer is on TV with shows like “60 Minutes.” The 7600GT is Vista Premium ready meaning that it will run the new Aero Glass interface.
GeCube X1950 Pro Champion Edition
techPowerUp! :: Monday, January 29, 2007
The Radeon X1950 Pro series is one of the hottest selling video cards at the moment. It is competitively priced and can run all current games without breaking a sweat. Gecube has engineered a special TEC cooled solution for improved overclocking. In our testing we saw amazing clock increases of 20% on both the core and memory for a final clock of 682 MHz / 816 MHz.
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX
Barry’s Rigs ‘n’ Reviews :: Monday, January 29, 2007
“Revolutionary” is the most over-used word in video card technology. But that changed when NVIDIA unleashed their new GeForce 8800-series video cards. More advanced and powerful than anything else before it, EVGA’s e-GeForce 8800 GTX brings unprecedented performance and visual fidelity to existing DirectX 9 games under Windows XP—and tomorrow’s incredible games under Windows Vista and DirectX 10!
ATI Catalyst 7.1 for Vista – Software improvement and Crossfire!
Tweak Town :: Monday, January 29, 2007
“In one day or so depending on where you are sitting, Microsoft is set to release all versions of their latest operating system into the consumer world. AMD’s ATI driver team in Canada has seemingly saved all for the last minute. They sent us their Catalyst 7.1 graphics card driver for Vista to check out last week and have promised not just DirectX 3D performance and stability increases over the previous release but also an improved Catalyst Control Center, HD-DVD and Blu-ray support through AVIVO, a new installer and Crossfire support for the full range of X1000 series Radeon cards.
We’ll examine the changes in the WHQL driver going through the PDF presentation which they sent to us and then run some 32-bit based benchmarks under Vista Home Premium to try and backup their claims. Let’s get started and see if AMD finally have a Vista driver for their Radeon cards, which is actually worth installing and using.”
Sapphire X1900 XT 512MB Video Card Review
Think Computers :: Monday, January 29, 2007
“A little while ago we took a look at the Sapphire Radeon X1300 XT video card. It proved to be a great midrange card, especially for the price. Well today we will be talking a look at its bigger brother on the high-end; the Radeon X1900 XT. I was really excited to get the X1900 XT and see what it had to offer. It really changed the way I play games and the feel of those games so let’s take a look and see what it can do.”
Creative X-fi XtremeGamer soundcard
RB Mods :: Thursday, January 25, 2007
I don’t think I have to introduce the X-fi soundcard series from Creative, most of us know that it’s an extremely powerful soundcard in whatever form or shape it comes in. The main problem with the cards have been the price as the cheapest card even has gone for over 120$. Now there might be a solution to this, Creative have launched a Xtremegamer card which belongs to the X-fi family but only costs around 80$USD. So can you get the same features as the expensive cards have? That’s what we are here to find out today.
MSI 7600GT 256mb DDR3 Passive Review
XS Reviews :: Thursday, January 25, 2007
“Noise and power are normally two things that go together these days in the graphics card market. However, with what I have in my hand today, that could all change…”
Logitech Wireless DJ Review
Design Technica :: Thursday, January 25, 2007
“The Wireless DJ Music System uses the 2.4GHz frequency band to wirelessly transmit the audio signal from your PC and the included transmitter, to the base station receiver (which also doubles as the charger to remote control). You can install more than one receiver, in different rooms for example, and then label that room using the Streampoint software. The music system can then stream music to the desired room simply by selecting the zone you want with the remote control. Unfortunately you cannot stream music to different rooms/zones at the same time like you can with the Sonos Music System; you can only listen to one zone at a time. Additional wireless receivers cost a spendy $80 each, nearly 1/3rd of the systems total cost. ”
Sapphire Ultimate X1650PRO 256MB Graphics Card Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual Hideout :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
“The Sapphire Ultimate X1650PRO is a very stable and solid card to say the least. Although it didn’t play F.E.A.R. smoothly at the game’s maximum settings, it did play it fine at lower settings. The other games played fairly well, and I feel that this card would work out better in a HTPC setup rather than a gaming rig.”
Westinghouse Digital LTV-46w1 46″ LCD 1080i TV
Bona Fide Reviews :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
If you’re like one of the millions of people looking to make the jump into the world high definition then you’ve probably spent at least a week searching for the perfect display. With the holiday’s not long past now is one of the busiest times for buying new display and today at BFR we have one of the newest displays available from Westinghouse Digital.
MSI NX8800GTX Review and Mixed-Vendor SLI
NV News :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
“We have finally completed a follow-up review of the MSI NX8800GTX. In addition to reviewing the graphics card in a single GPU configuration, we also pair it up with a second GeForce 8800 GTX to form a mixed vendor SLI configuration. The review is packed with single GPU and SLI benchmarks at resolutions of 1920×1200 and 2560×1600 with various levels of antialiasing in F.E.A.R., Far Cry, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life 2 Episode One, and Dark Messiah, which is new to our list of benchmarks. Gameplay performance is tested in Quake 4 as well as a couple of new titles that include Gothic 3 and Neverwinter Nights 2. Throughout the review are plenty of high resolution screenshots for your viewing pleasure, a plethora of interactive image quality comparisons and video clips that demonstrate our walkthrough’s in Dark Messiah, Gothic 3, and Neverwinter Nights 2.”
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/spire_fourier_IV/img/email.jpg
The Tech Report :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
WHEN WE REVIEWED the GeForce 8800, I said we’d test the GPU in an SLI configuration “as soon as we can.” I will admit that I’ve dabbled in CPUs a little too much, and our look at GeForce 8800 SLI has been delayed. However, I also wondered in that same review: “who needs two of these things right now?” That’s a pretty good question given the GeForce 8800 GTX’s astounding pixel-slinging performance, and something of a de-motivator for one considering looking into GeForce 8800 SLI.
But now I have seen the light. It’s wider than it is tall, modulated by a series of filters, and about 30″ from corner to corner. I’m talking, of course, about Dell’s 3007WFP LCD. We need not invent a reason for GeForce 8800 SLI since display makers have already invented a darn fine one. A four-megapixel monster like this one cries out for the fastest possible graphics subsystem to drive it, and the GeForce 8800 in SLI seems like a perfect match. We’ve had a bundle of fun testing the two together and exploring the world of uber-high-res widescreen gaming.
We’ve also dug a little deeper into GeForce 8800 antialiasing, to see how it compares to single- and multi-GPU antialiasing modes. Even the vaunted quad SLI makes an appearance to take on dual GeForce 8800 GTXs for extreme bragging rights supremacy. Read on to see how we put all of that power to use.
HIS X1650 IceQ Turbo
Bjorn 3d :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Unfortunately this means it might be a bit hard for a regular user to keep up and to figure out which card is better than the other. The card I am testing today, the HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo, uses the relatively new graphic chipset, the x1650XT from ATI. While the name suggests it is nothing more than a slightly faster X1650 Pro, the truth is that it is much more than that.
Nvidia 8800 GTX SLI review
Driver Heaven :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
“While many other sites published rushed reviews on 8800 SLI to get the hits, we were testing and reporting various bugs with companies to give you the definitive review of Nvidia’s 8800 solution in SLI.
Over 2 months in the making, with testing on a Vapochill overclocked Quad Core CPU @ 4GHZ with a selection of 8800 SLI solutions from Foxconn, Asus and XFX. Not only are we testing at the highest resolution with all the eye candy on full but we have over half a gigabyte of downloadable High Definition content for you to look at. If your internet connectioncan handle it.”
SteelSeries SteelSound 4H Headset
techPowerUp! :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The SteelSeries SteelSound 4H is a headset made specifically for gamers. Like its big brother, the 5H, it is designed to give you an advantage in games by making sure you hear all the little details like footsteps. The SteelSound 4H offers great wearing comfort even when used for gaming sessions of several hours.
Connect3D x1950XTX Review
XS Reviews :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
“Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have come on leaps and bounds in the last year as we saw the two graphics giants, ATI and Nvidia, battling it out for the performance crown. Unfortunately for the ATI fan boys Nvidia stormed ahead with the release of their 8800 range of cards. However, all is not lost as ATI’s hard hitting x1950 series of cards comes with a brand new cooler, DDR4 and claims of excellent image quality. Today we have Connect3D’s x1950XTX, read on to see what we thought.”
Saitek A-100 My Spkr Ipod Speaker System Review
Tweaknews :: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
“I always like a product that does what it says it will and does it well. Saitek has such a product in the A-100 My Spkr. This simple yet elegant device belts out the tunes with impressive clarity and the bass response is really amazing for its size. Small light and portable, the A-100 may find a large audience.”
NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.9792
NGO HQ :: Monday, January 22, 2007
“The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience. This driver includes NVIDIA’s old Control Panel. We’ve preferred to include the old Control Panel over the new one due to flexibility and performance reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards – including mobile series (Go) as well. This driver has a special compatibility mode option that provides better stability, and workaround for some known bugs.”
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Review
Virtual Hideout :: Monday, January 22, 2007
“With all that being said, I would feel confident in anyone using the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE who wants to build a HTPC system, or for the user who may have a dual monitor setup and wants to have live TV on the second monitor. The ease of setup and use through MCE also makes getting the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE a plus.”
Oppo Digital DV-981HD Upscaling DVD Player
Missing Remote :: Monday, January 22, 2007
The output of the Oppo is generally nothing short of spectacular, with a recent well mastered DVD one really can sit back and almost forget that this isn’t actually high definition, just a good fakery. 1080p native upconversion is a boon to all the influx of new 1080p TV owners that are sure to come as the prices plummet during 2007. The fact that the player can play just about any optical media (short of the next gen formats) is a major plus for anyone looking to unify their various devices. The only negative is the macroblocking issue. However, this is dependant on the content and even the calibration of the display being used. Most people wouldn’t even notice it.
Logitech Harmony 720 Universal Remote
OCIA :: Monday, January 22, 2007
“Simple and easy to understand commands make programming the unit a breeze. For those users who require more complex commands, you have the ability to adjust even the smallest factors such as delay time between macro commands. Logitech has an extensive database that should cover most any brand and model of equipment that you may own. The Harmony 720 can accommodate up to 12 different devices (far more than the average user would have).”
Logitech FreePulse Wireless Headphones
Modders Inc. :: Monday, January 22, 2007
One of the main issues a person will find with an MP3 / iPod® player is the cord that always finds a way to get caught on something. With the latest headphone from Logitech that is no longer an issue. The Logitech FreePulse Wireless Headphones allow you to have even more flexibility with a range of up to 33 feet and battery life that lasts up to 6 hours.
Converting Videotape Into Video Files
PC Stats :: Saturday, January 20, 2007
“A while back we reviewed the Power Color X1950 Pro Extreme card at Driver Heaven, which proved to be a very good performing mid-sector card with quiet and efficient cooling. Now the time has come to its Sapphire counterpart The Sapphire Ultimate X1950 Pro. As you may have noticed, the VCR is a dying technology. DVD players are now equivalent in price, and their disks have practically crowded VHS tapes right off the shelves of your neighborhood video store. Give it another three years and you may be hard pressed to find a new release on tape. So what happens when your VCR finally breaks?
The Silent XFX Fatal1ty GeForce 7600GT
HW Upgrade :: Friday, January 19, 2007
With a completely passive cooling system and coming factory overclocked, the new video card by XFX for its Fatal1ty series proves to be one of the more interesting video cards based on the NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT currently available for sale.
Silverstone CW01-WD MediaPC/HTPC enclosure Review
Xtreme Computing :: Friday, January 19, 2007
“Silverstone and Western Digital in perfect harmony, you have to see it in action to see the effect it has. Also on a plus the chassis was doing a good job on the thermal side as well with the CPU running cooler in this than in the desktop case it used to be in, that kept the CPU at 34, in the CW01-WD that dropped to 28 at idle ”
Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD
Hardware Secrets :: Friday, January 19, 2007
“Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are two new optical storage technologies that fight as the successor of DVD. In this article you will learn everything you need to know about these technologies, including the motivations that lead to the creation of both. Is it really true that DVD has its days counted?”
Gigabyte H971 Home Theater PC – HDMI, C2D and Loads of Style!
Tweak Town :: Friday, January 19, 2007
“The newest HTPC design to come out of Gigabyte is the “H971” and it improves on the now somewhat outdated H663, in quite a few ways. The new version is a little bigger and implements a new style which is modern and subtly sophisticated, brings support for Core 2 Duo through the use of the Intel G965 chipset, adds in HDMI and HDCP support by means of a GeForce 7600GS graphics card and generally just brings it more up-to-date with the technology you’d expect this year.
Strap yourself in – if you’ve been looking to build or buy a stylish HTPC system for your lounge room that will last you for many years to come, read on. We’ll take a close look at the Gigabyte H971, what’s inside the system, how it looks on the outside and how it actually works as a home entertainment system along with what it is capable of doing – such as, if it can playback HD-DVD movies.”
HIS X1950Pro 256MB AGP Video Card
3dgameman :: Friday, January 19, 2007
“The HIS X1950Pro 256MB AGP Video Card is a welcome addition for anybody who still has an AGP setup. The new standard is PCI Express, but that would mean replacing motherboard, memory, and other computer hardware. This can be very expensive and certainly is not within everyone’s budget. The cheapest option is simply replace the video card. This product has all the current technologies and will support the very latest games. Watch the video to find out more and check out the bloopers at the end.”
EVGA 680i SLI overclocking article
Hardware Overclock Austria :: Friday, January 19, 2007
Hardwareoverclock Austria has reviewed the EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. We have tested them with intel’s E6600 and Kingstons 1200 MHz memory to find out the overclocking performance.
CES 2007: D-Link & Creative
Think Computers :: Thursday, January 18, 2007
“D-Link has a large booth at CES and they are showcasing a number of products. The first of which that I was able to get a look at was D-Link’s DSM-510 which was released 5 weeks after development was completed because the engineers were so happy with it. Also Creative had a lot of products but most of them were product demos so it was a bit difficult to be able to talk with someone about a particular product, but I was able to talk about Creative’s Zen Vision W portable media player.”
SPARKLE Presents New GeForce 7300 GT Graphic Card to AGP Market
Sparkle :: Thursday, January 18, 2007
Based on NVIDIA’saward-winning GeForce 7 GPU series, SPARKLE 7300 GT AGP 256MB/512MB DDR2 graphics card comes equipped with powerful GeForce 7300 GT chip to deliver an entire realm of fantasy gaming experience to your desktop. By encapsulating the advanced DirectX 9.0 and shader model 3.0 rendering architecture, SPARKLE 7300 GT AGP 256MB/512MB DDR2 graphics card delivers stunning, high-definition video and ultra-realistic gaming effects at mainstream price points without compromising performance. SPARKLE GeForce 7300 GT AGP graphic card features high core speed at 350MHz with extreme 256MB/512MB 128-bit high speed GDDR2 memory. In addition, SPARKLE 7300 GT AGP 256MB/512MB DDR2 graphics card is optimized for the upcoming Microsoft® Windows Vista® operating system.
Blu Ray Burner Pioneer BDR 101A
Overclock 3d :: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
We take a quick look at an early Blu Ray Burner from Pioneer. Capable of impressive capacities, is Blu Ray the storage media we’ve all been waiting for?
XFX 8800 GTX XXX Edition Graphics Card Review
Legit Reviews :: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
“XFX raises the bar in gaming performance with their overclocked 8800 GTX XXX Edition video card. With an extra speed boost over the standard GTX you can be sure you’re getting the absolute best gaming experience any single video card can provide today. With the launch of the GeForce 8800 GTX XXX Edition, XFX delivers an 8800 GTX with obscene performance worthy of the title XXX…”
ForceWare X Vista 100.30B x86 & x64 Drivers (8800 series only)
Hardware XL :: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
“Props to laptopvideo2go for finding these drivers. The most anticipated driver ever has finally been released/leaked or whatever you may like to call it. GeForce 8800 Users can now finally put their card to the test on Vista, which isn’t out yet but I’m sure that won’t stand in their way from trying it out anyway. I myself have installed the drivers just a few hours ago and it looks to be working very wel. Graphical wise it’s a big improvement, but controlpanel wise it still lacks some options.”
PowerColor X1650 XT AGP Review
Technic 3d :: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
“The PowerColor X1650 XT AGP arrived Technic3D. As good is the Graphic Card X1650 XT AGP really against NVIDIA 6800 Ultra and 7800 GS Graphic Cards? Technic3D will see that in the following Review.”
Noiseblocker Coolscraper 120
Driver Heaven :: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Noiseblocker is a German company specializing in silent computer cooling solutions. We have tested some of their products in the past, which we found to be of high quality albeit somewhat expensive. Since Noiseblocker is a rather new company, their product line-up is still small. Noiseblocker mainly focuses on designing and building some of the best quality computer fans around, but also produce other cooling related products, such as CPU coolers and accessories. Today we will take a look at the second revision of their CPU coolers, the CoolScraper 120 V2.
Sapphire Ultimate X1950 Pro PCIe
Driver Heaven :: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
A while back we reviewed the Power Color X1950 Pro Extreme card at Driver Heaven, which proved to be a very good performing mid-sector card with quiet and efficient cooling.
Now the time has come to its Sapphire counter part The Sapphire Ultimate X1950 Pro. We will see if this card lives up to the “ultimate” moniker.
Point of view`s Turbulence g21 speaker set
DNR Hardware :: Monday, January 15, 2007
“We got blast away by this Point of view speaker set. We did not think much of it at first but where thrilled with the warm bass and good sound. Want to know more? Check the review and see what we found out.If your looking for a 2.1 speaker set this is definitely a good one to look for.”
Jays D-jays earphones
RBmods :: Monday, January 15, 2007
Jays is a fairly new company on the headphone market and they have started to compete with bigger companies like Koss and Sennheiser just to mention a few. One of the owners is Jens Nylander which is also the owner of www.jensofsweden.com a company that sells mp3 players. Who would know earphones better than him? Well I am hoping he has put his knowledge along with his collagues to use and manufactured nice earphones, as today we will take a closer look on these earphones in several ways in our daily usage of earphones.
ATI Theater 650 TV Tuner
Viper Lair :: Monday, January 15, 2007
“The ATI Theater 650 is easily the most advanced dedicated TV tuner we’ve had the chance to look at. Image quality is excellent and the product is extremely easy to install. Setup under Windows XP is about a couple minutes, and after a reboot you’re almost ready to go. It takes some configuration depending on your video feed, but we did not have any installation quirks under XP or MCE. Those of you eyeing Vista on the horizon will be happy to know the card is fully supported by the upcoming OS.”
PowerColor Radeon X1950PRO with Arctic Cooling
Tweak Town :: Monday, January 15, 2007
“PowerColor seem to be following in the footsteps of HIS with the team up with Arctic Cooling to help their cards stand out from the norm. The good news is while we quite often see high price tags affiliated with cards using aftermarket cooling, PowerColor have been able to keep the price low without sacrificing any quality.
With a straight out comparison against the Gigabyte Zalman cooled GeForce 7900GS, we will see if our thoughts can finally change for the better on the Radeon X1950PRO or if it will continue to let us down.”
Blu-Ray and HD DVD together on one LG Drive
PC Stats :: Monday, January 15, 2007
Blu-Ray and HD DVD together on one LG drive Thu: 01.11.07 | 4:06P | Business / Industry| PermaLink BY: C. Sun
LG certainly makes an impression with its 100″ High Definition LCD TV!
The first drive is LG’s GBW-H10N Blu-Ray burner capable of burning BD-R Single layer discs at 4x with a storage capacity of 25GB per single layer disc. The drive has a memory buffer of 4MB and comes with an IDE conenctor. The second drive is LG’s Super Multi BLue Blu-Ray rewriter & HD DVD ROM drive, unfortunately no specs on the drive were available.
Xbox 360 HD-DVD: 92K Sold
NPD Group :: Monday, January 15, 2007
According to NPD’s figures, the hardware sold 42,000 units in November and 50,000 in December.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier said that the life-to-date figure indicates a 2 percent attach rate to the Xbox 360 install base. The firm reported last night that life-to-date Xbox 360 sales in the US stand at 4.5 million units.
CES 2007: Sony VGX-TP1 Media Center PC
Digitral Trends :: Friday, January 12, 2007
Sony is going to be releasing in march a “Digital Living Machine”, the Sony VGX-TP1 PC. You will be able to bring all your content, movies, TV and pictures, into your living room. You’ll be able to record TV to the hard drive or burn it to DVD as well. Live TV content can also pull data from the Internet and provided added information, like stats for a football game. ”
Experience 1080p HD content now – Truly Kick Ass Quality Awaits!
Tweaktown :: Friday, January 12, 2007
“These next generation movie formats bring six times the quality of that of regular DVD. How can this be achieved? It all comes down to the media used to store the movie data. HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs are able to store much more data than a regular 4.7GB DVD disc. In fact, the storage capacity of a double sided Blu-ray disc is 50GB and HD-DVD is 30GB – even for the latter, that’s over six times the capacity available from the previous DVD standard! That allows film studios to sell movies at much higher resolutions up to 1920 x 1080, which are progressively scanned, for amazing life-like quality and extreme clarity. If you’ve ever experienced true HD content on a large display, it’s easy to become highly immersed in the scene and it really feels as if you are there in the same environment. In comparison and even when HDTV’s do their best to upscale content, DVD quality feels like looking at inferior piece of junk. Forgetting about the whole DRM and HDCP debacle, it’s awesome technology.”
HD DVD and Blu-ray at CES 2007
HW Upgrade :: Friday, January 12, 2007
“With CES in full swing, we give a quick recap of the major announcements for both high definition formats. Both the HD DVD and Blu-ray groups have held press conferences in which they outlined growth strategies along with new product announcements and we give you the inside scoop.”
Broadcast your PC to the World
AOA Forums :: Friday, January 12, 2007
One of our members, Aghastpumpkin, has written a guide on installing and using Orb. This software allows you to stream media content and transfer files from your own PC to another PC, over the internet. Orb also allows you to watch TV stations to which the remote PC’s tuner card is tuned in to.
Sapphire X1950 Pro Ultimate Review
Technic 3d :: Friday, January 12, 2007
“The Sapphire X1950 Pro Ultimate arrived Technic3D. As good is the Graphic Card X1950 Pro with Zalman Cooling and more Power really against others Graphic Cards? Technic3D will see that, with Overclocking, in the following Review.”
XFX Geforce 7600GT Fatal1ty – Cooler and Faster than others
Madshrimps :: Friday, January 12, 2007
“With the official release of the NVIDIA G80 based high end video cards in November last year, it is only a matter of months before we see new mid-range mayhem released for every budget minded gamer out there. At the very last moment XFX decided to satisfy gamers with one of the last G70 based video cards, their 7600GT Fatal1ty edition features passive cooling and faster clock speeds at a competitive price. How much faster? We find out.”
Announces GeForce 7 Series HDMI Graphic Cards to Provide High-Definition Digital A/V
Sparkle :: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Based on NVIDIA’s award-winning GeForce 7 GPU architecture, SPARKLE GeForce 7 Series HDMI graphics cards include SPARKLE SF-HPX76GDH graphics card, SPARKLE 7900 GS 256/512M GDDR3 HDMI graphics cards, SPARKLE 7600 GS GDDR3 LOW PROFILE HDMI graphics card and SPARKLE 7300 GT GDDR3 LOW PROFILE HDMI graphics card. All these SPARKLE GeForce7 series HDMI graphic cards come equipped with HDMI connector to deliver an entire realm of fantasy gaming experience to your desktop ensures that you will not have to be limit your fantasies to just your desktop. By encapsulating the entire High-Definition video and audio signal into a single cable, SPARKLE GeForce7 series HDMI graphic cards replace the need for many separate analog cables. Meanwhile, since HDMI is 100% digital, there is no compression or conversion necessary from the digital source.
ATI 8.33.6 Display Drivers
Phoronix :: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
“A new month, a new set of display drivers. Coming out of the AMD camp today is Catalyst 7.1 and fglrx 8.33.6. There are a few noteworthy changes in this ATI Linux driver release, which is what we have detailed in this article along with our usual set of graphics benchmarks. This Linux driver is also the first that provides preliminary support for the Radeon X2000 R600 series for both notebook and desktop components.”
Gigabyte GV-RX195P256D-RH ATi Radeon X1950Pro Video Card Review
Overclockers NZ :: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
“Finally, with the release of RV570 VPU, a.k.a. ATi Radeon X1950Pro, we are blessed with native CrossFire, which eliminates the resolution and Master/salve cards limitations; the VPUs are connected via the two CrossFire connectors found on the upper left hand side of the cards. In addition to the native CrossFire mode, the ATi RV570 is the first ATi VPU to be made with 80nm process technology, which further reduces the power consumption and heat output.”
TiVo Software on Motorola Cable Boxes & Series 3 Update
The Tech Lounge :: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tivo, probably my favorite Consumer Electronics company, made a few important announcements here at CES 2007. The first and most important announcement is the unveiling of the TiVo software ported to work on Motorola cable boxes that are subscribed to the Comcast cable network. This is different than TiVo’s own Series 3 model DVR in that it uses Motorola hardware and doesn’t use CableCards – that matters because current CableCard technology is unidirectional. The hardware inside the Motorola boxes is capable of two-way communication, enabling such features as Video On Demand (VOD) and viewing any channels that are allocated to Switched Digital Video (SDV) system. TiVo has, by far, the best PVR interface and features, while their hardware is lacking because they aren’t in the loop between cable companies and their hardware providers (Motorola, Cisco/Scientific Atlanta). Personally as a Cox subscriber, I can’t wait until TiVo is offered on our SA cable boxes.
ATI Catalyst 7.1 with Control Panel
NGO HQ :: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
“We have noticed that some people still prefer to use the old Control Panel (CP) over the Catalyst Control Center (CCC). As a result we have decided to incorporate the Control Panel into the newly released Catalyst 7.1. Enjoy!”
Dual-GPU X1950 Pro in the flesh.
Hexus :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Laid bare and next to a not-so-small Sony Ericsson K800i for reference, the dual-GPU board packs in a couple of Radeon X1950 Pro GPUs clocked in at a reference 580/1400 for GPU and RAM, respectively. Hooking them together is a bridge chip that you see just below the left-hand GPU. The card is equipped with a 1024MiB framebuffer, equally split over both GPUs. The PCB is also taller than normal, although enthusiasts considering this kind of SKU should have adequate room in their chassis.
Free Music Identification and Metadata Service Launches at CES
MusicIP :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
World’s largest digital music identification solution provides an affordable way to take music-centric projects and applications to the next level
Klipsch Introduces Family of Multi-Room Products with Wireless KlipschCast Technology
Klipsch :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Most home theater products available today lack expansibility and confine owners to one room of the house. In response, Klipsch is launching a high-end multi-room product series that wirelessly streams the company’s high-performance sound throughout the home. The new KlipschCast™ family lets users “build” a superior multi-room audio system for music and movies without having to wire, cut holes or retrofit in any way.
Klipsch Introduces Family of Multi-Room Entertainment
Klipsch :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Products With Wireless KlipschCast™ Technology New wireless multi-room system delivers company’s signature high-performance sound
Klipsch Introduces RoomGroove
Klipsch :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Designed for users who want high-performance surround sound minus the hookup hassle, the new straightforward Klipsch CS-500 DVD Entertainment System is the ticket to dynamic music and movie sound with fewer wires and less components.
Klipsch Introduces CS-500 DVD Entertainment System
Klipsch :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
New high-performance 2.1 system simulates effect of larger, five-speaker set up CS-500
Klipsch Amplifies TV Sound With Add-On Audio Solution
Klipsch :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
New 2.1 virtual surround sound system easily enhances viewing experience
Klipsch Ups the iPod® Speaker Ante With New iGroove SXT
Klipsch :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Additionally, the CS-700 serves as a hub for wirelessly transmitting CD-quality audio to not only its local subwoofer, but also other related Klipsch products such as the new RoomGroove Music Center. Sold separately, the RoomGroove requires no wiring beyond a power cord and has a retractable iPod® dock. Alone, each product is engineered to be a top performer in its category, but together the CS-700 and one or more RoomGroove units let users “build” a high-performance multi-room audio system that wirelessly streams music, TV or movie sound all over the house.
MICRODISPLAY CORPORATION ANNOUNCES CUSTOMERS, SUPPLIERS AND SHIPPING DATES FOR ITS LARGE-SCREEN HDTVS
MicroDisplay :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
AKAI and Memorex Sign On with MicroDisplay Corporation to Bring Customers 1080P Rear-Projection, Single-Chip LCOS HDTVs in Summer 2007
MicroDisplay Announces Shipping Dates for Large-Screen HDTVs
MicroDisplay :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
AKAI and Memorex Sign On with MicroDisplay Corporation to Bring Customers 1080P Rear-Projection, Single-Chip LCOS HDTVs in Summer 2007
BG Corp. Introduces First THX Ultra2
BG Corp. :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
World´s First In-Wall with Ultra2™ Certification and New THX Balanced Bass-line™ — Delivers Powerful, Vibration-Free Performance
Dell intros new 22″, 27″ wide-screen displays
Engadget :: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Not content with its existing lineup of 20″, 24″, and 30″ wide-screen displays, Dell introduced two more models with new sizes at its CES keynote: the 22″ E228WFP and the 27″ 2707WFP. The former is priced at $329—cheaper than the popular 20″ 2007WFP—and has a native resolution of 1680×1050 with a 5ms response time, 800:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m² brightness, and a 160° viewing angle. In other words, it’s a slightly bigger version of the existing E207WFP, with which it shares the same specs and native resolution.
Talk Back: In Praise of Sat/Sub Sets
Digital Trends :: Monday, January 08, 2007
” In the best of all possible worlds, I’d get a chance to hear any speaker I review before I review it. In the real world—where even three major trade shows a year don’t offer enough first-hand demos for a busy, quota-driven audio editor to work with—I look at product literature and pictures instead. And the first thing I look at is size. Would it surprise you to learn that I prefer smaller speakers to larger ones? If you assume that’s because of my workspace, you’re half-right. My 19 by 14 by 9 foot room totals just under 2400 cubic feet, making it more suitable for small and midsized speakers than for big, bulky ones. And I’m the first to admit that, having been through one hernia operation, I’d like to limit the chances of undergoing another one.”
Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player review
Driver heaven :: Monday, January 08, 2007
“With the recent launch of the Xbox 360 HD-Drive in the UK, Microsoft aim to bring High Definition movies to the masses. With the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive retaiing for a mere £130 it certainly appears to be the ideal “value for money solution”. Even when factoring in the additional cost of a Xbox 360 Premium this works out less than many standalone HD players which are currently selling for around the £450 mark. Also can we get it working with a Windows based PC?”
Win 2 900GTs for SLI
Bjorn 3d :: Monday, January 08, 2007
I am having a simple contest to let some lucky person win a pair of XFX 7900GT’s.
Foxconn Geforce 8800 GTX
Hardware Overclock Austria :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Hardwareoverclock Austria is proud to present our latest Review. They has reviewed the Foxconn Geforce 8800 GTX videocard, one of the most beautiful geforce 8 card, which can get at present.
Mitsubishi WD-57831 Review
Digital Trends :: Monday, January 08, 2007
“Mitsubishi’s WD-57831 is a 57W widescreen 16:9 HDTV, designed to produce exceptional images from all (both standard and high definition) video sources. The WD-57831 is certainly a crowd pleaser! If ever a TV was designed for watching high definition programming (standard definition images aren’t too shabby either), enjoying Home Theater, viewing movies, or watching stills from your digital camera, this is the one! Happily, it’s not just the size of the screen that impresses, but the images displayed on it. The set includes dual antenna RF inputs, two rear A/V/S-Video inputs, three HD-level component video inputs, two HDMI w/HDCP inputs, two IEEE 1394, one A/V/S-Video, one component video, and RF outputs. Convenience features include twin-tuner PIP (picture-in-picture) and TV Guide On Screen (that worked flawlessly with my local cable system, Cablevision). ”
WHDI: The New Wireless HDMI Frontier?
Design Technica :: Monday, January 08, 2007
“Wouldn’t the world be a better wireless place if we could enjoy high definition audio and video without cluttering the home media room with yards of cable? It certainly would be nice to be able to relax and not stare at the rat’s nest sitting behind your television. One upcoming wireless solution which hopes to bring this home entertainment dream to reality is called WHDI and is being offered by a company named Amimon. WHDI, which stands for Wireless High Definition Interface, is seen by Amimon co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development Noam Geri as being a dream come true for those wanting to enjoy the next threshold in home entertainment pleasure. ”
Auzentech Auzen X-MERIDIAN 7.1 Soundcard
Driver Heaven :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Today’s review product comes from Auzentech a company who have been making a name for themselves in the PC home theatre market with the release of the World’s first Dolby Digital Live Sound card (the X-MYSTIQUE 7.1 Gold) and the World’s first DTS Connect Sound Card (the X-PLOSION 7.1 DTS Connect). The X-MERIDIAN 7.1 is aimed to directly compete with the Creative X-Fi in both the PC home theatre and gaming markets and on paper it certainly is impressive with numerous Dolby Digital technologies mixed with the latest DTS modes and some excellent technical specifications, let’s take a closer look at the card…
CES digest: TV Wonder Digital Cable
The Tech Report :: Monday, January 08, 2007
First, AMD has introduced its new ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner that finally will allow PCs to record and play back digital and high-definition television via U.S. cable TV systems. Sadly, it comes with some daunting restrictions, as explained here:
Sapphire ULTIMATE ATI RADEONT X1950 PRO
Modders Inc :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Sapphire introduced their X1950 Pro just a short time ago and they have already updated it with new features. The flat heatsink/fan has been replaced with a cooler from Zalman. They also upped the memory speed which Sapphire claims to increase performance by 5%. I guess we will have to put it to the test.
Antec Lansing in Bed with Siruis Radio
Antec Lansing :: Monday, January 08, 2007
How do you make Sirius Satellite Radio even more addictive to its subscribers? Give them more ways to listen to their favorite Sirius 100-percent, commercial-free music, sports, talk and entertainment. That’s the intent behind the new partnership announced today between Altec Lansing and Sirius Satellite Radio. The two companies have officially joined forces to deliver a new line up of high-quality audio products to Sirius Satellite Radio listeners.
Sophisticated Home Theater Seating
Bello :: Monday, January 08, 2007
With a contemporary and highly stylized look, the HTS-100 puts the finishing, luxury touch on the home theater experience. Most notably, it adds functionality to chic form via its ability to interlock with other pieces in the Bell’O home theater furniture collection to create an entire home theater sofa. The HTS-100 is the paramount piece to turn a run-of-the-mill den into the ultimate media room.
Interactive Program Guide Demonstrated by Scientific Atlanta
Gemstar-TV :: Monday, January 08, 2007
Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. (NASDAQ: GMST), a leading media, entertainment and technology company announced today that for the first time, its i-Guide Interactive Program Guide (IPG) will be deployed on a full range of Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco Company, devices. i-Guide on the Scientific Atlanta platform will include all of the features and functionality of i-Guide that other markets have enjoyed. The Scientifc Atlanta version of i-Guide is in development and will be tested and available later this year.
Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22″ Widescreen LCD
The Tech Lounge :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“Samsung has an outstanding history of producing great LCD monitors. Today we look at the Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22″ Widescreen LCD display. Its 22″ size is an upgrade from the 20″ widescreens that have dominated the market for the past two years. And what a welcome upgrade it is. The unit sports an MSRP of $500, however I couldn’t find any store that is actually selling it for that price. The usual price is between $380 and $400 (plus any applicable shipping and tax); although at the time I checked (December 26th) prices were cut further because of the after Christmas sales.”
Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player Review
Driver Heaven :: Friday, January 05, 2007
With the recent launch of the Xbox 360 HD-Drive in the UK, Microsoft aim to bring High Definition movies to the masses. With the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive retaiing for a mere £130 it certainly appears to be the ideal “value for money solution”. Even when factoring in the additional cost of a Xbox 360 Premium this works out less than many standalone HD players which are currently selling for around the £450 mark. Also can we get it working with a Windows based PC?
SteelSound 5H V2 Gaming Headset review
Cyberwizard Pit :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“The SteelSound 5H was SteelSeries’ first foray into the gaming audio market. Based upon SteelSeries’ vast amount of experience with gaming the SteelSound 5H to rave reviews and much publicity by gamers and enthusiasts alike. As of recent, SteelSeries has released an updated version of the original 5H, named the 5H V2. Promising to iron out some quirks found in its predecessor, today’s review puts it all together and figures the question out – is the Version 2 as good as the original SteelSound?”
FOXCONN GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 Video Card Review
Futurelooks :: Friday, January 05, 2007
With the sea of massive dual slot graphics cards out there, one would think that high performance graphics cards had to have monster heatsinks as a pre-requisite. However, FOXCONN has shown us that this is definitely not the case. The slim profile of this 7950GT based video card shows that it can be done on a diet.
Mid-Range ATI Radeon X1650 Three Card Comparison
HW Upgrade :: Friday, January 05, 2007
“We compare three video cards targeted at the mid-range segment of the market based on the ATI Radeon X1650XT GPU, also known as the RV560. All video cards tested
are available for retail at a price under $200.”
Charge, Sync, or Play: Logitech X-240 Speakers Introduce Integrated Cradle for Digital Music Players, PDAs, Mobile Phones
Logitech :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
Logitech (NASDAQ:LOGI) (SWX:LOGN), a leading manufacturer of multimedia speakers, today announced the Logitech® X-240 speaker system for the PC, to be on display at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show next week. The X-240 PC speaker system features a redesigned control center that includes audio controls for a PC or Mac and serves as a cradle for an iPod® or other MP3 player, PDA or mobile phone. The cradle, which stows away when not in use, makes it easier for people to charge, sync and play their portable device with their PC.
Panasonic PV-GS300 Camcorder Review
Digital Trends :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
“The Panasonic PV-GS300 is a rather compact camcorder, even with blank cassette recording media. It fits nicely in your hand and has a primarily silver body made mostly of metal with exception to the plastic door covering the tape mechanism. The camcorder weighs 18.4 ounces with tape, battery and SD memory card in place. A very easily adjusted Velcro wrist strap places your hand in good position to reach the main controls such as the wide/tele zoom switch. I prefer horizontal configuration camcorders like the PV-GS300 compared to the upright shape of models like the Canon HV10 but that’s my taste—you should definitely do a hands-on of this camcorder or any other you’re considering. ”
Beyond TV Review:
Missing Remote :: Thursday, January 04, 2007
“One of the settings you’ll see below, under ShowSqueeze & SmartSkip, is…well, SmartSkip. Which is…in laymen terms….ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! While there are Plugins for both MCE (DVRMS-Toolbox) & SageTV to do *automatic commercial skipping*, Snapstream goes one step further & has it automatically integrated into the OS! Gotta hand it to them, quite a brave move considering all the heat ReplayTV got a few years ago.”
GeForce 7800 GS – Too Cold to Run?
NGOHQ :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
“The same guy was reporting that he’s experiencing some choppy gameplay/performance issues with his BFG 7800 GS OC AGP card; and his card is running at temperatures of 112-117F (45-47C) consistently. So, he contacted BFG Tech support and someone there told him that if his card is running below 40C that this is the source of these issues, and that the graphics card is running too cold! The tech supporter advised him to take off his cooler to ensure the card temperature is above 40C, and everything will be fine.”
Thermaltake Mozart TX – Monster Dual System HTPC Enclosure
Tweak Town :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
“Computer cases are built to meet the specific needs of all sorts of niche system requirements – business desktops, home servers, gaming machines, media centers and so on. Each niche market has its own set of requirements, essentials and nice-to-haves, and case manufacturers vie to create cases which not only meet those requirements but offer innovations which will hopefully give their products the competitive edge.
And if you’re looking for true innovation, it’s hard to look past Thermaltake’s Mozart TX range of cases which were introduced back at Computex last year. Marketed as “The Ideal Home Entertainment Center”, so far everyone I’ve spoken to who has seen one has had some sort of comment to make – some favourable, some not. Regardless, the case has made an impression on every single person who has seen it.”
Razer AC-1 Barracuda 7.1 Sound Card Review
Virtual Hideout :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
“If someone asks me a quick question “Is this worth getting for my system?” My answer is a simple “Yes, by all means”. This is a VERY viable replacement for any Creative Audigy and Audigy 2 sound card, and a huge upgrade from on board sound.”
HIS X1650XT Video Card Review
LAN Addict :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The card itself is very nice and sturdy in design, fits well in a case and looks just plainly amazing with its UV reactive cooling hood. One of the things I like most about the card is ATI\’s new internal CrossFire system that does away with the huge external dongle used in earlier systems. The card comes bundled with some software, notably the first Dungeon Siege game. Along with a HDTV cable, an S-video to RCA video adapter and a DVI to VGA adapter. Wait! ONLY ONE?! Yes, those of you who have dual analog monitors are left out in the cold.
XFX GF 8800GTX XXX Overclocked Video Card Review
Motherboards.org :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The XFX GF 8800GTX 630M 768 M Dual DVI TV XXX Edition video cards is an interesting addition to XFX’s lineup. The card is overclocked over the standard 575MHz core/1.8GHz memory 8800GTX, but in many respects the card is CPU limited even on a AMD FX-62 CPU. If you want the fastest, most feature-rich card today, the XFX GF 8800GTX 630 M 768 M Dual DVI TV XXX Editions is it. Ryan, the PR person for XFX says the card should retail about $50 more than the standard card, making it a good choice for those with a Core 2 Extreme X6800 or QX6700.
XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) 2007-01-01 SVN rev7469 build
Xbox Media Center :: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
T3CH released a new SVN compile (rev7469 *proper*) of XboxMediaCenter(info). This T3CH-compile is a complete snapshot of what is in SVN at the time the build was compiled, with just a few small additions.
Special Notes and Noteworthy/XML/Script changes: * Here’s the first build of 2007. Hope everyone had a nice holiday! * I’m including a preview of the new mplayer Elupus is working on, report issues here. It’s located in the TEST subfolder, simply replace the 2 files in XBMC/system/players/mplayer/ if you want to help Team XBMC test it. * Also see the new NewYears splash made by Smokehead. * Since I haven’t seen any newer version of AMT than 0.93.5, I applied the fix floating around so atleast it works now. * I also tweaked the win32 ‘run_me_first.bat’ so it runs and then unmounts the virtual drives when you exit. * I’m also including the ‘XBMC Win32 PC environment’ .exe that is meant for skinners & python developers, read more about the concept here. It was built using Microsoft DirectX Summer 2004 SDK.
Here’s the added stuff since the 2006-12-25 SVN Rev7428 Build:
Alternative Flash Based Portable Media Players
A True Review :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
In this review, I will take a look at two flash based portable media players from companies that you probably would not think of when looking for a media player – the K-PEX 100 from Kingston and the MEGA Screen from Super Talent. What do these players offer and are they viable alternatives to big brand media players? Read on and find out.
Everglide s-500 Professional Gaming Headset Review
MVK Tech :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
“Everglide is one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturer of enhanced gaming peripherals since its inception in 1997. Optimizing game play for a wide range of games such as Counter-Strike, Quake and Painkiller. Everglide is also regarded as one of the leading brands in home and office peripherals. As the audio in PC games gets more advanced, the demand for high quality sound gear increases along with it. Everglide, known more for their line of mice and mouse pads, has come out with a set of headphones, the Everglide s-500 Professional Gaming Headphones, which are optimized for the best gaming experience and more.”
Xbox360 HD DVD Player Review
OCIA :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
“Firing the unit up shows off the quality of the display, 128×128 pixel resolution and 262k color. When connected to an XP computer the player is immediately recognized as a removable storage device and assigned a drive letter. The player also recognizes it is connected and ready to transfer files. The built-in lithium battery recharges through the USB port.”
Gigabyte H663 Home Entertainment System – Your next HTPC?
Tweak Town :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
The H663 is an Intel Viiv-compliant system, which automatically sets a particular standard of hardware specifications. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8I945EF-RH, which has an Intel 945G Express Northbridge chipset and an Intel ICH7-DH Southbridge. The motherboard has an onboard Intel GMA950 graphics adaptor, but there is also a PCI-E Gigabyte GC-ADD2EF-RH graphics card with DVI and S-Video – this card isn’t an independent graphics card in its own right, it simply expands the capabilities of the GMA950 adaptor. Onboard audio is provided via a Realtek HD audio chipset.”
Sapphire’s X1950 Pro AGP 512 MB
Lost Circuits :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Among the five surviving partners of the AA alliance or, in simpler terms, AMD’s graphics division, there is not much variation in the different offerings. Most notably ASUS has been the one company to step out of line and produce their own PCBs and modified cooling solutions. Other differences are the amount of on-board memory, some versions feature 256 MB, others are boasting a whopping 512 MB of Samsung’s finest. Sometimes, the differences are a bit more subtle but, regardless, more important for the end user. One example is Club 3D’s version of the 1950 Pro AGP with Vivo capabilities whereas everybody else only offers Avivo, meaning video-out but no recording capabilities. Sapphire’s version does fall into the latter category, the 1950 Pro AGP only features s-video out but does not capture.
Neodigits X5000 HD Networking Player
CDR Info :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Helios X5000 player is the latest offer from NeoDigits for enthusiast users who want a very capable DVD Player that upscales all Video content up to 1080p
Icemat Siberia In:Ear headset reviewed
Burnout PC :: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
“The Icemat Siberia In:Ear Headset is a fine piece of equipment for anyone looking for the ultimate in ear headset, but if you need one with a microphone that works, look elsewhere. These type of headsets works much better than the one included with your mp3 player, simply because it provides a better bass, and outside noise is filtered and damped by the design of the ear bud. The headset sounds great, but Icemat should have improved the sensitivity of the microphone to make it worth using. Overall a really good choice if your lookin for some new ear buds.”