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November 22, 2006, 10:53 AM PSTNvidia's PureVideo HD: Mostly pretty OK HD decoding
Posted by: Rich Brown If the PureVideo high-definition test system that Nvidia sent us is any indication, you're going to need a fairly beefy PC to play HD video. Ours came in a SilverStone small-form-factor case and included an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU, a GeForce 7600 GT graphics card (complete with an HDMI output and HDCP compliance), an HD-DVD drive, and 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM. HP sells just such a system in the form of its Pavilion m7690n Media Center PC TV, which you can get for $1,650 with no extras. We have one in our lab right now, in fact, and we'll post our review of it next week.
Specs aside, Nvidia sent us this box to take a look at PureVideo HD, the decoding software that helps complete the PC's end of the HDCP chain. Having a "secure" system won't be an issue until roughly 2010, when Hollywood may or may not kick in the copy-protection technology that will "down-res" HD movies when you play them on unapproved hardware, but it's nice to have that box checked early. Perhaps more importantly, when you play a Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie, PureVideo HD will help the graphics card, Windows, and your HD movie player software to communicate, ideally ensuring an optimal HD movie-watching experience.
To get an idea of what this experience looks like, we plugged Nvidia's test box via an HDMI cable into the highly rated Sony KDS-R60XBR2 60-inch television. Coming fresh off of its November 11 review, we chose that TV because it was handy, but also because it'll do HD resolutions up to 1080p, and we already had its image-quality settings set. Even after eliminating the television as a source of any trouble, we still found mixed results.
We were happy to see that Nvidia's drivers recognized our television and autoset the screen to 1080p resolution. Nvidia's software includes a few easy-to-use tools for calibrating RGB color accuracy and brightness. It took some tweaking, but eventually we were happy with the color temperature and other settings. One drawback we found is that any changes you make to the video don't show up on the fly. You have to close whatever you're watching and restart it for any adjustments to kick in, making the process overly cumbersome. This lack of real-time feedback has always been an issue with PC video, though, so it's nothing new.
In terms of actual movie playback, we were generally pleased with 1080p and 720p. We used Swordfish and The Last Samurai as our test discs, and we compared them against output from a standard HD-DVD player. On the Nvidia system, we noticed some false contouring (distinct lines appear where gradients of color should transition smoothly), fewer fine details in shadowy areas, and some noticeably choppy frames during some more difficult pans, but at no time did we feel like were we utterly disappointed in the quality. We still saw much of what we've come to expect from HD video, things such as individual stubble hair and crisp background details, and the frame rates generally kept up.
The 1080i output was a different story. For some reason, Nvidia's test system wouldn't stay at 1080i on the Sony 60-incher. When we set that resolution in the drivers, it kept bouncing back up to 1080p. To eliminate the problem, we connected the PC to our Sony KD-34XBR960, an older, Editors' Choice-winning, 34-inch direct-view CRT that will only go as high as 1080i. When we finally got 1080i output to stick, all of the issues we noticed at 1080p were magnified: The contouring was terrible, diagonal lines were covered in shimmery moire effects, jagged edges marred both the foreground and the background, and the slight stutter we saw during certain scenes became much more pronounced. We're not sure whether the video card or PureVideoHD itself is to blame, but the result is that 1080i looks significantly worse than either 720p or 1080p. Early adopters who want an HD television and can't wait for 1080p to become more prevalent will feel this problem the most.
For progressive output, at least, we're mostly happy with PureVideo HD and the system that Nvidia sent us. We haven't had the opportunity to test an HD drive-equipped PC that has AMD/ATI's Avivo video-decoding technology, so we can't say what the PC competition is like. What we can say is that while a living room PC remains inferior to standard home theater components in terms of movie-image quality and general ease of use, Nvidia's PureVideo HD gets the quality part rather close on progressive content.
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October 25, 2006, 3:05 PM PDTWindows Vista Upgrade coupons are here, but what's with the "nominal fee"?
Posted by: Rich Brown
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The news circulated earlier today that Microsoft has finally unveiled the specifics behind its Windows Vista Upgrade coupons. As of October 26, the company is going to allow vendors to offer an upgrade for all new Windows XP-based desktops and laptops. The upgrade path matches certain versions of Windows XP to their Vista equivalents. XP Home will earn you Vista Basic, XP Media Center 2005 gets bumped to Vista Home Premium, and XP Pro lines up with Windows Vista Business. You get the upgrade DVD by sending in the coupon or filling out a Web form.
We like this plan, but one thing bothered us. The details on Microsoft's official Vista blog weren't specific as to what the upgrades would cost. It pointed to a "nominal fee" for each, and said that it was up to the PC manufacturers and retailers to decide the specifics of upgrade and shipping-and-handling fees. So who's going to charge, you ask? So did we. Here's what we found out from the major PC vendors, except Sony who never called us back (where were you guys?).
Alienware: Won't offer the upgrade to XP Home, but will have no charge for the other versions. It will charge for shipping.
Dell: Will charge $45 to go from XP Home to Vista Basic; all other versions will be free; shipping costs apply.
HP: All versions will be free. It will also ship a DVD of Vista driver updates with the upgrade disc (nice touch). Might charge for shipping, depending on your location.
Gateway: For online customers, all versions will be free, with no shipping-and-handling fee. A few retail customers might get hit with S/H charges. Details for professional-channel customers have yet to be worked out.
Lenovo: Going from XP Home to Vista Basic will cost an amount that has yet to be determined--on top of the shipping and handling fee. XP Pro to Vista Business will have a fee for shipping and handling only.
Sony: TBD
Velocity Micro: No charge for any of the upgrades. Shipping-and-handling charges will apply via Microsoft. Made the point that all out-of-channel vendors (read: the smaller guys) will need to point customers to Microsoft directly, hence the shipping charge. The larger vendors have the option to absorb the fee.
October 24, 2006, 7:16 AM PDTDIY FragBox
Posted by: Rich Brown
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If you jump on over to NewEgg.com this morning, you'll find a new desktop PC chassis for sale. The Falcon Northwest FragBox case runs nearly $300 ($289.99, to be exact), but for that price, you get a small form-factor case with the spec standards of premiere, high-end PCs. Falcon has sold its Northwest FragBox directly from its Web site. According to the press release issued this morning, however, the act of unleashing the item on NewEgg was less at-odds with Falcon's own custom-PC business.
The case doesn't come with a power supply, and you have to bring your own motherboard, too. We've seen the FragBox running with a pair of 3D cards in it, however, making it quite friendly to PC builders wanting to make a small-but-deadly semiportable gaming system.
It has room for four expansion cards, so it is a little bigger than a typical, small form-factor PC, but we have a feeling most gamers won't mind the added capacity.
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October 17, 2006, 7:53 AM PDTATI cleans up CrossFire
Posted by: Rich Brown
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ATI pitched this card to us with an MSRP of $199, to compete against Nvidia's new GeForce 7900 GS card. Confoundingly, Froogle turned up prices more along the lines of $299. ATI assured us that it was just speculative preorder pricing and that NewEgg will have the card at or close to the MSRP when it updates its listings. If it comes in at the lower price, early returns on performance are that the 256MB Radeon X1950 Pro is an impressive midrange deal. If it's more like $300, we suggest that you wait to see what Nvidia has up its sleeve with its next-gen cards, due to be announced within the next few months. Our review is almost ready to go, so stay tuned for full performance results and hopefully the final word on pricing. Permalink | Post a comment
October 04, 2006, 8:39 AM PDTInterview: Falcon Northwest CEO Kelt Reeves on the HP-Voodoo PC deal
Posted by: Rich Brown First Dell bought Alienware, then HP scooped up Voodoo PC. If those deals are bad news for Falcon Northwest, it's not because CEO Kelt Reeves isn't dedicated. Dude just answered our questions from his Hawaiian vacation. Maybe it's all that sun, but he doesn't sound too worried.
Were you surprised by HP's acquisition of Voodoo?
I don't know anyone who wasn't surprised. That said, with the Dell/Alienware deal as precedent, it was a logical fit from a business perspective. What was so surprising about it is that [Voodoo President and CTO] Rahul [Sood] has made a name for himself as a blogger by predicting other deals, such as the ATI/AMD buyout and Dell's aquisition of Alienware. The one he could've predicted with perfect accuracy was the one he was very good at keeping secret.
What do you think it means for the future of Falcon Northwest and the boutique PC market in general?
That's probably a more loaded question than either of us can imagine right now. This is definitely an "inflection point" for the entire PC market. It depends on how the two companies fit together. We found that as Alienware grew, they strayed further from the enthusiast/custom/boutique market. The Dell deal seems to have clinched that. It works out well for us because essentially we're serving two different markets. Alienware may be sleeping on a big bed of money these days, but it hasn't seemed to come at our expense...the net effect on us is neither Dell nor Alienware seems to be on our turf anymore, and strangely, their combined impact on us is less than it used to be with Alienware alone.
HP's aquisition of Voodoo PC seems to be structured much more effectively, and if it works, it could keep the rest of the boutique market on its toes. It appears HP understands that a boutique's real value isn't from volume, but as a proving ground for showing off new technologies and getting real-time enthusiast feedback. And most importantly, filtering enthusiast PC ideas to mainstream products quickly. Another Web site likened it to HP buying a Formula 1 team. In that sense, they could be very valuable to all of us enthusiasts by bringing enthusiast PC thinking to more mainstream customers.
Do you plan to capitalize on your new status as the best-known indie PC vendor?
I've received a lot of "what's it like to be the last one?" e-mails this week. While not technically true, I can see how a lot of people are viewing us that way. The enthusiast market perceives going mass market as "selling out." The very day Alienware went into Best Buy years ago we heard nothing from our clientele except "they sold out." A bit unfair on day one, but I guess it's just the price you pay for making ties with any big company. Falcon's not going to go taking out advertisements saying "Hey we're the last of the 'big 3' independents, so you should buy from us and stick it to The Man!" We're going to do what we've always done: provide hardware and services that are an alternative to the big PC makers.
Alienware has Michael Dell's checkbook; Voodoo has the keys to the HP R&D kingdom. How does Falcon plan to compete?
In theory they do, but I doubt it's that simple. Alienware has a sliver of Michael Dell's checkbook, and Michael Dell is using many more slivers to make his own gaming-focused XPS line. It must be maddening for Alienware's management, but they wouldn't be allowed to say so if it is. Voodoo may find HP already has a long list of its own projects, and Voodoo may not be as important to HP's $80 billion worldwide sales as it is to Canada's enthusiast community.
These trade-offs could be tough on a small company that's used to moving fast and not having to ask for budget approval on projects. But it would be foolish to suggest that having big company funding was on balance a disadvantage. I'm sure the funding will give them a competitive advantage. But Falcon has always fought the big guys; I've never seen being small as a disadvantage. On the contrary, being small means I make our decisions quickly, without politics, and with our clients a bigger priority than stockholders.
One speculation is that Gateway or another large vendor might come knocking on your door. Thoughts?
Obviously, the fit between a boutique and a volume player makes sense to a lot of people, including me. That said, it would be very hard for any bigger fish to swallow Falcon without destroying what it is that makes it special. We've passed up many opportunities to "go big" over the years. These opportunities may have made a lot of business sense, but I'd rather protect what Falcon Northwest is and who it serves. Permalink | 1 comment
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October 03, 2006, 9:41 AM PDTLogitech elevates the wireless keyboard
Posted by: Rich Brown
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Logitech brought the DiNovo Edge by for us to play with briefly a week or so ago and explained some of the reasoning behind the new design. Apparently one of the most requested capabilities was making the wireless keyboard rechargeable. That's what the base unit is for, which also doubles as a display stand. The new unit no longer comes with a mouse, as Logitech found that most people would rather bring their own. In its place, Logitech has added a touch-sensitive pad on the side to help with navigation.
Design-wise, the DiNovo Edge looks just as pretty in real life as it does in its picture. One appearance tweak we really like is the hidden hot keys, which aren't really keys anymore. Instead, when you hold down the Fn button, an orange light illuminates previously invisible symbols behind the top row of F-buttons, indicating their alternate functions for launching e-mail, a Web browser, and other applications. You'll note that it doesn't have a number pad, which helps reduce its width for a more living room-friendly appearance. And, like the original DiNovo, the Edge comes with Bluetooth capability, but Logitech has added its own RFID-based Bluetooth pairing technology between the keyboard and the USB mini receiver, circumventing Windows' cumbersome Bluetooth install process.
Like all of the DiNovo keyboards, the Edge won't come cheap. When it hits stores in the beginning of November, it'll cost about $200. We'll let you know if it's worth it just as soon as we can get one in for a full review. Permalink | 5 comments
September 29, 2006, 4:34 AM PDTHP and Voodoo pull a Dell and Alienware
Posted by: Rich Brown As you may have heard, HP and Voodoo appeared together on stage last tonight to announce their new partnership. Voodoo CEO Ravi Sood and his brother Rahul, the chief technology officer, will now report to HP's Phil McKinney, the CTO of HP's personal systems group. In short, once the deal has finalized, HP will have acquired a boutique PC maker to give it leverage in the profitable high-end gaming PC market, similar to the way in which Dell subsumed Alienware earlier this year.
According to Rahul's blog, Voodoo's operations will remain in Calgary, and you can continue to purchase Voodoo PCs. As for the future, "our strategy for the HP gaming portfolio is yet to be revealed--but expect the unexpected." And here we thought we were at the Manhattan Center last night for a simple fourth quarter HP product refresh.
With no new Voodoo products at the time of the announcement, it's hard to say whether this deal is any different from Dell's acquisition of Alienware. That marriage seems so far to be a hands-off kind of situation, for better or for worse. You don't see Alienware PCs among the Dells in your Sunday circular, but Dell's XPS desktops technically compete with Alienware's products for high-end gaming dollars. According to Rahul, the HP-Voodoo deal is different. Both in his blog and at last night's event, Rahul said that he had been given the keys to HP's R&D lab and that that would give Voodoo access to innovative muscle it didn't have before.
If Voodoo and HP really do pool resources and mindsets, I would expect that we'll see some very exciting products coming out of the partnership. Despite its rep as a pusher of printer ink, HP has impressed us with its creativity on the PC side over the past few years. Its Personal Media Drives and the z555 Digital Entertainment Center have both demonstrated HP's willingness to take risks. And Voodoo most definitely knows how to make a performance PC. What we also hope is that HP's mass-market background rubs off on the Voodoo team. We've always admired Voodoo's attention to detail and the level of craftsmanship behind its PCs, but we've also often found Voodoo systems overpriced, even for high-end gaming desktops. Permalink | 4 comments
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September 12, 2006, 1:39 PM PDTAMD, meet the Dell Dimension. Dell Dimension, AMD
Posted by: Rich Brown It's been what, 10 years since AMD's K5 desktop chip came onto the market? In all that time, Dell has turned up its nose at Intel's main rival in the consumer desktop game. Until today, that is. In addition to updating the Dimension E510 midtower to the Core 2 Duo-based Dimension E520, Dell also added Dimension E521 and Dimension C521 models to its mainstream consumer desktop family. The latter two are special because they come with AMD Sempron, Athlon 64, and dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors in them.
The Dimension E521 is a standard midtower design (as is the E520); the C521 is a sort of small-form-factor wannabe that's a bit larger than Dell's XPS 210, also announced today. All three new systems come with Windows Media Center 2005 and a combination of optical drives, hard drives, and graphics cards that make them solid middle-of-the-road PCs. They all go on sale tomorrow, and prices for the Dimension E520 start at $719, the E521 starts at $329, and the C521 starts at $359.
Given the current state of the processor market, we're not surprised that Dell relegated AMD's chips to the budget end of the spectrum. The Dimension E520 and, as of today, the entire XPS line all have Intel Core 2 Duo chips in them (Pentium D is still an option if you must), giving them the performance edge. But AMD still has the advantage in performance and cost at the lower end of the CPU spectrum. If you're wondering why Dell finally decided to go with AMD after all this time, one theory we've heard is that Dell wasn't happy about Intel working with Apple, and thus crossed the AMD line. If that's true, we expect it's only part of the story. And regardless, the deal is done.
And if you're wondering what they look like, you can try Dell's online photo bank. We couldn't get the Dimension C521's link to work at the time of posting, but perhaps Dell will fix it soon. Permalink | 3 comments
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September 12, 2006, 8:48 AM PDTDell gives OptiPlex a Core 2 Duo boost, too
Posted by: Rich Brown
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September 12, 2006, 8:17 AM PDTDell rounds out the XPS line with the Core 2-based XPS 210
Posted by: Rich Brown
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