4k Video Downloader is a cross-platform, open source video downloading application to grab videos from YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo and Facebook.

4K displays are ideal for 100” screens:

What’s more is the options to chose video quality, portability. You can easily chose to download SD videos compatible with your iPod on Windows, Mac and Linux based operating systems.

To download video from any of the Video providers: Youtube, dailymotion, Facebook, simply copy the video URL and click Paste URL. Immediately,  app would display thumbnail preview of the video, you can then select and download the video.

4K downloader

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To give you an estimate, 1080p packs 2,073,600 pixels and high resolution iMacs have 3,686,400 pixels. But Samsung’s latest 70″ prototype TV can pack much larger number of pixels in its enormous 70″ screen. Its not just about the number of pixels but the impressive part is the technology behind those large number of pixels

Samsung adjusted 8 Million pixels (8,000,000 pixels) ”Ultra Definition” 240Hz 3DTV which is several times more than any other display ever made. In order to get them all in, Samsung had to shrink each pixel even for a display of such a large size. Shrinking each pixel means shrinking the transistors that control them, and traditional silicon transistors couldn’t cut it at that lowered size. So Samsung turned to an emerging technology called metal oxide semiconductors.

8 million is enormous knowing the fact that 4K x 2K resolution display would need 8-9million pixels.

Metal oxide semiconductors are not very new, they were used along with some of the OLEDs but they demand too much current for the amorphous silicon used in TFT, so manufacturers use polysilicon instead.

Metal oxide transistors conduct electrons more quickly than amorphous silicon and as the size changes amorphous silicon is slow enough and yet costlier and less transparent.

Other companies like Sharp are following the trend and are using metal oxides for displays. Its just started get even more interesting.

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AirPlay barely allows 720p video out and that too just with iOS devices. To get the full experience, get ready for some hacking with an external hardware tied to the iPad. This is done using a wireless HDMI transmitter, USB battery pack, and a home-made enclosure that “only adds about two pounds of weight” to the otherwise portable device. Even you can do it yourself without much effort .

Lets hope that a Jailbreak hack comes in that lets you stream 1080p over Wifi using DLNA to your HDTV. Oh yea, your wireless router might peak out even on Wireless N router.

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LG has invented a new Technology called FPR or Film Patterned Retarder. FPR is said to be most superior 3D liquid crystal display (LCD) systems.

What’s different in FPR

The current generation system uses a frame sequential method and the display is viewed using liquid crystal shutter glasses (SG). The new technology uses a polarized film substrate in the panel and is viewed using polarized film glasses. FPR reduces the vertical resolution to half that of a panel and produces a near-4K resolution full high definition 3D picture that is extremely sharp and bright. The system was demoed on an 84-inch display, playing a 4x times 1080p HD video.

It argues that the current generation of Shutter Glasses (SG) 3D panels have problems with the weight of the shutter glasses, power consumption and reduced brightness. By contrast, LG Display’s new FPR technology has no flickering, produces minimal cross talk (the blurry ghosting image) and delivers a brighter screen. This allows for 3D glasses to be lighter, polarized and more curved like regular glasses.

The polarized film glasses eliminate the flicker and crosstalk problems and neither do they require power from batteries or USB charge and hence are more comfortable. This would also remove synchronization errors, and occasional interruptions.

The step is evolutionary, and not by any means revolutionary. 3D TVs without Glasses would be the revolution. But achieving 4K resolution in 3D is the next big thing.

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Flash Player 10.2 is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux in adobe labs.

Stage Video API — full hardware acceleration for videos

Stage Video API delivers best-in-class, high performance video playback across platforms. Flash Player 10.1 had support for hardware decoding of H.264 content, arguably the most taxing part of playing back video.
The new API uses the GPU rather than the CPU for even more stages (hence the name) of the video rendering pipeline, including color conversion, scaling and blitting. So how much CPU will it use now for playing 1080p HD videos? NIL. Yes, for most cases, when available is fairly good, you will have almost no processing on CPU.

However, to take the full advantage of the Stage API, Content providers have to update their video players. Just because Adobe has good partnership with Google, expect them to be rolling out soon on Youtube and Android. From what we’ve heard it is already available on Google TVs and under test with Youtube.

IE9 hardware acceleration support and multi-monitor support
The new beta also includes Internet Explorer 9 hardware acceleration support , enhanced text rendering, a native custom mouse cursors API and support for full screen playback with multiple monitors.
Flash Player will also use the GPU to render other graphic elements leading to a performance boost of up to 35 percent in some cases. Apart from that, users will be able to watch a full-screen flash content on multiple monitors.

Native custom mouse cursors

Flash developers looking to add more personality to their apps, or just to annoy their users, can now create native custom mouse cursors. This means that they’ll be able to create custom mouse themes which will then be handled natively by the operating system, a much better and faster way to the alternative, rendering a custom cursor inside Flash.

Sub-pixel Text Rendering:

S-pixel text rendering enhances the Font type faces, making them better looking regardless of the fonts or local scripts used. It makes the typography beautiful on just any device.

Flash Player 10.2 Beta for Windows, Linux, Mac is available for download here.

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Google may seem to have solved the problem by taking a step ahead in Online HighDef videos promoting videos upto 4096p or 4K (a reference resolution of 4096 x 3072) Isn’t that 3072p ?



Youtube added FullHD 1080p videos a year back an today youtube supports videos from resolution 360p all the way up to 4096p.

4K resolution is freaking awesome for nextgen Highdef. To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors, so Youtube videos would be twice as good, 4x times resolution of 1080p (1920×1080)  At 4096 x 3072 pixels.

Experience 4096p Videos:

At this point of time, only high-end professionals own camera capable of doing 4096p, but Youtube has made available a playlist that let you experience the ultimate HD.

4K cameras cost in 100,000s of dollars and so are the projectors which are the size of a small refrigerator. Soon things should start entering consumer market.

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Under the hood, Cell TV technology utilizes the IBM/Sony PowerPC-based Cell processor to allow for advanced video processing and frame interpolation on both standard definition and high definition content. The cell processor runs at 3.2 GHz with 8-cores (SPUs) — exactly 10x times faster than a normal home PC.

The Processor will be used to:

1. Upscale normal Videos to 1080p video
2. Upscale 60hz/ 60FPS to 480 hertz.
3. Convert normal TV broadcasts, video, games,etc from 2D to 3D.
4. Improve/fix Pixels for superior Video
5. Provide/Simulate higher Contrast ratio 50,00,000:1

These specs are way beyond other TVs we’ve seen in the Past.

Related: HDTV Buyer’s Guide – Everything you need to Know

Most attractive features:

* A powerful cell broadband processor with a focus on advanced picture quality and advanced applications
* Wireless HD video support, even at the highest resolutions and Wifi 802.11n
* Built-in hard disc storage with server capabilities for receiving and distributing content throughout the home
* Seamless Internet connectivity for downloading and accessing network content

The Cell TV will ultimately combine elements of IPTV, multi-source file compatibility (HDD, SD, USB, etc), DLNA support for remote file sharing/streaming, and full (and largely transparent) Internet support and possibly someone will hack-in a linux OS to levergae it’s processing power to make a perfect HTPC.

More on Features:

It features super-high luminance of 1250cd/m². A 7-speaker sound bar is attached underneath the display, and network functionality includes DLNA support, and an HD Web browser based on Opera.

On the real cutting edge side of the Cell TV, the system is said to be able to handle six (6) simultaneous HD streams at once. That means it can record 6 HD streams to the drive or storage system simultaneously. It will utilize a completely new 3D graphical user interface (GUI) and provide a new way of accessing data and programming material easily and from multiple locations. DLNA support and advanced networking would indicate that this box should be able to serve an entire home full of HD displays and enable itself to be a potential AV hub for large amounts of content.

The Cell chip is housed in an external box about the site of an older Blu-ray player. That’s also where a 3TB hard disk is installed to allow the TV to time-shift up to 26 hours of programs from up to 8 channels simultaneously. (1TB of storage is reserved for longer-term recordings). Another neat visual trick: the 55X1 can show eight channels on screen at the same time—and step through each without the delay common with rival HDTVs. Alright, do you still want just another 3d HDTv like Samsung 55 inches 3D 240Hz LCD TV ?

With Real 3d broadcasts coming within 2010 via ESPN, Sony, IMAX the experience on Cell TV is gonna get even better.

Alright, the worst side: $10,000+

Toshiba ‘s TV have a range of models, 4K x 2K model that upconverts 1080p to 3840 x 2160. Holy crap! Follow us @taranfx as we go crazy over CES 2010.

3d TV broadcasts are finally making its way to the enduser. Previously, we talked about the technology that will make it possible for the consumers to use it with the existing STBs. Now, we see more promises from content providers.

Three big industry giants: Discovery, Imax and Sony are forming a joint venture for a 3D television channel. The joint venture will be announced soon, timed exactly right to the CES 2010, Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where 3D television is expected to be one of the Hot trends for this years’s CES.

As NYTimes reports,

Discovery Communications, which operates the Discovery Channel, TLC and other cable channels, will distribute the channel, which has a 2011 start date. It is expected to showcase a mix of 3D content, including entertainment and sports. It will also show some of the natural history programming that Discovery is well known for.

We recently heard of ESPN 3D coming to home in June 2009. The channel will not show all the programs in 3d in the very fist days of the launch. It will feature a minimum of 85 live 3D events during the first year. ESPN is “committing to the Full 3D network through June 2011.”

The ESPN network will only operate when live events are happening.  However, the Discovery/Imax/Sony venture will be a full 24-hour channel.

For the companies that power ESPN : IMax, Discovery, Sony, and The Walt Disney Company, are trying to push play with an emerging field in technology where no one else has stepped into. Of course this will bring new experience to the user, and the producers will learn lessons. 3D televisions is still far from going  mainstream for many years to come since majority of the end-users will not own a 3D HDTV anytime soon. The trend could change after this year’s CES with 3d TVs getting more widely available and more affordable.

Yes, you heard it right. We would see 3D HD channels coming to home within 2010, so HDMI 1.4 brings all that using a new Spec. Why? Logically, the bandwidth is now doubled by adding dual-stream video inputs (for 3D) each of 1080p images.

”As a leading global standard for HD connectivity, the HDMI Consortium takes the market’s needs very seriously,” says Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, LLC. “3D is a nascent market and thus continues to evolve quickly. We have taken input from leading industry associations and this announcement reflects the HDMI Founders’ commitment to continuously and proactively set the foundation for innovations that will deliver the next generation of content. The addition of the new format will secure the application of 3D for broadcasting, in addition to the existing applications for Blu-ray and gaming.”

However, there is an alternate too, broadcasters have requested to support backward compatibility using “Top/Bottom” 3D transmissions. What this will do is sacrifice resolution while saving bandwidth by shoving left/right images into a single frame. That can add a new spec: “HDLite” (get ready for 3DLite). Using this, all existing Blu-Ray, PS3 users will get a software upgrade to 3D till the new FullHD 1080p HDMI 1.4 goes mainstream.

[source: VirtualPressOffice]

Who Should buy one – Are you a movie freak? You love HD content or you are a hardcore gamer? You may be a passionate laptop guy that needs a bigger rich screen, LCD HDTVs are for you.

When buying a LCD/LED HD TV, there are few things you should look for in the Specs:

1. Contrast Ratio: Contrast ratio, by definition,  is a measure of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black) that the system is capable of producing. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display, but with the various methods of measurement for a system or its part, remarkably different measured values can sometimes produce similar results.

The problem lies in the fact that most manufacturers mention the Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast can come out to be much higher than actual contrast. For good contrast, a value of 60,000 or above is what you should look for.

2. Screen resolution: There are large no. of TVs in the market with different resolutions. the most common names you will hear are HD Ready and FullHD. In simple words, HD ready says i can play 720p video. FullHD says I can play 1080p. Infact, FullHD is the highest you will get in the market. Knowing the fact that most TV channels and movie content from BluRay DVDs will be 1080p, go for FullHD TV sets.

3. Response time: Response time refers to the time that it takes to change the state of on an individual LCD pixel. Response times can specify the time it takes a pixel to change state from black-to-white-to-black or from one gray level to the next gray level. There is no real industry standard on how or what to report as response time, so take this number with a grain of salt (unless you know the measurement specifies of this value). Typical older LCD response times had been around 4 ms. Many of the newer LCD TVs now incorporate faster 2 ms pixels. Response times also affect motion blur and jitter. Don’t buy a TV with response time >5ms.

4. Refresh rates: It refers to the number of times per second a TV screen is updated with a new image. The typical refresh rate for US TVs has been 60 times per second (60 Hz) and for Europe and India is 50Hz. LCD TVs suffer from motion blur. One technique used to help reduce motion blur is to increase the refresh rate to 120 times per second (120 Hz) or 100 times (100Hz). Look for a TV that has TruMotion or equivalent technology running @ 100Hz or 120Hz or above.

5. Look for Features: Some TVs gives you good no. of features like plugging in your USB and playing DIVX video, audio, photos. Also, LG provides Bluetooth for 2 way streaming of the audio., etc.

6. Inputs & ouput ports: This is important consideration before you decide upon a LCD. If you want to hookup your LCD HDTV with home audio and video sources/outputs you need to consider them. Here is what you should look for:

- Multiple HDMI ports (3 preferred)

- RGB (also called VGA port, used to conenct to PC)

- Audio video ports

- Component ports

7. Power saving/consumption: Most LCDs in market are NOT energy efficient, as we move to a more greener world, we need gadgets which are more energy efficient. Look for a panel which consumes peak power not more than  200Watts. some of the decent nes consume 150watts during normal usage.

Some of the good brands even have power saving technicques embedded like auto dimming and switching off when not being used actively just like your notebook LCD. These were some of the things you should look.

Now Here is the list what you should NOT look for in LCD TV:

1. Screen Brightness & Illuminance: When you visit a showroom, you will often see people choosing the display which the most vibrant. Stop right there. Its not about illuminance and brightness of the display, rather its about the crispness and the detail of the picture you get on the screen. Look for the panel which displays colors naturally rather then saturating them. Try to adjust screen contrast/brightness to bring them down to a level that you will use in your daily life. And then compare the detail and clarity.

2. Audio: You must be wandering I’m talkin about LCD TV for home entertainment and i didnt even mention about Audio? That’s true. you don’t need to consider this. Don’t be surprised but when you are buying a LCD TV, dont look for TV which has better audio. Most LHDTVs that i see in market are labelled 10 +10 Watts RMS., which is sufficient for them. The reason being, you can always extend the audio to the levels you expect by adding good home audio solutions. But if you sacrifice of image quality once, You are stuck!

3. Contrast ratio: Contrast ratio is one point which you should look for and Not look for. Sounds confusing? Earlier, I explained why contrast ratio can be a misnomer for choosing “better quality” of picture. The rule of the game is that “Trust your eyes” rather than the quoted ratio by the manufacturer. Play some good vibrant FullHD content on the displays and try to figure out the difference between the contrasts. Figure out which screen has better darkness for showing Black color. which pscreen shows better red, which screen has better vibrance, etc.

All in all, if you follow these guidelines, I’m sure you will come home with a decent  LCD HDTV! Happy shopping

With the latest offering, they target the 3D entertainment space.

The TV features 55-inch 1080p panel with a true 240Hz refresh rate. 240Hz, though doubted to be any advantage over 100Hz, is the highest one can find i the market. To enjoy the 3D content, you will have to use a set of “shutter” glasses, which rapidly alternate between blocking out the left and right eye, thereby creating 3D effect.

Of course, the value or otherwise of a TV like this is going to be found only by experiencing its output in person. If you by chance put-up near Seoul this week, head on down to the IMID 2009 conference get eyes-on this product.

At the moment, there’s far more content available on good old Blu-Ray HD than there will be in either 3D format and that’s not going to change very fast. Unless you’re a really big fan of a particular title that’s available in 3D, you’re likely to sit this out for a while.

[via engadget]

Method 1. Right Codec (Software)

Earlier we made a comprehensive post on how you can get 1080p fullHD Video Playback on any PC. Follow the guide, it will help you do it with software upgrade.

Method 2. Video Decoder accelearator (Hardware)

Most Light and portable Netbooks will even cry while playing 720p because of limited Intel Atom CPU Power and onboard Intel GMA chipset. In such cases, it’s better to give your hardware an upgrade using external video accelerators.

These hardware are capable of H.264 and VC-1 video compression algorithms to netbook and nettop applications like the playback of streaming media and downloaded media as well as Blu-ray discs. The chipset is capable of full HD real-time decoding. The high performance and low power consumption of the solution allow reduced CPU utilization and support for mobile platform designs. A typical such chipset supports any compliant resolution from QVGA up to 1920 x 1088.

Broadcom BCM 70012

Here are the Popular Choices:

Broadcom BCM 70012

It connects to your Laptop via Mini PCI-e interface.

You can buy them from eBay for approximately $20.

How to install: Open your laptop and look for PCI-e slot. Get it done from a hardware expert, in case you find it difficult. Aldo, there are pci-e to USB adaptors too.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook to get updates.

For complete HD Home Theater Experience, do checkout Suggested Reading below-

Can a PC with 1.6Ghz Dual core and Intel Extreme Graphics Play 1080p ?: Yes, read-on to find-out.

Minimum Requirements for Running 1080p on PC:

A. The minimum requirements to play FullHD content on PC are pretty high, with a standard Codec.

Processor: 2.4Ghz (dual core) or 3.5Ghz (single Core) processor.

Graphics: Nvidia/ATi having bare minimum 256MB Video RAM and core clock 600Mhz.

When you try to play it in a lower config PC, the video plays but is often jerky.

In most PCs, today, this will be hard to achieve since either of the two minimum requirement is not met and in some cases both. But the problem is not limited by the Hardware, but it’s with the codec that you use.

Codecs:

Popular codecs like FFDShow, Klite pack, CCCP, and the one inbuilt in the popular VLC media player, do not make the optimal usage of the Hardware. The best one I know of, that will let you play FullHD 1080p on a basic config, is  CoreAVC.

CoreAVC (which actually includes Haali as part of its setup) is a multi-core aware AVC video decoder. It is a proven high performing Codec (in absence of GPU) that  let’s you play 1080p on:

Minimum Requirements (using CoreAVC):

Processor: 1.5 Ghz (Dual core), 2.6Ghz (single core)

Graphics: Modern Intel Extreme Graphics or Nvidia or ATi with 128MB video RAM, core clock 300Mhz.

That’s like almost every PC can do it. On average, this means even a 4 year old PC can play it.

How to Run it on any PC:

You can Purchase the CoreAVC or request a trial and download Media Player Classic to accompany it. With Both installed, Open your HD files in Media player Classic, and all your 720p, 1080p Video files will be smoother than ever.

CoreAVC costs $14.95, but it’s worth spending for a HT PC. Though, it’s available over torrents too, but I won’t encourage piracy.

The latest version supports Nvidia CUDA. CUDA is a Nvidia’s proprietary technology that let’s your GPU (graphics card) do the work that normally CPU does. With this feature enabled in CoreAVC, you can watch 1080p with low CPU utilization. e.g. for 8400GM, CPU utilization goes down to 20-30% for 1080p as compared to 60-80% without the feature being turned ON.

You can get the Full list of CUDA enabled cards here.

I hope this had been some help to you. Post your questions, I`ll be happy to answer them.

A California based startup, HDI, has introduced what it calls the world’s first laser-based 3D HDTV. This is a 1080p 3D that you’ve never seen before,  production is smoother than RealD, Dolby, film and pretty much every other 3D solution.

It’s all being driven by new technology that has replaced the old red-blue glasses with stylish models designed for digital.

The secret is in the speed. This display is so fast that the image “no longer needs to flash from one eye to the other,” and no flashing should equate to no headaches.

“This device is unique in the fact that it’s extremely fast,” says Chief Technical Officer Edmund Sandberg. “It will do over a thousand frames a second. That allows you to integrate all the color and everything into one device.”

For the laser light source, HDI has developed a laser module that contains a red, green and blue laser, each having an output of 1 Watt. The Laser-Television system had a diagonal of 100 inches and an aspect ratio of 16:9. With a power consumption of 150 Watts, 300 nits were presented on the screen. The contrast ratio was stated to be about 1000:1

The colors are richer than anything else, because they come from lasers. The lasers are cheap. They’re low power, consuming just 1W each. Try that with your plasma. And it’s true HD. Not just 1080p, but 1080 Hertz.

The company faces many challenges. Others are experimenting with lasers, and 3D capable televisions already exist. But no one has quite managed to combine everything in a package with 3D flash without all the flashing.

There’s no release date but we are hopeful to have a a sneak peek at CES 2010.

via engadget

It comes Loaded with Windows 7 with a brilliant multitouch screen, Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, Nvidia GT240M graphics (pretty good for gaming, and 4GB of RAM.

The Blu-ray drive, Fully functional remote control, wireless keyboard with mouse trackpad promises the Complete Home entertainment.

There’s even a second Sideshow monitor. But it’s the system’s glossy, touch-button and fingerprint-friendly design that would make it an aesthetically welcome addition to one’s typical array of home theater equipment.

Screen supports FullHD 1080p, so there’s nothing that is missing in this one.
Have a Look:

Announced for Europe only at the moment, the X9613 is priced between $2,100 to $2,700.

via New Gadgets

Today Betanews reported that BluRay will not reach end-user PCs till 2015, practically. There are strong reasons to dis-agree.

DVD (4.3GB)and Dual Layer DVD (8 GB) are no longer sufficient to handle the growing demands of the industry. Seven years back, we used to be  happy with a 700mb CD and 10GB HDD. And today CD has a capacity of a joke and you have more space in your cellphones or thumb drives than a CD.

Growth of Data has risen exponentially. Starting from Operating System – Windows 95, for example, used to be <400mb after installation and grew to 13GB in windows 7, Games - NFS 2 was 350mb and NFS Undercover is 8GB. Movies used to be VCDs 700 MB, today they go upto 25GB and above in BluRay, the standard HD 1080p disc.

Thanks to the HD craze in everything we do -Movies, Music, Gaming; DVD fails to satisfy most of our daily needs. We need a standard like BluRay to meet all our hunger for data. A normal Bluray can go upto 110GB – Fair enough for the next 5years of portable data discs.

Blu-ray player sales are on a rapid climb, and Sony’s new PS3 Slim and cheaper PlayStation 3 are expected to cause an explosion in Blu-ray penetration. Next is what? PCs. It’s the same thing that happened with DVDs. They eneterd the Movies market, and PCs started having it.

Most of the High-end Notebooks and all Sony VAIO ship with BluRay RAM or ROM. A typical 50GB BluRay blank disc costs $2.5. that’s the cheapest we have ever seen per GB. Roughly 2cents for a GB. Who can stop this Evolution?

They eventually will find success, but during the next 1 year, that success will be rising exponentially in the PC segment.

According to the Blu-ray team: “Because Blu-ray utilizes a lens with a greater numerical aperture than HD-DVD or any other DVD, the laser spot can be focused with greater precision to fit more data on the same size disc. This allows Blu-ray to hold 25GB per layer (50GB and beyond on a dual-layer disc), whereas HD-DVD can only hold 15GB per layer (30GB on a dual-layer disc). Blu-ray has also adopted a higher data transfer rate for video and audio (54Mbps vs 36.55Mbps).”

On the Movies side of things, studios are rolling out more Blu-ray content every week, there doesn’t seem to be a long way from when every movie will appear on BluRay.

Some analysts predict by 2010, that BD drives will be installed in 50% of the new PCs – Desktop or Notebooks. No word on Netbooks though.

Last 20 years —  The 3.5″ floppy was eventually replaced by the CD-ROM because of the dramatic increase in storage, and the precipitously low price of distributing software on that format  I remember the stacks of floppies  I used to use when installing Microsoft Office. Windows NT 3.1, for example, took up 22 diskettes could be put on a single CD-ROM.

As per CNET, there are 9Reasons why BluRay is a go!-

1. Digital downloads will not eliminate the need for discs anytime soon.
2. Having one clear standard is a big advantage.
3. Blu-ray isn’t going to be replaced by another disc format anytime soon.
4. Prices for large-screen HDTVs will continue to drop.
5. Prices for Blu-ray players will continue to drop.
6. Prices for Blu-ray discs will drop to near DVD price levels.
7. Sony will sell lots of PlayStation 3 game consoles.
8. Sony can’t afford to have Blu-ray fail.
9. Sony and its partners will figure out a way to have Blu-ray resonate with the public — They already Have.

What’s More? Blu-Ray discs are scratch proof. No longer will you pile up old ones in your trash.

Lower production costs were the principal driver for CD-ROM (CD-R, CD-RW) to be replaced by DVD . But now, as most software can’t  fit in DVDs, like  certain Games, Software-SAP (100GB+), BluRay needs to evolve. Production costs have yet to  lower for the higher-capacity Blu-ray formats and for the Hardware, but blank BluRay discs already are affordable.

Storage is on the Rise. And we need Higher capacity and cheaper per GB space.

Evolution is on the edge. It’s coming. Believe it or Not!

You love home Entertainment? I know HD is your first and last choice. Let it be TV channels or Movies over your HDTV, you expect goo experience from all of them

Why Spend on an expensive Sony/Toshiba Blu-Ray Player, when you can customize and build a better Multimedia Home theater that is better on features and more expandable than the ones in Market.

I’ve written lots of guides till date. Clubbing them all together will help you build a powerful Completely Customized HD Blu-Ray Compatible HT for compelte entertainment needs.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Buy an External Blu-Ray DVD writer – I Recommend Mercury Pro 8X Blu-ray or Pioneer BDR-203 External and connect it to your PC via  Firewire 400, Firewire 800, eSATA or USB 2.0.

2. Get a decent external/internal sound card- some Creative X-Fi, like the one reviewed here.

3. Buy good home Audio system and connect it to the sound card (choose 5.1 or 7.1) over Analog or digital – Choice has to be based on Quality of A/D converters of your Audio system vs. Sound card. Choices for Audio system here are limitless. I Recommend Klipsch 5.1 ProMedia, Logitech Z5500 if you look for low-end or may be some Bose/Harman Kardon/JVC/Denon/Apeion for High-end. This one is totally upto you, the kind of sound you are addicted to. Here are lots of other options.

4. Buy a good LCD HDTV. Guide -Things you should look for in your HDTV — Expert Buyer’s Guide.

5. Even the best HDTV can fail to produce the best picture. You must optimize it for best viewing Experience - Optimize your HDTV for Best Picture – Tips n Tricks.

6. If you Prefer a HD Projector for the Bigger picture, checkout How to Build HD Projector for cheap.

7. Design and Build your Home Theater – Guide: Setting up Expert Home Theater system for cheap.

Why Build Custome HT when you get ready-made good ones? Here’s why-

Benefits of Building Custom HT Setups:

- Its’ Cheaper – Half the Cost

- Unified and Feature-full – Since you use PC, you can Play just any File format from a lame old avi to MKV. It’s inherently Easier to organize and integrate with your Music, Photos, Video, Movies collection.

- More customized - It’s more Customized to your choice. You get to choose your favourite sound, Picture and design of the Room.

- Get unlimited Space – When you buy an external Blu-Ray writer for PC, each BluRay dvd gives you 50GB of space. You can buy BluRay dvd in $3.50. So, there’s lot of scope for getting cheaper/GB of space.

The Bad thing about buying a full HD projector is the cost. A decent one can cost you more than a grand, in fact good ones will cost in multiples. So how do we fulfill the HD Projector dream? Yes, Build it yourself.

Thanks to the tutorial presented by techzilla, it’s cheap to build. watch the video.

While HDTV has a pretty awesome picture, and you’ve likely been enjoying your screen just fine how it is, your television didn’t come out of the box pre-programmed for your living room. Your HDTV came out of the box preset for a showroom floor, with the settings cranked up to compete with a wall of other HDTVs to induce that certain feeling of, “Oh my God, I can’t believe how HD-riffic this is!” Your living room is not the same as a showroom floor for a myriad of reasons—bright polo shirts and tube fluorescents among them—so the best viewing experience requires a few display setting switches.

You might be a little confused as to why the picture doesn’t look as bright, sharp and, well, as swoon-worthy as it did on the shelf at the big-box retailer you bought it from. Well not all picture settings are created equal. In a busy and fluorescent-lit environment, a super-bright picture with the colors enhanced and the LCD back light set to the maximum is what’s going to look best. But not necessarily in your living room…

For those with a factory default tube, the New York times put together a crash course in tweaking your television. Most of their advice, as you would imagine, involves cranking things down from their eye-searing in-store levels. Start by controlling the external lighting as much as possible, then start tinkering with your settings starting with the brightness:

A picture’s black level is controlled by the TV’s brightness adjustment; it needs to be set dark enough so that the screen displays rich, deep blacks. Set too low, many images will lose their detail. Set the black level too high, the picture will look muddy.Black level is important because the truer the blacks, the greater the perceived sharpness of the TV image. A muddy picture will look less sharp than one that has true blacks.

To get the proper black level, you can use a PLUGE pattern, which typically consists of six vertical bars of varying black levels. Turn the picture level down until one of the bars disappears against the background. PLUGE patterns, and other patterns discussed here, are available on a variety of TV tuning discs.

Once you’ve got a handle on your brightness, don’t neglect the contrast and colors. But wait! Don’t run out and spend money on a calibration disc. Not only are there tons of free test patterns a Google Image search away, but there are hundreds of DVD movies that include test patterns tucked in the bonus features.

We should make note that this isn’t a full list of specs either, but rather what Microsoft was willing to let out for the moment. Take a look:

• 3.6 inchish OLED full touch screen
• NVIDIA Tegra powered
• 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 120GB versions
• HDMI Connection to stream straight to your TV
• HD Radio
• Web Browser
• WiFi compatible, with wireless marketplace
• Released early fall
• International release of the Zune device itself
• Home AV packs, Car packs, Charge packs

We are working on getting independent confirmation of what we see above, and we will let you know when that happens.

As a ring-side spectator, I can only pull off my press hat, rub my head, and wonder how I got this one so wrong. Late last year, I predicted the demise of Microsoft’s marginal Zune player. With the surprise introduction of the Zune HD, I’ve been proven very wrong. But this iPod-like device isn’t even the biggest news. Microsoft’s savvy uppercut punch is the deep integration of the Zune Marketplace and brand into one of its most successful brands: Xbox Live.

Whenever we talk about the success of the iPod, the discussion inevitably turns to the power of the iTunes ecosystem. Without that platform, the iPod would never have become the cultural phenomenon it is today; Apple’s control over hardware, software, music selection, quality, and prices, and its subsequent rollout of the remarkable App Store, have made the iPod (and iPhone) an unstoppable market force.

The one area where Apple hasn’t had huge success, though, is in the living room. Sure, there are countless iPod docks that let you play music all over the house, but transferring your iTunes content from your Mac or PC to your TV, for instance, is another matter. Apple’s main entry in this space has been the Apple TV, a product that looks just like the Mac Mini but accomplishes far less. I know people who own Apple TVs—the reviews have not been glowing, and Apple is many miles from being dominant in this space.

Microsoft, on the other hand, spent years trying to convince consumers that they needed PCs in their living rooms. When that failed, the company turned to media extenders, an intriguing concept: thin, wide boxes that could deliver, via a wired or wireless network, Windows PC content to living-room TVs and stereos. Again, consumers ignored these products.

Then, as now, Microsoft finally stopped trying to swim upstream and made what I still consider one of its most brilliant moves: It turned the Xbox 360 into a media extender. The company realized that it would sell millions of these gaming consoles, which happened to have built-in networking capabilities. So why not add a few other brand-extending features?

Since then, millions of Xbox owners have used their gaming consoles not only to play video games against opponents around the world but also to view local content and even stream movies from Netflix and Starz. Obviously, Microsoft sees a similar opportunity with the Zune brand. Instead of trying to drive consumers to buy Zune hardware and start using the Zune Marketplace online, Microsoft will present the Zune brand as a premier option on one of its most popular and active platforms.

Microsoft makes its strategy crystal clear in its press release: “Zune will occupy the first slot within the Xbox user interface in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of new consumers for the first time.” Starting this fall, anyone who visits the Xbox Live Marketplace will see Zune and its collection of movies (it’s unclear if they’ll be in HD). This is the equivalent of a rabbit punch to Apple’s jaw. Microsoft will seed the market with new users by turning them on to the possibilities of the Zune brand. The strategy is so critical to Zune’s success that Microsoft’s press release leads with the news. The mention of the Zune HD and its attributes is almost (but not quite) an afterthought.

In fact, this plan can’t work without killer hardware. And from the looks of things, Microsoft is following that rabbit punch with a swift right to the jaw, in the form of the Zune HD. The photos we’ve seen show a thin, sharp, and—most important—sexy device. Microsoft even adds a surprise: HD radio. Apple won’t go near a radio tuner of any kind. Microsoft is jumping in with both feet and embracing a format that many aren’t even sure will survive. I like its moxie. I’m not going to go out on a limb and predict victory for Microsoft or Apple in this latest battle, but one thing is clear: Microsoft is ready to go at least a few more rounds.

Many TVs still don’t support HDMI 1.3, which offers Deep Color and xvYCC support, but details about its upcoming successor, version 1.4, have leaked out. The specs include a couple of interesting new features, most notably an HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC) that allows devices using the cable (like an HDTV and an Xbox 360) to share a 100Mbps network connection. Also intriguing is the spec’s support for emerging video formats like 4k (4,096×2,160-pixel resolution, or roughly double that of 1080p) as well as 3D standards.

While those are promising developments, the rub is that the HDMI 1.4 spec supports two different types of data cables: a high-bandwidth version and a lower-bandwidth one. Considering there are plenty of people who still don’t realize they need to order high-definition programming from their cable providers before they can start seeing shows in HD, having two versions of the same cable is sure to cause all kinds of confusion and plenty of GeekSquad calls. (Not to mention that the low-data version probably won’t support those exciting new features mentioned above.) There should be some time to sort it out, however, as the first HDMI 1.4 devices aren’t expected until 2010. ]]> http://geeknizer.com/hdmi-14-is-coming-with-ethernet-support/feed/ 0 http://geeknizer.com/the-most-powerful-gpu-factory-overclocked-amd-1ghz-radeon-hd-4890/ http://geeknizer.com/the-most-powerful-gpu-factory-overclocked-amd-1ghz-radeon-hd-4890/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 18:58:34 +0000 Tarandeep Singh http://taranfx.com/blog/?p=786 Read more »]]> I always waited for the day when 1GHz graphics card would first be released, but I certainly wouldn’t have guessed it would be today. and here it is, Planet’s most powerful GPU (atleast clock wise, though Nvidia SLI’s might be better due to Quad-core architecture). At any cost, AMD has desperately announced the planet’s first 1GHz graphics processor (without third-party / user overclocking, of course) with the ATI Radeon HD 4890 GPU. If you are into Graphics business, you would know, just few weeks ago PowerColor introduced a version with a 950MHz core clock speed.

From now users with a lust for raw horsepower can sink their teeth into a factory overclocked, ultra air-cooled HD 4890 that hits the magical 1GHz barrier. There’s been no formal announcement made about what partners will be selling the 1GHz variant, but AMD does note that Asus, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, Gigabyte, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), ITC, Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology and XFX are all estatic about the news. That bleeding edge sure kills, doesn’t it?

Here goes the actual Official Announcement:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — May 13, 2009 –Building on the success of the recently launched ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 graphics card — driven by the world’s most powerful graphics processor1 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced availability of a factory overclocked graphics processor that is the first to break the 1 Gigahertz (GHz) barrier using standard air-cooling solutions.

• With this product, AMD achieves a notable engineering milestone as the first graphics company to break the 1 GHz barrier.
• The new ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 utilizes advanced GDDR5 memory and a 1 GHz clock speed to deliver 1.6 TeraFLOPs of compute power, 50 percent more than that of the competition’s best single-GPU solution². With this level of raw compute power, the1 GHz ATI Radeon HD 4890 is set to deliver new levels of general purpose GPU-accelerated performance in ATI Stream applications such as video transcoding and post processing.
• This new version of the ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 marks the latest addition to the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series delivered by AMD technology partners Sapphire, XFX, Asus and TUL.
• The advanced design of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 delivers an amazing gaming experience in the latest games, including ground-breaking DirectX® 10.1 titles such as Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.™, Electronic Art’s BattleForge™ and SEGA’s Stormrise™ released last month, as well as GSC Gameworld’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky. When compared to DirectX 10 game play, DirectX 10.1 games have proven to deliver higher game performance and an improved visual experience. In addition, these cards feature support for open standards like OpenGL3 with DirectX® 10-like hardware extensions, and the recently ratified OpenCL specification.
• The ATI Radeon HD 4890 supports advanced game physics. At the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Havok and AMD demonstrated the first implementation of OpenCL running on AMD graphics processors. In the demonstration, Havok’s physics technology delivered complex and realistic simulations of real-world materials like cloth, demonstrating the potential for increased realism in forthcoming games.
• To date, the ATI Radeon HD 4890 card has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Editor’s Choice Gold Award from HardOCP, the HotHardware Recommended Award and the Editor’s Choice Award from Tweaktown, among others. The accolades speak to the excitement around the product and to the continued strength of the discrete graphics market overall, something analyst Dr. Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research predicts will continue to play a strong role in the computing industry.
• As a result of the worldwide accolades from media, developers, enthusiasts and fans, AMD released an “inside look” at how the card was made and what it means for gamers. The card marks a new aspect to the AMD “Dragon” desktop platform technology, providing an even more powerful single GPU desktop graphics option to OEMs, channel partners, and do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers

“Throughout the 40-year history of AMD, we have continually focused on technology firsts that deliver superior value to the customer,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, Products Group, AMD. “The 1GHz ATI Radeon HD 4890 continues that tradition by increasing the performance and compute power of our flagship single-GPU solution, ensuring a great experience whether our customers are playing the latest DirectX 10.1 game or running GPU accelerated applications built with OpenCL.”

Ecosystem support
The ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card is supported by a dozen add-in-board companies offering a variety of custom board and cooling solutions. Technology partners include ASUS, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, Force3D, GECUBE, Gigabyte, HIS (Hightech Information Systems), ITC, Jetway, MSI, Palit Multimedia, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE Technology and XFX.

Here is what partners are saying about the overclocked edition of the ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics card:

“Achieving air-cooled clock speeds of 1 GHz with our Vapor-X cooler immediately puts the new Sapphire HD 4890 Atomic Edition graphics card in an overclocking class of its own,” said Adrian Thomson, vice president, Marketing, Sapphire. “At 150 MHz above stock speeds, this card will unlock new levels of performance and allow gamers to push the latest DirectX 10.1 titles to new highs in image quality and frame rates.”

“XFX is renowned for its ability to design and deliver high-performance graphics products, expertly overclocked to maximize every aspect of the GPU,” said Eddie Memon, senior vice president, Marketing, XFX. “The XFX team was excited to see just how far we could push the 1 GHz ATI Radeon HD 4890. I know our customers are going to love the performance of XFX’s ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 Black Edition. Hitting 1GHz is an amazing feat, even more so when done in production-level volumes and with overclocking headroom to spare.”

“ASUS has always prided itself on delivering leading technology, and the ASUS EAH4890 Formula Series packs all of the great features and performance gamers crave,” said Kent Chien, associate vice president of graphics and multimedia business, ASUS. “In addition, we are equipping the ASUS EAH4890 Formula Series with Voltage Tweak technology and Super ML Cap, giving gamers the flexibility to boost GPU voltage and achieve as much as an 18 percent performance improvement over factory settings. The ASUS EAH4890 Formula Series and Voltage Tweak is a potent combination.”

“With the PowerColor PCS++ HD4890, we built a truly performant graphics card around the exceptional ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics processor and added our own ZEROtherm cooling system,” said Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. “The mix of ATI Radeon HD graphics technology and PowerColor design gives our customers enthusiast-level game performance at an affordable price.”

Note: Damage caused by overclocking AMD’s GPUs above factory-set overclocking is not covered by AMD’s product warranty, even when such overclocking is enabled via AMD software.

Seventeen chip makers, consumer electronics companies and one software vendor, Microsoft, have banded together to create a standard for multi-gigabit, short-range wireless networking.

The new spec by Gigabit Wireless Alliance (WiGig) is all about speed: using the 60GHz frequency to achieve a data rate of up to 6Gbps, with actual maximum throughput of just over 5Gbps. A low-power option, aimed at mobile and battery-powered devices, will have a minimum throughput of 1Gbps. That compares to about 150-180Mbps throughput for today’s typical 802.11n WLAN using 3 transmit and 3 receive antennas. The Alliance plans to have the first draft of the spec available by year-end.

The 60GHz band has been the focus of much recent research and technology demonstrations over the past two years.  In early 2008, the WirelessHD consortium unveiled a specification for streaming high definition video, for example between a BlueRay disc player and a flat screen TV. Last year, Australian researchers showed a CMOS chip that bettered the performance of the WirelessHD silicon from SiBeam.

The WiGig spec will use the 60GHz band, which is an unlicensed frequency available worldwide, a key consideration for product vendors seeking global markets. Just as importantly, the frequency has been allocated a big chunk of bandwidth: 7GHz in the U.S., and as much as 9GHz in some other countries, says Bill McFarland, CTO for chipmaker Atheros Communications, one of the founding WiGig members.

“Because we can use such a large swath of the spectrum, we can get very high data rates,” he says. Among other things, those frequency characteristics would let WiGig radios stream uncompressed high quality video.

The 60GHz band also is largely unused, compared for example to the 2.4GHz band, which is crowded with 802.11bg, Bluetooth, microwave, and other applications. The multi-gigabit link could be used for storing video on network-attached storage and streaming it to a flat panel display or PC, transferring lots of images, and synchronizing hard drives between devices.

A wide range of products could make use of it. Alliance members see WiGig radios being integrated with a wide range of computer, networking, and consumer electronics products, including mobile devices. Because of the higher frequency, the radios based on the WiGig spec would have limited range, being used to inter-connect devices in a single room.

The Alliance members will be actively involved in the work of the IEEE’s 802.11ad task group, which was recently formed to draft a multi-gigabit WLAN standard for 60GHz. Alliance members foresee a seamless handoff between the short-range 60GHz connections and today’s longer-range Wi-Fi access points, which can cover an entire home.

Eventually, the multi-gigabit 802.11ad standard will support WLAN connections in the 2.4, 5, and 60GHz bands all on a single chip, says Mark Grodzinsky, vice president of marketing for Wilocity, an Israeli silicon startup with U.S. offices in Portland, Ore., and a WiGig founder.

The initial board of directors is drawn from 13 founding companies, including leading chip vendors like Atheros, Broadcom and Intel, computer companies such as Dell, and makers of mobile devices and consumer electronics like LG Electronics, Nokia, and Panasonic. There are four other “contributors”, all chip vendors, including NXP and STM Electronics.

The Alliance plans to work closely with the recently launched IEEE 802.11ad task group, which has begun work on a formal multi-gigabit WLAN standard based on the 60GHz band.

An array of companies have been demonstrating short-range, gigabit connectivity, for example, wirelessly streaming high-definition video to a big flat panel display.

The new alliance is an effort to unite as wide a range of vendors as possible behind a unified standard, as soon as possible, says McFarland. The Alliance plans to ensure interoperability among a highly diverse group of products through a full