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Clique Communications HUE HD 1.3M Webcam

When I first set my eyes on the Clique Communications HUE HD Webcam, I thought that they were just for fun and would not offer and quality. I was wrong, they have been made to a high standard and the True 1.3M Pixel CMOs sensor offers good quality when you are on your video chat program. Read more

Review: Single HD 4870 X2 vs. Two HD 4870s on P45

What do you get when you put a pair of Sapphire HD 4870s into a P45 board with many tests? Well read on to find out.

So, what we’re going to do today is chuck a pair of Sapphire HD 4870s into a P45 board and do a bunch of tests. We’re then going to pull those two cards out and stick in a single HD 4870 X2. We will run the same tests and proceed to compare. Since we’ve already looked at the cards themselves, we’re just going to get stuck straight into the benchmarking side of things. Let’s begin by taking a quick look at our testbed we’re using today, before getting stuck straight into the benchmarks.

A single HD 4870 X2 thrown into a heavily over-clocked P45 board is going to run like an absolute dream. 3.5GHz + isn’t really all that uncommon these days and here we really get to see the HD 4870 X2 shine, even more so than before.

Compared against the HD 4870 Crossfire solution on the P45 board, we see the HD 4870 X2 either performing similar, like we saw in our older P45 vs. X48 testing, or it manages to get a good 10% jump on the setup.

You would really have to be a bit on the side of crazy to purchase a pair of HD 4870s over a single HD 4870 X2 when looking for some real GPU power. We can see under intensive load situations, the lack of bandwidth going to the Crossfire configuration does have an impact on performance.

Before we finish off, though, let’s have a quick look at some of the results we obtained out of the Smooth Creation 3.9GHz system against our 3GHz testbed.

With the HD 4870 X2, we saw our Vantage performance score move up from 12496 to 14996.

Talking real world, World in Conflict performance is way up. 2560 x 1600 yields a minimum of 24 FPS and an average of 46 FPS on our 3.0GHz testbed. On the heavily overclocked Smooth Creations system, we saw the minimum move to a very important 32 FPS and the average sky rocket to an impressive 62 FPS.

This gives you a real idea of just how CPU bottle necked these cards are. All I can say is, “Bring on i7!”

Read the full 9-page hands-on review over on TweakTown

NAB 2008 Update: JVC launch GY-HD200UB HD pro camcorder

At the recent NAB 2008 show at Las Vegas JVC were showing their latest camcorders. The GY-HD200UB is a HD pro camcorder and JVC did their best to show how great their new gadget at this years National Association of Broadcasters was.

The JVC GY-HD200UB shoots at a 720p native, however this can be changed to shoot at 1080i at up to 60 fps with an aspect ratio of 16:9. The camcorder has some other tricks up its sleeve, like outputting its digital video in either Quicktime file or MPEG-2 transport stream.

The JVC launch GY-HD200UB HD pro camcorder is not cheap though, it will set you back about $6000.

Source – Crunch Gear

Sony to launch the new BDZ series Blu-ray Recorders: A70 and T90

Sony is to launch a new BDZ series of Blu-ray recorders; the A70 is at the lower end with the T90 being aimed at the higher end of the market. The A70 has a 320GB hard drive while the T90 has a 500GB hard drive.

However if you want you can decide to record direct to a Blu-ray disc, both players are also able to convert video so that it can play on portable formats. Both the Sony BDZ series Blu-ray Recorders have both analog and digital TV tuners, as well as HDMI connections and Sony’s Room Link.

Prices for these Blu-ray players start from $1,664 and will be available in Japan from April 30th.

Source - Slippery Brick

Microsoft let loose Xbox 360 HD DVD player update: Do you still love?

We all know that HD DVD has died and gone to heaven but Microsoft are not letting that stop them, because they are still showing the current Xbox 360 HD DVD player owners amazing love with the release of today’s auto update.

You can connect to your Xbox Live with a HD DVD player firmly integrated into your 360, once you are there you will be asked to download a new update, this new update will apparently help with the compatibility issues with some titles and will add additional support for network features.

Oh we must tell you that this update will not bring back to life Toshiba’s commitment to HD DVD but it should make your HD movie viewing a little better.

Oh Microsoft you do try!

Source

Sony HDR-SR12 HD camcorder is not cheap but still strong competitor

The Sony HDR-SR12 HD 1080/60 camcorder has just been reviewed by CamcorderInfo and an in depth one at that which you can read via the source link below. We believe that this camcorder deserves a lot more loving.

Ok with a price tag of around $1399 it is not the cheapest option but yet still a very strong competitor to similar models, you know like that of the Canon HF10. Yes the bitrate is a bit lower than the Canon model at 16Mbps and the overall image quality was overall comparable due to the Bionz image processor and Exmos CMOS sensor.

There review is pretty good but comparing it to the Canon HF10 is not what many people would have done, because the HF is a pocket-size solid state recorder, while the SR is an HDD-based tank. The HDMI connector is a mini connector and not a standard sized one which means apparently a cable will have to be bought to get HDMI.

It does have 120GB storage which is good plus the fixed 60i framerate seems a pretty good selling point also, ok if shooting the camcorder in 30p or 24p is not that important then the Sony HDR-SR12 HD camcorder is defiantly worth thinking about.

If you know more about the HDR-SR12, please do let us know?

Source

ATI Radeon HD graphic Cards gets a Stuttering Fix: AMD download hot fix released

If you have an ATI Radeon HD graphics card you might have been experiencing some stuttering issues with 3D applications, this problem has occurred predominately on games such as TimeShift and Battlefield 2.

There is now some great news to fix the Stuttering problem, all you need to do is get yourselves over to the AMD site where you can download a hot fix which is now available.

What we all would like is the details of what the problem was but this has not been disclosed, there was a lossless compression that ATI uses inside its GPUs. The new fix will be implemented in Catalyst 8.4, if you are not experiencing any stuttering issues then we say wait until the official Catalyst driver which will be here around about mid April.

Source

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500 camera: touchscreen and HD recording capabilities

Panasonic recently announced their cool LUMIX DMC-FX500 10.1-megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera which has a 3-inch touch screen, Auto Focus tracking system, 5X optical zoom and 720p movie mode.

This camera has a very good amount of specs that should get you going, the bit we really like is the fact it has 10.1-megapixel and HD recording capabilities (720p movie mode) and of course the touchscreen but it does not stop there.

It also has a 25-millimeter ultra-wide-angle lens, movie mode capable of logging clips at 1,280 x 720 at 30fps, 50MB of built-in memory, SD / SDHC card slot and WVGA (848 x 480) and VGA (640 x 480) video modes are available as well.

How about face detection, optical image stabilization, Auto Focus tracking and red-eye correction. If you like the sound of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500 camera then you will not only be happy with the specs but you will also be happy to know you can have it in either black or silver for only $399.95.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500 is expected in May sometime.

Source – Photography BLOG

Mitsubishi Blu-ray recorders can store HD content on to standard DVD’s

Mitsubishi have released two new Blu-ray players, the 500GB DVR-BZ200 and also the 250GB DVR-BZ200. Both of these players have support for Blu-ray’s AVCREC specification, what this mean is that you can record around 2 hours of Full HD content on a standard DVD disc.

However as always there is always a catch and that is the standard is only limited to ISDB broadcasts, this means that you can only use this service in Japan at the moment. However it should not be to long before we start to see more AVCREC capable devices.

Source - Akihabaranews

YouTube users will be able to login directly from their TiVo Series3 TiVo HD

This could be great news people, especially those who have YouTube accounts; a new press release that recently popped up is letting everyone know that Tivo owners will be able to login into their YouTube accounts straight from their Tivo machine that is connected to broadband.

This service will work with the TiVo Series3 and the new TiVo HD.

Please read the full press release below. Please let us know what you think of this new service.

PRESS RELEASE:
TiVo to Provide YouTube Videos Directly to the Television

ALVISO, Calif., March 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced an agreement with YouTube(TM) that will offer access to YouTube videos directly from the TV via a TiVo DVR. The service will be available later this year to broadband-connected subscribers with (TM) DVRs, including the new HD TiVo.

Every day hundreds of millions of videos are viewed on YouTube and hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded. Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch these videos directly on their television sets through their broadband connected TiVo DVRs. The combination of having the YouTube experience with the convenience and familiarity of TiVo’s intuitive user interface will provide TiVo subscribers with the ability to discover and enjoy the most shared and most discussed web videos in the world on their televisions. Importantly, users will be able to log into their YouTube accounts directly from their TiVo boxes and access their favorite YouTube channels and playlists.

“We’re delighted to be working with the world’s leading online video community so that TiVo subscribers can access YouTube’s popular content on the TV via the TiVo DVR,” said Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services at TiVo Inc. “Being able to make available YouTube videos to the TiVo subscriber base using one device, one remote and one user interface is another major step in our commitment to combine all of your television and web video viewing options in one easy to use service.”

InFocus sexy Play Big IN83 1080p DLP HD projector official and $5999

Good news for those who want a very decent projector, well get this latest because InFocus later this month you will be able to get your hands on the InFocus Play Big IN83 1080p HD DLP projector.

This projector will deliver full HD and features TI’s DarkChip4 DLP chip, 2.35:1 Cinemascope / widescreen aspect ratio support, native 5,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,600 ANSI lumens, Pixelworks DNX 10-bit video processing and HDMI 1.3.

Your liking this aren’t you? The only downside we can see is that you will have to part with a staggering $5999. For more images and information get yourselves over to Engadget.

HD VMD vs Blu-ray: is this the new format war

We know that the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is over, and it was the latter that was victories. However if Blu-ray thought that they could take it easy, then they will have to think again.

Many people in the industry are now saying that there could be another format war coming. The contender to Blu-ray is HD VMD. This format is made by a London company called New Medium Enterprises.

There are two things that HD VMD have going for them, the first is that the quality is much the same as Blu-ray and the second is that it has a lower price. Could this be enough to help HD VMD take on the king of format Blu-Ray?

Source - Tech Blorge

Toshiba DVD burner: Gigashot HD video camera add-on

The Gigashot HD camcorders already have a huge storage capacity of either 80GB or 100GB, however if that is still not enough and you like to free up some space then Toshiba have a new DVD burner add-on. You have the choice of either transferring the data from the hard drive on your Gigashot HD video camera, or record directly on to DVD-Rs.

The DVD burner drive also has HDMI, component and composite outputs, this allows for you to connect it to your TV. There is also a handy little remote as well.

Expect to pay ¥17,800 that’s $165

Source - Slash Gear

Xbox 360’s Castle Crashers: cartoon game from GDC 2008

Why oh why do I kind of like this Xbox 360’s Castle Crashers game? Come on it looks like a game from the 80’s but there seems to be something drawing me in to want to like it. I would have never though such a powerful machine like the Read more

The death of HD DVD continues, renaming players to clear shelves to combat format fallout

What will they do next when it comes to the format war fallout? Well it is clearly shown by the links below and the source links as well that in an attempt to clear the Read more

Safari HD Hacks, Safe Apple TV v2 update just released

If you are impatient then read on people, we all know that there is no real safe way yet to hack Apple TV v2, well at least we do not think so anyway, but there is the Read more

Format War continues as Toshiba expected to pull plug on its HD DVD soon

Oh it seems the life support machine connected to HD DVD format is coming to a dead end, the latest news is that Toshiba are expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD soon, this should happen over the Read more

Toshiba release new firmware update for HD DVD players

Toshiba have just recently released their new firmware update for a few of their HD DVD players which include the A3, D3, A30 and A35 which have basically migrated from Read more

3 New Cineversum BlackWing Projectors: Looks like Darth Vader collectibles

Before we go into the details of these new Cineversum BlackWing Projectors you got to admit they do look like they could be Darth Vader collectibles, it does have that Star Wars look to Read more

Acer H5350 HD projector: 1280 x 720 image at 2000 ANSI lumens

We all know that CeBIT ‘08 is coming up pretty soon and that Acer are getting ready and warming up for the massive international tradeshow, they will be showing of this Acer H5350 HD projector in Read more

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