By Nevin Buconjic
For Fresh Magazine (Original Print Date – March 2007) As DVD’s approach their 10 year anniversary, they have become so common and affordable that we find DVD players everywhere – our computers, our home-entertainment and stereo systems, even in our cars! In fact the technology has become so inexpensive, that DVD players can be had for as cheap as $30 and portable units with LCD screens less than $100. But a new revolution is upon us. High Definition (HD) television sales are now leading the change to High Definition DVD formats. HD provides significant picture quality improvement over standard DVD, and with the growing popularity and increasingly lower cost of large screen Plasma and LCD televisions, consumers want more and more HD content. In comes the successor to DVD…except we have a little problem. Two different formats are vying for the title of next generation DVD. They are Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Both formats can provide the highest level of HD quality – 1080p to be exact. With resolutions of 1920×1080 vs. standard DVD resolution of 720×480, the sheer detail and picture quality of both HD formats is remarkably better than DVD. Next time you are in a department store or local Future Shop, take a minute to watch either format playing on a 50-inch LCD or Plasma TV. You will be blown away by the picture quality and sound. You might be asking yourself, what is the problem if we have two excellent formats to choose from…choice is good right? Choice is good AFTER a technology has been standardized. The problem is, if customers have to worry about which format will win in the end, it will dramatically slow the adoption of a new HD format. Who wants to be stuck with the losing product after spending close to $1,000 on a player? Many writers point to the “Beta vs. VHS” wars in the 1980’s as an example of format war. If you are saying to yourself, “what the heck is Beta”, then this proves the point. In the early 1980’s Sony introduced the Betamax format to compete with VHS. Beta tapes were smaller and had a higher quality picture, but in the end VHS won the war, and reduced Beta to the junk pile. The lesson is that quality and technological superiority does not always ensure success. In fact, Sony has a history of delivering technologically superior products but some have been marketing flops. Just look at Sony’s Mini-Disc in the early 90’s, and their current Memory Sticks (which compete against CompactFlash and SD), which are essentially only used in Sony products. That being said, Sony is the inventor and lead promoter of Blu-ray technology. But it has managed to bring together a large group of supporters this time around including Dell, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, TDK and Thomson. There are also a number of content providers supporting Blu-ray including Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Walt Disney Company and its home-video division Buena Vista Entertainment. In addition, video gaming giant Electronic Arts, and Vivendi Universal Games have both shown support. The main backer of the HD-DVD format is Toshiba along with NEC and Sanyo. An impressive list of entertainment content companies have also thrown their weight behind HD-DVD, including Paramount, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., along with New Line Cinema. Microsoft has also joined the HD-DVD camp, producing a $200 add-on unit for its Xbox360. What’s the Difference? Both formats offer six times the resolution of traditional DVD, high quality surround sound, interactive content, and copy protection built in. The main difference is the storage capacity and production cost of the product itself. HD-DVD holds 15GB on each layer (up to 30GB per disc). Blu-ray on the other hand holds 25GB per layer and up to 50GB per disc. Based on capacity alone, Blu-ray is the clear winner, although that capacity comes with a price. While HD-DVDs can be manufactured using the same production facilities as DVD’s, Blu-ray requires costly new manufacturing processes resulting in higher costs. Both formats are backwards compatible with standard DVDs, so you can still watch your collection of DVDs. Next-Gen Consoles One factor that could influence the outcome of the format war is the fact that Sony has included Blu-ray in its new PS3 console. The company delayed the launch of the console in order to be able to include the new technology. The move, which was widely criticized and significantly raised the price of the units, could result in a significant advantage for the Blu-ray in the end. To date Sony has sold over 2 million PS3’s world wide (700,000+ in the US) and with this number Sony claims to have surpassed the number of HD-DVD units sold to date. This significantly outstrips Microsoft’s HD-DVD add-on unit sales of about 100,000 in the US alone. Recent reports also show that Blu-ray movies have begun out selling HD-DVD by about 3:1. Conclusion Only time will tell which format will come out on top, but some companies aren’t waiting to find out. During the Consumer Electronics Show in January, LG Electronics unveiled the Super Multi Blue player, which can play both formats. In addition, Warner Bros. has announced plans to release the Total HD Disc, which can carry both formats on one disc. Both products should help to alleviate the fear of choosing a format while the battle is still being fought. So what should you do if you just can’t wait unil there is a clear winner? Because the cost of either format’s player units are still so expensive ($600 for HD-DVD and $1,000 for Blu-ray), my suggestion would be to go with the consoles. If you already have an Xbox 360, for another $200 you can get an HD-DVD drive, with free movie and remote control. And if you are a PlayStation fan and can afford it, the PS3 ($550 – 650) will give you a Blu-ray player for far less than the cost of buying a standalone player. But don’t forget you will need an HDTV to be able to enjoy either HD-DVD or Blu-ray, so if you don’t own one yet, perhaps you should start there.
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By Nevin Buconjic
For Fresh Magazine (Original Print Date – May/June 2007) Windows Vista, Microsoft’s first new operating system in more than five years. Vista looks beautiful and has number of new features, but is it worth the upgrade? When Vista was released to the public on January 30, 2007 I made a point of picking up a copy the first day. I must admit, I was excited to get my hands on the new OS after seeing some of the previews and screenshots of the new Aero interface. For the non-techy, things could get a little confusing. Before even considering upgrading to Vista, you need to figure out if your current PC can run it effectively. You see, each new version of Windows typically requires a faster and more powerful PC to run it – and Vista is no exception. At minimum, Windows Vista requires a modern processor of at least 800MHz clock speed, 512MB RAM, and a DirectX 9 compatible graphics card. But these minimum specs won’t run Vista well. In fact since running Vista in all its glory requires a pretty decent PC, Microsoft has made available, a free software download to test your system and tell you if upgrading your current PC to Vista is possible or even worthwhile. Because I have a high-powered Dell laptop I ran the test, curious to see the results. Even though my Dell Inspiron XPS laptop was top of the line two years ago, I was interested to see how it would fair. According to the software, my PC was more than capable of running Vista without losing any functionality of graphical appeal. This mostly due to the 256MB nVidia graphics card on board. I proceeded to install the upgrade over a recently installed fresh install of Windows XP – Media Centre version. After inserting the Vista DVD, the first thing that happened was a request to run the Windows Upgrade Advisor once again to identify any potential hardware or software issues. The test identified a few hardware drivers that may not function properly but for the most part there were no major problems listed. So after inputting the serial number which came inside the package, the install began. The PC hummed as it chugged along, accessing the DVD and loading the installation. To my surprise it took at least 45 minutes before Vista was even ready to reboot for the first time. I waited patiently to see what Vista would look like upon reboot…but again I was unpleasantly surprised as more installation began to take place. I would have to wait at least another 10-15 minutes before seeing Vista in operation. All told, the upgrade took well over an hour, but finally I was able to see what new features and functionality Vista had in store. My first impression upon loading – I was impressed with the new visual interface. Transparent windows, smooth animations and crisp graphics are the first thing you notice, along with other things like Windows Sidebar, and a new Start Menu. There has been a lot of talk about how Vista resembles the Mac OS 10 with it’s visual appeal and affects. I won’t do a comparison here, but regardless I feel that the new Windows Aero interface is beautiful compared to Windows XP. The effects are possible through the newly designed graphics subsystem, and the introduction of DirectX10 which will allow for ultra-realistic games and program graphics in the future. Although a handful of games are under development to take advantage of DirectX10, users will also require a new graphics card such as the nVidia Geforce 8800 GTX which currently runs about $600 US! Other advances include Windows Vista Instant Search which is fast and accurate. As you type in the file name, property or even text from within the file, it returns results before you even press enter. I found the search function performed very well. Vista was built with security in mind. The OS functions in such a way that crucial parts of the code cannot be accessed by other programs such as malware and viruses. There are also a number of security features built in such as Windows Defender, firewall, and anti-phising software. Other security measures require the user to approve most changes to the system, such as when installing programs and approving any detected changes to the system files. It seems like overkill, but if it helps to keep the system from safe from online intruders and other dangers, then I might be able to live with it. Windows Sidebar is kind of neat. The feature allows you to add gadgets to the side of your screen…cool things like a CPU and memory monitor, stock ticker, RSS news headlines, a clock or calendar and many more. They let you see information without opening a full program. Most of the five versions of Vista have built in Media Center which helps you organize all of your digital entertainment including music, photos, movies and video clips. Users can utilize Media Center to play DVDs, record TV shows, or stream multimedia to your Xbox 360 if you have one. Although Microsoft has enhanced Media Center, it is essentially the same as the previous Windows Media Centre Edition. I have now been using Vista for about two months and I have to say, there are a few things about it that really irritate me. The security measures I mentioned earlier, are a real pain to deal with. Vista asks for permission to do everything it seems, which really gets quite annoying, and I have found that several of my old programs do not work correctly with Vista, in fact a game I installed would not run because it was looking for a particular file that is not in this version of Windows. I have even had some trouble with programs that said they were Vista compatible. All in all, I think that Vista is a nice step forward. The OS adds some neat features and some really great features, and does appear to be more stable and secure. However, there are significant compatibility issues that will take time to iron out. My recommendation would be to pass on the upgrade of Vista and instead wait to get it with your next PC or laptop. |
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