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  • rnemeth - Friday, December 1, 2006 - link


    I personally think this article was extremely on point with the direction of media components in general. I think there will be many people out there, like me, who are planning on the convergence of the Media Center PC & Gaming PC. Vista (Ultimate) will bring Media Center to the masses and why shouldn't you be able to play your favorite DX10 "Game for Windows" on your big HDTV as well?

    This article is ahead of its time. HDPC/DRM/HDMI/DVI/BR/HD-DVD/HDTV is all in the early stages. In the future, you will be able to buy or rent your high-def movie by downloading it to your PC with DRM finally figured out. This review shows us that it is not all there yet, but gives us an idea who is doing what, and what we need to look for.

    You mentioned in the beginning of the article that you were looking for feedback to see how interested your audience is on this subject... count me as 1.
  • thejez - Sunday, November 26, 2006 - link

    HDCP is a joke... look at how hard it is to understand and get this stuff running... not to mention you have upgrade all your hardware?? lol and who watches movies on their PC anyway?? do you people really sit huddled over your keyboard watching movies?? Why not invest in some better equipment for the family room and watch movies they way they were intended....

    but the difficulty in setting all this up makes it even more important that hdcp has already been cracked... i wouldnt let the movie industry tell you your hardware isnt good enough to buy their content... just buy what you want and "work" around the issue later... the cracks are only getting better.... we'll see HD-DVD Shrink soon enough...
  • KalTorak - Monday, November 20, 2006 - link

    Careful - it's not safe to assume that higher bitrate content is more computationally difficult to decode than lower bitrate content. [In fact, I suspect they're weakly correlated the other way - lower bitrate is harder.]
  • DerekWilson - Monday, November 20, 2006 - link

    ahh ... very interesting ...

    it would make sense to me to say that both are true.

    In the case where low bitrate means more aggressive high quality encoding, i absolutely see your point. But low bitrate can also mean lower quality (less information) at the same level of encoding -- in these cases lower bitrate will be easier to decode.

    Thanks for pointing this out.
  • Badkarma - Monday, November 20, 2006 - link

    Hi Derek,

    Can you comment on HD audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD for the HTPC? I know Bluray has yet to use these formats but how about HD-DVD on the HTPC. From what I understand, you could get these formats outputted via analog output on your soundcard, but I'm interested in HDMI. I know some of the HDMI video cards you reviewed have SPDIF passthrough via HDMI, however SPDIF cannot carry Dolby Digital +, TrueHD, or DTS-HD, it will only output DTS or DD. I'm holding back on a HDCP video card because HD audio is an important part of HD movies.

    Thanks.
  • Ajax9000 - Sunday, November 19, 2006 - link

    p.13 "Both the 8800 GTX and GTS are fully HDCP compatible, and HDCP is enabled through both DVI ports" p.22 "Some of the cards, like the HDMI Gigabyte 7600 GS and ASUS EN7600 GT, were only able to play our Blu-ray movies over HDMI and not through the DVI port. Conversely, we found that with our MSI NX7600 GT Diamond Plus, the Blu-ray content wouldn't play through the HDMI connection but it would through the DVI port."

    OK, so which cards (other than the 8800s) could do HDCP over both ports?

    ----

    p.19 "The end result is that an NVIDIA card with more pipelines that is better at 3D performance will not necessarily be better at video decoding."

    In other words overclocking (say) a 7600 is likely to give as good or better HD video results than using (say) a 7950GX2?

    ----

    p.20 "In the future, we could see power consumption go down with acceleration enabled. As graphics hardware is better suited to processing video than a CPU, efficiency should go up when using hardware acceleration."

    The results for the 9750GTs already seem to show this 147W average non-accelerated >> 142 for EVGA & PNY (although Gigabyte > 148W).

    Adrian
  • chucky2 - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    ...can we get it added to these results just for comparison?

    Also, you don't happen to know when that'd be, would you? :)

    Chuck
  • BigLan - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    I noticed that in the cpu utilisation tests you said it was around 51% for no acceleration - was this because the player software is single threaded and so only used one core?

    Also, is click encoded in h264, or mpeg2 like the initial bluray discs?
  • DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    Now that the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is available and is proven to work with a PC, any chance on doing another round-up "real soon now" using HD-DVD? I'd really love to see the numbers for VC1 and H.264 decoding.

    Still amazed that the lowly X1600 card spanked all Nvidia cards but the G80 boards in CPU utilization.

    Good job guys.
  • DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    BTW, the new releases from Fox on Blu-Ray use the H.264 codec. Behind Enemy Lines, Fantastic 4, etc. I think Behind... is already out.
  • LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - link

    Behind Enemy Lines? Explains why Blu-Ray adoption is so slow.
  • NullSubroutine - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    I think ATi er AMD had been working on the drivers for GPU accelration for HD movies longer than Nvidia is all. You only have so much resources in a given department, it would make seense that Nvidia put more focus in other things (like Linux drives) where as Ati was working on this and Folding @ home stuff.
  • dickie1900 - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    Do you think the results will change for the 8800s when DX10 rolls out with Vista or are we going to have to wait for games to be developed that use some of the newer instructions?
  • DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    I would doubt it. I don't believe Blu-Ray/HD-DVD decoding has anything to do with DirectX.
  • DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    quote:

    The Calibre 7950 GT has an interesting design, with a somewhat artistic curve to the edges of the HSF, and a matte black coloring with a nice-looking silver horse and the word "Calibre" on it.


    Dude, it's a unicorn. :-)

  • phusg - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    First off, thanks for the great review.

    quote:

    Because the noise level of these cards was 0Db, they were not included in the graphs


    Why not? Many people just look at the graphs and this way they would miss out on the 2 quietest cards.

    Also (unrelated), it's a shame there was no mention of AGP cards. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking to stretch the life of their AGP HTPC.

    And one more thing (unrelated), aren't there initiatives that are looking to handle the HD decoding in software? I'd love a review of these. What is the slowest CPU you can decode HD content with?
  • mino - Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - link

    I second that.
    EVERY noise measurement should include reference of the bacground (system without the thingie which noise one measures).

    As those 0dB would would not be 0dB. There would be the noise of the system without the noise of the card - hence the bacground noise.

    Try to consider that in the future. No much work required for MUCH information added.
  • Spoelie - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    coreavc is the fastest h264 software decoder, no competition
    Their cpu-only implementation is most of the time faster than the competition WITH gpu support, but they're working on gpu support as well.

    It is payware tho.
    http://coreavc.corecodec.org/">http://coreavc.corecodec.org/
  • NullSubroutine - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    I originally had written this up in response to an artical that MS Office has mandatory authentication checks when doing updates. However, I think the idea of what the "intellectual property" industry is putting consumers through is rediculous.

    ....this just in, cars now 'phone home' to validate the vehicial is authentic prior to fixing factory installed parts.....refridgerator units must now be activated via phone call before the cooling units will work....lotion now comes with EULA, which is automatically agreed to at time of purchase (information is inside the bottle)....desk drawers will now automatically lock after free trial period has ended....fees must now be paid to bacteria colonies each time a user flushes the toilet....due to people stealing food, the price has increased 1000x, if the food is not authentic it will tell you, via voice, that your food is not real food, and where authentic food can be purchased if you give the food companies the information on where your not real food was purchased; when asked about the policy, supporters claimed that food was an optional luxery, paint companies now produce super ultra high quality paint products - but can only be applied with a special paint brush on special surface (microchips installed) or else the paint looks like normal paint - when cosumers were asked about the new paint they said it looked great but unless they wanted to buy all new everything, it was all meaningless...
  • shecknoscopy - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    quote:

    ... the one we have for our testing is the movie "Click" which was one of the first 50GB Blu-ray discs available.


    Wow... the Blu-ray era's off to a stunning start, eh? No more complaining about the poor game options for the Wii launch, when the stunning new world of BLU-RAY is kicking off with "Click."

    Lawdy, help us.
    -Sheq
  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    We chose Click because of it's bitrate, not because or its artistic value :-)
  • msva124 - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    quote:

    The fact that both the graphics card and display device must be HDCP capable, and most displays and graphics cards that people are currently using aren't HDCP compatible is a problem for consumers in general.
    Not really. The industry conforms to the the buyer, not the other way around.
  • Josh Venning - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    Thanks for the comment, but the fact is that in the war against piracy, there is a lot of collateral damage.. Movie industries don't care if the consumer dislikes the fact that they have to upgrade their system in order to play the movie with the newest copy-protection standards. They only want to get rid of the pirates at whatever cost. This is why ultimately, everyone will have to conform.. or else not enjoy the benefits Bluray and HD DVD have to offer.
  • LoneWolf15 - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    quote:

    This is why ultimately, everyone will have to conform.. or else not enjoy the benefits Bluray and HD DVD have to offer.
    However, if people fail to adopt (or are extremely slow to adopt) HDCP and balk in enough quantity, the resulting drop in sales would likely force the content industry to rethink its position.

    Don't think that I believe this is going to happen; I believe most consumers are sheep, and they'll go out and buy what is needed. Some of them may even pitch a fit that they have to, but they'll still likely do it because they want the content more. If Jane and Joe consumers across the globe said "We won't buy it" though, I think things would change. They would have to, or the loss in sales would eventually drive the content industry out of business.

    Gives me a chance to remind myself that sometimes Sunshine/Outdoors 1.0 beats a home theater though, when the choice is available. :)
  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    But the industry is feeding the consumer the line that this is the only way it can be. The average consumer doesn't know or understand that things /could/ be done a different way.

    The average consumer doesn't realize what he or she is giving up by buying into the industry's FUD. Pirates don't rape artists of their money. The very studios the artists work get their first.

    It'd be great if everyone would boycott BD and HDDVD. But it's not going to happen.
  • LoneWolf15 - Monday, November 20, 2006 - link

    I agree, Derek.

    One thought...considering that this was an HDCP review, I'd enjoy seeing a followup that did some work with evaluating video playback quality. I game, but I want an all-round card solution. This explains why I got rid of my Geforce 6800 --good gaming card, video playback was average quality on supported accelerated formats, and nVidia's PureVideo (rev. 1, or should I say 0.99) fiasco drove me away from them.

    I'd be very interested to see how the current PureVideoHD and Avivo technologies square off, both in CPU usage under H.264, but also playback quality.

    And, while I know things could be done a different way, my pessimism towards the future is high. It explains why HDCP support was a requirement in purchasing an LCD panel this week. This really stinks, I'd have chosen standard-aspect over widescreen except for that (almost no 20" standard displays with HDCP; I say almost rather than none, but I didn't find any). I had to get a much bigger widescreen to make up for lack or vertical height relative to a standard-aspect display.
  • Sunrise089 - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    Not always - see the record industry for the ideal example of those that do not conform to anything other than their own outdated models.

    I'm an enthusiastic capitalist, but some industries or industry groups have been unable or unwilling to adapt to the rapid pace of technology driven change in the internet era. Such groups have oftentimes fallen back upon legal attempts to force the marketplace into accepting their idea of how buisness should be done. The RIAA and the companies it represents refused to understand the oppurtunities the internet created for them, AND they refused to offer the product the consumers desired, because it didn't fit their model. The iTunes success story has forced them to sit up and take notice, and now rather than try to finally offer what customers want, they continue to wish to put the genie back in the bottle, and try to offer digital content to consumers only when it can be made 'safe' through DRM. DRM is NOT a market driven movement, it's a movement that attempts to remove one of the central features of the internet era - increased ability to steal content. Well fine, but the studios must think they exist in a vacuum because all they want to talk about is that negitive, not the positive factor of FAR lower distribution cost, and zero physical production cost. So we have all this focus on piracy protection, at huge cost to the end-user, that has essentially reduced the product purchased from a copy of the original work, down to a semi-permanant pay-per-view license, but the cost of the 'product' has remained the same.

    Tell me where the market forces are here?
  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    The market forces are neatly tied up and tossed out with the garbage thanks to the VERY anti-consumer DMCA (digital millennium copyright act).

    We can hardly even ask for what we want without being shot down by the DMCA.

    Sure, we still have "fair use" rights. But the problem is that we can't touch the content to which we supposedly have fair use due to the legal protection afforded encrypted content by the DMCA.

    If we were given unprotected movies, it would still be illegal to copy and distribute this content. It's almost like car manufacturers making cars that could only be driven by one person: it's still illegal to steal a car, but now the owner is restricted in his legal uses for the car. The comparison is even more accurate if there were laws in place to keep the owner of a car from circumventing the restriction to allow another person to drive it.

    The only thing that DRM does is keep us from the myriad legal uses we could have for our movies (and music for that matter) that don't fall under just watching and listenting. Or didn't you know you had any right to use that content in other ways?

    We couldn't even show you screen shots of the movie to compare image quality -- screen capture must be disabled during video playback.

    Sorry for the rant -- this stuff just really bugs me.
  • mino - Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - link

    Well, me not.

    Before , at college I didn't buy a single DVD cause I have no money to spend on unnecessary stuff.

    Now I buys some DVD here and there.
    But hell!
    To ask equivalent of $30 for a DVD in a country where average daily wage is $25!!!

    Also, to send some ***hole from RIAA analogue to saturday local middle school kids performance to have them pay $200 for singing some 30yrs old forgotten song on public area!!!
    Are they crazy? [Yes, they are.]

    I rememmber the co-called "totalitarian" communism jet.
    And I can say, in that era people had far more liberties than they have in US now.

    Sure, one can have a gun now. But he can't even sing or use some frickin publicly known math algorithm someone pattented. WTF?
    Lets' patent the wheel!

    20yrs ago we could not critisize the government here. But pretty much anything other than that was allowed(legal). From owning (registered)guns to singing whatever your mouth was capable off.

    Now we are gonna have all of the wondelfull liberties ... or, better said, the corporations are gonna have all the wondelfull liberties.


    To topic: what happens if you use analog output? You mentioned that the playback software asked for analog output when non-HDCP card was found...
  • AGAC - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    I thought I was going to read an article to help me choose what hardware should I have if I wanted to playback some HDCP media.

    Gaming benchmarks? Great! So now I know that a Geforce 8800 GTX is faster then a Radeon X1600! Thanks a lot.

    What about OS settings, WinXp and Linux compatibility (is BluRay for Vista only?), monitor options, which card supports video in, why monitor manufacturers don´t advertise their HDCP compliant displays? Should I buy a desktop monitor? Should I buy an HDTV? what about all of it? So many questions...

    I read it all and still don´t have a clue.

    Sorry for the rant, guys. It´s this HDCP joke they´re playing on us all. Blockbuster video nearby has HD-DVD and BR titles and I laugh at the shelf because I want to play those in my pc and don´t know how to do it. I don´t remember having so much trouble with computer media since the days with my MSX computer and it´s cassete tapes back in early 80´s.

    Regards from Brazil.
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    Testing was done with an HDTV, because that's almost guaranteed to get HDCP support these days. Some of the newer LCDs have HDCP support (Dell's 2407 and 2007 do I believe), but most do not. That should change, but for now you are less likely to get HDCP with a standard PC display than with an HDTV. So, for HTPCs, you're better off getting just about any LCDTV or plasma in my opinion - watch out for projection HDTVs, as the text for PC use can get pretty garbled. Also beware of plasma burn-in possibilities. My rear-projection HDTV has a bit of burn-in already, and no matter what companies may say, plasma as I understand it is far more prone to such problems. (ESPN HD's logo is burned in on my TV, in case you want to know.)

    For the cards, features and performance are the two big factors - do you want gaming + HDCP support, just HDCP, or somewhere in between? What about HDMI? If you plan on connecting directly to a TV and using the TV speakers, you'll want HDMI that can include audio (several of the cards reviewed do this). My HDTV for example has an HDMI port, and I can use a DVI-to-HDMI cable to connect to it via just about any modern GPU. The problem is, I can't get audio from the TV without a true HDMI connection.

    Finally, OS support is either via Vista, or else you can get an appropriate media player that will handle HDCP content. Testing here was done on XP, so it works already. Will Vista make it better? I personally doubt it, but it won't require extra software apparently (beyond whatever Vista already includes, of course, which is already a lot of "extra").

    This article is more intended as an introduction to HDCP cards rather than being the final word. It will become more important over the next year or two, certainly. We'll have discussions on displays and HDCP support in the future.
  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    Might I also add that 1080p HDTVs seem to make excellent computer monitors. If you want something to do dual duty as a TV and a PC monitor, I can highly recommend a 1080p LCD like the westinghouse we used in this review.

    If I had the money for either a new monitor or a new TV I'd go with one of these and kill two birds with one stone. And I'd be very very happy about it.
  • Tujan - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    Come on man.Desktop HD "? Smack some of that power onto those 32 to 40 in LCD sets. I know,I know,the angle is just around the corner. The LCD vendors are going have to,sooner,or later realize what their sets mean to the market.The market different from what is being portrayed. And what performance of them mean in it.

    Has there been any consideration of this.? And in doing so is there any caveats to using the HDTVs when involved with the drivers/hardware..there probably are. Since HDTV sets have somewhat sutured chipsets involved with them.

    So in so doing,the idea here for HDCP,being that most of these cards have DVI(HDMI transformer connector)- problems/caveats for proper sound output was not considered. What to look for to consideration of other components,and compatability to HDCP.

    Perahps for example I want to look at HD.And HDCP,are we going to limit our computers to a non-player in this area.For example,get on the wire-less keyboard in the living room already.

    If I was to realize that electronics stores for example had 'none'of these HDCP enable cards I would be fixing some faces.

    But BD,or HD-DVD on the computer screem ?

    Come on man. Its chow on those 32",40" LCD HDTV monitors already.

    As if Tiawan,Japan,South Korea aren't already in the weeds.I mean helloo.

    And AMD-ATI,...-dont be such a lard bottom.!(AMD-ATI).

    I mean(Anandtech) easily,get Fries,or Bestbuy to give you the keys to those isles for a night or two.Im sure they'd appreciate your tender convention.

    thanks for ability to post here.And good article.




  • DigitalFreak - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    Damn dude. I didn't understand a thing you said. Was that Far Eastern Jive or something?
  • Tujan - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    Here is the test setup page..

    http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874...">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874...


    Guess depends on where your standing (and punn ya yes):

    -In front of the HDTVs or Video Cards
    (retail electronics shop)

    - At your work desk putting a computer together (or bench)

    - At your desktop reading the Anandtech article....,or In your living room sitting at your couch.

    - Maybe looking at your checkbook wondering that you dont 'want to afford a 500$ mistake.

    ............................
    "Far East Jive" ? LOL. Its all Taiwan,Japan,or South Korea making the LCDs. They look really good.

    It isn't like you cant see the jungle for the warefare.

    ________________
    Just below here on a forum post the author you'll see that the Display was said to be an HDTV . Though the system stats didn't say "what<- ...uhumn .. Display.
    Think that the point of the article was question of fact wether or not the video cards would have performance,and HDCP without sacrificing one or the other.Performance to gaming,and HDCP.
    For me as I had first posted would be the testing of these stats/cards to the HDTV LCDs.The author,..again said later within this forum posted that other testing would take place.
    Since the caveats against several different HDTV monitors would be exactly different than simply putting together the video card(s).Telling that everything was 'ok'by doing this.With HDTVs you would have to figure compatability via the video cards(to the HDTV) as well as HDTVs (to the video cards.)
    This article did not go as far as testing against several HDTVs. With the different video cards(including interaction of software instalation).
    The title of my post as 'toes in slippers..hmm". Bears the reasoning that against the backdrop of the 'shelf sets..HD DVD .. Blue-ray..and non-computer .. for the sake of broadcast,and 'media'- the living room LCDTVs are much more than this this.

    Its not my business to tell anybody what their business is.Then when electronics vendors are going to ignore the accesories the LCD HDTVs afford to something as 'limited'as broadcast,and media. 'Broadcast,and HD,or Blueray to high definition is 'damn limiting.Thus the 'market'isn't what your being told it is. Just in case you hadn't noticed.

    A 500$ mistake makes a difference.The context of that market is all about whats around the corner in so many ways. But where are you standing and whats there to look at ? If that market is ignored in the inventories and on the shelfs...as so on.In that 'limiting'focus.

    Now,I've got to figure if my post is 'worth it'. The 32"and 40 LCDTVs are 'worth it. So lets see what they can do. Read some more angles about them before purchasing.

    Thanks for reply.
  • Tarx - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    As mentioned above, but worth mentioning again, the X1950Pro is often considered to be the best midrange card currently on the market (relatively fast, not power hungry, fairly low cost, quiet, etc.) - if possible, can this article be amended to include it?
  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    As Josh mentioned above, ATI didn't support playback of HDCP protected content on the X1950 Pro until the release of the 6.11 Catalyst driver which was posted on 11/15/06 (one day before this article was published).

    We'll absolutely include the X1950 Pro in future articles that cover high definition video playback now that ATI has finally released a public driver for the same.
  • Spoelie - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    article index is broken (fixed)
    graphic card data is incorrect (x1900xt at 500/600 instead of 625/750? price?)
    video table is f*cked up
    oblivion settings are not linked (fixed now too)
    etc. etc.

    still a few cards i would like to see that are still missing, like a x1950pro with 512mb or the x1950xt - and what's the use of testing performance of identical cards, mentioning all hdcp compliant 7950gt and posting performance of one should be sufficient.
  • Spoelie - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    just to be clear, i know what the point is of this article, but since the x1950xt and a comparison between x1950pro 256/512 are both unlikely to get separate articles at this point, using roundups like this would be useful to include them, especially if you're gonna test and post 3d performance in the process :p so that we at least have some point of reference to make buying decisions. maybe something to note for future articles :)
  • Josh Venning - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    Thanks for your comment.

    We did try to test the X1950 Pro for the HDCP review. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a public driver that supports the X1950 Pro since it's launch (that is until Catalyst 6.11 which was posted yesterday). ATI really dropped the ball with X1950 Pro, because the beta drivers they released did not support HDCP either.

    We're sorry that we couldn't include this card in the review, but it just wasn't possible to test HDCP with the X1950 Pro until yesterday afternoon.
  • DerekWilson - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    To be honest, this article was a very long time in production ... we got a hold of the drive almost two months ago iirc. It just took a whole lot of time and energy to get the tests done and the article written. We did go back and add the 8800 and 256mb 1900xt, but the x1950pro seemed to slip through the cracks.

    Sorry about that. We didn't exclude it on purpose, and we will try to include it in any future articles we write on HDCP protected content and high definition movies.
  • photoguy99 - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    If the article was done a while ago, does that mean it's now possible to playback h.264/vc1 Blu-Ray on a PC?

    It would be good to know what the missing link is to make sure we get it if we want to get playback on our own systems.

  • DerekWilson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link

    All BD movies are currently MPEG-2 -- and probably will be for a while.

    HD-DVD movies use VC1.
  • peternelson - Friday, November 17, 2006 - link


    Wrong, the initial BR moves were mpeg-2 encoded content.

    There now exist BR discs with content in the other two main formats.

    Also discs with dual layers while original releases were single layer.

    The wikipedia page for bluray contains titles, launch dates of the non-mpeg-2 discs.
  • DerekWilson - Saturday, November 18, 2006 - link

    I stand corrected. Thanks for the info.
  • balazs203 - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link

    Thanks for the great review.

    At this link in the review of the new Panasonic BR player they mention a few non-MPEG2 BD titles they like quality wise:
    http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1106pan...">http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1106pan...

    I would be very much interested in an extension of your review with non-MPEG2 titles as obviously I would like to buy a computer which can play back all these titles and MPEG2 is the easisest type. Info about the other types is much more important for me when I consider what parts I want to buy.
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link

    The article wasn't *done* a while ago - it was *started* two months ago. It took that long to get to this point, which says something about the state of the technology.
  • lujack26 - Monday, October 31, 2011 - link

    I was looking around the web for HDMI video cards after I read this article and came across this website E-bargainz.com. They seem to have great prices, a large selection, and reasonable shipping. Here is the direct link to their selection of HDMI video cards http://www.e-bargainz.com/index.php/cPath/143. I also found a coupon code "Thank You" for $5 off your first purchase. I'm going to try them out. Anything to keep from putting another dollar in Jeff Bezos pockets.

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