Which Format Will Win? v2.0

Since publishing my last entry there has been even more discussion surrounding the way in which Blu-Ray and HD DVD are being supported, or not-supported, by retail outlets and rental chains.

While I have a moment I thought I'd update this with my most recent experience. I was in the city on Sunday just having a wander. Went into the CD / DVD Store on Lambton Quay and saw that they had Casino Royale on Blu-Ray. I approached the staff behind the counter and asked when they would be getting HD DVD content in stock. I was once again told that "oh we're going with Blu-Ray here, we won't be getting in HD DVD".

Crazy. Just absolutely CRAZY!

Which Format Will Win?

A lot has been said over the past year or eighteen months regarding which of the High Definition disc will win the so called "format war" and become the new standard in digital home entertainment.

The figures are still inconclusive. While HDDVD seems to be miles ahead in some parts of the world, Blu-Ray is taking the lead in other areas. Some say that the success of either format depends on the Porn industry getting behind (so to speak) one format or the other. Others believe that Sony is doomed to failure based on their past experiences with both the Betamax video tape format, and the more recent UMD format for their Playstation Portable hand-held game unit. Until recently I had a strong feeling that HDDVD would win out in the end - but that was, I think, based on my dislike for the Sony brand.

A few nights ago I was at the local Blockbuster Video shop having a look through the new releases. I noticed that they had a HDDVD/Blu-Ray "section" comprised of one rental copy of the animated film Barnyard. My hopes were dashed because the disc itself was Blu-Ray and simply could not work on my new HDDVD player at home. After choosing some decidedly average movies to watch that evening I approached the counter with the intention of asking the staff if they would be getting any HDDVD movies in stock for rental.

I was met with an interesting response from behind the counter. Upon asking if there were a) any HDDVDs in stock? and b) when would some be coming in? I was told that they are expecting a range of Blu-Ray discs very soon, and that they would only be dealing in Blu-Ray because the shop manager figures everyone will be watching them on their Playstation 3 consoles.

What a shocking prospect. People inherently invest in technology when they know they can get content for it. Will the "format war" be decided by the DVD rental companies? For them to even make the assumption that one format should be the preferred choice over another is ludacris. The Xbox 360 has been an excellent seller, and with the addition of the new HDDVD drive at a cost of $250.00NZD this console provides the cheapest method of bringing High Definition content into the home. The market is already flooded with Xbox 360s so if any conclusions were to be blindly drawn, as they have been by the Blockbuster manager in question, it would be that the masses who already have an Xbox 360 will buy this cheap HDDVD addon and then want HDDVD content for it. This person is hanging on the fact that the PS3 - only just released here mind you, will sell enough numbers in the next few months to equal the Xbox 360 market share and make Blu-Ray a viable rental option for his customers. For shame I say! Where is the fore-thought? Where is the market research?

All of this begs the question: Which of the larger DVD rental company chains are in bed with which of the production houses? Sony Pictures clearly will only release content on Blu-Ray. So can we draw a wild conspiracy theory conclusion that Blockbuster receives the majority of its content from Sony? Of course we can't, in the same way that Blockbuster can't conclude that Blu-Ray will be the predominant player format among consumers at this stage. They need to give both technologies the right amount of time to see which is selling better. And my guess at this stage is that HDDVD will take the lead purely because it is cheaper.

It's mine, all mine!

Right, so, how did I start that last post? Oh yeah....So it's been a while since my last post....

A lot has happened in the technological macrocosm. iPhone's have been announced, Vista's have been released, megalomaniacal rants have surfaced about how "the record companies made me use DRM". In all of the insanity it's hard to stay focussed on the truly important things in life...like how I got my 24" iMac finally!

My lack of writing these past 6 months or so has presented me with the unenviable task of trying to figure out exactly what to write about. Do I tackle Vista? Do I berate the iTunes 7.1? Do I jump on the "10.4.9 killed my Mac" bandwagon? Or do I simply brag about my own private accomplishments of late. You know what? I think the latter.

I'll start with my Vista experiences so far. Having sworn not to I made my way down to DickSmith at around 11am on the day Vista was released. As fortune would have it, or rather commonsense on the part of consumers nation-wide, there were plenty of copies of all the Vista versions left on the shelves. I chose Vista Home Premium for no other reason than all I wanted it for was the new Media Center UI and functionality. A quick Google that morning told me that the only versions I could purchase that actually gave me new functionality were Vista Home Premium Upgrade at $349, and Vista Ultimate Upgrade at $850. Steep pricing I thought as I found my arm autonomously reaching for the shelf.

Back in the office I quickly realised how much of a geek I truly am, as I opened the DVD case for the fifth time to see if I had missed anything inside it on my first inspection. How sad I thought, also realising that if I didn't already have a girlfriend it was likely I never would again!

After work I walked in the door at home and quickly unplugged my media center PC, bringing it into the study to begin the Vista upgrade. Now, there's a few things Micro$oft don't make clear when you enter into a venture like this. They add these small details to legal documents called End User Licence Agreements. I've seen these "EULA's" before, mythical tomes with magic writing on them that requires several thick layers of magnification to read. I've even read one or two of them, with their shape-shiftery words that never actually say what they are meant to say - until after you have done what you're not meant to do. It's at this stage that they form a cement like "told you so" form similar to Moses' tablets.

An example of this EULA witchcraft happened to me when I installed Vista. It turns out that once you upgrade a version of Windows XP you automatically void your installation code for that version. So, when I upgraded the version of Windows XP Media Center that was installed on my Media Center PC, I lost all rights to use that version of Windows ever again. I was GUTTED! I've used Vista a lot over the last 2 years while it was in beta and RTM mode, but I still didn't know if I was actually going to use it in production on my Media Center. I would have liked the option to roll-back to XP Media Center should things have gone awry. Nope, not allowed. More so than that, I really wanted to flick my old XP copy up on TradeMe for a tidy profit!

It wasn't until a week or so after my install experience that I found some information that would have been helpful before I did the install. First was the EULA section that told me I can't use my version of Windows that had been upgraded, second was that you can do a clean install with an Upgrade disc, the latter being the more important of the two. With an Upgrade disc that is several hundred dollars cheaper than a full version disc, you can do a full clean install of Vista. Essentially, you install Vista with no key and let it install an evaluation version. You then upgrade the evaluation version and add your key, then delete your evaluation version. How and why this got through Microsoft's rigorous testing is beyond me, but I'm starting to think it was left in there for a reason. Either way, after several weeks of tinkering a tweaking I now have a fully functional Vista Media Center DVR (with episode guide I might add!), and I'm loving the new version compared to XP.

The completion of my Windows Media Center PC project - all 12 months of it - leads me to my second piece of news, arguably more exciting than the first but equally as geeky. I bought myself a 24" iMac...finally. I say finally because I've been wanting to get back into the world of Mac for quite some time, ever since I sold my Mac mini and started my Windows Media Center in fact. We do have a Macbook in the house, but it's not mine and its not strictly powerful enough for the applications that I wanted to run on a Mac.

For those who are interested, it's a 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo (Intel of course). 1.5GB of DDR2 memory, 250GB SATA-2 hard drive, Integrated BlueTooth, 802.11n Airport, 8x Superdrive, with a wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse (dumbest....name....ever....). There's 128MB graphics and, of course, a 24" high definition display.

The first thing that you notice is the display. Not only because of its sheer size, but also the quality of the picture. I think the first thing I did was grab some 1080p movie trailers from the Apple website. I've never, ever, seen The Simpsons look so vibrant and colourful! Match the display with the speed and power of the computer itself and I have to say I'm very happy with my buy!

Since the Vista / iMac work was done I've found myself with a lot of redundant gear. So I've managed to weed out a few old computers, and other bits and bobs like a wireless G router that I replaced with wireless N, and other miscellaneousness. Having an iMac makes you truly understand what it is to be clutter-free, so check my TradeMe account from time to time for cheap PC parts :)

Thus concludes my bragging. Next post will be very soon, and on more topically relevant matters. Now frack off!

It will be mine, oh yes...it will be mine

It's been a while since I last updated. Life has done it's usual impersonation of a cat with a piece of string tied to its tail - gone round and round in circles so fast that it leaves you unable to do anything except walk sideways like a crab. However some geeky nuggets worthy of mention have nudged their way through the congestion, and now I finally get the opportunity to have a quick rant about them.

The easiest way for me to organise this is to place each item in the order in which I desperately searched for money to buy them (failing on each count of course - so far anyway).

First is the Sony Vaio UX, behemothly known as the Sony Vaio VGNUX17GP...and rather more behemothly known as: "Hello, Flexirent? I was wondering if you guys would please give me three thousand dollars so I can act on an unjustifiable impulse and buy myself a new toy that I'll use for a week and the relegate to the toilet so I can use it to play Minesweeper while I'm on the loo?". Yeah, not the most practical of toys - and I've already got the PDA for loo based entertainment....Bejewelled should definitely come with a "Warning: Prolonged gameplay whilst sitting on the toilet can severely numb your legs, making standing a distinctly unenjoyable prospect".

I digress. The Sony Vaio UX is a fantastic machine. To fit all that gear inside a case the size of a video tape weighing only 517 grams is an incredible achievement. Sadly though it falls by the wayside for me, coming in at the distant rear of the queue behind such things as new furniture, new car, new......iMac!!!!!!

Thats right, the next "I must have it now" on my list is the new 24" iMac. 24 inches of Mac goodness in a designer case with what, in my opinon, is the best operating system known to man!! With the inclusion of Front Row and Apple Remote this is truly a great computer with many different applications. These range from powerhouse developer computer, to bedroom entertainment unit. I'll be sure to post photo's once it's all set up!

Hopefully the posts will be a bit more frequent from now on as things steady out at work and at home. I'm looking forward to getting back in touch with what's happening in the world of technology and spending a bit less time focussed on the world of work.

I Guess Not

Seems the last blog about AMD's reverse-hyperthreading has been proven false. Still, it sounded good when I wrote about it!

Better Multi-Core Support From AMD?

CPU manufacturer AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) may be working on a new "anti-hyperthreading" technology for their Socket AM2 form factor. Rumours have been circulating since April 2006 stating that AMD is developing technology to boost the performance of applications that run as a single thread on multi-core processors such as the Athlon 64 X2 and FX series.

Intel's HyperThreading technology takes advantage of applications written specifically for use with multi-core processors by allocating resources to a specific CPU. The rumoured AMD development is said to allow single-threaded applications (by far the majority) to take advantage of multi-core processors. Essentially instead of having to develop applications to use multi-core processors efficiently, the processors themselves will do all the work in spreading resources across the CPU.

How this will be achieved is still unknown, although this may simply be a case of overclocking the processor while disabling the other core when required. Rumour has it this functionality has already been incorporated into the Athlon 64 X2 for Socket AM2 form factor. If so a BIOS update and the latest CPU driver installation may the only actions required by the end user. A driver allowing the Operating System to recognise the multi-core processor as a single-core would then be made available to complete the package.

The distinct drawback to this type of CPU technology is it has taken a long time for hyper-threaded applications to hit the market. As is the case with a sparse supply of 64bit applications, software developers have been accused of being "lazy" in making the transition to multi-core support. Without application development to embrace multi-core technologies there can be no growth in this area. As such I question whether this is the right direction for AMD to move in, or whether emphasis should be placed on programmers to step up to the plate and focus on the already established multi-core platform. There are huge benefits in going dual-core or above, but unless the software developers get on board it may be some time before these benefits are felt by the end user.

Tiger 10.4.7 Available Now

The latest update for both Intel and Power PC based Mac's are available for download here. Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.7 provides fixes and security updates for several applications and specific areas of the operating system, such as device syncing and audio problems. An attacker exploiting the worst of these security issues could execute arbitrary code, possibly gaining full control of the OS X maching.

I'm left wondering if Tiger will reach 10.4.9 before Leopard (10.5) is released - hopefully early next year assuming a raft of kernel issues related to Intel architecture are ironed out. At any rate the 10.4.7 update should provide further stability to what I believe is one of the best operating systems available today.

As well as the operating system update, Apple have also released a firmware update for the 17 inch MacBook Pro addressing fan behaviour in the notebook. Users have complained about a variety of fan issues ranging from a "mooing" sound, to the fan constantly spinning and never idling. If you were an early MacBook Pro adopter and have the 17 inch model, download the update here.