Friday December 02, 2005

- Radeon X1000 as a video co-processor - Lionel - 21:48:36

The german website Chip.de has tested a beta version of the software Avivo from ATI.
This application for PC allows users of a Radeon X1x00 to turn its GPU into a powerful video encoding coprocessor.
The supported video formats range from MPEG-2 to WMV9 and include of course H.264.
During a test with a Radeon X1300, the video encoding process was accelerated 5-folds! Of course the CPU, in this case an Athlon FX 57, was also fully loaded by the process.
This result will for sure be really attractive for customers.
Imagine, with iDVD, being able to burn a DVD while encoding it on-the-fly!
Of course for professional applications, such possibilities and features, will increase productivity, and saving times normally required for such encoding processes.
We are dreaming of testing such application (PC-only for the moment) on a PMG5 Quad equipped with a Radeon X1800 XT...

[translation by Eric]

- Cinebench of a Quadro FX 4500 - Lionel - 20:52:19

M.G. has sent us the CineBench result from a G5 Quad equiped with a Quadro FX 4500. Here is the interesting part of the results:


For comparison, here are the results from a G5 Quad with a GeForce 6600:



The Quadro FX 4500 is clearly the fastest, with a OpenGL Speedup never before reached on a Mac of 7.11x
However, if you compare the results to the tests at 3D Professor, you can see that this is still below the results from a PC. For instance, on a dual core Intel processor, the OpenGL SW-L is 1419 and the OpenGL HW-L is 3631 and on a dual core AMD processor, the OpenGL SW-L is 1644 and the OpenGL HW-L is 4256. You can certainly think that the optimization of the x86 software is higher, but obviously there is still much work needed on the Mac drivers.
You should also keep in mind that the Quadro FX 4500 is identical, more or less, to the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 Mb. The difference (especially the price) is supposed to come from the optimized drivers which are certified for professionals.

We would appreciate it if those of you who use these cards professionally could send us your opinion.

[translation by jwa]

- Enhance your AirPort Express NOW! - Lionel - 10:46:19

Benjamin found a funny way to extend the range of his Airport Express. To put it bluntly, he placed it inside a chinese friying spoon.


This is probably the cheapest wifi antenna around :)
Check it out here:
http://bounav.free.fr

While we're talking about Airport Express, here's Jean-Marie's testimony, which could help a number of readers:

I don't know if this has been pointed out, but the 6.2 Airport Express firmware update is causing some random bugs (no connection). Apple's tech support told me to downgrade to 6.1.1 and it seems to more or less fix the problem. The 6.1.1 firmware can be found on Apple's site: AirPortExpressFW6.1.1.dmg .
So, if you haven't updated to 6.2, wait for 6.3

[translation by moose]

- FDV jumps on the bandwagon - Lionel - 10:35:24

Source : Digitimes

A newcomer is coming to add up to the confusion of next-gen storage media. Its name? FDV. This one doesn't play the innovation card, but tries to capitalize on the old-style red laser technology, which is currently used in DVDs.
FDV allows to store up to 11GB on a dual layer disc, around 2hrs of HD 1920x1080 video in WMV HD or IMAX.
If total storage is lagging behind blue laser based products, all the coponents are already available and their price has been driven down by the volumes needed for current DVD drives. Production should start quickly, but there is one problem remaining: convincing content owners to publish their products on yet another media, when the war between blu-ray and HD-DVD is already raging...

Good luck FDV.

[translation by moose]

- Record multiple video streams simultaneously - Lionel - 10:25:33

Eric says:

I did the last 1.8.4 update of the EyeTV software and it adds an impressive feature:

"Watch two or more channels at the same time

With digital television products (EyeTV 300/310, 400/410, 500, 610, EyeTV for DTT, Miglia TVMini) EyeTV 1.8.4 can play and record two or more TV channels that reside on the same transponder/multiplex simultaneously. To open an additional live TV window, hold down the Control key while selecting "Open Live TV Window" from the File menu. This is considered an advanced feature, for more information see the FAQ entry at http://faq.elgato.com/index.php/faq/more/320 ."

it is indeed impressive and it does work well.

On my G4 (boosted with an accelerator card), I can open 4 streams, with no slowdown whatsoever (and thus record 4 programs).

This new version can also directly export your programs for the video iPod.

Looks great, it's like having a multi-tuner decoder, only limited by the fact that you can only watch/record multiple programs multiplexed on the sane chanel.

[translation by moose]

- Hardmac team strengthens - Cri-cri - 09:11:08

The Hardmac Team wishes a warm welcome to our new team members, jwa who joined us this week and greg who started with us last month.

Stay tuned on Hardmac.com!
We promise you a exciting year for the Mac in 2006!

- iMic and a Logitech headset - Lionel - 08:38:22

Thanks to Fred for the info.

Just to let you know, the Logitech Internet Chat Headset does not work properly with my PowerBook 12" (2003) because the microphone has a tension "bias" (???). It does function perfectly with the iMic adapter from Griffin, though.

In the beginning, I naively believed that the headset would simply work, even though Logitech does not say it is Mac compatible. The price of the headset and the iMic combined is not much more expensive than the "Mac compatible" USB headset from Logitech, with the added advantage of having 2 peripherals which allows me to do more things with them. In particular, the iMic brings a second audio output.

This reminds me of one of the first Macbidouille articles where we explained How to transform a Plaintalk microphone into a universal one [article only available in French].

[translation by jwa]

- Skype 2 introduces video, but not for the Mac - Lionel - 06:11:54

In an obvious move, Skype has just released version 2.0 (beta) with support for video in addition to audio.
On the Mac, we will have to be content with only audio, as the beta is only available for Windows.
Let's hope that it's only temporary, as Skype has been multi-platform till now.

[translation by jwa]

- The difficulty in adding an Airport card to a G5 Quad - Lionel - 05:55:16

Apple did not deem it necessary to install an Airport or Bluetooth card by default in the G5 Quad.
However, it is now more complicated to install these options than it was before.


In fact, it no longer uses the old Airport Extreme card. It now uses a new combo Airport/Bluetooth card which is not yet for sale. Even more annoying, an Apple Authorized Service Provider or a retail Apple Store is now required for installation of this card because of the internal antennas (see picture above).
It is an unpleasant discovery to make after having purchased the G5, which makes us think that Apple should have made the option a standard feature.

[translation by jwa]

- Modify the transitions of a slideshow in Tiger - Lionel - 03:24:05

In Tiger it is possible to directly launch slideshows with Finder and Spotlight. The transitions are managed using Quartz Composer which is incredibly intuitive.
It is rather simple to modify these transitions.
To start, you have to install the developer tools. You will find the application, Quartz Composer, at /Developer/Applications/Graphic Tools/Quartz Composer.
The file which manages the transitions of slideshows in Tiger is named SlideshowTransition.qtz. You can find it in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Slideshow.framework/Versions/A/Resources/
If you open it, you will understand how intuitive the program is.


In the same vain, it is possible to make the same change with the application Photo Booth from the latest iMac G5. All you have to do is edit Photo Booth.app/Contents/Resources/Video.qtz
We leave it to the creative to submit their work to us.

[translation by jwa]

- A preview of the Intel Mac mini? - Lionel - 00:34:21

Source : Clubic

The distribution of mini PCs which we talked about last May (here) has begun.
The Aopen MP915B has an case identical to the Mac mini


It has a DVI out, an Ethernet port, two USB 2 ports, a FireWire 400 port, audio in, and audio out. The video chip is a GMA900 which is integrated in the Intel chipset.
It should cost 355 Euros... for the case and motherboard.
In addition this will require the purchase of a Pentium M processor, which costs around 250 Euros for a 1.7 GHz chip; a 2.5" hard drive, which costs a little bit more than 100 Euros for an 80 Gb drive; a DVD burner, which is around 130 Euros; and for memory, let's say 50 Euros for 512 Mb.
The final cost is more than 830 Euros without WiFi, Bluetooth, or an internal modem.
The product is thus more expensive than a Mac mini PPC, and hopefully a Mac mini x86.

But beyond this comparison, it is interesting to see what can be done with Intel technology, as it is extremely likely that Apple will initially use similar technology

[translation by jwa]