That headline is no joke, you can now equip your home with Full HD, 1080P goodness for only $3999. Epson has slashed the price of the EMP-TW1000 projector by $2000 as the company makes ready the arrival of it's replacement, the EMP-TW2000 ($5999). If you happen to be one of Epson's competitors, this news will undoubtedly cause considerable consternation and will likely see opposition product managers around the country scrambling for their calculators to see how they can compete. We'll certainly be watching closely as we wait for the response from that other projector heavy weight, Panasonic. And how convenient, a price war for Christmas.

The new model causing all this fuss is more than a mere annual update too. It sports Epson's brand new 12-bit, 0.7-inch LCD panel offering 68.7 billion colours (up from 1.1 billion on the 10-bit EMP-TW1000). Contrast has been given a significant boost and the new model produces some spectacular blacks, though I can't help but feel dirty just looking at the 50,000:1 contrast ratio. It reeks of marketing. Still, I did get a real life demo in the viewing rooms at Eastern Hi-Fi to see for myself. After a bunch of Blu-ray movies had assuaged my eyes, I left with nothing but fond memories from my short time with the EMP-TW2000.

The $5999 price tag is pretty sharp too, but if you want to get in on some of that $3999 1080P action mentioned earlier, you'll probably have to move pretty fast. I doubt they'll last long at that price.

Posted by Scott Bartley at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

Buyers of the new 'Live Free or Die Hard' and 'Harry Potter' movie DVDs will be allowed to make digital copies. But are these offers enough to stem illegal activities?

You've already bought the DVD to enjoy on your big-screen TV at home. But you also want to watch the flick on your portable media player or on your laptop without using the disc.

Until now, you had two options: Rebuy the movie digitally (an expensive, often limited proposition), or circumvent the copy protection on the disc and make your own digital copy of the movie. Two film studios are taking baby steps toward offering a third, legal alternative, permitting you to copy the movie to your device from the DVD itself.
Live Free Die Hard

Twentieth Century Fox is first out of the gate. With the two-disc Live Free or Die Hard Collector's Edition DVD, out today, Fox debuts Fox Digital Copy, the studio's fledgling infrastructure for allowing consumers to transfer digital copies of a movie from the disc to a PC and to a portable device.

Warner Brothers follows suit on December 11, with the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Similarities Between the Two Digital Versions

The Fox and Warner initiatives share several similarities. Both include the digital-copy feature at no extra charge on the special-edition DVDs, which run at about a $5 premium over the standard editions. Both studios are using Windows Media DRM and require Windows Media Player 10 or above. Both offer two digital versions of the films, one for PC and one for a portable device.

Fox says that its PC version of the Die Hard sequel is encoded at 1.6 megabits per second (taking up about 1.5GB of space), while the portable version runs at 768 kilobits per second (about 1GB of space). Warner says that its PC version of the latest Harry Potter movie averages about 1 mbps, while the portable version averages about 700 kbps.

The two studios have chosen a similar strategy for their initial digital-copy transfers, placing the digital versions on the second disc of the two-disc special-edition DVDs. (An interesting side note: Warner says that industrywide only about 20 to 25 percent of buyers opt for the more expensive special editions of DVDs, a point that underscores that the studios are slowly easing into this brave new digital world.) The studios also cite the same reasoning for including the digital movies on the disc: Doing so offers a more immediate experience as compared with a download via the Internet.

Warner experimented with Internet downloads this past summer, on the epic battle movie 300. DVDs of 300 sold in Target and Wal-Mart, for example, came with a download code for accessing the film via the Internet. For Harry Potter, though, Jim Wuthrich, senior vice president of electronic sell-through for Warner Brothers, says that the studio chose to put the movie on the disc instead.

"It's because of the superior consumer experience; you don't have to wait for the bits to be downloaded," he says. "The transfer time is dependent only on how fast your DVD-ROM drive is. It's not tied to your broadband speed."

Danny Kaye, executive vice president of global research and technology strategy at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, says that the inclusion of digital copies on-disc is a precursor to broadening the digital movie downloads business beyond the niche that it occupies today.

"That's the vision," he says. "We have to start somewhere and we're starting right here."

Hands-On: Live Free or Die Hard--How the Copy Works

I had the chance to test Fox's Live Free or Die Hard copy functions, and I found much to like. But not all was rosy.

Accessing the digital copies was easy. Pop the second disc into your PC, and it comes up with a menu that lets you choose between accessing special features or going to Digital Copy. I selected Digital Copy, and waited a few moments while the disc verified the state of my Windows digital rights management software; turned out I needed an update, a situation Microsoft remedied in just a few seconds.

Fox's Digital Copy Manager

Once my DRM was up-to-date, the disc prompted me for a 16-digit code that's printed on an insert that came with the DVD. Fox's server quickly validated the code; once I was approved, the Digital Copy Manager launched. I selected my movie from column A, chose the destination (hard drive, portable device) from column B, and clicked the 'Start Sync' (odd choice of nomenclature) button. The transfers were fast, taking 2 minutes for the PC version of the film and 2 minutes, 20 seconds to transfer it to a portable device.

The PC version's image quality looked surprisingly good on my 19-inch LCD monitor. The image appeared on a par with movie download-to-buy options (such as Apple's iTunes Music Store).

I didn't have the opportunity to view the portable version. For starters, I learned the hard way that the Digital Copy Manager isn't smart enough to recognize that the Samsung YP-P2 isn't a Windows PlaysForSure device: I ended up copying the portable version of the film directly to the YP-P2. Oops.

For now, the Die Hard digital copy will work only with Windows PlaysForSure devices. This is a notably odd choice, given that even Microsoft has backed off from PlaysForSure, and the company's own new Zunes don't support the standard. Fox's Kaye says that other formats may be supported in the future.

The system is set up to allow only one transfer each of the PC and portable versions. If something goes wrong--for instance, your hard drive fails or you lose your portable device--Kaye says that Fox's customer service will provide a one-time-only disaster-recovery exception for a second copy. Warner has not established any parameters for such scenarios as of yet.

Warner's Harry Potter DVD wasn't yet available for me to try its digital-copy functionality, but from what Wuthrich describes, it's very similar to how Fox's implementation worked. Two small differences: One, the portable version transfers to your PC hard drive first and then moves to your portable unit. Two, Wuthrich says the portable version will work on any device that supports Windows Media digital rights management, including media players and some mobile phones.

Why Digital Copying?

After watching the music industry implode due to rampant illegal sharing of digital music, both Fox and Warner realized that they needed to listen to consumers--or the movie industry could find itself going down the same treacherous path.

The upside? The studios are actually making it easy for consumers to transfer digital copies of movies. These first two discs are testing the waters to see how consumers respond; executives at both studios, however, indicate that plans are under way to expand the programs, assuming that the initial efforts are successful.

"Our vision is that along with the DVD disc, this gives the consumer added convenience," says Fox's Kaye. "We have full confidence that it will be very appealing [to consumers] and we'll be doing it again and again."

Wuthrich echoes those sentiments, noting that Warner's own research shows that consumers want a copy of their movies for use on a PC. "These digital options are to provide choice. We're doing it because it adds value to the DVD itself," says Wuthrich. "It's a legitimate way for people who'd like a digital copy of the film to get it."

Like Kaye, Wuthrich is looking ahead to expanding the digital copying program. "This is the first step of many. We intend to add this capability to more products going forward," he promises. "Consumers are interested in digital files; we need to find ways for them to enjoy those files in a legitimate manner."

Unfortunately, the efforts still fall short of offering the freedom that most consumers want once they've purchased content. In being limited to just one PC transfer and one portable transfer, consumers might still feel boxed in.

"None of these restrictions actually do anything to stop piracy," notes Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann. "They only hurt consumers who are trying to do the right thing. These efforts to lock you in to one computer or one PlaysForSure device won't stop people from downloading the movie; they will only restrict people who've ponied up money for the DVD."

Good Start, but Is It Good Enough to Prevail?

In an era when software packages like HandBrake and DVD Shrink make breaking the copy protection on DVDs reasonably easy, and when sites like The Pirates Bay facilitate finding BitTorrent versions of films, it's easy to dismiss these early studio efforts as inconsequential and irrelevant.

Not so fast: Industry experts agree it's a good thing that the studios are at least acknowledging what consumers want to do.

"It's exciting that the content community is listening to consumers and their desire to have control of their content," says Megan Pollock, spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association. "Consumers want to be able to do what they want with content they've legally and lawfully acquired."

By taking these steps, adds Ross Crupnick, an analyst at NPD: Entertainment, the studios are offering consumers a legal way to obtain a digital copy. "You have the potential to take a little bite out of the need for them to use unauthorized means to digitize video."

For this concept of studio-provided digital copies to be successful, Hollywood will have to concede that flexibility is king. One-time transfer rights to one device won't cut it: The DRM scheme--assuming that DRM persists at all (the music industry, for its part, is starting to embrace DRM-free business models)--must account for the fact that consumers might have multiple devices they'd like their content stored on simultaneously, or that they might want to move the content from one device to another. Hollywood will also have to broaden access to these files to support devices beyond the Windows DRM world.

There's no question that Live Free or Die Hard and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix represent a major shift. Let's hope these initiatives represent the start of a trend.

"This is certainly a step in the right direction. We just hope that the studios continue down this road: They're making moving content easier," says CEA's Pollock. "It will be good for consumers if the movie and music industries listen to and understand consumers' demands--and if they understand that we're in a digital and portable world and that's how consumers want to enjoy their content."

Melissa J. Perenson, US PC World

Posted by Jan Birkeland at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Our look at AMD's Spider desktop platform reveals impressive technology but disappointing results. Can AMD compete if its high-end chip is slower than a $230 Intel CPU?

After months of anticipation, AMD is launching its Phenom desktop processor and "Spider" platform for desktop PCs. Its new Phenom chips feature a native quad-core design, a 65-nanometer manfufacturing process, and enhanced power management technology.

But will Phenom and the new motherboards, chip sets, and graphics boards that make up the rest of the Spider platform be enough to put a dent in Intel's recent dominance? We ran a Spider-based system through our PC WorldBench 6 beta 2 benchmark at an AMD event in Lake Tahoe, and came away convinced that AMD still has a lot of work to do.

Tough Times

All things considered, 2007 probably hasn't been AMD's favorite year. In fact, things haven't been exactly sunshine and roses for the company since the middle of 2006 when Intel introduced its Core 2 Duo CPUs. After a good three years as the performance champ, AMD was suddenly getting its clock cleaned by its rival--literally; when running at the same clock speed Core 2 Duo chips were anywhere from 10 to nearly 20 percent faster than comparable Athlon 64 X2s.

Not only that, but AMD's $5.4 billion dollar acquisition of GPU and chip set vendor ATI was followed almost immediately by its new purchase sliding well back in its performance race with nVidia. The purchase gave AMD expertise in GPUs and chip sets plus independence from nVidia--a longtime ally who had started supporting Intel the year before--but it added to the perception of the company as firmly in second place. Losing money for several quarters straight hasn't helped, either.

2007 also saw AMD fall increasingly behind in the race for better process technology. Intel's new Penryn chips are manufactured using a 45-nanometer process, which allows the company to pack in more transistors per square millimeter than the 65nm process AMD is introducing with its Phenom chips. That can translate to more chips per slab of silicon for cheaper production, giving Intel yet another advantage. AMD's latest 65nm Opterons with their parsimonious power usage are competing well in the server market, but that does nothing for the mainstream.

Which brings us to the rollout of Phenom, a quad-core desktop CPU that AMD's own benchmarks place at 32 percent faster than a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 running at the same clock speed. The company hopes Phenom will keep it within shouting distance, performance-wise, of Intel's desktop products.

Whither the Chips?

Unfortunately, there were few (as in no) Phenom parts to be had for independent testing or purchase by the time of this writing. When asked about this, AMD's Simon Solotko said plenty of the 2.2-GHz Phenom 9500 and 2.3-GHz Phenom 9600 parts would be in the channel by the Monday launch. He also said the scarcity of review units was due to the complexity of a rollout that also involves the new 790FX Spider chip set and ATI 3800 series graphics cards, not because of any problem fabricating the new chips.

According to AMD, the 2.2-GHz Phenom 9500 will sell for $251 (in quantities of 1000) and the 2.3-GHz Phenom 9600 will go for $283. An unlocked, overclockable Black Edition 2.3-GHz Phenom will also be available later this year. The 2.6-GHz Phenom 9900 that AMD made available at its benchmarking event won't be available until the first quarter of 2008, and should cost below $350 when it's released. A sub-$300 2.4-Ghz 9700 parts is scheduled to ship in the same timeframe.

The Phenom-based sysftem we tested featured two of ATI's recently-released Radeon HD 3850 graphics cards, an MSI motherboard using AMD's 790FX chip set, and 2GB of DDR2-1066 RAM.

Discouraging results

AMD's test system scored a 105 on PC WorldBench 6 beta 2, which is significantly faster than the 93 posted by a Polywell 580CF-2900 with its 3-GHz Athlon 64 X2 6000+, though not nearly the 32 percent gain touted by AMD. That's an impressive boost over AMD's previous CPUs, but it's nowhere near enough to make Intel sweat.

Until we can get a Phenom CPU in our labs, we can't make apples-to-apples comparisons, but the test system's 105 score isn't much faster than the score of 96 turned in by the average system we've seen based around an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU. That's an older chip that goes for $230 from stores like NewEgg. The 2.2- and 2.3-GHz Phenom chips being released cost more than that, and they're at least 300MHz slower than the 2.6-GHz chip AMD allowed us to test.

Still, we're going to have to wait until we can better match an AMD system to an Intel system to give you a definitive comparison of the two company's flagship CPUs. Stay tuned for that.

AMD currently has no answer for Intel's upcoming SSE4 instructions, which may widen the performance gap further in selected applications. On the other hand, unlike Intel's quad-core parts, which are basically two dual-core CPUs using a shared bus interface, Phenom has four distinct cores, which should also offer benefits. Again, however, we'll have to wait until benchmarks are optimized for four or more cores as well as SSE4 before the declaring the final word on those issues.

Platform News

With no way to regain the CPU performance crown, AMD has been trying to focus the media's attention on its peripheral technologies. This isn't all misdirection, since performance in games often relies more heavily on a system's GPU than its CPU.

The new Spider 790FX chip set plays right into that with support for AMD's HyperTransport 3.0 IO bus, which has 20 percent more bandwidth than its predecessor. The 790FX also can combine not two but four ATI 3800 PCIe 2.0 graphics cards on a single motherboard--a technology AMD refers to as CrossFireX. Preliminary tests we've perused online indicate that the performance of these 3800 series graphics cards matches up well with all but nVidia's fastest, and that they have very good power consumption numbers.

According to AMD, motherboards based on its 790FX chip set should be inexpensive when compared with the latest motherboards built for Intel's Penryn CPUs. Spider-based systems could consequently offer an interesting choice for mainstream gamers--don't spend much on your CPU, motherboard, and memory, but combine it with up to four fast but reasonably priced 3800-series graphics boards. The CPU won't be able to compete with similarly priced Intel offerings--especially with mainstream Penryn chips expected to launch early next year--but a quad-Crossifre system could be an affordable gaming powerhouse.

We'll look at whether such a system ends up being a good value as soon as we can get commercially available Phenom and Spider hardware into our labs.

Jon Jacobi, US PC World

Posted by Jan Birkeland at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

I'd really quite like to get my hands on a Zune, the media player from Microsoft, but the software-turned-hardware giant is not making things easy for me.

When it was originally release on November 14 last year, I was very excited to finally stuff my pockets with something other than Apples and Creatives. But Microsoft New Zealand crushed those hopes when they decided not to carry the player here. Judging from the so-so sales in the US it appears they made the right decision back then.

Then Microsoft launches three new models of the Zune this week, and again my hopes are flamed. This time around they've changed the software interface, as well as added functionality and changed size of the players. They are getting good reviews overseas, and I'm pinning my hopes on Microsoft's Aotearoa arm to bring them in.

A quick call quickly confirms my suspicion, no plans as of yet to bring the players into the country.
I try to order one online via the US (they offer free engraving at the moment), but I'm met with a very stern 'Access Denied', because of my NZ location.

I'm not about to buy one parallel imported either, I've had enough trouble with Microsoft to know that I might need support for the product in the near future.

All I want for Christmas is a Zune, and perhaps world peace. Is it too much to ask?

Posted by Jan Birkeland at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 )

In the latest developments of the battle of the giants, Vodafone has released a product aimed squarely at Telecom's home line market.

Vodafone at home replaces the traditional fixed-line home phone with a new device. Customers simply plug their existing handsets into the at home box and carry on making calls from their existing phone number

Vodafone at home National costs $39.95 per month and includes unlimited calls to any New Zealand land line number without incurring extra toll charges.

Calls to Vodafone mobiles in New Zealand will cost 39 cents per minute and calls to other mobiles are 55 cents per minute. International calls are based on Vodafone’s existing fixed-line offers.

In addition, any Vodafone fixed line international calling offer will also be offered to Vodafone at home customers.

The at home box will retail for $99 when signing up to an at home plan and will be on sale from today in three Vodafone stores - Sylvia Park in Auckland, Lambton Quay in Wellington and Colombo Street in Christchurch.

(Read Chris Keall's hands-on review here.)

Posted by Jan Birkeland at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

PlayStation 3 and PSP owners rejoice! Sony announced today the availability of the latest version of the PS3 system software; Version 2.00. It features the ability to turn a PS3 system on and off remotely, using a PSP via the Remote Play function, allowing for a truly mobile partnership between the two systems.

Sony hopes Version 2.00 will cement the partnership between PS3 and PSP and create a truly global experience. With the ability to turn your PS3 on and off from Wi-fi connection, there is now the opportunity to listen to the music, look at the photos and watch the videos saved on the PS3 Hard Disk Drive, anywhere in the world.

The software upgrade also allows for the creation of personalised playlists in both the music and photo sections. This function gives users an opportunity to create unlimited music playlists for all occasions, as well as sharing favourite photos in glorious high definition.

There are other changes too, including the addition of an Information Board on XMB to keep people up to date on the latest PlayStation news, the inclusion of a new PlayStation Network category and logo for easier navigation and Trend Micro Web Security.

The upgrade relies on PS3 owners upgrading their software with the latest patch, and the PSP must have firmware version 3.50 or later.

It's worth noting that Sony will provide the service for free until the end of April, 2008.The date and method to switch to a pay service and the price will be announced as soon as a decision is made

Posted by Jan Birkeland at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Telecom has launched an own-brand range of mobile devices dubbed OKTA, and the first one off the rank is the very cool Touch (how long before Steve Jobs is on the phone threatening a lawsuit?).
The Touch is, you guessed it, a 3G multimedia touchscreen device running Windows Mobile 6. But what makes it cool is the TouchFLO navigation based on hand gestures that gives you access to the phone's many functions. This interface works very well and allows the slim and compact Touch to do without a keypad.

As well as phone functionality, the Touch offers a 2-megapixel camera with video capability, an MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth, email, and external memory card capability.
Having a Windows Mobile 6 operating system means the Touch also provides push email, automatic synchronisation with an Outlook calendar, and the ability to edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and open attachments at the tap of a finger.
The OKTA Touch is available from the 8th from Telecom stores and dealers and will be priced at $799.
For more information visit www.oktamobile.com.

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )