Posted 09/19/09 at 05:56:13 PM by Justin Kerr

In the small form factor graphics market, Nvidia’s Ion has been stealing the headlines lately, but it turns out VIA might be gearing up to give them a run for their money. Built on a new standard known as “Pico-ITXe”, the company has released their EPIA-P710, which claims to be capable of full 1080p video playback using nothing more than passive cooling. Of course we were skeptical at first, but they have finally backed up their claims by posting a short clip on YouTube showing the board in action.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this new part is how full featured it is given the size. It sports 3 USB 2.0 ports, has both SATA and IDE, as well as Gigabit Ethernet support. As you might expect, the current build is pared up with a VIA C7 1.0 GHz processor, but apparently this is still more than enough to handle anything the VX855 Media System Processor can’t handle video wise.

Hit the jump to view the demo video.

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Posted 09/03/09 at 08:00:40 AM by Paul Lilly

Onwers of LG's LH50 LCD series and PS80 plasma series can now access VUDU's library of on-demand 1080p movies via LG Netcast.

"LG is proud to lead the charge on delivering high-quality streaming movies for the high-def family-room experience," said Peter Reiner, senior vice president, marketing, LG Electronics USA. "VUDU offers content in 1080p resolution with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound, enabling the ultimate streaming movie experience on premium LG HDTV models."

After applying the automatic software update (if applicable), owners of the above mentioned models will be able to rent the first HD or HDX movie free of charge. After that, normal rental charges apply, which ranges from $0.99 to $5.99 per movie with no subscription or monthly fees.

Full press release here.

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Posted 09/02/09 at 07:45:26 AM by Paul Lilly

Excuse us while we clean up our morning coffee off of our keyboard and desk - Panasonic wants how much for its 85-inch plasma display? The answer is $30,000, but hey, if you wait long enough, maybe you can catch one on sale for 'only' 20 Gs.

According to Panasonic, the exorbitantly priced TH-85PF12U is the industry's first 85-inch full HD, 1080p plasma display and equivalent to four 42-inch plasmas. The company also claims its Neo plasma display panel technology has made it possible to keep the 85-incher "significantly thinner and lighter than past plasmas," measuring 3.9 inches deep and checking in at 260 pounds.

Sounds groovy and all, but how do you convince your significant other that a $30,000 TV set would really complete your living room? Answer that question and you're halfway there.

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Posted 07/10/09 at 08:00:38 AM by Paul Lilly

On the outside, it would be easy to mistake the F88 clamshell netbook with Asus' Eee PC 1002HA, but appearance is about all the two have in common. Unlike the 1002HA, the F88 packs a VIA Nano processor (1.6GHz, 800MHz frontside bus) with S3's Chrome graphics and boasts 1080P playback on its 10.1-inch LED display.

Further distancing itself from the netbook-norm, the F88 comes configurable with up to 4GB of DDR2-667 memory and up to 500GB of hard drive storage. Not bad for a market used to seeing 1GB of memory and 160GB hard drives.

Other specs include WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3MP webcam, HD audio, multi-card reader, three USB ports, HDMI output, and a 6-cell battery.

There's a good chance the F88 will appear in rebadged form, though in the meantime, no word on price or availability.

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Posted 05/06/09 at 04:23:03 PM by Andy Salisbury

Just this week Renesas Technology Corp. announced their SH7370, a SH-Mobile HD1 application processor for mobile phones. The tiny processor is the first to support full 1080p (1920 x 1080) video playback and recording potential, and can support H.264/MPEG-4 video compression at 30 frames per second.

This processor also has two 24-bit dedicated audio digital signal processors that help lower the CPU’s load, while lowering power consumption. This allows for audio to stream at up to 5.1-channel Dolby Digital quality.

The whole thing is currently shipping with 512Mbits of synchronous DRAM, integrated onto a single package. Said package measures in at a compact, 10nm x 11mm.

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Posted 03/16/09 at 02:01:53 PM by Andy Salisbury

Recently Via announced their VX855 Media System Processor that allows their Nano, C7 and Eden processors to support 1080p video. This entertains the possibility that Via will provide a more attractive option an Intel and Nvidia when it comes to platforms to base a netbook off of.

The VX855 is designed for mobile PCs and comes with an HD video processor that gives smooth, hardware accelerated playback of high definition videos encoded in H.264, MPEG2/4, DivX and WMV9.

“For the first time, system developers have an ultra low power media system processor that delivers high bit-rate HD video to small form factor and mobile devices,” said Via’s VP of Marketing, Richard Brown. “The VIA VX855 opens up exciting opportunities for several PC segments, particularly the mini-notebook category that will now be able to offer true 1080p HD video playback.”

No solid information as to when we can expect to see this powerful little chip make its way into netbooks and nettops alike, but if its as good as they say, we should see it making a splash relatively soon.

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Posted 09/18/08 at 02:00:00 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

I purchased a 37-inch Westinghouse LVM-37W3SE LCD 1080p HDTV monitor in June 2007. A few months later, I found out that this particular model has faulty firmware that prevents it from working properly with many devices. For example, the Nvidia driver recognizes it as a different model Westinghouse 1080i monitor and refuses to set it in 1080p mode. I contacted customer support and received permission to return it. The monitor was returned in November, and it was received by Westinghouse two days later. I hadn’t heard anything from them until about a month ago, when I finally made a call to find out about the RMA status. (I’ve been out of the country on a business trip.)

I was promised a follow-up by several people, but no one would commit to when the monitor would be sent. They basically asked me to wait until I received my product. It has now been more than seven months, and I believe I have waited long enough! Thank God my trusty 15-inch LCD is still working fine.

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Posted 08/04/08 at 07:08:42 AM by Chris Moody

DISH network became the first satellite provider to offer video in a full 1080p or 1920x 1080 progressive resolution on August 1st.  The first movie they are offering in 1080p is I Am Legend on their Video On Demand service.  DISH will use 1080p in place of 1080i or 720p whenever the content is available. The upgrade in resolution won’t be available for everyone. It will however, be available at no additional cost for any subscriber who has an HD DVR.

DISH will also greatly expand the number of HD channels that it can carry to 150 by this fall.

With cable and satellite companies to begin offering content in the higher resolution 1080p format closes the distance between TV and physical media such as Blu-ray and leaves the competition from download services like Apple TV and Xbox 360 movie rentals out in the cold.

It remains to be seen just how high a resolution do we need to be able to enjoy our movies or TV in.  Is 720p really so bad? Many people just cannot see any reason to throw out their old DVD player and movie collection in favor of the slightly sharper picture available on Blu-Ray. The slow adoption of Blu-ray reflects this trend. For truly wide spread adoption to take place rapidly, we will need to see Blu-ray undercut DVD prices across the board. VOD and download services moving to 1080p may only hinder Blu-ray’s already sluggish adoption rate.

Have you already jumped over to 1080p or plan to soon? Sound off and tell us what convinced you to make the switch.

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