Posted 09/03/2008 at 03:08:40pm

Based on the name alone, one would expect Qnap’s TS-209 Pro II NAS box to offer more features than its predecessors—particularly our leader in this storage category, Qnap’s TS-109 Pro. And while the former does allow for increased capacity, it does not provide significant improvements in performance or offer more features than the TS-109 Pro, which has been out for more than a year.

Check out our full review after the jump!

Posted 09/02/2008 at 02:00:00pm

I’m sitting on the stairs to the San Jose Civic Auditorium’s balcony alongside Tommy Tallarico, self-proclaimed “veritable games industry icon” and co-creator of the popular Video Games Live (VGL) concert series.  It’s an hour and change before the first show of the night—the first back-to-back doubleheader in the tour’s three-year history—and the audience is beginning to fill the space of the once-empty lobby with the boasting of gaming conquests and click-click-clack of sweaty fingers against plastic guitar frets.

Tallarico is in the middle of running through the list of countries VGL has appeared in since it hit its start button for 11,000 eager gamers at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 2005.  The show’s worldwide travels could rival Carmen Sandiego for flyer miles.  Tallarico’s describing his geeky Rainbow Tour when an usher walks up.

“Are you guys a part of the show?”

 Go Behind the Scenes with Video Games Live after the jump!

Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:00:00am

Taking a cue from ViewSonic’s playbook, Westinghouse’s L2610NM produces a crappy image out of the box. We haven’t seen a display ship with such a whited-out picture in a long time.

And unlike ViewSonic’s VX2240w, adjusting the L2610NM’s brightness and contrast settings does little to help matters.

More of this sin against nature after the jump.

Posted 08/27/2008 at 02:00:00pm

Size is important, but so is quality. Hannspree’s 27.5-inch HF289HJB fits the former just fine, but its average performance makes us yearn for a better-quality picture to fill the massive screen.

Dim news after the jump.

Posted 08/26/2008 at 02:00:00pm

It’s no secret that the expensive Samsung 245T hosts an S-PVA panel beneath its slim black exterior. But this display’s performance is certainly worth the price. The 245T offers a stunning picture for its class, trumping our longtime favorite 24-inch panel, Dell’s 2407WFP, and even its latest rev, the 2408WFP.

This 1920x1200 display boasts a 97-percent color gamut and the effect is clear. The 245T dishes out notably vibrant blues, reds, and greens, and its color saturation remains strong at even very light levels. To us, the display’s colors feel just right: crisp and bold without any hint of oversaturation. But even if you disagree, the monitor comes with a number of preset options for tweaking the coloration to your exact preferences. We found success using the Mild preset, as Normal made images appear drab and Brilliant made our images look like a supernova.

Check out this superb display post-jump.

Posted 08/26/2008 at 12:54:21pm

Testing a display is two parts science, one part art. It's difficult to measure the performance of a display the same way Maximum PC evaluates other products. There is no benchmark that we can just fire up and then report a score from. Nor can we even test displays in their out-of-box condition. A fair amount of tweaking and visual analysis is necessary to ensure fair display benchmarking.  And at the end of the day, determining which monitor reigns supreme is a mix of qualitative testing and the editor's expertise.