VideoLAN Client (VLC) Player
VLC (VideoLAN Client) is a multimedia player for various audio and video formats like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, mp3, ogg and many more. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on high-bandwidth network.
* It is free
* It supports a large number of multimedia formats
* It can also be used as a streaming server
VLC’s Technical Info
Title: VLC Media Player 0.9.2
File name: vlc-0.9.2-win32.exe
File size: 13.81MB (14,482,140 bytes)
Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/XP64/Vista64
License: Open Source
Home page: www.videolan.org
Review: Dell 1320c Color Laser Printer
Dell produces its new Dell 1320c Color Laser Printer, inexpensive and fruitful for small business work.The Dell 1320c provides fast color prints with great text print quality.
Dell 1320c Color Laser Printer’s set up is very easy, its package includes a CD that will guide you through the set-up procedure and give you an illustration.The Dell 1320c design is basic and straightforward which is a big, gray and silver cube, with angular, functional styling.A graphic representation of the Dell 1320c is not using LCD display but six indicator LEDs.The base model connects via USB only with in-built 333MHz processor and 64MB of nonexpandable memory. This Dell model also offers you various features such as shrink or enlarge a print, create a poster or booklet print, and make N-up prints.
Dell 1320c Color Laser Printer Specifications:
General:
Printer Type: Personal printer – Laser – Color
Form Factor: Desktop
Width: 15.7 in
Depth: 16.6 in
Height: 14.9 in
Weight: 37.9 lbs
Printer:
Print Speed: up to 16 pages/min – B/W – A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), up to 12 pages/min – Color – A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in)
Connectivity Technology: Wired
Interface: USB
Max Resolution ( B&W ): 600 dpi x 600 dpi
Max Resolution ( Color ): 600 dpi x 600 dpi
Image Enhancement Technology: 2400 IQ
Processor:
Processor: 333 MHz
RAM:
RAM Installed ( Max ): 64 MB / 64 MB (max)
Media Handling:
Media Type: Labels, Envelopes, Cover paper, Plain paper, Coated paper, Recycled paper
Max Media Size (Custom): 8.5 in x 14 in
Media Sizes: A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), Folio (8.5 in x 13 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), Executive (7.25 in x 10.5 in), Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in)
Envelope Sizes: Com-10 (4.13 in x 9.5 in), Monarch (3.87 in x 7.5 in), International C5 (6.38 in x 9 in), International DL (4.33 in x 8.66 in), Japanese Postcard (3.95 in x 5.83 in)
Media Weight: 60 g/m2 – 216 g/m2
Total Media Capacity: 250 sheets
Media Feeder(s): 1 x Autoload – 250 sheets – Legal (8.5 in x 14 in) weight: 60 g/m2 – 216 g/m2
Max Media Capacity: 250 sheets
Output Trays Capacity: 150 sheets
Duty Cycle:
Monthly Duty Cycle: 35000 pages
Cartridge / Printhead Included Qty: 4
Expansion / Connectivity:
Expansion Slots Total (Free): 1 ( 1 ) x Expansion slot
Interfaces: USB 2.0
Connections: – USB 2.0, 1 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type B
Miscellaneous:
Consumables Included: 1 x Toner cartridge ( Black ) – up to 1000 pages, 1 x Toner cartridge ( Cyan ) – up to 1000 pages, 1 x Toner cartridge ( Magenta ) – up to 1000 pages, 1 x Toner cartridge ( Yellow ) – up to 1000 pages
Features: Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately)
Compliant Standards: CE, GS, UL, CUL, NOM, DHHS, GOST, SABS, SASO, WHQL, NEMKO, C-Tick, EN55022, EN55024, EN 60950, ICES-003, FCC CFR47, IEC 60950, FCC Part 15, IEC 60825-1, EN 61000-3-2, EN 61000-3-3, FCC Class B certified
Power:
Power Device: Power supply – Internal
Voltage Required: AC 120 V
Power Consumption Operational: 265 Watt
Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep: 35 Watt
Software / System Requirements:
Software Included: Dell OpenManage, Drivers & Utilities
OS Required: Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 2003, Microsoft Windows Vista
Peripheral / Interface Devices: USB port (compatible with 2.0 specification)
Environmental Standards:
EPA Energy Star Compliant: Yes
Manufacturer Warranty:
Service & Support: 1 year warranty
Service & Support Details: Limited warranty – Replacement – 1 year – Shipment
Environmental Parameters:
Min Operating Temperature: 41 °F
Max Operating Temperature: 89.6 °F
Humidity Range Operating: 15 – 85%
Sound Emission (Operating): 50 dBA
Review: AMD’s ATI HD 4850 GPU
The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 you see pictured here has a core GPU clock speed of 625MHz with 512MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 993MHz. The GPU is connected via 256-bit memory bus. The card is cooled by a single slot, copper fan sink. The drivers reported an idle temperature of around 80′C, and the card was too hot to touch. Pricing for the card is expected to be set at $199.
Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 go head to head with refreshed and new G92 -and GT200-based GeForces from NVIDIA, and the GPU used to create the new Radeon products is an absolute stormer.
In spite of having diminuitive dimensions for the die and a comparatively small external memory bus width, RV770 punches harder than any other GPU the Graphics Products Group at AMD have seen fit to release.
The RV670 before it, the RV770 is fabricated at TSMC on a 55nm process, which packs its roughly 965 million transistors into a die that’s 16mm per side, for a total area of 260 mm². The chip has grown from the RV670, but not as much as one might expect given its increases in capacity. The RV670 weighed in at an estimated 666 million transistors and was 192 mm².
In AMD’s new GPU is surely dwarfed by Nvidia’s GT200, a 577 mm² behemoth made up of 1.4 billion transistors. But the more significant comparisons may be to Nvidia’s mid-range GPUs. The first of those GPUs, of course, is the G92, a 65nm chip that’s behind all from the GeForce 8800 GT to the GeForce 9800 GTX. That chip measured out, with our shaky ruler, to more or less 18mm per side, or 324 mm². The second competing GPU from Nvidia is a brand-new entrant, the 55nm die shrink of the G92 that drives the newly announced GeForce 9800 GTX+. The GTX+ chip has the same basic transistor count of 754 million.
The near 960M transistor chip is a svelte 260mm square, and packs a hardly believable 800 scalar shared processors, arranged in R600- and RV670-like SIMD arrays of 80 each, via the same 16 x 5-way arrangement. Each SIMD array packs a data sampler unit capable of 16 scalar fetches and a quartet of bilaterally filtered results per clock.
Radeon HD 4850 uses 512MiB of GDDR3 (64GB/sec from 256-bit at 2GHz) with a 625MHz clock, giving 1Tflop/sec of FP32 compute, 20Gtexels/sec of INT8 filtering and 40Gpixel/sec Z-only writes.
Performance details include 1/4 speed FP64 compute ability (industry leading rates therefore result), half speed FP16 filtering (1/2 RV670 per sampler per clock) and full speed FP16 colour writes (2x RV670 per ROP per clock). So the ratios of compute/sample/ROP change compared to the older generation, while sharing the same basic architecture.
The $239 GeForce 9800 GTX+ looks to be a minor waste of NVIDIA’s time, Radeon HD 4850 more than a match, with HD 4870 taking on the $399 and $649 (LOL) GeFroce GTX 260 and GTX 280 and often beating the $649 part, especially when a reasonable level of AA gets turned on.
NVIDIA are in an instantaneous position of having overpriced new hardware almost straight out of the gate, with the $649 asking price of GTX 280 a significantly difficult sell for a gamer.
XFX GEFORCE 9600 GT Launched
XFX has now Unleashed its jumbo the “premium product” XFX GEFORCE 9600 GT.A strong competitor to NVIDIA’s PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB.The NVIDIA’s graphics card has a clock speed of 650MHz on the core, 1625 MHz on the shader and 1940MHz on the memory. The card uses 512MB of GDDR3 memory with a 256-bit memory interface.
On the contrary the XFX GEFORCE 9600 GT has a core speed of 650 MHz with two overclocked versions the ‘Extreme’ and ‘XXX’ editions having a thrilling 680 MHz and 700 MHz, also with it is a shader clock of 1625MHz and a memory clock of 1.8GHz The card is compatible with PCI-E 2.0 and uses 512MB of DDR3 RAM. 
This fresh product brings with it next-generation GeForce graphics including PureVideo HD technology, which allows the PC to suport HD DVD and Blu-ray video playback with eyecatching clarity and resoloution. This card is also pioneers the 9600 GT series to offer up to 90 percent higher performance compared to other GeForce card in its class.
It takes parallely with it the Microsoft DirectX 10 support, NVIDIA’s Quantum Effects technology, Lumenex engine as well as Unified Architecture ensuring optimium game performance.The 9600 GT XXX edition is fully HDMI certified and includes a HDMI component kit and Company of Heroes DVD as a bonus game bundle.
The 9600 graphics card is stocked under the Rashi Peripherals all over India at a market price of Rs. 13990 with a 3 year warranty.
Casio In for Joint Venture With YouTube!!
Casio Inc. has announced their agreement with YouTube to include a YouTube Capture mode and bundle software to provide ideal settings for recording, storing and uploading video on the company’s newest Exilim digital cameras”The increased popularity of video sharing Web sites such as YouTube offers a great opportunity for innovation,” said John Homlish, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Casio, Inc. “We recognized that there was a demand for an easier way to upload high-quality video and are thrilled to be the first digital camera company to be able to offer a solution for consumers.”
Casio’s YouTube Capture mode records in next-generation MPEG-4 H.264 high quality video format; this provides an ideal compression ratio that allows users to record longer without having to sacrifice the quality of the movies. This mode also provides sharp resolution (640 x 480) and a frame rate of up to 30 frames per second. Casio is providing consumers with a tool to get videos recorded and uploaded directly to YouTube. This technology will also allow users to upload multiple videos at once.
“We are constantly looking for ways to make it much simpler for our community to create and share videos,” said Hunter Walk, YouTube product management. “The YouTube Capture mode featured on these Casio EXILIM cameras is remarkably innovative and easy to use, and will further expand and diversify the incredible range of originally-created content for which YouTube is known.”
Casio will preserve the excusive rights for marketing of the YouTube feature during the Holiday 2007 season. All cameras that feature YouTube Capture mode will hold a custom YouTube sticker logo,licensed by YouTube. YouTube Capture mode will be included in Casio’s 2007 Holiday line-up of EXILIM digital cameras. The cameras with YouTube Capture mode and the upload functionality software will be made available in a bundle package to be sold during the holiday season, allowing users to get all the hardware and software needed for upload for one single price.
The DivX Codec
Digital media has come a long way since its initial days, when even the Mp3 format was a wonder. On the contrast today we have to work with countless audio/video formats. The scenario has so worsened, that there are 6 versions of one common codec which offer virtually the same functionality i.e. codecs based on the MP4 format. If that was’nt worse enough, developers often come out with new “version numbers” of an existing codec that will break functionality with older products and cause all sorts of other problems such as garbled video and missing audio.
To counter this, a new series of software codes “codec packs” came up. These programs often group all the required codec’s into a single installer and adjoin it with existing media player software. Though this takes the guesswork out of which codec is needed to play a file, it gives arise to another problem. Most users who install these Codec packs are cluttering their systems with software libraries, they will never need. In some cases, these codec packs have actually been known to compromise system stability or cause lockups/slowdowns.
Thankfully all is not lost. A few enthusiasts recognizing these problems came up with well designed installers that only integrate codecs that you will actually require. At the same time many companies who have commercial products in this space, have started offering individual codecs for free of charge use. Keeping this in mind we have selected 3 different bundles for our feature. The first pack offers just a basic set of codecs for the casual movie watcher. The second pack is a little more comprehensive and offers a wider selection of codecs. It is aimed at the user who regularly watches movies and recreational videos. Our final selection is a mega collection pack. It comes with everything you will ever need and more.
This one really needs no introduction. No other codec/format has had such a world-wide effectt(outside MP3) on AV players, PMPs, mobile phones and a number of other devices, like DiVx has. So much so, that it is often credited as having ushered in the digital media as a legitimate alternative to TVs, given birth to a whole new era of piracy and led to the creation of DRM and organizations like the MPAA (in America). Furthermore its success has led to industry tycoons to develop their own competitors in the form of Microsoft’s WMV format, RealVideo from Real Networks and Apple’s QuickTime.
Now running in its 6th generation, the current DiVx free package offers support for full HD playback and easy encoding. It offers a free version which is fully backward compliant and can play other MP4 formats too (This is possible by enabling it from within the Directshow Tab). Furthermore it allows dvd authoring now and is fully capable of generating custom menus and author tabs.
Silver Light-Unveiled(Microsoft)
Microsoft has unveiled to the Web (RTW) Silverlight 1.0, a multi-browser, multi-platform plug-in optimizing user experiences on the Web.Moreover Microsoft work on to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight with Novell,based on the project underway on mono-project.com.
Silverlight excells in reduced developm
ent and deployment costs and provides improved Web audio and video streaming and playback using Windows Media Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.
“Our expectations for compelling, immersive experiences on the Web are increasing daily,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect. “With today’s release of Silverlight 1.0, we’re making it possible for developers and designers to deliver to individuals the kind of high-def experiences they crave by integrating data and services in rich and unique ways. Silverlight will further accelerate the growth in rich interactive applications by giving developers and designers new options for delivering great experiences that span the Web, PC, phone and other devices.”
The decision to work with Novell to offer Silverlight support for the Linux platform is in direct response to customer feedback.
“Silverlight is a popular new way to build and deliver cross-browser, cross-platform experiences on the Web,” said Miguel de Icaza, vice president of Developer Platforms and leader of the Mono project at Novell. “Novell is excited to work with Microsoft to extend Silverlight beyond Windows and Macintosh to Linux with Moonlight, so Linux users everywhere can enhance their rich media and interactive experiences on the Web.”
To foster greater involvement and collaboration within the interactive media industry, Microsoft is rolling out the Silverlight Partner Initiative. More than 35 companies have already signed up to support Silverlight.
Alongside the release of Silverlight 1.0, Microsoft unveiled itsExpression Encoder 1.0 (formerly Expression Media Encoder), a tool that makes it simple for professionals to encode, enhance and publish rich media content to Silverlight. The intuitive interface allows users to rapidly encode a wide array of file-based media content formats into a Silverlight experience. Expression Encoder eases out the production of live events using sought-after feature particularly multisource switching and publishing of content to services including Silverlight Streaming.