VUDU does HD. See their new release info

October 02, 2008
NOW AVAILABLE
VUDU Launches HDX: New Benchmark in Picture Quality for On-Demand Content
HDX is a groundbreaking video format that for the first time enables the viewing of Internet-delivered movie content in full High Definition 1080p format that is optimized for 40 inch and larger HDTVs and Home Theaters. With HDX, you get:
• The highest quality available from any Internet, broadcast, cable, or satellite on-demand service • A true cinematic experience with a vividly detailed and virtually artifact free picture • Immersive, high-resolution sound • The ability to initiate a download via the Web
HDX movies are available starting today to all VUDU customers at the same price as standard HD titles – that’s right, superior HDX quality for not a penny extra. Getting started is easy: From the web, simply visit www.vudu.com/movies and select a movie. Sign in and initiate a download.
Or
On your VUDU, visit Explore Catalog and pick an HDX movie.
For more information, visit www.vudu.com/hdx

New VideoStudio news release for you video editors

New Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X2 and Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo X2 Ultimate Edition Offer Improved Ease of Use, Expanded Format Support, and More Creative Options to ConsumersOTTAWA, Canada – September 9, 2008 – Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE), a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, today announced Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X2 and Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo X2 Ultimate. Corel's significant upgrade of VideoStudio® Pro X2 provides consumers with a complete HD solution for video editing and authoring. Corel's latest release of VideoStudio Pro X2 also includes the all-new Painting Creator to add creative flare to video projects, new sharing tools to upload videos directly to YouTube(TM) and mobile devices, as well as offering improved ease-of-use and performance enhancements. Featuring over $200 worth of free bonus items, Paint Shop Pro® Photo X2 Ultimate edition offers support for more than 250 raw camera formats and includes 150 new creative templates.Available separately or together as part of the new Photo & Video Bundle, VideoStudio Pro X2 and Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate offer users the widest selection of video and photo editing features ranging from automatic tools for quick fixes to precision controls for fine-tuning. Family memory keepers, hobbyists, and video and photo enthusiasts can more quickly organize, personalize and share their home movies and digital photos with family and friends using the latest formats."Capturing, enhancing and sharing life's moments with family and friends has become increasingly important in today's global society,” said Denise MacDonell, Senior Director of Product Management, Digital Media at Corel. "With VideoStudio Pro X2 and Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate, family memory keepers and technology enthusiasts can more easily personalize and share their digital stories with family and friends – across town or across continents. With the learning and sharing tools included with Corel software, it is easy for users to strengthen ties and stay connected using popular networking sites such as Facebook®, My Space® and YouTube as they share their most important moments in more exciting, fun and memorable ways.”New in VideoStudio Pro X2The Most Complete HD SolutionOffering the most complete HD solution, VideoStudio Pro X2 lets users capture, edit, author and output video in all of the leading HD formats, including HDV(TM) (High-Definition Video), AVCHD(TM) (Advanced Video Codec High Definition), JVC(TM) HD camcorder (TOD) and BDMV.• New Blu-ray Import and Output – VideoStudio Pro X2 is among the first video editing and authoring software products to offer support for Blu-ray Disc® Movie Video (BDMV) import and output. Users can now import BDMV files directly from Blu-ray camcorders, making it easier to transfer files and get started with video-editing projects. Users can author HD video with motion menus and burn the video to Blu-ray Disc in single- or dual-layer format. Because compliant video is not re-rendered, users can enjoy shorter encoding times and excellent picture quality.• Enhanced Smart Proxy Editing – With Smart Proxy editing, users can edit HD content as easily as they edit standard definition – even on midrange PCs. By using lower-resolution files for editing and previewing a HD project, VideoStudio Pro X2 requires fewer system resources, which results in faster, smoother editing of HD video. In addition, the final output retains the full resolution of the original HD content. With a 300 percent speed increase, users can now render videos over lunch, rather than overnight.• New Custom H.264 HD Encoding – VideoStudio Pro X2 uses the H.264 codec, which provides rapid encoding with superior quality. Both 1440 × 1080 and 1920 × 1080 output frame sizes are supported.More Options for Creativity and Sharing• New Painting Creator – With the all-new Painting Creator, users can paint, draw and write on their videos while recording their movements, providing users with new opportunities to personalize their video projects and showcase their creativity.• New Creative Content – VideoStudio Pro X2 includes new overlay objects, frames, Flash animations, and HD-quality menu templates to enhance every video production. The HD templates are designed to match the quality of any HD video.• New NewBlue® Film Effects – Users can now apply the distinctive look of film from the silent movie era. Included in VideoStudio Pro X2, this dynamic collection of five filters provides 81 presets that recreate the nostalgic effects produced by hand-cranked cameras, dirty projectors, and dusty film vaults.• New Mobile Device Support – VideoStudio Pro X2 users can now import video from and output video to the Apple® iPhone(TM) and iPod® Touch, making it easier for users to capture and share video projects on the latest mobile devices.• Enhanced Upload to YouTube – With the new, streamlined uploader, users can more quickly and easily upload video directly to YouTube. VideoStudio Pro X2 also offers several settings, such as the WMV, H.264, and FLV formats to ensure the best possible encoding quality.Improved Performance Supports Enhanced User Experience• New Optimization for Intel® Quad-Core Technology – VideoStudio Pro X2 now supports Intel® quad-core technology, enhanced for both dual-core and quad-core CPUs. For users, this means faster response times and less time spent waiting for encoding which is especially useful when working with HD video.• New Resizable Interface – VideoStudio now enables users to resize any of the panels within the interface according to their preference, placing the focus exactly where the user wants it.• New Automatic Video Transition and Audio Crossfade – Users can now simply drag video clips so they overlap on the timeline, automatically creating a video transition and audio crossfade for the duration of the overlap. Users can also easily apply transitions in overlay tracks to create sophisticated picture-in-picture and montage effects.• New Auto Pan & Zoom Feature – Auto Pan & Zoom is now available to automatically detect the faces of subjects or objects in photos, eliminating the need to manually apply Pan & Zoom effects.• New Single Clip Trim Dialog Box – The new Single Clip Trim dialog box makes it easy to frame and accurately trim single clips. Users can access the dialog box by double clicking any clip in the Library, making it easier than ever to quickly trim clips.• Faster Rendering Times – While rendering a video production, users can now disable the preview window to maximize rendering resources and render the video more quickly.• Faster Encoding Performance for Transitions and MPEG-2 Files – VideoStudio Pro X2 ensures the fastest encoding at the highest possible quality. The MPEG Optimizer analyzes the bit rates of all clips on the timeline and suggests MPEG encoding settings that ensure the least re-rendering and re-encoding while maintaining the highest quality for a video project.Users can also select a target size before encoding MPEGs. This feature is especially helpful to users who share their videos on Web sites that set limits on file size. In addition, when burning MPEGs to DVD, users can easily adjust the size setting to ensure that their files will fit on the DVD.New in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 UltimateMore Creative Options Supported by the Latest Technology• Enhanced Camera Raw Support – Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate now supports more than 250 raw camera formats, making it easier for users to edit photos taken with the most popular camera models.• New Creative Content Pack – The Creative Content Pack includes 150 brand-new, custom-made photo frames, patterns and Picture Tubes(TM) that enable scrapbookers and other creative users to express their creativity by personalizing their projects.• New Background Remover – An unwanted background image can ruin what would otherwise be a perfect photo. In three simple steps, the Background Remover isolates part of a background in an image and removes it, allowing the user to replace it with a complementary image. With the Background Remover, users can preserve image details that were once impossible to mask precisely by preserving fine, semi-transparent details such as strands of hair and wisps of smoke, as well as the detail that is found between larger objects, such as the sky seen between tree branches.• New Certified for Windows Vista® – Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate is now fully certified for Windows Vista, the highest certification of support for that operating system, meeting compatibility standards for ease-of-use, better performance, and enhanced security.Bonus Items• New Corel® Painter(TM) Photo Essentials 4 – Using the unique Auto-Painting palette, scrapbookers, family memory keepers and photo enthusiasts can now quickly and easily convert their favorite photos into digital paintings and drawings in as little as three clicks.• New PHOTORECOVERY® for Digital Media – Users can enjoy enhanced peace of mind knowing that they can recover images, movies and sound files from memory cards that have been reformatted in error. PHOTORECOVERY® LE is compatible with virtually all media card formats, including SD(TM), miniSD(TM), microSD(TM), CompactFlash® I and II, Memory Stick(TM), MMC, xD, SmartMedia® and Microdrive®.• New Flash Drive – A 2 GB USB Flash Drive makes it easier for users to backup and transfer photos, videos and other files from a PC. Includes plug-and-play compatibility with any PC.Pricing and AvailabilityCorel's VideoStudio Pro X2, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate and the Photo and Video Bundle are available starting today through http://www.corel.com/ and in the coming weeks through Corel's global channel partners.VideoStudio Pro X2 and Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate are available separately for $99.99 SRP (US and Canada) each. The Photo & Video Bundle that includes both products is available for $149.99 SRP (US and Canada), a savings of $49.99.Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 is available starting today in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and additional languages at later dates. Upgrades from VideoStudio 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Standard and Plus versions to VideoStudio Pro X2 are available for $59.99 SRP (US and Canada).Corel also offers VideoStudio X2 to import, edit and output AVCHD and standard-definition video. VideoStudio X2 is priced at $69.99 SRP (US and Canada).Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate is available starting today in English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and in additional languages at later dates. Registered users of Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 may purchase the Special Upgrade from Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 for $29.99 SRP (US and Canada).To learn more about Corel's digital media portfolio or to download free, fully-functional trial versions of Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 or Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate, please visit www.corel.com.About CorelCorel is one of the world's top software companies with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries. We develop software that helps people express their ideas and share their stories in more exciting, creative and persuasive ways. Through the years we've built a reputation for delivering innovative, trusted products that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for software innovation, design and value.Our award-winning product portfolio includes some of the world's most widely recognized and popular software brands, including CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® Painter(TM), Corel DESIGNER® Technical Suite, Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo, VideoStudio®, WinDVD®, Corel® WordPerfect® Office and WinZip®. Our global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with major offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, Taiwan and Japan.

Panasonic announces new projector at Cedia

Panasonic has just announced its new heir or replacement in the front projector market. It is the PT-AE3000, which replaces the PT-AE2000. Panasonic has said it maximizes the image qualify of Blu-ray and broadcast HD content. It has added some new features, starting with a new optical system that achieves a 60,000 to 1 contrast ratio and 1,600 lumens of brightness. Signal processing technologies include Detail Clarity Processor 2 and Frame Creation Interpolation, and a maximum of 16-Bit digital processing. What that all adds up to is a new projector from Panasonic that sounds like an excellent performer. Availability is scheduled in October 2008 for a price of $3,499. For more details, check out Panasonics web site at http://www.panasonic.com/business/projectors/ae3000/index.asp.

MIO C230 GPS Review

For those of us who may hate to stop and ask for directions, the best solution could be to get a GPS. Up for review is the C230 from MIO Technology. It is your basic GPS receiver with a nice looking color touch screen display. GPS receivers are getting quite fancy these days with additional features such as built in media players and digital camera. For those of you who think, I just want a GPS receiver, and too much is well……too much, this may be just the device for you. It does not have those fancy additional features (but if you want them, MIO Technologies has other models you could check out). It does have a nice looking interface, a built in card reader for additional maps, and is preprogrammed with plenty of points of interest.

Having spent some time with the unit, I can tell you that it worked well. At the same time, GPS units can be a little quirky. Programming in an address of a location where I knew how to get to, I ended up doing a little extra driving and did not get the most direct route. But any GPS receiver can do that, and I only had that situation come up once. On a road trip that I took where I did not know where I was going, it worked flawlessly and was a lifesaver. The text to speech directions was also very nice. I would not have a concern recommending the C230 to anyone. If you want a little more than just simple GPS functionality, such as that media player, check out MIO’s C520. For additional info on the C230 and it complete specs, feel free to check out their website at http://www.mio.com/us/gps-navigation-products-c230-overview.htm.

Kenwood Excelon XR-S17P Component System Review

Listen up all Honda owners, or any other owner of a car that requires shallow speakers. Kenwood has come out with some real ear candy for you. It is called the Excelon XR-S17P. It is a 6.5 inch component speaker system that can really sing. The design is quite innovative. It almost looks like a coaxial speaker with no magnet at the back. It has a magnet, but what may be mistaken at first glance as the coaxial tweeter is actually the magnet. Their new design took the magnet from the back and put it in the front. I have a Honda that requires shallow mount speakers, and generally manufacturers do this using a smaller magnet at the back and a thinner basket which in turn makes the woofer almost flat. Here Kenwood was able to move the magnet to the front, and retain a basket of typical depth so you still have good excursion for good midbass response. I must say I was very impressed with the design, and you can see it in the photo.

So far I was impressed with the design, but I was skeptical about how good they would sound. Let me premise this with the fact that I am used to good sounding gear. As a musician I can be particular when it comes to good sound. I have a Honda Del Sol, so I need something that can handle a lot of power and play loud when I have the top off. I have been a lifelong Rockford Fosgate fan, and my system comprises of two Rockford amps. One of them runs about 250 watts to my single 12 inch sub, and the other puts out about 100 watts times 4 to each of my four cabin speakers. They comprise of old school Rockford Fanatic series 6.5 inch coaxial in the rear (shallow mounts), and the 6.5 inch Rockford FNQ’s (with the aluminum cones) and hard dome tweets. Those Rockford fans out there know which ones I am talking about, but enough of Rockford Fosgate. This is about the Kenwood component system. I am not ignorant of Kenwood’s gear, having owned around a half dozen of their Excelon Head units. When I saw this new shallow mount design component system from Kenwood, I just had to check them out. So out came my Rockford Fosgate FNQ’s and in went the Kenwood Excelon XR-S17P’s.

To give you a few specs on them, they use a carbon polypropylene hybrid cone, a 1 inch soft dome tweeter, can handle 100 watts RMS (300 watts peak), and have a mounting depth of only 1 9/16 inches. I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I was taking out my Fosgates. My FNQ’s have more robust crossovers with optical tweeter protection, and I like their aluminum cones. But I was still so intrigued I went forward with the install, and I figured I could put the FNQ’s back when I was done. My first impression was astonishment. At this point I knew I had a contender, and it was time to pull out the heavy artillery. I am a bit unique in the fact that I like a lot of different types of music ranging from rap to Bach. I threw a lot of difficult music at it from Fresh Aire/Mannheim Steamroller, to Bachbusters, The Eagles, Boys to Men, and even Metallica.

Everything that I threw at it sounded great! Fresh Aire sounded very clean, crisp, and lots of resolution. Toccata from Fresh Aire III sounded great, and Harvest Dance from the Halloween album showed off its midbass capabilities. Black Velveteen from Lenny Kravitz is also one that I like to punish midbasses with, and the Kenwood’s did better than my Fosgates FNQ’s. Bachbusters also sounded very clean and musical. There were a few parts in the Eagles where the acoustic guitar sounded a little harsh on my Fosgate hard dome tweets. Not so with the Kenwood soft domes. I love the silk soft domes! The Boys to Men vocals sounded very natural and smooth. As a Star Wars fan, I love listening to the Throne Room on the original Star Wars Soundtrack. The horns sounded amazing and not too brassy. I could not help cranking it up, and it just gave me goose bumps! I also like the guitar in the first minute of Nothing Else Really Matters on the Metallica Black album. It is very crisp and clean. Old school big band also sounded amazing. Whatever I through at them, the excelon XR-S17P’s handled it with applause. I am pleasantly surprised, so much so that my FNQ’s are not going back in. Sorry Rockford Fosgate. I am a bit disappointed however in one thing: that I do not have a second pair for my rears. For more info and complete specs, check out Kenwood’s website at: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/eXcelon/Speakers/XR-S17P

This is for those of you who are looking for a good universal remote, but not just your normal universal remote. For those of you looking for something that is just…..more, Logitech has one that you should give some serious consideration. It is the Harmony One. It is one remote to control them all (well up to 15 devices that is). And its color touch screen interface makes it fun.
Typical universal remotes will allow you to learn the codes of other remotes, and some of the buttons on the remote need to be manually learned. This means that you have the two remotes face each other, press a series of buttons for one remote to send and one remote to receive or learn, hence programming the buttons that you want. Well Logitech has taken away the confusion and headache of having to learn from one remote to another. The Harmony One comes with some powerful software and has a USB interface. You simply install the software on your computer, and then attach the remote to the computer using the supplied USB cable. There is a simple tutorial that takes you through all the steps to set up your remote with the gear that you have. They have an extensive library of thousands of different devices. Even my Levitron remote dimmer for my theater room was on there. What I like is the fact that it includes all the buttons on my original remote. The remote for my Yamaha surround receiver has a lot of buttons. The Harmony One has its share of standard hard buttons, but whatever button is not there is programmed in as custom buttons in multiple pages of buttons on its touch screen display. I like it!

Once you have all the gear selected and the codes are downloaded to your remote, Logitech takes it a step further and lets you program macros for a set of function buttons on the color touch screen. You make them up for what you want. You can have a button that says “Watch TV.” Pressing that button can send out a series of commands such as turning on the TV and turning on your cable box. And you can have one for “Watch DVD,” that will turn on your TV, turn on your surround sound receiver, and turn on your DVD player, and press play on the DVD player.

Harmony also spent many hours of research in design for what feels good in your hand, and I think it works great. It also comes with a docking station that you plug into the wall to charge itself, so no more need to worry about replacing those AA’s or AAA remote batteries. I can honestly tell you that I found my one remote to control them all. I would highly suggest you check out the Harmony One for yourself. For more info and complete specs, please check out Logitech’s website at http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/3898&cl=us,en

D-Link’s DHP-301 Powerline HD Network Starter Kit Review

If you do not want to go through the expense of having a traditional secure wired home network and do not want to deal with a wireless home network, there is now a new option. You can go wired, but without the high cost. Introducing D-Link’s DHP-301 Powerline HD Network Starter Kit. It is an Ethernet adapter set that runs signals from one adapter to the other using your homes electrical wiring. It is very simple to set up with the included software.

The main unit plugs to your router and then into an electrical outlet. The 2nd unit just plugs into the wall outlet and then whatever else you want it to plug into. They are rated at up to 200mbps throughput for HD content over your home network, and you can use them to allow your game consoles such as the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or the Wii game systems connect to the internet.

Having put them to the test, I can tell you they work great. When I initially set them up, it took about an hour for them to make the connection between each other. Once they did, the internet on my 2nd computer was up and running. You always leave them plugged in to keep the connection between the two adapters. Having put them through an extended trial of over a month, I can tell you that the adapters can get quite hot. There was also a time when I lost the connection between them. I was not quite sure what happened. I discovered the adapters were hot so I just unplugged them for a while to let them cool off. Once they were cool I plugged them back into the wall and gave the adapters some time to re-establish their connection which they did. I was again back and running. With that said, they are not perfect. But they are also an electronic device, and they work. For those of you looking for a way to connect a computer or other device to the internet or create a home network, I would suggest giving them some attention. I was not disappointed. Good job D-Link. For more detailed specs and info, feel free to check them out at D-Link’s website at http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=533

Spot - Personal Satellite Tracker review by Jeff Roy

For you Boy Scout troops and those of you who really enjoy the outdoors whether it is hiking, camping, or anything else where you are away from civilization, here is a product you may be interested in. It is from a company called Spot, and it is a Satellite Personal Tracker. You may be thinking GPS. It is, but it isn’t. A traditional GPS device has a little screen that tells you where you are and gives you directions, and that is about it. This personal locator device does not tell you where you are or how to get to a particular location. What it does do is tell others where you are and by doing so has saved lives. That is why I started out saying it is used most by those who do outdoor activities. When you purchase the device, you set up your own personal account, and include with it a list of email addresses and cell phone numbers. The device has no display to tell you where you are, but it does have a few buttons to notify others where you are. There is an ok/check button, a help button, and a 911 button. Let’s say you are going on a backpacking trip out in the middle of nowhere. At different spots along your journey, you can press the ok/check button. This sends a signal to the GPS satellites that gets forwarded to the email addresses and phone numbers you have set up to tell those individuals you are ok and where you are on your route. If something happens and you have an accident and need emergency assistance, you can press the 911 button. This notifies not only the individuals, but also the local authorities so they know you are in need of rescue and also your exact location. Taking it on a camping trip myself, I found it worked very well. And for a minimal service fee, it could mean the difference between life and death. For more details, feel free to check out the companies website at http://www.findmespot.com/home.aspx.

Panasonic Ethernet Adapter by Jeff Roy

If you want to set up a home network, you have two options. You can either go wireless, or if your house was prewired for it you can do a wired network. A wireless network is not as secure, but as most homes are not prewired for a home network since it tends to be an expensive upgrade, most people go with a wireless network. Now you can do a wired network without the traditional network wires. A new format is available that lets you use the existing electrical wires in your home in the walls that connects outlet to outlet to send data on through a home network. You need at least two adapters. One is the primary and one is the secondary. The primary one will hook up to your router and the main computer, the secondary one hooks up to your second computer and the network connection on the back of that computer. Now you can access the internet on your second computer. But it is not limited to just the internet. You can also share audio, video, and photos over your home network using these adapters. No additional software is needed. All I needed to do was plug the main adapter into the wall, and connect the Ethernet cable to my router. Then I plugged the second adapter into an outlet and then connected the Ethernet cable into the back of my second computer. It took a little while for the adapters to see each other, but once the connection between them was set up, I had internet access on my second computer. They worked pretty well. I tested the connection speed at 532Kb/s download speed, which was not as fast as my primary computer connected directly to my router but was still pretty good. Now you can have a cheap fully secured wired network. According to Panasonic, up to 16 of these adapters can be used together, and the maximum transmission speed is 190 Mbps theoretically. For more information, feel free to check out the information at Panasonic’s website at http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/en/plc/sp/lineup/index.html.

Computers - Building your own. By Jeff Roy

You can get quite a bit when you buy a new computer these days. It used to be that you could save a lot by building it yourself, if you knew how to. That is not necessarily the case now. But, building it yourself does give you more options on hardware. Especially if you do a lot of add-ons such as video capture cards, or want higher performance parts. Buying a prebuilt system usually doesn’t give you as many add-on options. These are a few of the reasons why you may want to build your own. For those of you who have opened up your computer and upgraded parts like adding more memory, DVD burner, video card, etc, building a system is not that much more difficult. It does help to have a resource you can turn to for help. If you do not know how to work with the individual components, you can check with a local electronics store. If they sell all the parts, they may also be able to build it for you.

When I build a system I start with the case. If you want to do overclocking, you will want a case that has a lot of fans built in to blow in cool are and blow hot air out to circulate air flow and keep your components cool. I wanted a quiet system. The case I used is one provided by Antec, their Sonata Plus 550. Not only is it a nice case, it is designed to be quite and even includes sound deadening material on the inside of the two side panels to reduce noise. Antec really went all out in trying to make this case as quite as possible. I really like the soft rubber feet at the bottom of the case to again further reduce vibration and noise. It also came with a nice highly efficient NeoPower 550 watt modular power supply. Power supplies are important as they are supposed to provide constant stable current to your components, and 550 watts is plenty of power for the majority of users. Antec is a name I trust in cases and power supplies.

Next up is the motherboard, which is crucial for a stable system. They vary greatly in price, features, and stability. You tend to get what you pay for, and your motherboard is one place I would not try to cut costs. Building your own system lets you choose your motherboard which can give you much more expandability options. The motherboard I used here was from DFI, the UT 790FX-M2R. I previously have not had any experience with them having mostly used Asus boards, but knew them as a good quality board maker. I was proved correct, with the board having a lot of expandability and features as well as being very stable. They have more than enough card slots, and for you gamers out there it can even do three-way crossfire. It even came with a separate heat pipe for overclockers to help keep the chipsets cool, and a separate audio card module. The features are too numerous to list, and will give you their website at the bottom of the article for their full specs. But suffice it to say I am getting fond of them, and give two thumbs way up. If you think this board is a bit much for you, they also have another great board the DK 790FX-M2RS that is very close to it in features, minus the additional heat pipe for additional cooling and the sound card module. Again for its detailed specs I will refer you to DFI’s website. The motherboard is the first part to be installed in the case.

Next is the processor. Here I chose to go with an AMD. I don't think they are quite as good as Intel, but they are a great value. AMD also has a very cool program called AMD Live! Explorer. (It only works with AMD processors, which is the main reason for my going with an AMD based system, and I will cover that program in a different review). First you install the processor in the socket, put on a bit of thermal paste, and then install the cooler. At this point is when I will attach the case cables to the motherboard (power button, front usb connectors, etc.), as well as the case fans and CPU fan and power cable from the power supply to the motherboard. You will need to refer to the motherboard manual since the locations are all different. I now would install the RAM, and I went with four 1GB DDR2-1066 sticks of Kingston HyperX memory which is very good high speed ram with heat spreaders. I used 4GB, and wouldn't recommend anything less than 2GB. Although Windows Vista will work with 1GB, I would recommend 2GB when working with multimedia applications. Kingston is a name you can rely on for high performance and they also come with a great lifetime warranty.

Some motherboards come with built-in video so no video card is needed. The DFI motherboards did not have integrated video, which is ok since I much prefer a separate video card. They are more powerful for more extensive video applications such as games, video editing, or high definition video watching. I actually went with two video cards, the HD3870 an HD3850 provided by ATI. Using two cards together in crossfire adds additional performance for video editing and gaming. For you gamers out there, I scored over 14,000 3d2006 marks, which is very impressive. NVIDIA is also another good video card company, but I much prefer the ATI products. I believe they are a great value for the money, and also have some great features. Their UVD (Unified Video Decoder) takes care of all the decoding with DVD’s, HD-DVD, or Blu-Ray movies so your CPU does not have to. It also has a great integrated software component called AVIVO video converter. Here you can take a ripped DVD or TV show you recorded, and convert it to a file that will play on your iPod, PSP, PDA, or other portable device. No additional software needed to buy. I have been using ATI for their video cards for years, going back to their original All-in-wonder card with built in TV tuner. Now I look for a bit more performance, and the HD3870 and HD3850 cards deliver it in spades. Kudos goes to ATI for some great video cards and the high value for performance when compared to the price. I was even able to overclock mine a bit to get out even more performance. The included Catalyst software makes it pretty easy to do.

After the video cards were installed, I would usually now install the sound card. As I briefly mentioned earlier, the DFI board actually came with a separate module that is a sound card, so I did not use a separate sound card. It works like a normal add-on sound card without taking up an internal card slot. It even has a coaxial in and a coaxial out. If you have any additional cards, such as a TV Tuner card, now is when I would install them.

It is now time to install you storage drives. These would include hard drive and DVD burners. For obvious reasons I always go with name brand hard drives that I trust and I chose Seagate. I have used them for years without problems. I used LG for my 2 DVD burners. Installing these in my Antec case was very easy. I screwed on the rails to each side of the drive, and then just slid them into the slots. For the hard drive there is also a unique suspension system in the case to reduce vibration and hence also reduce noise. It worked pretty well. With the drives in place it is now time to connect the power cables and parallel cables to the back of the drives. The hardware part of the building is now complete and it is time to screw back on the side of the case.

Last but not least I want to briefly cover the operating system and a couple accessories. I have always been a fan of Microsoft Windows. Some of their versions of windows have been better than others. The current version out now is Windows Vista, and one version I want to mention is the Ultimate version. It has a very cool feature that I first saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas called Windows DreamScene. Your desktop now goes interactive, not just with a picture, but with video. The one that was shown off at the show was that of a mountain waterfall and stream, where you can see the water falling and the tree leaves blowing in the wind. It is a video clip running in continuous loop. There are different scenes that you can download, but you can also load your own home movies as your backgrounds – VERY cool! And speaking of home movies, I also wanted to touch on additional storage options. While cases can hold multiple hard drives and give you the option of designating one or more to something like home movies, they are purely internal. They will work for that computer, or any others you may have on your home network, but what if you wanted to show off say your son’s touchdown run to grandpa. For that, an external hard drive is a great accessory. You can take them wherever you go. If you are also worried about viruses, you can also use one for your home movies, photos, or anything else, and just connect it when you need it reducing the ability for it to get corrupted. Some external hard drives are designed to be compact, and some are a bit bigger and are designed for large amounts of storage. I have a few different ones here from Seagate and Maxtor, both small and larger, and both good companies. They are the Maxtor 1TB OneTouch 4 Plus and 250GB OneTouch 4 Mini, as wells as the Seagate 1TB FreeAgent Pro and 250GB FreeAgent Go.

I hope you are able to see that building your own computer really is not that difficult. I would not necessarily recommend it to someone who has never done any hardware upgrades. I would recommend to first try upgrading your current computer, like getting a new video card, adding a new hard drive for increased storage capacity, and add a DVD burner. Once you have learned how to do those things, the rest is not too hard. As I mentioned before, it does help to know someone with the experience in case you have trouble. And if all else fails, you could take it somewhere that builds them, such as your local Best Buy Geek Squad. For more detailed specs on the specific components, feel free to visit the manufacturer's websites at http://www.amd.com/, http://www.antec.com/, http://us.dfi.com.tw/index_us_noflash.jsp?SITE=US, http://www.kingston.com/, http://www.maxtor.com/, http://www.microsoft.com/, and http://www.seagate.com/.