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NVIDIA’s new PersonalCinema
The
new NVIDIA PersonalCinema is the Swiss Army knife of home entertainment
and video editing. It’s got a bit of this and a bit of that. It’s a
DVD Player, it’s a TV Tuner, it’s a video capture and editing tool,
it’s a PVR – Personal Video Recorder. PersonalCinema
is based on NVIDIA’s new GeForce 32 Mb video graphics card that
provides great looking images and color on your computer screen. Not
only can use it for games and imaging, PersonalCinema enables you to
watch TV on your computer, either from your cable TV connection or from
an antenna. You can also attach it to your VCR and camcorder. You can input either regular video or S-video. But wait, it keeps getting better. NVIDIA has bundled MGI’s VideoWave4 video editing software with this package. This enables you to capture video and audio from your camcorder, your VCR or even from a live broadcast, and then edit it all together to create your own movies and programs. When you are all done, you can output it back to videotape or you can save it as a digital file and share it among friends and family. You
are probably familiar with Personal Video Recording (PVR) machines from
companies like Tivo and Replay that record TV shows to hard disk and
enable you to timeshift. Timeshifting
is sort of like what your VCR does but a whole lot better. As the TV
shows plays, it gets laid down onto your hard drive. Once you have a
five minute or so buffer built up, you can then pause the show playback
while the show continues to record. You can playback scenes and sports
plays, all while the PVR continues to record the show. And, you can use
the PVR to skip forward past commercials and other boring parts of the
broadcast. Instead
of spending many hundreds of dollars to buy a TIVO or Replay box,
PersonalCinema allows you to easily convert your computer into your own
PVR complete with MPEG recording of your favorite TV shows, timeshifting,
and even an Internet supplied program guide that enables you to see what
is on your local channels as well as to pre-set your computer to record
shows when you are not there. And
hey, it gets even better. Maybe you got a DVD player inside your
computer? The bundled InterVideo DVDPlayer allows you to control your
DVDs. Oh, I forgot, and it is all done by wireless remote control.
PersonalCinema includes a remote that enables to control the video
playing on your monitor, sets up and controls your PVR, and also
controls your DVD. Sweet. Well there is one last goodie. As
mentioned earlier, you can output NTSC or PAL video and audio from
PersonalCinema. This means you don’t need your computer monitor at
all. You can install the software, the card and the special remote
control/breakout box on your computer, and then you can use your TV set
as your monitor. Depending on how you set it up, your TV monitor can
display video only or you can configure it to show video in one window,
the Personal Cinema control panel in another, and a live Internet window
in yet another. This
is a total home entertainment center, all built into your computer. The
ideal ways to use this system is to put the PersonalCinema computer in
your living room next to your TV set and your VCR. Plug your cable and
VCR connections into the PersonalCinema breakout box. Hook up a wireless
mouse and your Internet connection to your computer, and voila, you are
ready to go. Installation
and Specs The
NVIDIA kit is based around their 32 Mb GeForce MX video graphics adapter
with an attached VIVO (video
in video out) module as well as the breakout box for the video and TV
connections. You need an AGP slot for the graphic card. The GeForce
graphic card, in addition to working with the video components, also
provides TwinView dual display which enables you to spread your images
across two separate displays and “Clone” mode that is needed to set
up and configure the overlay for video feedback on a second computer
monitor or TV set. The
Video Break-out box and software require a minimum of a Pentium II 400
Mhz CPU, with a large and fast hard drive (20 gigs or better, 7200 rpm),
DVD player, and at least 128 MB of RAM. Of course, the faster and more
powerful your computer, the better it will operate.
PersonalCinema will work with Windows 98, Windows 98SE and
Windows ME. I
tested the system using 1.4 GHz P4, 30 GB hard drive, 128 RAM and
Windows ME and was very pleased with the smooth install as well as the
actual performance. The
Personal Video Recorder The
magic of the system is the Personal Video Recorder that can capture and
digitize your incoming video and audio into MPEG2 or MPEG1 files, store
them on your hard drive, and play them back as needed. This capture
takes place in real time. You don’t have to wait for the files to
render. The
breakout box sends the video to your computer via the special cable.
Audio needs to sent separately via a stereo mini-jack cable to your
computer’s audio card for capture and digitizing.
. The PersonalCinema breakout box was designed to handle both
video in and audio in. There is a convenient audio input jack on the
breakout box but on my pre-production model, I found the jack to be a
bit. I got much better results hooking my VCR and camcorder
outputs directly to the line in on my audio card. As
mentioned earlier, the breakout box also includes video and audio
outputs as well so that you can watch your TV shows and DVDs on your TV
instead of your computer. If your TV set as a S-VHS input, you can use
that instead of regular VHS. On
my pre-production model, there was a separate power blister that
provides DC power to the breakout box. On the version you’ll buy in
the store, power will be supplied via your computer. As
mentioned earlier, the magic of a Personal Video Recorder is in its
timeshifting capability. PersonalCinema
provides two modes – timeshifting and timeshifting while recording.
Timeshifting mode enables you to record a buffer of time – say about
ten minutes. The PVR will constantly be recording the last ten minutes
of your show. This means you can rewind it back to replay a scene, pause
it to go to the bathroom or replenish your snack supplies - all without
missing a moment of your show. You
can also use the PVR to skip forward 30 seconds, one minute, whatever
you set it for. This enables you to watch a show and miss all the
commercials. However, if you turn off the PVR or computer, that stored
buffer will be lost. The
timeshifting plus record setting means that the entire show, from
beginning to end, gets digitized and recorded to your hard drive. You
can timeshift view it, watch it later, you can store it on a removable
drive, or you can share it over a network or the Internet. Depending on
which quality level you record at, you can store hours and hours of
shows on the hard drive. Of course, you can always output these shows to
your VCR and save them on tape. There
are three pre-set levels – Good, Better and Best, and one customizable
that enables you to modify a wide range of the capture settings
including size of image, bit stream and choose between MPEG1 and MPEG2. I tried out the Good setting and was very impressed. I could
see some artifacts and noise but overall it was very watchable. With a
smaller 10 Gig hard drive, you can capture about 10 hours of video at
that setting. 10 Gigs at Best only enables you to capture 2.5 hours. I
tried out capturing video at all three levels and could see definite
increases in visual quality. However, for general day-to-day
timeshifting and recording, the Good seemed just fine. I
noticed a small quality shift in vide and audio synchronization whenever
I engaged timeshifting mode. This quality drop was related to whatever
level of recording quality was engaged. At Best, it was barely
noticeable. However, at Good, the drop in playback quality was apparent.
However, I found the convenience factor overwhelmed that small quality
drop. A
really cool feature of PersonalCinema is the Internet connection.
It is easy to have one window on your computer monitor playing
television from your cable company, another displaying an Internet
browser and yet other windows with open and live computer applications.
Of course, depending on your monitor size and whether you are using the
GeForce card to spread your images across two computer and TV monitors,
you can have many more open browser and application windows.
As I am writing this article, I have numerous open windows
including the NVIDIA PersonalCinema TV screen, Word, Ulead PhotoImpact
and 2 open Internet browser windows. Pretty cool. Part
of the PersonalCinema package is a free Electronic Programming Guide
called InterVideo TV. This requires an Internet connection. I used this
with my slow 56K connection and it worked fine. Once
configured with your user name, your password and your local television
reception and station options, you can easily access and retrieve an up
to date grid of all your local programming. This grid is pretty cool. The
InterVideo TV Grid provides lots of information about the shows
including what type of show it is – i.e. sports, movie, comedy, etc.
You can also use the grid to search for specific type s of shows. You
can even find movies by titles, stars, genre, director, etc. You can
find out what the show is about and if it is a repeat or first play. You
can assign different color bars to various types of shows. This is
really fun and much better than searching the television ratings in your
local newspaper. By
clicking on a specific show, you can access further details about the
program. This click also enables you to easily schedule your computer to
automatically program your computer to capture and save the entire show
to hard disk for later viewing. And
best of all, its free. Unlike other PVR services that require a monthly
payment, InterVideo TV is supported by a tiny banner ad at the top of
the screen. Video
Editing and Capture If
you want to capture, edit and output finished videos, PersonalCinema
includes the MGI VideoWave 4 video-editing package. Videowave 4 is
probably on of the most popular editing packages found bundled with
consumer video gear. It is easy to set-up and use, simple to make shows
with, and provides many of the titling, transition, special effect and
audio editing features needed for home and prosumer video production.
Once the show is complete, you can use it to output your finished videos
back to videotape. You can also burn the finished videos to CR-ROM or,
if they are small enough, send them out over the Internet. Even
though NVIDIA labels their remote an “Universal” remote, it just
controls the DVD and PVR functions. You will still need a mouse and
keyboard for controlling VideoWave and doing your video editing. Is
PersonalCinema for You? I
started reviewing early beta versions of this product and didn’t
experience any major problems. In the final beta version, I did
experience annoying delay and video rolling when the application was
first loaded, especially while using the TwinView, Clone and Video
Mirroring functions that displayed the video and computer images on both
my computer and video monitors. I
also found that there was some lagging when changing stations or modes.
However, once the image and sound stabilized, everything looked and
worked fine. NVIDIA
PersonalCinema is relatively simple to install. The only difficulty I
found was configuring the graphic display card itself to enable video
playback on a separate TV set. You have to go to the TwinView setting
and enable and configure “Clone” mode. Then you need to go into the
GeForce MX advanced settings and configure “Overlay” to activate and
set-up “Video Mirroring”. Aside
from that one process, set up was simple. There
are many other video capture products on the market that enable you to
watch TV and also capture and edit video. However, few of them also
incorporate a wireless DVD Player as well as the wireless PVR options. PersonalCinema
is essentially the guts of your own home entertainment system and
theatre. If you really want to do this right, you’ll need to install
this system in a computer that sits next to your cable TV outlet, your
big screen TV set, as well as your Internet connection. In addition to
the wireless PersonalCinema remote used to control the PVR, DVD and TV,
I’d also recommend getting a wireless mouse and keyboard to complete
the entire remote control experience. This way you could even edit your
videos and cruise the Internet from the comfort of your sofa. In
a few years, I expect to find these PVR and Internet functionalities
built into most TV sets. However, in the meantime, you got to do it
yourself. The nVidia PersonalCinema is quick and easy way to have the
hottest home theatre set-up on the block. And it’s not expensive. You
should be able to find PersonalCinema on the shelves of your local
electronics store for about under $200 bundled with the basic GeForce2
MX 200 graphics card. Other, more powerful NVIDIA graphic cards will
also come bundled with Personal Cinema. NVIDIA
www.nvidia.com
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