Elgato turbo 264 to PSP & PS3 guide

This guide is specifically meant to address the shortcomings of the original turbo 264 encoding for psp, if you have the Turbo 264 HD you likely don’t need this guide. If you want to skip all this intro and get to doing move down to the numbered sections. (UPDATE added info on 1.4 update post-processing not neccesary)

Aim:

High quality video quality compatible with PSP, iPods & PS3 (probably 360 also but I have not checked). Go to the conclusion for info on some limitations and technical info.

What you need:

-Elgato turbo 264 (hardware)

-Turbo 264 (software, I’m using v1.3 UPDATE v1.4 lets you skip the postprocessing)

-Quicktime PRO or MPEG Streamclip for post-processing (you will use these programs to re-save files to make them properly compatible with the PSP)

-Video to encode (offcoarse)

-A compatible Mac (for the turbo 264 obviously since it is a mac only product, so G4,G5 or intel CPU, 512mb ram, usb 2.0 port, OS X 10.5/.4, iTunes and Quicktime)

-PSP with software v3.3 or later (for video resolution support)

Also recommended but not part of the guide

-Perian (set of plugins for quicktime which will help the turbo 264 with some video formats)

-WMVplayer PRO @ 30ish $ (plugins for quicktime which will help the turbo 264 with unprotected wmv video formats)

-VLC (plays most video files, a good workaround for some video files that might not work otherwise, re-encode with VLC then encode in turbo 264, video is a pain to work with I tell ya)
Profiles:

This is a list of profiles we will be making. The turbo 264 works with profiles, we are going to create our own 3 (or 5) custom profiles to get what we want out of our device, I will list them with notes before we go through how to make them, also a note on audio I only use 80kbps in all profiles but you can go up to 128kbps if you want:

PSP LQ: Low Quality Elgatos psp default slightly modified, 400 kbps video, no post-processing required, don’t bother increasing the bit rate, 400 mostly works best for this size. aprox 200mb/hour. A lot of image softening and blockiness (actually more like muddiness).

PSP MQ: Mid Quality iPod profile modified to work with PSP, 500/600 kbps video, needs post-processing on v1.3 or older, if you want higher quality don’t bother increasing the bit rate past 600, move to the HQ profile. aprox 250 to 300mb/hour. Some softening with a little blockiness.

PSP MQ 4:3 you will need a separate profile for non widescreen content/output (unless you don’t mind stretching your video).

PSP HQ: Hi Quality AppleTV profile modified to work with psp, average 800kbps video, needs post-processing on v1.3 or older, very good quality file, will vary bit rate to to maintain quality. aprox 420mb/hour. A little softening and will not cause any blockiness (really it won’t, bit rate varies accordingly).

PSP HQ 4:3 you will need a separate profile for non widescreen content/output (unless you don’t mind stretching your video)
Note: these are MY optimum settings which I have tested and work for me, if you don’t like them feel free to try your own.



01 Lets get cracking:

Okay first step is obviously for you to know that the turbo 264 is already properly set up and working on your computer (quite easy and beyond the scope of this write up).

Okay so start the turbo 264 app and drop a video in, you should then click on the format menu, and go to the bottom option “edit”. When the new window pops up you can use the plus symbol to create a new profile. You can just follow the diagram below (if the diagram is not clear please download and zoom in).




I will list the settings in case for some reason you can’t read the diagram.

PSP LQ: Profile=Sony PSP, Size=auto, Aspect=auto, Overscan=auto, Framerate=auto, Data rate=custom –> 400.

PSP MQ wide : Profile=iPod High, Size=custom –> 480×272, Aspect=auto, Overscan=auto, Framerate=auto, Data rate=custom –> 500.

PSP MQ 4by3 : Profile=iPod High, Size=custom –> 362×272, Aspect=auto, Overscan=auto, Framerate=auto, Data rate=custom –> 500.

PSP HQ wide : Profile=Apple TV, Size=custom –> 480×272, Aspect=auto, Overscan=auto, Framerate=auto, Data rate= set slider to Low.

PSP HQ 4by3 : Profile=Apple TV, Size=custom –> 362×272, Aspect=auto, Overscan=auto, Framerate=auto, Data rate= set slider to Low.



02 Post processing: UPDATE only required on Turbo 264 software v1.3 or older, v1.4 output no longer needs it.

The file you have created with MQ and HQ settings are still not ready to be viewed by your psp or ps3. You will need either QuickTime pro or MPEG streamclip. I will list both methods I know of, you can batch process a group of file with MPEG streamclip but that won’t be covered (for now). I won’t provide any pictures since it is quite straight forward.

QT pro: Open the file in quicktime From the menu bar (the top bar thingy) Go to “File”, select “Export”. A dialogue will pop up, next to “Export” choose “Movie to MPEG-4″, click on “Options”. Another pop up window, at the top next to “File Format” select “MP4″, go to the “Video” tab and next to “Video Format” choose “Pass through”, then go to the “Audio” tab and next to “Audio Format” choose “Pass through”. Click Ok. Now decide where you want to save your file and rename it if you want, click save. TADA. Next time you can just use most recent settings under export if you haven’t changed anything.
MPEG Streamclip: Open the file in MPEG Streamclip From the menu bar Go to “File” then select “Save as”, A dialogue will pop up, choose a name and a place for your file, choose “MP4″ from the optional formats (bottom middle of the dialogue box, above and between “New folder” & “Cancel” ) , click save. TADA, yes that was a bit less painless.



Congratulations, your files are now ready for consumption by PSP, iPod and Ps3. There are no chapters, alternate audio tracks, selectable closed captions or any of that jazz, but you can’t have those things working across all platforms.



03 Other settings and some notes:

You can set overscan as you please, the video files won’t always come out at the exact specified dimensions but they still work. All widescreen content can be encoded at 480×272, the encoded file will play fine and will have its original aspect ratio. Audio quality can be turned up if you like, I have not tried the AC3 surround sound passthrough, if anyone does and it works let me know. The test clip I used recently was the opening and first episode from Fullmetal Alchemist the Brotherhood (lightning flames and lots of quick transitions), please watch your video on your tv to asses the quality, the PS3 does some good processing, or its the higher contrast and color gamut of the tv making things look better. I would have to recommend the HQ setting unless space is a concern. In some cases the softness of an LQ video might be better than the blockiness of an MQ video, you have to judge for yourself. Please calibrate your tv, it makes video look much better. The better your source the better your output.



Closing

So the turbo 264 is a wonderful piece of hardware that speeds up making videos for various devices, it has presets for iPod, Psp, iPhone & Apple Tv. I really like the 264, it has been really handy, I always use the PSP preset because it is the most versatile, I can use the video files on iPods the Ps3 and naturally on the Psp (offcoarse). But using the Psp preset you are limited to 320×240 or 320×180 in video size and 512kbps, which is okay, but only on the psps screen, and still you can do better. So I have finally figured it out, so, now I have shown you how to create three presets that should give you the optimum size vs quality depending on your needs. Video resolution will be brought up from 320×240 & 320×180 to 480×272 and 362×272, the PSP does support higher resolutions but this is a fairly optimum setting, and it might not seem like much but 480×272=130560 vs 320×180=57600 , so thats more than twice as many pixels for widescreen content for 4:3 content it is a bit less of an improvement @ 320×240=76800 to 362×272=98464, but I couldn’t find a good alternative (if you know one that works feel free to let me know, the psp is quite picky about video resolution though). If you want video only for your PS3 it should accept anything the turbo 264 can spit out (800×600 5mbps under appletv with AAC audio), just do the post-processing if running software v1.3 or older, I have only tested it up to 640 by 480 on the PS3 (the file did not work on the PSP FYI).

Apples Aluminium Unibody Macbooks

Ok Apple updated its laptops on the 14th (yes I’m posting a week later, LAZY). Anyway there is some good bad and sad in all these announcements. Lets describe everything in laymans terms then I will move over to nerd speak. (Images link to apple page, just click).

	Macbook 13″ New enclosure with better graphics faster ram and higher specs, available with keyboard backlight, better battery life (claimed) , lighter (only 2kg now). White macbook still available at a lower price point (with older chipset and graphics etc…). Displayport & multi touch glass buttonless trackpad. No more firewire. Bottom line, great computer, deal breaker is no firewire OR expresscard (I need one of them) on offer anymore. Max Ram 4gb DDR3 up 2 to 2.4ghz CPU. SKU (stock keeping units) @ 999$ 1299$ and 1599$.
	Macbook pro 15″ New enclosure with better graphics faster ram and higher specs, 2 graphics processors one for performance and one for battery (like some vaios) , keyboard backlight standard, only glossy screens available (deal breaker), better battery life (depending on use) , 17″ Macbook pro uses old enclosure and chipset. Displayport & multi touch glass buttonless trackpad. Bottom line, great (expensive-ish) computer, deal breaker is glossy screen (not worth the money paying for reflections and poor colour accuracy), only 1 firewire port .Max Ram 4gb DDR3, 2.4 to 2.8ghz CPU Graphics up to 512mb 9600M GT. SKU @ 1999$ and 2499$.
	Macbook Air Better graphics faster ram and higher specs (notabely 120 gb hard disk). Displayport & multi touch trackpad. Ram fixed at 2gb DDR3 CPU 1.6 to 1.86ghz. SKU @ 1799$ and 2499$.

I won’t bother with the 24″ display (with integrated hub and laptop charger) because it’s worthless (GLOSSY AAAHHH). Or the good environmental stuff (YAY go environment). Why is the mac mini not getting any love? Why are the iMacs still glossy and lacking any expresscard slot or SOMETHING? Why display port and not mini hdmi?. Just for people who are uninformed there is something called a GPU which matters more than how much graphics memory you have (sick of people pretending to know what they are talking about by showing off the size of the graphics memory).

Ok time for nerd speak. First why firewire is a big deal; it is much faster than USB2 (raw benchmarks show 25% between FW400 and USB2) so USB for example tops up at 30 Megabytes/s read and 25 Megabytes/s write (performancew WILL be worse on laptops), FW 400 40 Megabytes/s read 30 Megabytes/s write, FW 800 +65 Megabytes/s read +55 Megabytes/s write (if the drives can go that fast these are high end 1TB commercial drives), these are averages, peak values are not very usefull (most sites report peak values or don’t specify). In real world use the differences are usually greater (in my experience) which may come down to various things (USB hogging CPU resources, poor controllers, software?, number and size of files, etc…). Macworld mentioned that Gigabit ethernet is faster than FW and that sounds like a good point, until you realize that the only storage you can get with Gigabit ethernet is a NAS and 2 drive NAS’s give you speeds of about 15 to 20 Megabytes/s (large file sizes). The Macbooks don’t have Firewire (or IEEE1394a/b for those so inclined) and don’t have any alternative, adding an Expresscard slot would mean you could add a Firewire card (at cost) or even eSata (which can easily surpass +100 Megabytes/s in a RAID). SAD. So losing Firewire practically breaks the macbook for me.

Next why glossy screens are bad. Lots of reflections, poor colour accuracy (if the contrast is overboosted, yes I spell colour the British way), they look good to most people (high contrast colours “pop”). I’m not keen on spending 1999$ just so I get a firewire port, the big screen is nice but its SHINY and might practically useless for photo retouching and video work (video is me hobby and sometimes I need to do things on the road). There is a way around it, use a stick on matte filter (like this one for the macbook), the new macs (now including the macbook) also sport LED displays which is cool (I guess) , I’m sure they will be available soon enough for the new macbooks, not sure how well they work. I want a smaller laptop though, lugging this thing around is a bit TIRING.

There are some interesting things to note about these laptops. Offcoarse most abviously to most people is the outside (called a “unibody” enclosure) of the computer which is thinner and slightly lighter (in the macbooks case unquestionabely at least). Apple has moved to a new chipset provided by nVidia, which gives the macbooks there new (integrated but very playable and much improved) graphics, pcworld published some benchmarks which are not comprehensive but show an improvement, note these benchmarks are under vista (can expect better results for battery life for example in OS X). But what they clearely show is the graphics have markedly improved and should provide a very playable expereince at medium/low settings at a lowish resolution (800×500 is good on my old macbook) waiting on some more benchmarks though. The new chipset also brings in DDR3 which hardly matters yet (once speeds are up it might) except for the fact my ddr2 memory can’t be used on the new machine (bummer) but theoretically reduces power usage (yay).

Another point of interest is the new macbooks battery life. The macbook claims better battery life (from 4.5 to 5 hours) which may be true or not, but the “efficiency” should have gone up because the battery is actually a bit smaller (going from 55 w/hr to 45 w/hr), apple seems to be quite fair with its battery life estimates (according to the usage scenario it gives, especially recently) and they seem to get fairer with time, I was surprised to find my mothers McAir practically hits four hours of usage (3.5 easily) the way she uses it, which is practically Apples “wireless productivity”, half to one hour off the mark is quite good (my original thoughts were between 2.5 to 3 hours, maybe the software updates gave a boost?) also note that at times apple actually reduce estimated with product revisions, fancy that? it is good since the devices don’t actually run for less time but apples estimates become more relevant (McAir originally rated at 5 hours, now at 4.5, originally macbooks had claimed 6 hours, now its 4.5/5 depending on model, don’t remember about the pros), DDR3 and LED displays may help with the battery life. The Macbook pro advertises the same battery life (5 hours) with a smaller battery (going from 60 to 50 w/hr), in some scenarios an improvement in real world battery life should be seen because of the integrated graphics taking over under light load. Ars technica has put up some battery life benchmarks, I like them better than macworlds since they specify what they did. Note on the figures that they should be better under “general use” for most people since peopls shouldn’t be doing hourly backups (silly) or hourly online syncing (sillier) while on a battery especially. So I guess 3.5 to 4 hours use is a fair estimate (which is good) depending on use (and model).

In summary I like the new macs besides the removal of firewire from the macbook (dealbreaker I think at least for now) and glossy only screens (interestingly the new psp features a matte screen, just thought I would throw that in), the graphics performance is awesome (links at end of article) and battery life is OK. Good laptops overall. I just want FIREWIRE PLEASE. And I hope the displayport transmits audio and video (like HDMI)

LINKS My favourite is Ars Technica (since they are the most detailed). In summary everyone agrees laptops good, battery good, no FIREWIRE bad and glossy screen MEH (Ars has a detailed paragraph about that if your interested).

Ars Technica Unibody Macbook Pro Review Part 1 : General Part 2 : Performance.

Barefeats Unibody Macbooks Overview and Macbook pro Benchmarks

Macworld Unibody Macbook Review and graphics benchmarks.

TTFN. I am so confused, ALL I WANT IS A (new unibody) MACBOOK WITH FIREWIRE.

Tea showered macbook

About 2 and a half weeks now since i dropped tea on my macbook. Dried it, drained it opened it up, reassembled plugged it in (half a dozen times by now). The hdd is out and I am using it as a bootdrive on my bros iMac as I write. Im taking it in soon, hope only the keyboard needs replacement though i doubt it. Check out the grey ooze UPDATE May/2008 took it in to one dealer, they said fork over a grand for a mother board replacement because they plugged it in and is doesn’t work (wish I thought of that), and that the battery was dead (DUH). Im taking it to the second authorized dealer and tech later, I have a friend/ acquaintance there (who does a pretty decent job usually) but I’m waiting for him to get back from vacation (if he comes back).

Macbook Air analysis & overview

The Macbook air (dubbed the McAir by moi), aah contraversial topic and I really don’t know why it’s simple. It is by no means a bad machine so people stop complaining it is very limited and no way on earth I would buy myself one (more on that later) but for certain people it is fundamentally perfect. I will explain using a member of my family as a case study. What does she use the computer for?

MS Office, internet browsing, research, email, listening to music rarely or quran and reading digitized stuff (maybe chat as well); also note she needs a backlit keyboard.

Also of note she does not install “anything” and uses the optical drive once every six months (no ODD in the McAir), doesn’t do video work (GPU though adequate not a concern + no firewire), use an external display (though adaptors included), back up large chunks of data at once (again no firewire), does not really run multiple memory hungry applications and does not (unlike me) use multi tabbed browsing to open up to 20 pages at a time (some containing resource hogging interfaces, flash ads, video ads and oh my lord even games -I HATE THAT DRIVEL) and doesn’t use wired internet (wireless all the way), the only thing that is ever attached to the computer is the power cord.

She is a heavy computer user in terms of hours spent, but at the same time does by no means stress the system and has no need for most of what her current system has to offer (macbook pro, main attraction was 1st its a mac, 2nd it has keyboard backlighting). The computer though it will be her primary computer is not the households main computer. Her needs are modest with the only specifics being that I can maintain it, she can use it comfortably, the lighter the better, battery life not critical but highly desirable and keyboard backlight has moved from a nice feature to a must. That is the simple explanation, brace yourself for the rest.

I will try now to asses some of the McAirs shortcomings (some are listed above some are not and some are just absolute gibberish), Im not making excuses Im putting things into a different perspective and how relevant or relevant they might be according to usage:

ODD: NO DISK DRIVE OMG!
McAir has 2 options remote disk and external drive. Remote disk is limited; No OS installation or recovery and means you would have another (primary) computer. If you buy an external drive that is an additional cost to take into account. Boo. Well not really a big deal. The McAir is likely to be a companion computer (more than likely) which as far as Im concerned is what laptops are for. I always recommend that people buy an external ODD with there laptop, bus powered or not and always tray loading, reason being laptop optical drives are not durable, reliable or robust as external (especially full sized) drives. They are less susceptible to read and write errors, can read oddly shaped discs and those damn annoying discs with paper labels that keep getting foisted upon me by my company and RPC2 is practically non existent (or not enforceable?) on externals. So practically speaking it is a none issue because you should have an external drive anyway. What annoys me is that mine is firewire and bus powered, no firewire on the McAir.
Writing this article i realize that my disk drive is actually not working.

RAM fixed at 2GB
I don’t get what’s the big deal, 1GB is adequate (ok nowadays its a stretch with integrated graphics), honestly for a light duty system to need more than 1GB means something has gone awry. Offcoarse 2GB becomes more necessary as integrated graphics are used and to make up for lackluster HDD performance provided by a 1.8″ HDD (more on that below). Many (intel chipset limitation) last gen (+6 at the time of writing) and even some currently sold laptops are limited to 2GB (sometimes 3GB), 4gb is the barrier so far for notebooks. I think it is in most cases just the concept of not being able to upgrade and the loss of bragging rights (Im not being nasty Im being realistic).

Integrated graphics: they be like nah so good
They are not so bad either. x3100 is not so bad it is practically equivalent to the 5200go on the old power books, and it supports hardware T&L.

Intel GMA x3100 benchmarks and related:Macworld’s McAir benchmarks

These benchmarks I featured previously (as a point of reference):Macworld’s macbook SR benchmarks

Barefeats Macbook SR benchmarks (published as part 1, part 2 and part 3)

The problem I have with the X3100 is NOT the performance, I don’t mind lowering my systems settings (an art form in it self) to get optimal/acceptable performance. The problem is the lack of compatibility information, intel only has info on the gma950 (thats where you get directed to eventually if you look). If anyone has a resource that can be referenced please enlighten me. If you link to gma950 list I will delete your post cause Im just like that. If it works with the unreal 3 engine it will be a great reference (since a few developers license the engine).

Small Slow Disk (the other SSD ) OR expensive Solid State Disk (ok thats the “real” SSD)
The 2 gb and adequate chip cache are a good buffer but this is one of the more legitimate arguments, not being able to upgrade the McAirs hard disk is a bigger deal for me than the ram, and other notebooks in this weight class (I mean that literally ignoring form factor). The Solid State Disk drive offcoarse is a much better option in most scenarios (there are benchmarks on barefeats and thg & many other places so I wont bother linking to benchmarks unless they are requested) most obviously besides size. Apple only gave the drive 5mm of breathing room hence 80GB being the maximum. Im using 70GB of a 160GB disk now and I still have quite a bit to move on (I work on a lot of video), Im probably upgrading to a larger HDD even because of my needs (DV video takes up alot of room). 80GB is pushing it but manageable for most people with a conscience and/or self control that are not media junkies or thieves, but also alot of people may legitimately need more space. 64GB is unthinkable for me, i mean i can pull it off but i won’t like it. To me USB storage is not an alternative because USB is so damn slow for mass storage, though most people don’t know the joy of firewire like I do, so you can either manage or you can’t. Get rid of garageband, idvd and their components if you don’t use them, saves oodles of space (4GB at least which is like 5%). On to the next issue.

CPU 1.6Ghz? 1.8Ghz? Aint so fast aye
You can’t complain much about the CPU considering the performance per space provided and comparing it to other laptops in its weight and volume class, the biggest flaw though would be the power consumption, more on that later. It is not impressive but by no means inadequate or disappointing by the large.

Battery life
Realistic estimates (mostly mac centric i confess):

Generic laptop 1-1.5 hours

upper middle class laptop 1.5-2 hours with bigger battery

Multimedia centric “upperclass” Wintel notebooks 2.5 hours

McAir 2.5-3 hours

Macbook Pro 3.5 hours

Macbook +4 hours

PC “ultraportable” class 3.5-4 hours

Longest you can hope for 5.5 hours (VAIO TX)

When i have the choice i go for dvd playback is a benchmark, or author assessed battery life with low brightness wifi on, macbook is my own laptops rating which i give 4-5 hours depending on use, almost 4 from dvd benchmarks. There is alot of variance offcoarse depending on usage. Lets say 20% either way when your dealing with more than 2 hours of battery life. When dealing with notebooks in the “ultraportable” class similar/comparable compromises made in performance and optical drive to McAir, super battery class like the VAIO TX, Fuji Lifebook often have notably lower performing but more efficient processors (1.2Ghz). Offcoarse the McAirs battery is not user replaceable so you can’t carry a spare (Im too stingy/price conscious to buy a spare anyway)

Battery life is not bad but it is not as good as it should be

Connectivity: USBx1, FIREWIRE?,ethernet, uDVI, Card Reader, Expresscard etc…
Its Apple so you don’t expect a 13in1 card reader or whatnot, Im personally in favor of not having card readers and legacy ports i will never (i mean never in my case) use, because they drain power and the card reader piggybacks on the USB bus robbing you of bandwidth (I be the kind of guy who goes into a PC bios disabling ports and devices I won’t use, don’t do that unless you know what your doing though).

Lack of expresscard is unfortunate but no big deal, it is more the concept of it not being there rather than the impact (not everyone can afford or is silly enough to spend on mobile broadband and you can get that via USB). An expresscard slot though could have made up for the McAirs other connectivity shortcomings though likely hurting the form factor.

Micro DVI, not much to say. At least it comes with the adaptors i guess. Needless to say not compatible with mini DVI adaptors (my main gripe)

Firewire and Ethernet are the biggest (read stupidest) omissions. FW800 or even FW400 would have meant that fast portable storage would be far more practical and ethernet is just realistically necessary, I would of considered the McAir if it had Firewire and ethernet, without them its useless to meFW800 is superior to e-Sata by virtue of providing bus power so I don’t consider it a desirable addition for most scenarios.

1 USB port is bad but survivable though seriously limiting. Especially considering the lack of firewire the McAir should have 2 USB ports. I use bluetooth for for any external keyboard and mouse so thats not an issue for me.

Also of note is no line in audio and a mono speaker (stereo affect practically irrelevant on small laptops in the first place though).

Screen? Resolution and Gloss
I don’t like glossy screens. They enhance contrast at the expense of colour accuracy, they are also reflective which is a huge negative in well lit or daylight conditions though this is manageable with a suitably bright display. This depends solely on your taste and preference wether you prefer glossy or matte screens. As for the resolution i think it is just about right, I really don’t understand the attraction of unreasonably high resolution screens which offcoarse put more load on the computer to render more pixels for anything scaled according to the screen size (in pixels) and that makes text practically unreadable, I mean more screen real estate (pixels) in the same area is good and all but its pointless when GUI elements and text are crippled, making people glue themselves to the screen to make it usable and for them to appreciate their “HD” experience (curses and profanity onto HD).

Now onto some positives:
The McAir is undeniably an enticing mix of form and (limited) function. It is in the weight class of its own considering its size, which provides it with premium physical screen area. Offcoarse it has Wifi, Bluetooth,a webcam and backlit keyboard with reasonable performance with descent though not great battery life. Basically like all “seduced” reviewers have said if you can live within its restrictions (which more people can than they know or are willing to admit) comfortably with understanding its limitations it is a good buy and reasonably priced ,though not as competitively as it should be, consider the an external USB ODD a necessity and add it to the price (Apple’s drive or otherwise). In my opinion Apple could of made the machine alot more practical and more appealling to a broader demographic. Several avenues were available; simplest and most obviously was adding a second USB port which could double as an ethernet port with the available adaptor while allowing another device to be plugged in, or at least to be able to use the external ODD along with another device at the same time. Another possibility would be adding firewire (the real full size variety not the sissy Wintel PC laptop i.Link junk), though it might strain the battery it makes external storage alot more feasible and the capability to import (a little) dv footage and wired PC to PC networking. Adding both would give you separate ethernet, firewire and USB capability. Those changes would have made the McAir alot more appealing to me and many more people I would wager. Also this device seems incredibly seductive to people who get their hands on it so pricing it around 1500 rather than 1800 $ or bundling the optical drive at least would make it more approachable.

Wow i wrote alot more than i thought I would, just a bit more. I want to close by saying you have to appreciate Apples stupidity/vision, people (not the media offcoarse) would find a 12″ -4lb. Macbook with a backlit keyboard, powerbook 12″ calibre speakers, +2 hours battery and the same or better ports (FW800) alot more practical or appealing to a much broader demographic. Im probably getting my case study (from the begging of the article) one as an overdue gift. Im tired, let it be known Im in the Kuwait airport first class lounge quite tired and in my uniform on a split duty sector.

UPDATE 03June08 This article has proven to be fairly popular, I have purchased a McAir for my mother and she seems very happy (1.6ghz 80gb) fulfills most her needs she has been using it about 2 months now, I think I might do some tinkering with it and write a follow up article. I plan on maybe setting up Time Machine for her as well so I might do a write up on how that works.

Macbook SR benchmarks huzzah

Macworld and barefeats publish benchmarks for Macbook Santa Rosa with Intel GMA x3100 (which if i forgot to mention supports hardware transform and lighting or T&L) Macworlds benchmarks have a different baseline system, so keep that in mind if your comparing with macworlds old benchmark publications, also note that Barefeats and Macworld are putting 2gb of ram in their test systems which is 1gb more than standard. Barefeats benchmarks (published as part 1, part 2 and part 3) cover a good range of apps i thinks. Anyway I’m fairly happy with the benchmarks (in spite of the unimpressed benchmarkers comments, which I think are a bit harsh but understandable since there is no pro lightweight pronsumer laptop by apple), this the macbook should’ve been from the beginning, out performing the 12″ powerbook in most aspects now including (finally) graphics, offcoarse its still bigger and heavier and the speakers probably haven’t been improved (the 12″ pb had pretty good speakers) and i do prefer matte displays (and Im pretty sure the colour gamut is mediocre like the previous macbooks as at best practically all laptops have bad colour reproduction, for pro use i mean), but all in all i think its a worthwhile upgrade. Especially if you have a first gen macbook or have been waiting for something that will actually beat a powerbook 12″ in all performance aspects, offcoarse usability will depend on the memory management since the x3100 igp syphons even more ram (144 MB) but that’s no issue for me since i plan on maxing out the ram and upping the hdd to 250/320 GB (yes me crazy I knows)

Leopard is Here, so are the new Macbooks yay?

Oh well my wish has mostly been granted, new laptop with better IGFX (integrated Graphics in this case Intel 3100), no firewire 800 though, life is tough and confusing. Blah.Leopard has also recently been released, i am very discouraged by stacks and the lack of leopard benchmarks available (contextual folder menus are imperative for my workflow).

Two good articles to read are Macworlds article on pros and cons ; and Ars technicas much more technical review (which is very impressive and encouraging but goes way and i mean way above my head).

Im really irritated about the interface issues (the finder bar, dock and stacks), the lack of dock folders or stacks list view (which are integral for me, since classic you can say in one way or another) and the underwhelming (why the heck does my spellchecker not think underwhelming is a word? quaking idiot its in the quacking dicitionary) showing of the so called “Parental controls” as a minor issue. Two interface features I am really happy about is the adjustable grid spacing and spring loaded dock folders (no idea why they took so long). I have to finish reading through the ArsTech article and wait to see some benchmarks (also for the macbook) before deciding on my upgrade path. As of know I am conflicted and confused.New macbook? go pro? or buy a desktop for the heavy lifting (those blurdy iMacs with the quaking tarty unwholesome and color corrupting glossy mirror of a screen suck, because of the blurdy quaking tarty unwholesome and color corrupting glossy mirror screen, no good for colour accuracy, and in my mind a notebooks screen will also never do for truly good colour accuracy).

UPDATE

Windows based Intel x3100 benchmarks here and here and i have to say it don’t look too shabby. Further evidence required though since these are only synthetic benchmarks and i know for a fact that the 5200 GO far outdoes the GMA 950 in Unreal 2k4 while in 3dmark 03 it paints a different picture (besides these being synthetic OpenGL and OS X are different animals from DirectX and XP).
A serious Leopard bug has been uncovered in file copying has been published here so be forewarned.

Also to clarify for those smarty pants in other forums the Macbook is now Santa Rosa since it uses the chipset, it is not compliant with the Centrino Santa Rosa platform because it supposedly doesn’t use Intels wireless chipset, that only means it can’t be branded as centrino which I doubt Apple wants to do though you never know :p. Bottom line they are Santa Rosa (referring to the chipset not the Centrino platform which as I have just explained are totally different, you don’t have to understand just get over it :p)

New Macbooks with leopard

Im predicting and hoping for a macbook update with the latest OS release, the macbook is due for an update and has not gone through an update for back to school specials which is unusual, im hoping apple will reintroduce a 1000$ version though i wont get my hopes up, what im hoping for is a lighter laptop and with the intel GMA X3100 IGP. Im still ok with my macbook, but i might consider updating around december or so. Its not unusual for apple to release new hardware in tandem with new software, so its not a completely unreasonable thought is it? What do you think?

Im also expecting leopard to be pushed to the very end of October if not delayed further. Either way i will wait it out until at least December.

The sad state of operating systems. Moving forward in reverse.

Since no one else is writing about it I will, windows XP/Vista and OS X degrade as much as they progress, in the case of os x i tie it in with the hardware. The complaints mostly are about Mac OS since its what i use.

First the easy part windows, bloated patched up, behind in features every service pack makes it run slower. Who cares why, it does. As well alot of the bundled software is outdated or badly maintained, prime example IE6 and its poor rendering engine, they created a new OS (vista) before they started of that. Vista will adress some issues but system requirements skyrocket. I wont talk about vulnerabilities and viruses thats talked about enough.

OS X from my reading has for a long time been unreliable for VPN setups and Networking is at times an issue even mac to mac, admittedly tiger fixes some problems. But my main issue with os x stems from tigers new dashboard and the basic intel hardware (with integrated graphics). Panther runs on my imac333 with 256 ram and a 60gb 5400rpm hard disk, no speed demon but it works, next up imac FP17″ @ 700mhz (like the wii haha) runs tiger very nicely, 768 ram, 80gigs @ 7200rpm. My G4 12″ powerbook ran very nicely @ 1.5ghz 512 ram, it could run well with less i would wager, i tried it with 256 and it was ok actually (dont try encoding video like that though).

Now for the complaint, Intel OS X, bigger apparently more bloated and it seems poorer memory management at times, couple that with Integrated graphics and the need to run rosseta on occassion and the slow hard disk found on the mini and the macbook (compared to desktops) and you have a problem. A desktop will always have the advantage of the bigger harddrive so the bottom end imac for example is fine with the integrated graphics and the 512 ram. However the mini or macbook struggle with only 512 ram because of the memory reguirements of rosseta and the slower drive (which is a third full when you get it which further degrades performance) the graphics memory requirements and maybe the intel processors less agressive prefetching compared to the PPC Processors make the experience less bearable.

By all means its “good” but reflect on how previously in a sense you could get more of a basic experience with much less. Its a continuing trend but at too great a rate now. Now i have 1.25gigs of ram in my 12″ pb and my macbook and @ times i feel the Powerbook copes better, not in absolute terms offcoarse (encode some video without need of the gpu and you will know), which by all means is unexpected, especially with a better hard drive in the macbook, the problem is likely to do with software but that still degrades my user experience. Case in a nutshell software needs improvement, either bundle more ram or a basic gpu, even a 6200 with 16/32mb ram will do better, perhaps its the memory management that needs tweaking.

Oh yes and i would like to mention ddr2 has a higher latency than the normal ddr400, in fact ddr2 only outpaces ddr400 at speeds above 667, offcoarse the latency only aggravates everything when coupled with the slower harddisks of laptops, the gpu memory requirements and the increased load induced by a need for greater and more complicated memory management.

Ontop of that why are OS’s so obscenely huge without dedicated applications built in to help configure, compress or remove superfluous data. WHY OH WHY.

MAYBE THEY SHOULD REWRITE THE WHOLE BLASTED KERNAL AS A MONOLITHIC KERNAL OR REWRITE AND OPTIMIZE PARTS OF THE CURRENT ONE, OHH MONOLITHIC KERNAL WHERE ART THOU, IN LINUX THATS WHERE AHHHHHH.

What do you think

Barefeats & macworld post mac pro benchmarks

macworld benchmarks
barefeats benchmarks

2.66 divide by 2.5= 1.064 so expect 6% better, but barefeats reports much better results. One excuse is that Xeons are based on the core2 architecture which in itself provides a 5 to 10% gain clock for clock over the normal core (totaling 12 to 17% so far). On top of that the xeon is the top of the line and has (sometimes in the past) shown slight advantages over the remaining family processors clock for clock by a small margin. Speedmark 300/262=14.5%–> 14.5/2.66*2.5=13.6% better clock for clock.

Another reason would be that the apps are better optimized (mmx,sse1,2,3 and 64 bit might also have some bearing) i would go as far as saying as its not unintentional. There is complicated formula ive been working on to explain anomalies in benchmarks and clock for clock scaling (for lack of a better name im calling it interprocess latency).
Bottom line results are promising to say the least. I want an excuse to want one so that i dont just want one without a reason, but i just want one even without a reason.

From the macworld benchmarks you see the quad2.5g5 and quad2.66xeon seem pretty evenly matched, however the price difference is 700$! And you get much better graphics. And the 3ghz xeon should do even better.
As i predicted the g5 quad is still by no means obsolete in terms of absolute performance, but you cant argue with the price performance ratio of the new systems, in those terms they trounce the g5. The default Mac pro is (processor wise) the best bang for buck, 300$ for a 33% difference (2 vs 2.66) is good. But 1100$ for 3ghz? not the most economic in terms of bang for buck vs the 2.66 but hey absolute power comes at a price.

Coming soom my take on wwdc06 announcments.

written 20/1/2006 G5 versus Intel analysis, And why go mac?

Here is the deal, everyone is disappointed in terms of raw performance in alot of benchmarks, well I say people need to do some more research so they have some idea what to expect. My main references were Barefeats and Toms hardware guide, refer to barefeats for P4 and G4/5 comparisons and THG for Pentium M vs P4 and core duo (and 2 other intresting articles are the Mac mini and Pentium M as a desktop) anyway I have done fairly extensive research and have had my conclusions for months but never anywhere to post them, but now I do.

You should take this article with a grain of salt since it is opinionative and compromises in accuracy were made for me just to obtain an overall picture (be gracious I started this at 17), the driving force behind my research is because my father groomed me to take care of the houses computers (ranging from classic LCII, Power608, G3,G4 and P3, P4) and so I could competently argue platform prejeduice or platform naggers (annoying people that compare and nag though they have no clue which is at least a 1 third of people who can utter “computer”) Forgive my sarcasim and lets get to the pudding. _Clock for clock 1PowerG5=1.1 PowerG4= 1.3Pentium4
Now lets throw in AMD and Pentium M 1Amd=1Pentium M = 1.3 Pentium4
So common sense dictates difference between core duo and pentium M= Difference between G5/G4 and core duo.

Yes yes I know memory, platform history, chipset, different tasks, optimizations in certain applications and the fact that performance even in the same processor family does not scale according directly to clockspeed. These are just ballpark get your head around the concept figures, and in optimized (platform specific especially) applications you can see figures go as high as 70% but those are inconclusive and possibly bias (in favor of the mac).

I am pro mac no doubt but I consider my figures conservative and fair, just leave games and super apps out of it for a while. If you consider my results remotely valid then then we can expect speed boosts between 30% and 50% “out of the box” (in accordance with thgs findings for core duo vs last gen Pentium M).
To accept what im saying anti and pro mac have to come to a fair middle ground here are some points.

Apples previous platform wasnt lacking (generally) in mainstream performance, the main deficiency was in apples higher end mobile linup, Which was never evolved at a great enough pace
Apple isnt as desperate as the media tries to make it seem to up the ante, though apples laptops are no powerhouses they arent as bad as people make out and the later G4 revisions were great processors even in terms of power consumption (reference THG mac mini article and another article of Pentium M running as a desktop). Battery life on apples laptops is generally good, you have to remember Apple (maybe) can’t target a niche within within (what some people consider) Apples already niche market (Im talking about super long battery life ultraportables)
Apple didnt lie when they have been saying for years they have good crisps (er chips) just embelished (as people who want to make money are predisposed to) and they didnt lie when they said their going for something better, again they just embeleshed or perhaps more accurately emphasised more mmarketable and sensational though not necessarily real world findings.

Steve Jobs is a genius but possibly the personification of the devil (ha ha just seeing if your paying attention, just kidding, or am I?).

There are alot of people out there (on both sides) complaining about nothing, or making non sensical argument (talking about mainstream here) ; and i mean things like “My mac mini is like a 4ghz P4″ “There is no sotware on Mac” (from someone who only uses MSN messenger and explorer) or “If Apple use intel chips they would have like 4 times the battery life” (okay I made the last one up but thats the impression from a sentance not the actual words).
Im not as stupid as this article makes me sound (try real hard please, you can question my sanity if you like)
Its goin to take alot to top the quad core (at least I like to think so), and a dual core 2.5ghz G5 in an iMac would kick the core duos bu… , errr, behind

I would like to number some advantages which apple has (in some ways has always had) which should make it easier on those of you I have depressed.
Apple can make you look past the numbers because the mac is an “in house” platform. They have very good quality control and a large suite af applications that they themselves develop inclusive of the OS (eg iLife, Final cut, Quicktime) which they can optimize and get out the door very quickly and affectively, because at the end of the day they essentially still use a restricted and closed platform. This is in essence apples trump card, im even suspicious of potential optimizations that were never implemented

Applications will be optimized which may mean (for PCs and Macs) the true potential the core duo has, its a new engine but doesnt have the best fuel yet. Though to be fair it is a better argument for macs than it is for others for the same reasons stated above. Optimization will hopefully at least be universal in the case of i architecture specific enhancements which will be great for apps that atarted there lives on x86 ,mac gamers im wishing for your happiness.
Apple doesnt run on Windows, Thank god

If people are willing to pay more for a Toshiba, Sony or even Alienware versus cheaper Acer,Hp or Dell even for a bad reason, why not buy a Mac you will pay a small premium on but has so many greater things to expereince, eg iLife, OS, enclosure, quality, loyalty, Pro apps… Some of what I mention might be cheap shots to anti Macists but they are fair points.

So don’t despair, Apple is not sunk. And don’t give out “I told you so’s” like candy. Apple just has to contend with what it has had to contend with for years, consumer bias and shortsightedness. I dont mean to be rude to consumers, or to say everyone should use a Mac or be executed, its just an honest opinion that I have to express, and that is what impacts the success, the architecture change I think is a pebble in a buses way, people just have to get on the bus. Sorry the article ending isnt too well done I will work on it again if I can be bothered. Im not yet sure if I want feedback let me think about it. I hate how much im echoeing what Apple PR says through this article but hey not all they say is a lie . If your offended by this article lighten up, I only have one more year of being a teenager then I have to grow up (I have had white hair since 15 though so I dont think I will live long especially with all the death threats I will be getting after taking this article public)
Once i start an email account especially for this website I will put it on the mainpage.