Introduction

At the moment, Avermedia’s only PCI high definition capture card is the Avertv HD DVR C027. It is designed specifically for High Definition Video Capture from any non HDCP encrypted HD signal. It can record up to 1920 x 1080 i @ 60 fps and progressively at 1280 x 720 @60fps. It is also capable of recording YPbPr Component and s-video. Its native analogue recording formats are DVD/MPEG-2/H.264/AVI and IPOD and digital are MPEG-2/H.264 and IPOD.

Unboxing the Avermedia HD DVR we find the installation software.

The 10-in-1 dongle cable for recording analogue YPbPr component feed and s-video,

An instruction guide for a quick installation as well as low profile bracket for smaller sized cases.

Installation is a breeze. It fits into any PCI slot and is fully compatible up to windows 7 64bit. Depending on what type of recording, framerate and resolution , the card does require a strong system, with its minimum requirements being an intel core 2 duo E6600 2.4 GHZ, windows xp or above and  1GB of ram. Now these requirements are the bare minimum for recording analogue at a smooth framerate. I would recommend a quad core minimum, with at least 2 GB ram and two hard drives running in RAID.

Software

The Avermedia mediacentre software is easily installed. It has a very user friendly interface and is extremely straightforward to use. Although it has received alot of criticism for being too simple and restricting in terms of recording bitrates and codecs. Recently though Avermedia have been providing updates so that the mediacentre will allow it to record higher bitrates and provide more encoding settings. The programme allows for scheduled recordings as well as PIP and PIB.

The uncompressed quality of 720p Video is stunning. The card really does do a fantastic job of recording raw HD footage.

We tested the card with some of our favourite 3^rd party programmes to see how well it could record. We were very pleased to see the card working with our all time favourite Virtual Dub, which is the programme that we use here to record our game reviews. It also worked flawlessly with stoick capturer, Adobe Premier pro, Windows media encoder, AMcap as well as VH capture. By using third party capture programmes we were able to use many different endocers as well as bitrates.

Overall, The avermedia HD DVR PCI card is a brilliant product for those that are looking for a value based HD recorder.

The only problems we encountered with the card was that the audio quality is not on par with the video. It can only capture a maximum progressive signal of 1280 x 720 which is fine for youtube and other media streaming sites but is quickly becoming standard issue as we start to see capture cards capable of 1920 x 1080p @60fps. The avermedia HD DVR is a brilliant HD capture card for the price, it’s extremely easy to use, easy to install, records outstanding HD quality footage whether you are using it as a PVR system to record your late night movies or capturing your very own game footage.

Have a look at the videos below which we recorded to test the quality captured through HDMI @ 1280 x 720p using Virtual Dub with Huffyuv and encoded to H.264 @5000 kbps

Watch out for Avermedia’s successor to this awesome capture card called the Darkcrystal HD Capture 2, which will have full 1080p recording and full compatibility with some of the best third party programmes such as Adobe Premier Pro.

Sony has recently unveiled its latest handheld gaming device which will follow from the PSP. For the meantime, Sony has dubbed this new device as the NGP (Next Generation Portable) which we suspect could eventually take the name of the ‘PSP 2′.

With the release of the 3DS in March this year, Sony probably decided that this was as good a time as any to reveal their new handheld.

The NGP is said to feature an OLED screen which supports a resolution of 960 x 544. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises is that it will also support 3G which will allow users to insert a sim card into the device. Wifi will also be included as well as a GPS reciever. Thankfully Sony heard our prayers and have included two proper analogue sticks and thankfully they’re not like the ‘nub’ like stick on the first PSP.

The device will sport two cameras (one on each side) so you can take pics as well as enjoy some form of a video chat. Another great addition will be the ‘touch pads’ which are located on the back of the device and Sony promises to bring these into the games to come. This could make for some interesting handheld gaming fun.

Potential NGP buyers can also expect a brand new operating system called ‘LiveArea’ which will composed of several homescreens which players can navigate through. To go along with this announcement developers have showcased some games which will be available on the NGP and these include Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted, Resistance as well as LittleBigPlanet.

Just when you thought you were definitely going to purchase a 3DS, Sony have swooped in again to make you second guess your purchase. To top it all off Sony have stated that the NGP will be available by holidays 2011. So who will be getting one of these for Christmas?

What is the kinect?

The Kinect is a gaming peripheral which Microsoft have developed in order to bring what they refer to as ‘controllerless’ gaming to the household. It steps in as something to rival the simple motion sensor first developed by Nintendo on the Wii. The Kinect device is made up on a single object which looks similar to the Wii motion bar except its much larger. The device is made up of three cameras using infrared, colour grading and depth measurement. If your planning to purchase a Kinect all you’ll need is the single device which up to four players can play on.

The Pros

The Kinect for the most part works incredibly well. The device manges to capture player movements precisely and therefore delivers the 1:1 motion reading as it promises. This does vary slightyly depending on the game but from what we can see so far, the launch titles seem to show off what the Kinect can do. Overall the first party games seem to have to motion control down to a tee and its trully impressive. On the other hands some of the third party games struggle at times to have that precise motion control.

With the capabilities of The Kinect, there is also a voice command feature which is currently available at a basic form. The Kinect will respond to a certain list of commands which are available. The available commands include accessing the kinect menu, playing the disc, viewing achievements and entering the avatar customization. Microsoft have stated that they will constantly be adding new voice commands for you to use. Maybe someday you’ll be able to switch the console on and off.

If you’re friends own a Kinect as well, the device will also act as a web camera to use with ur Xbox and it will track sound and video at the same time. It works using the Windows Live e-mail linked onto your Xbox Live account.

The Cons

In order to get the full enjoyment out of the Kinect, you’ll have to ensure that your living room allows it enough space to function correctly. Ideally you will need a fair amount of space on the sides as well as the front. For some this could lead to the rearranging of your living room whenever you decide to play and it can become a little tiresome doing this each time.  Lighting is also crucial and therefore a perfectly lit room will also be needed in order to get the sensor to track movement efficiently.

Priced at R2000 or 200 euros (depending on your locale), the Kinect is not exactly what you would refer to as ‘cheap’ seeing as a brand new Wii console can be purchased for around this price,

The Verdict

The Xbox Kinect is off to a promising start. The hardware itself seems to work really well and delivers the responsive motion controlled gaming that was promised. Even at its launch there are a fair amount of launch titles to keep you busy for quite some time. Yes, the device is expensive but remember that four players can play off it at once. If you’re not the sort of ‘hands on’ type when it comes to gaming and hate standing up to play then the Kinect will not be suited to you. However should you want to introduce a little fun and activity into the household for everyone to enjoy then best you look into it.

Keep checking out GamesCastLive.com for reviews on the latest Kinect games.

The phone’s face looks exactly like a Samsung Captivate that has been mated to a PSP GO. Basically its a landscape slider phone that slides open to reveal a D-pad on the left side and ordinary PlayStation like face buttons on the right. The phone will have between a 3.7 to a 4.1 inch screen with WVGA or better resolution. It will be equipped with a 5 megapixel camera and as far as Android phones go, quite possibly a 1GHZ snapdragon processor.

The phone will run the new Android operating system version 3, which is currently called named Gingerbread. The games will be comparable to PSP graphics and titles from the PSP system which might be seen to be on offer will be God of War, Little Big Planet, and Call of Duty.

There was word that it is to be released by October but a proper release is yet to be confirmed. Let’s just hope it doesn’t flop like the PSP-Go did.

The latest addition to the MARS legacy is the ROG ARES, which is named after the Greek God of War. The card shows off the latest ATI tech which will retail for a very MARS-like edition price of £1,200.

The card features two HD 5870 on a single PCB, allowing for 4GB of Ram buffer. In other words it is an uber 5970!

The Godly card also comes in a very special case, that measures 550mm x 445mm x 200mm. Inside the case, you will find all the necessary ingredients for blissful gaming including an ROG GX800 gaming mouse.

It doesn’t get any better than this……. well at least the price tag!

The Dell Adamo is not a newcomer to the high end notebook market. It was released last year, and being an apple look alike with windows, it came with a very hefty price tag. Now they have been revised, become a great deal cheaper and all have SSD’s, 4GB of memory, Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 and Windows 7 Ultimate. It looks and feels too similar to an Apple Mac Air. It has the same aluminum casing and high quality finishes, as well as a high gloss HD screen with a 1.3megapixel webcam.

HKS and Interworks have teamed up to make a different type of racing controller, a smaller, less obtrusive design than a steering wheel, but one that functions in just the same way.

The hot-coal red colour replaces the conventional d-pad with a wheel to aid steering. Face buttons have been replaced with throttle and brake levers. It is fully customizable and is going to retail around $50 (R390 appx). All your speed readings and adjustments are outputted onto the digital readout in the centre of the controller. At the moment it is PS3 only.

Source: http://press.razerzone.com/content/view/408/101/

A cheap way to make a clamp is to use a small piece of steel, large enough to cover the die and be able to not impede with the gpu heatsink. Now the four holes around the southbridge are about 2.3 mm big. In the xbox-experts tut they use 2mm machine screw. In South Africa it is quite impossible to find machine screws with nuts 2mm. Instead i was able to find 2.5mm, which actually fit perfectly without even needing nuts. Because the holes are about 2.2 or 2.3, a 2.5mm screw will be able to create a thread without needing nuts. So those of you that can’t find 2mm don’t despair, finding 2.5mm ones might be easier. Unfortunately 3mm is too big.

This is essentially an alternative way for making a clamp from the method used at Xbox-experts.

Fix to apply pressure onto Ram chips next to GPU. Preventing freezing when gpu is not an issue.

Another problem i came across was that my 360 booted, got into a game and kept freezing at exactly the same point. Although there were no graphical glitches or artifacts, it led me to believe that the pressure on the gpu was fine. So i moved towards the RAM. With the two washes applying pressure to the two ram chips under the gpu heatsink (one for each), using hybrid x-clamp fix. The other two Ram chips required pressure from the top also. One way to do this is to use about twenty thin coins. YES, coins. By stacking the right number of coins onto the ram chips, the bottom of the DVD drive, will apply pressure using the coins onto the ram chips. By fixing the coins to the dvd drive using a strong adhesive and by wrapping the coins in tape, insulation tape preferably, will make sure the coins stay together and should apply enough pressure onto the ram to force a connection to prevent the cold solder joint from heating and thus causing the freezing.

The better method is to find a piece of clean metal; the best would be to cut an old heatsink similar in height to the 360’s gpu heatsink. Cut it long enough to cover the two ram chips, but short enough to not get in the way of any resistors. Using a very strong bonding agent, like cement paste or similar, stick the cut steel piece onto the gpu making sure that the bottom of the gpu heatsink is completely flush with that of the piece you have cut.

I found both worked, i originally did the first fix with pennies, because i live in South Africa, i used 13 ten cent coins on each ram chip. So a total of 26 cents. After a while i got a bit sceptic and thought i try do it properly by fastening a piece of heatsink onto the gpu heatsink. I cut a piece of heatsink from an old Pentium 3 i had and used Qbond cement glue. That with my southbridge clamp and the hybrid x-clamp by xbox-experts has given my xbox another few months, hopefully years. Will continue to post updates for how long the xbox has been going for.

20 July 2010 – been running for 10 weeks with no issues.

1 August 2010 – still going strong. Averaging an hour of gaming every two days.

24 August 2010 – Still going!

2 January 2011 – Had no problems.

All credit goes to Xbox-experts for giving me the initial idea for these two fixes.

For some background information this 360 is one of the first revision Xenon boards manufactured in mid 2006, went RROD with usual 0201 about three years later. Fixed it with hybrid x-clamp, was good for about 8 months or so and then RROD time and time again with much more serious stuff. Has had so many errors and issues that i thought it was completely dead till i finally decided to do a oven reflow, airflow improvements through cutting out the metal vents at the back and these two fixes, and voila. It still jams!

Preping the board for an oven reflow

These tuts were posted to maybe help those that are in the same situation i was in as i couldn’t find many tutorials on the net for these two fixes. I will be posting pictures soon!

Gamescastlive will not be held responsible for anything that happens to your xbox when following these tips. This is done at your own risk and with your own intent.

Southbridge clamp fix using a strike plate from a door cut to size