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Month: October 2011

How do you use high-definition media?

The first step in our top-down process of defining the HDXPRT 2012 is to look at what people actually do today with high-definition media. The obvious place to start is with what we do with photos, video, and audio. Or, in my case, with what I do.

I regularly do about six different things with high-definition media:

  1. Organize media – This is something I do often. Maybe I’m more of a curator than a creator! In this category I include everything from keeping track of media, to doing simple enhancements (for example, red eye removal from photos), to converting to different formats.
  2. Create media – I include here not only capturing the media, but also manipulating photos and videos. These usages may not be the most difficult ones in the applications, but we all do them, and we all wait on them.
  3. Photo blog – This covers the fancier photo work, typically with more complex editing using digital tools.
  4. Produce video – When you really work on a video, you end up with editing and manipulation tasks that really stress your system. I often end up waiting for my computer to finish this sort of work.
  5. Create music – I’m not very good at this type of work, but mixing, editing, remixing, and sharing music can be a lot of fun!
  6. Viewing video – Finally, we come to viewing video, which is basically watching videos in different HD formats. I’m much better at this.

Some tasks I do often, such as looking at photos or listening to music, don’t tend to be stressful enough on a computer to be worth measuring in the benchmark. Consequently, I didn’t include them here.

That’s just my take, though.

What do you do? What tasks would you like to see in HDXPRT 2012?

Bill

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An open, top-down process

We’ve been hard at work putting together the RFC for HDXPRT 2012. As a group of us sat around a table discussing what we’d like to see in the benchmark, it became clear to me how different this development process is from those of other benchmarks I’ve had a hand in creating (3D WinBench, Winstone, WebBench, NetBench, and many others.). The big difference is not in the design or the coding or even the final product.

The difference is the process.

A sentiment that came up frequently in our meeting was “Sure, but we need to see what the community thinks.” That indicates a very different process than I am used to. Different from what companies developing benchmarks do and different from what benchmark committees do. What it represents, in a word, is openness. We want to include the Development Community in every step of the process, and we want to figure out how to make the process even more open over time. For example, we discussed ideas as radical as videoing our brainstorming sessions.

Another part of the process I think is important is that we are trying to do things top-down. Rather than deciding which applications should be in the benchmark, we want to start by asking how people really use high-definition media. What do people typically do with video? What do they do to create it and how do they watch it? Similarly, what do people do with images and audio?

At least as importantly, we don’t want to include only our opinions and research on these questions; we want to pick your brains and get your input. From there, we will work on the workflows, the applications, and the RFC. Ultimately, that will lead to the scripts themselves. With your input and help, of course!

Please let us know any ideas you have for how to make the process even more open. And tell us what you think about this top-down approach. We’re excited and hope you are, too!

Bill

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Discussing the future

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, we’ve begun the HDXPRT 2012 development cycle by asking for suggestions. Before we get much further in the process, we’d like an opportunity to talk with you more directly. The best way to do that is via a webinar.

I’ll be hosting an HDXPRT webinar this coming Friday, October 14 at 2:00pm EST. I’m hoping you’ll be able to join us. I’ll go over the progress we’ve made this year in the HDXPRT Development Community, talk about the HDXPRT 2011 source code we recently released to members, and discuss the roadmap for the development cycle of HDXPRT 2012 that is just starting.

We really want your feedback on the current benchmark and your input on future directions. I encourage you to attend the webinar and let us know your ideas and suggestions. I expect the webinar will last about 45 minutes, depending upon the questions people have. We will be sending out email invitations to members shortly. If you have not joined the community, please do so now (at http://www.hdxprt.com/forum/register.php) and we will get you an invitation as well.

We know you may be unable to make the scheduled time, so we’ll post the webinar when it is over, as we have done in the past (http://hdxprt.com/webinar).

We value your input and participation in the HDXPRT benchmark process and look forward to your joining us later this week for the webinar. “See” you there!

Bill

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Looking back at the Mac

I expect that pretty much everyone is writing a blog/tribute to Steve Jobs. I’ll leave that to people more eloquent than I and to those who knew him. His death, however, made me think back to 1984 and the first computer I ever purchased with my own money—a 128KB original Macintosh. I was a mainframe and minicomputer systems programmer by training but had moved to CP/M and other personal computers. I had used a Lisa at work and had spent a bit of time on a Xerox Star, so the Mac’s UI concepts were very familiar to me. There was something special, however, about having it at home to play with. It was amazing to be able to use a word processor (MacWrite) that actually showed the fonts on the screen rather than having to embed Scribe (or even worse, TeX) commands into a text file to specify font changes. It was almost magical drawing things in MacPaint. None of what I drew was art, but it was fun. Even my two-year-old daughter found it fun to draw on the Mac with a mouse. A two-year-old using a mouse is nothing special today, but it was then.

I programmed on that early Mac using a C cross-compiler. With other folks at Columbia University, I wrote a version of the Kermit file transfer protocol for the Mac. My officemate even wrote a great Scrabble game for it. The owner of Scrabble was not interested in licensing it for use on a computer. It was a different time.

Over the years, I upgraded my Mac to 512KB and added a 5MB hard drive. I played games like Dark Castle on it. But, as all computers do, it got old and slow. Eventually, I packed it up. I bought a succession of MS-DOS PCs, Windows PCs, Amigas, newer Macs, and all manner of devices. I turned my love of ever faster and better and smaller computing devices into a career. Evaluating and measuring their performance is something I still do today.

That first Mac, though, will always be special—will always bring back memories of when computing was magical. I still have it in my basement. The originally beige case is now a rather strange yellow. I think I need to go and see if it still turns on. I’d like to see that happy Mac face again…

Bill

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Source Code for HDXPRT 2011 is Now Available to Members

The HDXPRT Development Community, which Principled Technologies (PT) administers, is pleased to announce the availability to its members of the source code for the HDXPRT 2011 performance test tool.

 
HDXPRT 2011 is a benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of PCs in performing a wide variety of common consumer digital media tasks. Members of the Development Community have significantly influenced this version of the benchmark by helping to prepare its design specification and by beta-testing release candidates.

The release of the source code for a widely available application-based benchmark such as HDXPRT marks a milestone in the benchmark ecosystem. By opening the benchmark’s source code to its members, the HDXPRT Development Community is hoping to increase the transparency of the benchmarking process and to stimulate the participation of industry players and the public in the definition, development, understanding, and auditing of the benchmark.

Community members can download the benchmark’s source code directly from the official Community Web site,http://www.hdxprt.com. (Members must first accept a license agreement that prevents them from releasing the code to the public.) Any non-members who would like the source code can join the Community for a very modest fee by going to http://www.hdxprt.com.

In addition to downloading the source code of the current version of the tool, HDXPRT Development Community members can influence the design of future versions of HDXPRT and can even participate in the coding and development of these versions. Membership in the Community also keeps you up to date on the latest information regarding the benchmark. To learn more, visit the official HDXPRT Development Community Web site,http://www.hdxprt.com, and look for the Community’s presence on Facebook and Twitter.

About HDXPRT
HDXPRT, the High Definition Experience & Performance Ratings Test, is a software tool for evaluating the capabilities of PCs at handling real-world digital media scenarios involving common consumer applications. It includes tests for popular consumer usage models such as high-definition video transcoding, high dynamic range (HDR) photo manipulation, Windows 7 Drag and Drop transcoding for portable media players, and HD Flash video playback.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.
Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of fact-based marketing and technology assessment services. The founders, Mark Van Name and Bill Catchings, have worked together in technology assessment for over 25 years. As journalists, they published over a thousand articles on a wide array of technology subjects. They created and led the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, which developed such industry-standard benchmarks as Ziff Davis Media’s Winstone and WebBench. They have also co-founded or led several other technology testing firms, including ZD Labs, eTesting Labs, and VeriTest.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road
Suite 300
Durham, NC 27703
ehale@principledtechnologies.com
www.principledtechnologies.com

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