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Category: HDXPRT 2012

RFC responses

The official RFC response period ended last week on December 2. We’ve been working our way through the responses and have published all of the comments and our responses here. Please do read through all of them. I wanted to touch on a couple of them here.

First, we heard differing opinions on what the minimum system requirements should be. This is a tough one. On the one hand, we want to keep the benchmark current with the latest versions of applications. Those applications typically increase their minimum system requirements over time. Those system requirements in turn are what we use as the basis for HDXPRT’s requirements. On the other hand, we really want HDXPRT 2012 to be useful on the new class of tablet, netbook, and nettop systems coming out in the next year. Our best idea is to go with the same method for determining the requirements, but to test on those slower systems and try to make sure that they are able to run.

Although we only addressed one in the responses, we heard from multiple people about making HDXPRT 2012 run on versions of Windows other than English. As we are trying to have HDXPRT used around the world, we’d like to make this happen. We face two challenges, however—first, getting systems with OEM images running non-English versions of Windows and second, the effort required for testing and debugging on those systems. You can help with the first by sending us systems. Please contact me if you may be able to help. We will test on any systems we receive and will make it a priority to work out any problems we encounter, but we can’t guarantee that all systems will work.

We are off working on the final design specifications based on the RFC and the responses. While we cannot include your comments in the design specs, we do still want to hear from you. If you have a good idea, we will try to see what we can do to accommodate it in our development cycle. So, please do let us know any comments you may have about either the RFC or the responses to it. Thanks!

Bill

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Responding to the RFC

We are reaching the end of the RFC period. Your feedback plays a crucial role in defining what HDXPRT 2012 will be. Now is the time to let us know what you agree and disagree with in the RFC. We want to hear from as many of you as possible by the end of this week (December 2nd). We will still accept responses after that date, but they will be more difficult to include in the design specifications, which we will create next week based on the RFC and your feedback.

In case you have not yet had a chance to look at the RFC, it is available for Development Community members at www.hdxprt.com/forum/hdxprt2012RFC.php. You can give us your feedback either in the forums to help stimulate discussion or in email by sending them to HDXPRTsupport@hdxprt.com. However you choose to respond, we appreciate you taking the effort to do so. Thanks!

Bill

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HDXPRT 2012 RFC

We are putting the finishing touches on the RFC for HDXPRT 2012 and will make it available today. We are using the top-down approach I discussed last week, including the six roles I proposed. Our major objective with the RFC is to get your feedback. That feedback played an important part in developing HDXPRT 2011, and we are hoping it plays an even larger role in developing HDXPRT 2012.

The RFC, or request for comments, includes our thoughts and ideas for the design of HDXPRT 2012 based on the many conversations we’ve had over the six months since the current version of HDXPRT debuted. At this point, nothing is written in stone. Now is the time to let us know where you agree and where you disagree.

The RFC is available for Development Community members at http://www.hdxprt.com/forum/hdxprt2012RFC.php. Our goal is to get your feedback by December 2. We’d like as much of the feedback as possible to appear on the forums to help stimulate discussion. However, if you prefer to send in your comments via email, please send them to HDXPRTsupport@hdxprt.com.

Regardless of the mechanism, we want and need your feedback. Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you!

Bill

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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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What to do, what to do

When you set out to build an application-based benchmark like HDXPRT, you face many choices, but two are particularly important:  what applications do you run, and what functions do you perform in each application?

With HDXPRT the answers were straightforward, as they should be.

The applications we chose reflected a blend of market leaders, those providing emerging but important features, and the input from our community members.

The functions we perform in each application are ones that are representative of common uses of those programs—and that reflect the input of the community.

What’s so important here is the last clause of each of those paragraphs:  your input defines this benchmark.

As we finish off HDXPRT 2011 and then move to the 2012 version, we’ll begin the development cycle anew. When we do, if you want to make sure we choose the applications and functions that matter most to you, then participate, tell us what you want, let us hear your voice.  We will respond to all input, so though we can’t guarantee to accept all direction—after all, goals and desires sometimes conflict—we can guarantee that you will hear back from us and that we will explain the rationale for our decisions.

Mark Van Name

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