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HDXPRT 2012 Media Benchmark Now Available

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on July 27, 2012

The HDXPRT Development Community, which Principled Technologies (PT) administers, is pleased to announce the release of the HDXPRT 2012 benchmark.

 
HDXPRT 2012 is a benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of PCs in consumer digital media usages.

Because people use their systems so differently, HDXPRT 2012 lets you look at your system’s performance for a number of different uses. While HDXPRT 2011 combined all media creation into a single score, HDXPRT 2012 expands that to five use cases: Media Organizer, Media Creator, Photo Blogger, Video Producer, and Music Maker. The HDXPRT 2012 design document on our Web site explains these in detail. There is also a total score that combines all of the five cases to give an overall measure of the system’s speed.

HDXPRT 2012 includes more applications than HDXPRT 2011. The four new applications are Audacity 2.0, CyberLink PowerDirector 10, GIMP 2.6.11, and HandBrake/x264 0.9.5.

PT will ship the release discs to all registered HDXPRT Development Community members. Because of its large size, the benchmark is not available for download. Instructions for obtaining the benchmark are at http://www.hdxprt.com.

Members of the HDXPRT Development Community significantly influenced the development of the benchmark by providing feedback on the initial design specifications and participating in Beta testing.

Visit the official HDXPRT Development Community Web site, http://www.hdxprt.com, to learn how you can participate in the development of future versions of HDXPRT and stay up to date on the latest information regarding the benchmark. The Community also has a 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 and common consumer applications. It includes tests for popular consumer usage models such as high-definition video transcoding, high dynamic range (HDR) photo manipulation, as well as mixing and editing music.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.
Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and 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 stone 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

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT Press Releases, HDXPRT Press Releases, Press Releases |

As we get close to the release

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on July 20, 2012

As we get close to the release of HDXPRT 2012, I wanted to let you know how it compares with the original design specification. You’ll find the complete list of differences below.

In any software project, there are differences between the original design and the final product. Generally, things have stayed pretty close with HDXPRT 2012. A number of these changes were discussed on the HDXPRT blog. We’ve noted in parentheses the title and date of the relevant blog entry.

We’re looking forward to the release of HDXPRT2012. We can’t wait to hear what you do with it!

Eric

  • HDXPRT does not support 32-bit operating systems. (“Bye, bye 32 bits?” March 2, 2011)
  • Because of difficulties with scripting, Picassa is not part of HDXPRT 2012. (“Change is inevitable,” April 27, 2012)
  • Audacity 2.0 with Windows 7 debuted after we released the design document, so we are using that version rather than Audacity 1.3.14beta in HDXPRT 2012. (“Change is inevitable,” April 27, 2012)
  • We removed the video playback tests from HDXPRT 2012. (“More HDXPRT 2012 changes,” May 11, 2012) Consequently, Adobe Flash Player 11, which was only used in the playback tests, is not part of HDXPRT 2012.
  • Simplified Chinese is not supported.
  • The specs for the calibration system are below. The design spec had recommended changing to Intel Pentium G860.
    • Processor: Intel E6800, 3.3 GHz
    • Graphics:  Intel G45 Express Chipset
    • Memory: 4 GB
    • Hard disk: 1 TB HDD
    • OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1
  • During testing, we were able to reduce the minimum requirements from those in the Design Document. The current minimum requirements are as follows:
  • Processor: Intel dual-core 2.0GHz processor or equivalent
  • Memory: 2 GB
  • Free disk space: 40 GB
  • Video display settings: 1,024 x 768, 24-bit color
  • DVD ROM to install HDXPRT
  • Microsoft Windows 7, 64-bit (Language: US English)

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Posted in HDXPRT, HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2012 beta, HDXPRT Development Community benefits |

History in the making

Bill Catchings
By Bill Catchings
on July 13, 2012

We are quickly approaching the debut of HDXPRT 2012. It will be the second version of HDXPRT developed under the benchmark development community paradigm. This milestone provides a nice opportunity to look back at what has happened over the nearly two years since we started creating community-based benchmarks.

The most obvious accomplishment is the development of HDXPRT 2011 and HDXPRT 2012. HDXPRT 2011 has been used around the world for evaluating the performance of computers using applications doing activities that consumers do to create and consume content. We are hopeful that HDXPRT 2012 will be even more widely used.

We also announced earlier this year a new benchmark, TouchXPRT. This benchmark will provide a way to evaluate the performance of the emerging touch-based devices, including tablets. TouchXPRT will debut later this year, initially on Windows 8 Metro.

We have been working hard to get the word out about the benchmarks. We’ve been writing this weekly blog, conducting Webinars, and generally talking with folks in the computer industry. We’ve visited with members of the community around the world at trade shows like CES in Las Vegas and Computex in Taipei. We also spent time with members of the press and computer hardware and software developers. Over the coming months, we are planning to revamp the Web site, add video content, and generally find ways to better engage with and extend the development community.

Less obvious, but equally important to me, has been the development of the development community itself. Developing benchmarks has not been done this way before. We are doing what we can to make the process open to the community, including releasing the benchmark source code. We are optimistic that this method will grow and be a real asset for the industry.

As we look at the growing family of benchmarks under the benchmark XPRT umbrella, the question is always what is next? How can we improve the products and the community? What performance areas do we need to look at in the future? Battery life? Macs? Phones?

Thanks so much for joining us on this journey. The members of this community are what make it work. We look forward to continuing the journey with you!

Bill

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Posted in Application-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT, HDXPRT 2012, History of benchmarking, TouchXPRT |

Counting down

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on July 6, 2012

We’ve been hard at work since the end of the beta period, driving toward the release of HDXPRT 2012. Things are looking good. The RTM is coming soon, so we thought we’d share the next few milestones with you.

  • RTM candidate:  7/13/12. At this point, we stop development. There are no feature changes after this point.
  • HDXPRT 2012 launch: 7/27/12. Having tested the RTM and manufactured the DVDs, we mail the benchmark to the community members. This is when the press release goes out. It’s also when we publish the HDXPRT 2012 white paper. Unlike the design document, this paper will explain HDXPRT 2012 to the general public.
  • Webinar: 8/3/28 – We talk about HDXPRT 2012 and take your questions.
  • First scaling paper: 8/31/12. As with HDXPRT 2011, we will be publishing a set of scaling studies. The first will test several modern desktop processors, looking at factors such as varying the amount of RAM, comparing HDDs to SSDs, and comparing internal graphics to a couple of popular graphics cards.
  • Second scaling paper: 9/28/12. In this paper, we expand on the testing we did in the first scaling paper.

 

We will release an update of HDXPRT 2012 that supports Windows 8 and includes bug fixes within a month of Windows 8 launch.

We’re very excited about the release of HDXPRT 2012, and look forward to seeing what you do with it!

Eric

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Posted in Application-based benchmarks, Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT, HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2012 beta, HDXPRT development process, HDXPRT release cycle |

Tablets everywhere

Bill Catchings
By Bill Catchings
on June 29, 2012

Everyone wants in on the tablet market. This month, two software vendors have announced hardware tablets—Microsoft’s Surface and Google’s Nexus 7. Both vendors in the past relied on OEMs to create tablets using their software (Windows and Android). Both have met with limited success doing so.

Now, both are trying Apple’s strategy of controlling the hardware as well the software. Unlike Apple, however, Microsoft and Google still need to work with their OEM partners. I’m looking forward to watching that delicate dance!

I’m looking forward more, however, to being able to actually play with both of those products. I’m also looking forward to using TouchXPRT on such products. We have not given you an update in a while on TouchXPRT, but rest assured that we are hard at work on it. Once we have HDXPRT 2012 ready to go, we will give you more details on where we are with TouchXPRT and its current schedule. The touch and tablet market are heating up and we plan to be there for it. As we have indicated before, we will support Windows 8 Metro in the first version, but we see a real need for TouchXPRT to work on multiple platforms. So much to do!

Please note that today is the end of the beta test period. We appreciate the results, bugs, and suggestions you have sent so far. Feel free, however, to continue to send us any feedback or issues you find even after the official beta period is complete. After today, we can’t guarantee to be able to address them, but we will try.

Bill

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Posted in Performance testing on tablets, Touch-based benchmarking, Touch-based computing, Touch-based devices, TouchXPRT |

Keep them coming

Eric Hale
By Eric Hale
on June 22, 2012

At the beginning of June we mailed out the HDXPRT 2012 beta to the members of the Development community. This has been an exciting week, as the feedback has started coming in. We want to thank everyone who’s been using the benchmark.

We really appreciate the results you’ve been sending. Obviously, we can’t test every possible configuration in our lab, and it’s very reassuring to see good results coming from configurations we haven’t tried.

Of course it is a beta, and there are still wrinkles to iron out. The error logs we’ve been getting may not be gratifying, but they are enormously helpful. The more problems we see now, the better we can make the release version of HDXPRT 2012.

One of our members asked about the terms of use for HDXPRT 2012. For the final version, the terms will be the same as for HDXPRT 2011—it is free for download and you are free to publish results.  The beta, however, is only available to community members. You cannot publish the results from the beta because things could still change. (If you haven’t joined the community yet, click this link <a href=”http://hdxprt.com/includes/join_us_2.php”>Register for HDXPRT</a>)

If you have questions, please do send them. We’ll get you an answer, and post the answers on the forum.

The comment period ends June 29th, so there’s still a week left. Please send compliments, complaints, results, errors—anything you think would make for a better benchmark. We take every comment seriously, and appreciate them more than we can say.

Eric

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012 beta, HDXPRT Development Community benefits, Let us know your thoughts |

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