Review » CREATIVE Zen X-fi Style 8G - Black

• The X-Fi Crystallizer allows you to enjoy the very essence of music perfection as it intelligently restores detail that is lost during file compression

• The player also supports iTunes Plus (unprotected AAC format) besides other conventional formats such as MP3, WMA and Audible4

• The versatile player also supports popular video formats such as WMV9, SMEG-SP2, DivX2, 4/5 and XviD2 (up to 640 x 480 video size)

• Immerse yourself in the brilliant 2.4" TFT LCD screen with support for 262,000-colors, where you can watch movies and view pictures in rich realism

• Powerful built-in speaker

• Catch the latest hits in the music scene or tune in to the latest news with the integrated FM radio. 32-station presets let you switch across different stations as and when you wish.

• Record important notes in meetings or personal voice memos conveniently with the integrated voice recorder

• Start the day on a right note with your very own customizable alarm tone

• RSS feeds are downloaded in their entirety with both text and images

Review » TViX-HD SlimS1

TVIX a Korean company engaged in multimedia player since 2004 and successfully with its products TVIX PVR M-6640N which won many awards, is now launching a multimedia player with a series of product TVIX-HD SlimS1 Premium.

TVIX-HD SlimS1 equipped with a complete output interfaces such as HDMI 1.3, Composite, HDMI 1.3 digital, coaxial and optical S / PDIF.
For its connectivity, the TVIX-HD SlimS1 provides: 2 USB 2.0 host ports, 1 USB 2.0 Device Port, Ethernet (10/100), Optional Wireless 802.11n, and 1 eSATA port. On this device is also provided a slot for the hard drive 3.5 "SATA hard disk that can function as internal.

Supported chipsets play REALTEK RTD1283DD, TVIX-HD SlimS1 can play all kinds of video movie formats (H.264, 1080p video format, RMVB, VC-1, WM9, etc.) without delay and the resulting decrease in image quality. To play audio and view images with high definition, SlimS1 TVIX-HD also produces good quality.

When booting from the TVIX-HD SlimS1 own at the time of testing requires only ± 90 seconds, and only ± 10 seconds to read the external hard drive of 500GB which we attach to this product.
Menu display & remote is simple and obvious hint display, greatly simplify any person to operate TVIX-HD SlimS1 for the first time.

Specification

Main Chipset
• RTD1283DD+ 400Mhz processor
Memory
• Main : 256MB DDR SDRAM / Flash : 128MB
Maximum Resolution
• up to 1920 x 1080P
Video Format (Containers)
MKV, AVI, VOB
ASF, WMV
MPEG1/2/4 Elementary
MPEG1/2 PS: M2P, MPG
MPEG2 Transport Stream: TS, TP, TRP, M2TS, MTS, MOD, TOD
ISO, IFO
MOV (H.264), MP4
.MKV, .mpg, .avi, .wmv, .divx, .vob, .tp, .ts, .trp, .dat, .iso, .ifo, .m2ts, .mov, .flv, .rm, .rmvb, .asf, .mts, .mpeg
Video Codec
• XVID SD/HD 
MPEG 1 
MPEG-2 (MP@HL) 
MPEG-4.2 (ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC) 
WMV9 (MP@HL), 
H.264 (BP@L3, MP@HL4.1)
VC-1 (MP@HL, AP@L3)
RealVideo 8/9/10
FLV(H.263)
Audio Format (Container)
• AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA),
APE, PCM, AC3, FLAC (Audio track in MKV)
WAV(DTS), WAVPACK, WMA (Lossless not supported) 
Ogg
Audio Codec
• Dolby Digital
DTS Down Maxing 
WMA, WMA Pro 
APE, FLAC, WAV, MP1, MP2, MP3, M4A, LPCM, Ogg Vorbis, aif, aiff
Audio Pass-thru
• DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus
Photo Image
• JPG, JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF
Languages Support
• English, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Germany, Italian, Korean, Nederlands, Russian, Rumanian, Czech, Arabic, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Swedish, Greek, Turkish, Polish, Portuguese, Croatian, Thai
Subtitles
• smi, smil, sub/idx, srt, .ssa, .ass, MKV embedded subtitle
Video / Audio Output
• HDMI 1.3a (Video 24 bit), Component, Composite
Digital: Coaxial, Optical
Analog : Stereo
HDD Supported
• NTFS, FAT32 (3.5” SATA Ⅰ,Ⅱ HDD)
Interface
• USB 2.0 Host 2 Ports ( USB1/USB2 : 5V , 500 mA max), USB 2.0 Target 1 Port
• 1 port e-SATA HOST
Network
• 10/100 Ethernet
• Wi-Fi 802.11n(optional)
Network Protocol
• UPnP, SAMBA Client, NFS (with Net-Share)
• SAMBA server , FTP
Cooling Fan
• Internal temperature sensing mechanism, 40mm low noise
VFD Display
• Playback mode, Elapsed time, Resolution (Dot Matrix 7 English characters and numbers)
Power Consumption
• DC 12V
Dimension
• 215 x 160 x 55 mm (W x H x D)
Weight
• 1,11kg

REVIEW: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii, what is better

 

Here are three top consoles nowadays that you can choose from. Sony PlayStation 3 the next generation console that continues a glorious path of PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Xbox 360: the next console from Microsoft is created in continuation of Xbox. Finally Nintendo Wii the least expensive and shows the least performance.

So we are going to review and compare them on several parameters, so that you can decide which is better for yourself.

Hardware

Xbox 360 is on the second place by hardware parameters. First of all there are two models that you can buy. One of them is a regular white Xbox 360 with wired controllers and no hard drive. The upgraded model has wireless controllers and a 20 GB hard drive to save photos, videos and audio files. It also has a standard DVD optical drive that allows the console to show HD videos. The last thing that should you should be notified is that Microsoft will upgrade your Xbox 360 for free for it to support full GD 1080p video output.

Sony PlayStation 3 is in the first place if judged by hardware. It has Blue-ray drive that is not available on basic or premium Xbox 360 (You can buy it for additional $ 200 which makes Xbox 360 cost just like PS3.) Besides, the 20 GB hard drive comes in basic model and 60 GB drive comes in upgrade model. Besides the premium version of PS3 has WiFi built in.

Nintendo being the least expensive has the worst hardware built in therefore it shows the least productivity among Xbox 360 and PS3. It has a DVD drive but there is no ability to play DVD movies on it. However, it has WiFi built in to surf the web.

Games

Xbox 360 and PS3 are somewhat even in this classification because the number and the quality of games that are out there on the market are pretty even. PlayStation 3 is supposed to be better in graphics however there are still no games that would show the full possibility of this console.

Xbox 360 will run most of the games that have been created for Xbox but not all of them. On the other hand PlayStation 3 will run all the games of PS and PS2. However, these possibilities will have only the North American and Japan versions of PS3 but not the European version.

Nintendo supports all the games made for earlier consoles: GameCube, NES, SNES and Nintendo 64. However the graphics quality of the games is not that good as it is in Xbox 360 and PS3 games.

Multimedia

First of all I would like to say that Nintendo does not support big movies playback or storage, so we will leave this console out of this part of comparison. Although you can view photos, MPEG and QuickTime movies, MP3 music files on this console; and all that only from SD storage.

The real battle comes between the two mega consoles: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 here. Fist PS3 was the only console that supported full HD, 1080p, but now Microsoft will upgrade all the Xbox 360 consoles to the same HD. So that evens them out.

Blu-ray drive gives an advantage to Sony PlayStation 3 in storing videos and any files on the disc as they can store much more info and a better game will fit on a bigger Disc.
HD Media Center Extender of Xbox 360 beats PS3 in everything that they can offer. It can show live and recorded HDTV over your network, besides it can download movies and TV shows from the web. The other thing that gives Xbox 360 an advantage is a support of Apple's iPod and Sony PSP. It is the only console that supports video and audio streaming from PC.

Audio support: PS3 has a 5.1 Dolby Surround sound which is not bad until you hear that Xbox 360 has a Multi-channel system that supports up to 256 discrete channels. Wii on the other hand supports Dolby Pro-Logic II.