* Posts by zahadum

4 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Aug 2007

Review: Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock

zahadum

No e-SATA = FAIL

seriously - ridiculous.

Esata & Hdmi were part of the original spec by both major oems.

And now each of them has ditched at least of of these two two vital ports.

Product /mis/ management on the first order.

Elgato Turbo.264 HD hi-def H.264 encoder

zahadum
Stop

no PPC!! -- plus, elgato trashes subs, dubs, CC-

1) I can't believe the reviewer failed to mention that elgato has orphaned PPC from its new products!

yet ppc is precisely the platform that most needs a hw boost.

FAIL.

2) audio files (mp3) are still not available as an input source! ...

so no conversion of your legacy CD library that was already roped into itunes :-(

FAIL.

3) no explanation (by the reviewer) for why the new driver architecture consumes so much of the CPU cycles!?

kinda defeats the purpose of off-loading, doesn't it!? ... unless it anticipates the changes in the MP execution model in snow leopard.

FAIL

4) despite years of complaints, elgato adamantently refuses to respect the integrity of users' source data -

the turbo264 throws away the complete set of subtitles, audio tracks, closed captions, karaoke, etc etc.

moreover, elgaro insists on using raster subs instead of generating proper vector subs.

and the turbo264 burns the subs into the main video track, instead of alpha-blending them from a separate track!

mega FAIL!!

5) elgato insists that they will not make any effort to work with the opensource lib264 community - which is the key codebase for both VLC and for HANDBRAKE.

whuch shows an unbelievable contempt for their customers needs!

*total FAIL*

bottom line: until elgato fixed it's attitude problem, tbd turbo264 products will remain over-priced & under-featured :-(

Iomega eGo 160GB external hard drive

zahadum
Stop

performance = chipset ... no specs in this review = useless

i didnt see any mention of either the mechanism or the chipset.

so the review is basically useless in terms of comapring benchmarks.

also: the interface!

how can anyone fail to not (especially for a mac-based review) the absence of firewire800! ...

fw800 delivers at least 50% greater sustained performance (sometimes 2X) -- from the same mechanism - compared to pokey usb2!

perhaps i can understand the omission of e-sata or even enet/wifi ... though in this era of Time Machine (on leopard), NAS should seem de rigeur for any aux drive! ...

but the performance hit taken on usb just isnt worth it, so i cant see how anyone could seriously try to sell -- or review! -- a product that didnt have fw800!

Elgato TV-on-Mac box tunes into hardware encoding

zahadum

el gato still has an inchoate product line that confuses & disappoints

no mpeg4 (only archaic mpeg2) encoding for the analog tuner!

what on earth were these guys thinking?!

the baroque array of multiple products (and over-lapping product names) from el gato is one of the main reasons many people have long given up in despair from hoping that el gato would (finally) somehow do the obvious - which is provide a one gizmo does all, GLOBAL product.

the reason for this enduring inertia/indifference at elgato is - think - obvious: they have been content to be passive users of oem chipsets, too lazy to become a value-added ODM partner, in order to push along the integration of the silicon that is actually required to get the job done.

in any case, the El Reg capsule review is silent about an important issue with regard to tv tuner/capture function: namely closed captions, and multiple subtitles + aux audio dubs (also broadcast data services like vbi/smoc are probably a total non-starter).

if the pitiful example of their h264 'turbo' product is any indication of the granularity of their driver (which i guess is aimed at dvd applications rather than tv applications?), then we shouldnt hold our breath!

el gato has already amply demonstrated their contempt for the integrity of their customer's source data, so i dont expect much in the future.

note to EL REG: it would be nice if you made a more clear distinction as between 'europe' and 'north america' ... alot of travelers will not be exactly familiar with the broadcast system of each country they visit (so an explanatory link would have been nice, as well as an explicit mention of the status for asia. Also, some brief mention on the clear qam (is that the same everywhere?) issue for digital would have been appreciated - especially in light of the impending 'cable card' (catv) situation in america.

it is mind-boggling that el gato seriously expect people to purchase three separate adapters just because they cant get their act together!