Twitch has received a “batch” of new takedown notices from music publishers over copyrighted songs in recorded streams (known as VODs), the company said in an email to streamers today. The notice may be worrying for some streamers who were affected by the waves of takedowns that hit last year, because if a user gets three copyright strikes on their channel, they will be permanently banned from the platform, according to Twitch’s policies. With this advance warning, it seems Twitch is trying to get ahead of a sudden flurry of takedowns and give streamers some time to remove potentially offending VODs.
“We recently received a batch of DMCA takedown notifications with about 1,000 individual claims from music publishers,” Twitch said in an email Friday, which was sent to a Verge staffer. “All of the claims are for VODs, and the vast majority target streamers listening to background music while playing video games or IRL streaming.” Twitch believes the notifications were automated and warns more are likely coming.
If you’ve bounced around Twitch streams before, you’ve probably heard music in the background of many of them. A lot of that music is copyrighted, which leads to situations like these mass takedowns when the music industry wants to get paid. In Friday’s email, Twitch noted that the only way to avoid DMCA (or Digital Millennium Copyright Act) strikes is to not stream copyrighted material in the first place, and said that if a streamer does have unauthorized content in their VODs or clips, “we strongly recommend that you permanently delete anything that contains that material.”
DMCA takedowns first became a major issue for streamers last year. In May, many streamers were blindsided by sudden takedown requests, and in October, following another wave of copyright notices, Twitch took the step of deleting offending content. At the time, Twitch offered limited tools to streamers to manage content in response to the takedowns, compounding the problem.
The company apologized for how it handled the situations in November, saying that it received a significantly higher number of music-related DMCA notifications starting last May than it ever had before. The company also promised to release better tools to help streamers manage their old content, and followed through on that promise in March. And for streamers who want to play rights-cleared music in the background of their streams, Twitch offers a product called Soundtrack, which it released worldwide in beta in October.
Panasonic has announced not one but two follow-up cameras to the Lumix GH5, a camera that’s been popular with videographers since it launched in 2017. There’s the GH6, which Panasonic says features a brand-new sensor and will launch by the end of the year for $2,500, and the GH5 Mark II, which is going up for preorder today, with a body-only package coming in at $1,700.
The GH6 will feature a new image engine along with the sensor and will have the capability to record 10-bit 4K at 120fps and 10-bit 5.7K at 60fps. The camera also promises DCI 4K60 at 4:2:2 without a recording time limit. The GH6 is currently in development, so Panasonic didn’t provide many more details, but it did say that the camera would feature a Micro Four Thirds sensor. The impressive video capabilities might sound familiar, as they’re very similar to the full-frame Sony A7S III (which also has a much heftier price tag).
While the details on the GH6 were light, we got a very good look at the GH5 Mark II. It’s, as the name implies, an improved version of the GH5, and Panasonic’s idea for it seems to be that it’s built to serve people who aren’t looking to spend $2,500 on a GH6 but want something more capable than a G7 or older GH4. When the GH5 originally launched it was $2,000, so it seems like Panasonic is trying to split the difference with the Mark II and GH6, offering cameras on both sides.
There’s also a kit that comes with a 12-60mm f/2.8-4 image-stabilized lens for $2,300.Image: Panasonic
The GH5 Mark II has the same body as the GH5 (making it compatible with any previous accessories or cages), but it packs internals that make it an even more powerful video camera. While the original did support 4K recording at 60 frames a second, it was only 8-bit — the Mark II supports it at 10-bit 4:2:0, which can simultaneously be recorded internally and externally (with some HDMI recorders supporting 4:2:2). The cinema 4K mode, which provides a wider-than-16:9 aspect ratio, also now supports 30p and 25p, where the GH5 only supported 24p.
The color profiles have also gotten a revamp in the Mark II, with the camera including Cinelike D2 and V2 profiles. It also now includes the V-Log L profile for free, which was previously a $100 upgrade to the GH5. In addition to the improved color, the sensor (which is the same as the one found in the GH5) has also gotten an anti-reflective coating to avoid unwanted lens flares, and Panasonic claims it has 25 percent wider dynamic range.
The GH5 Mark II’s in-body stabilization is getting a bump in performance, too: the original could provide five stops of compensation, according to Panasonic, while the Mark II will be able to compensate up to 6.5 stops (though for longer lenses, achieving this number will require the lens to also have optical stabilization).
Panasonic is also saying that the autofocus system will be improved — a good sign, given the GH5’s lackluster performance in the area. The GH5 Mark II will feature head and body detection, as well as support for tracking animals, in addition to the eye and face detection found on the previous camera. The tracking will also be twice as fast, with the system looking for objects 60 times a second, while the GH5 tracks at 30 times a second. Panasonic also says that the system should lock on to subjects better and will have better support for tracking people who are farther in the distance.
Panasonic says the screen is 1.5 times brighter.Image: Panasonic
The Mark II also has some creature comfort improvements and really nerdy additions. The rear LCD is both higher-resolution and brighter, and the USB-C port is now compatible with the Power Delivery standard so it can run the camera and trickle-charge the batteries at the same time. It also takes higher-capacity batteries, though the older batteries the GH5 used will still work in the camera, and vice versa. There’s also now the option to add a red border around the screen when recording, and the ability to have two levels of zebra patterns to help determine exposure.
When shooting with supported lenses, creators will now be able to change the focus ring mode, setting it to be linear if that’s what they prefer, and even setting a specific focus throw if their use case calls for it. Panasonic has also updated its in-camera anamorphic de-squeezing feature (which allows people shooting with the special lenses to get a non-distorted preview of their picture) to include more lenses: the GH5 supported lenses with 1.33x and 2x aspect ratios, while the Mark II also supports lenses at 1.3x, 1.5x, and 1.8x. There’s also now support for image stabilization with anamorphic lenses.
The GH5 Mark II can, of course, also shoot pictures, but it seems like Panasonic knows its audience is mostly made up of video people: new photo features were largely absent, apart from a brief mention of improved color science and some new profiles. But while Panasonic doesn’t seem to be putting in a lot of work to entice photo shooters to its platform, it does seem to be trying to make the GH5 Mark II appealing to a different breed of video creators: the livestreamers.
The GH5 Mark II’s presentation for journalists focused heavily on its livestreaming capabilities: it can stream to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch directly over Wi-Fi, with compression being done on-camera. The streaming compression can be done at various levels and resolutions, depending on the requirements of the platform. Streamers can either input their streaming URLs and keys manually, for platforms like Twitch that support RTMP (or RTMPS), or they can directly sign on to Facebook or YouTube if they’re using the Lumix Sync smartphone app to set up the stream. Panasonic says that the ability to hardwire to a phone or even directly to a LAN via USB will be coming in a future firmware update.
I was shown a live demo of the streaming, which was conducted over YouTube, and to my eye it looked about as good as a stream can be expected to. Panasonic also said that the XLR microphone adapter built for the camera would work while streaming, and that an HDMI recorder could be used to capture a full-quality recording of any stream (though internally recording stream footage isn’t possible).
It’s hard to find a direct competitor to the GH5 Mark II, especially in its price range: Fujifilm’s X-T4 is no slouch when it comes to video, but it doesn’t have the heaps of options the Panasonic does (for example, you probably won’t get a custom menu for your most-used frame rates and resolutions, or filters to help pare down that information in the main menu like the GH5 Mark II has). The story is similar with Sony’s A7C, and the A7S III has similar specs but costs almost twice the price. And while BlackMagic’s Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has comparable video power as well as RAW video support, there are some places it falls way short when compared to the GH5 Mark II: the lack of a flip-out screen and autofocus spring to mind.
Panasonic has also announced that its G9 and GH5S cameras would also be getting firmware updates, bringing some of the new features from the GH5 Mark II. Both cameras will be getting the autofocus performance improvements, along with the frame indicators and markers, as well as support for vertical video detection. The GH5S will additionally be getting 12-bit raw over HDMI support when outputting to an Atomos Ninja V.
Panasonic also announced that it was working on a new lens, the Leica DG 25-50mm f/1.7. The aperture is constant throughout the 50-100mm full-frame equivalent focal range, and while there weren’t any additional details announced, Panasonic has emphasized it as a companion to the existing 10-25mm f/1.7. That lens features dust and moisture resistance and produces some lovely images, so it’s exciting to hear that the more tele-oriented version in the works will likely be similar in terms of build.
Panasonic is still, for better and worse, dedicated to Micro Four Thirds. In its presentation to journalists, it said that the format was necessary to get all the features and readout speeds it wanted at the price point it was looking to hit. It’s obviously invested a lot into these cameras, with the addition of livestreaming and the upcoming GH6’s monster specs, but the limitations of the format are something aspiring cinematographers will have to keep in mind when choosing their next video camera.
Netflix is announcing a new week-long virtual event, “Geeked Week,” where it will share information about upcoming titles like The Witcher, The Sandman, and The Cuphead Show. During Geeked Week, you can expect to see “a wide array of exclusive news, new trailers, live art, drop-ins from your favorite stars and much more.” And fortunately, you won’t have long to wait: Geeked Week is taking place in just a couple weeks, from June 7th through the 11th.
If you want a preview of what’s to come, check out Netflix’s poster below, which also mentions The Umbrella Academy, Resident Evil (unclear if this is referring to the upcoming anime or the live-action series), Sweet Tooth, and Cowboy Bebop.
Netflix’s poster for Geeked WeekImage: Netflix
During the event, can keep track of what’s announced on GeekedWeek.com and by following the @NetflixGeeked social channels on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch and Facebook.
The week of June 7th is shaping up to be a huge one for news, with Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference also staring on June 7th, the Geoff Keighley-hosted Summer Game Fest kickoff event debuting on June 10th, and the all-virtual E3 beginning on June 12th. Keep it locked to The Verge for all of our coverage of the big events.
Summer Game Fest is back this year, and it will start on June 10th with an event called “Kick Off Live!” that’s billed as a “spectacular world premiere showcase” with “more than a dozen” world premieres and announcements. The show, which will begin at 2PM ET, will be hosted by Geoff Keighley, who you might also know as the host of The Game Awards.
Kick Off Live! is just the first of many events that will be part of Summer Game Fest. Some of the publishers confirmed to be participating in Summer Game Fest include 2K, Activision, Blizzard, Capcom, Epic Games, Sony PlayStation, Riot Games, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Microsoft Xbox.
This first event will also feature a performance by Weezer, “who will debut a brand new, stream safe game soundtrack song that can be freely streamed on Twitch, YouTube and anywhere else without being blocked or losing monetization,” according to a press release. (So it seems like we won’t see a repeat of what happened with Metallica’s performance at BlizzCon.)
Summer Game Fest launched last year to let publishers showcase their upcoming games after some of the industry’s biggest events were restricted or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many gaming events have been affected by the pandemic this year as well, forcing some, like GDC and E3, to shift to digital formats.
Twitch is announcing a big change to subscription prices — but not for users in the US. Most countries outside of the US will be getting lower prices that will be localized to their specific country, starting with Turkey and Mexico on May 20th. Those lower prices will mean less money for streamers, but Twitch believes they’ll translate to more subscribers and higher earnings in the long run.
Right now, the most affordable Twitch subscription, which lets fans pay streamers and get perks like custom emotes, currently costs $4.99, a price that is currently translated into local currencies around the world. That translated price can be prohibitively expensive to some Twitch users, however, Mike Minton, Twitch’s VP of monetization, told The Verge in an interview this week.
The upcoming change is intended to make subscriptions more affordable for Twitch’s global audience. And early tests from Twitch seem promising: the company tested localized pricing in Brazil and saw that streamer revenue and total subscriber count “more than doubled,” according to a blog post.
But Twitch is also preparing for a potential scenario where streamers could see their revenue fall as a result of the price changes, because streamers will need more subscribers — potentially a lot more — just to match their current earnings. If a streamer’s revenue falls below their usual baseline (which Twitch calculates for every streamer) after the localized prices roll out, Twitch will pay that streamer a “revenue adjustment incentive” to help make up the difference.
Here is a basic description of how the incentive will work, according to Twitch:
Twitch will cover 100% of baseline channel and Prime sub revenue (if needed) for three calendar months, including the month of the price change. After that, we will slowly decrease incentive payments by 25% every three months over the following 9 months, totaling a 12-month period of providing revenue adjustment incentives.
You can read the full details about the incentive here.
The rollout starts first with Turkey and Mexico, where prices for a subscription will be lowered to 9.90 Turkish lira (the equivalent of $1.20) and 48 pesos (the equivalent of $2.41). Twitch plans to bring localized pricing to “most countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe starting in Q3 2021,” according to Twitch’s blog. Localized pricing will carry over to the two more expensive tiers of subscriptions and for gift subscriptions as well. And prices won’t be raised anywhere, just lowered.
The changes come as many platforms are looking to give their creators better ways to monetize their followings. Twitter is testing a new Tip Jar feature and will begin rolling out ticketed social audio rooms in the coming months, and Clubhouse now lets people pay creators directly (though not everyone can receive payments yet). While Twitch isn’t announcing any new monetization features today, the lowered subscription prices could lead to more people paying streamers directly.
The world’s biggest gaming showcase, E3, is going all-virtual for the first time in its history, with organizers revealing today how they plan to keep enthusiasts interested without the sights and sounds of the show floor. The virtual E3 will run from June 12th to June 15th. The showcase will include an online portal with access to virtual exhibitor booths with video content and articles, live streams, and social elements like forums, customizable user profiles, leaderboards, and “lounges.” Registration is free and opens later this month.
This will be the second year in a row that E3 has not taken place in person in Los Angeles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the show’s cancellation was announced in March, and the show’s organizers, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), did not present an official online version of the event. In its place, a collection of digital events emerged, collectively called the Summer Game Fest. This year, however, the ESA is coordinating a centralized virtual E3 event, while the Summer Game Fest is also returning.
Along with its virtual show floor, the E3 app and portal will host video streams with interactive elements like viewer polls and featured tweets. Broadcasts will include press conferences, industry panels, and game showcases. In addition to the official app and portal, streams will also be available via the official E3 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages.
As well as the public show, there’ll also be a “media access week” running from June 7th in which the ESA says media will be able to use the online portal and app to connect directly with E3 exhibitors. Today’s press release doesn’t detail exactly who these exhibitors are, but last month the ESA announced that E3’s lineup would include Nintendo, Xbox, Capcom, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, and Warner Bros. Games. Sony and EA were absent from the list. The PlayStation manufacturer skipped E3 2019 and announced it would not be attending E3 2020 prior to its cancellation. Meanwhile, EA will host its own EA Play Live event the following month in July. Despite being on the ESA’s original list, Konami later announced in a tweet that it would not be participating at this year’s E3.
E3 has evolved a lot over its history. Although certain aspects like the big publisher press conferences have been publicly viewable for years, until recently, the in-person show itself was an industry and media-only affair. It was only in 2017 that the ESA officially opened its doors to the public with tickets priced at $250. This year’s format is dropping the high price of attending in person, though it’s unclear how much of the magic of the show floor can be recreated in virtual booths.
Update May 13th, 9:18AM ET: Updated to note Konami’s tweet confirming it will not be presenting at this year’s E3.
One maker’s Raspberry Pi is another maker’s fun robotic co-host. Chris from HotSparkLab is all about streaming cool games like Star Citizen but it turns out his stream was missing something—a custom Raspberry Pi-powered counterpart to help liven up the show!
This custom robot co-host is named Hot Spark and he very easily steals the spotlight. The best Raspberry Pi projects are ones you can share and Hot Spark is ready to chat, sing and dance for viewers on live stream.
(Image credit: HotSparkLab)
According to Chris, the creation is powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 and it uses multiple servos, via a control board, to animate the eyes and arms as well as pivot the body back and forth. The mouth and eyes are represented via RGB LED matrix boards that appear to be WS2812B “NeoPixels” connected to servos.
He’s programmed to perform animations, respond to questions and even recognize when new followers come along. To integrate him into the stream, a stationary Raspberry Pi HQ camera is used to record the bot in front of a green screen. This makes it easier to drop him into place while live streaming.
If you want to see Hot Spark in action, check out this thread on Reddit for a quick song and be sure to follow HotSparkLab on Twitch to catch him live.
Blizzard has been relatively quiet of late when it comes to Overwatch 2. The developer teased some new character designs in February at Blizzcon, but there hasn’t been much news about the core game. It looks like that’s about to change, though: on May 20th, Blizzard will hold a two-hour-long live stream focused on the player-versus-player elements of Overwatch’s sequel.
Blizzard says that the stream will feature “a first look at player-versus-player changes coming to Overwatch 2.” The stream will also include appearances by Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller — who recently took over for Jeff Kaplan — along with lead hero designer Geoff Goodman and associate art director Dion Rogers. “From new maps to major gameplay updates, we’re reinvigorating the core Overwatch experience,” Blizzard says. The stream will be broadcast on both Twitch and YouTube at 3PM ET.
Overwatch 2 was first announced at Blizzcon 2019, and it isn’t expected to launch until sometime after this year. That said, it appears that Blizzard will be more open about development moving forward. In addition to the stream, the developer will also be holding an AMA on Reddit on May 24th.
Alienware and its parent company Dell are updating existing laptops to feature Intel’s new 35-65-watt 11th Gen Core “Tiger Lake-H” processors.
On the high-end, the Alienware m15 R6 is largely adding new internals. It’s mostly the same as the existing
Alienware m15 R4
but with the newer CPUs. This also includes options for Cherry MX low-profile mechanical keys. It will start at $1,299.99.
The Alienware m15 R6 will go up to an Intel Core i9-11900H CPU, while GPUs will range from the new Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti all the way up to an RTX 3080 with 8GB of VRAM. There are RAM options up to 32GB and storage up to 2TB. The 15.6-inch display will have a 1080p option up to 360 Hz or a 2560 x 1440 configuration at 240 Hz.
(Image credit: Dell, Alienware)
Alienware is also taking the opportunity to tease an upcoming product, the new X-Series line focused on thinness above all else. The X-series will use Intel’s 11th Gen Core processor and Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics. Alienware is suggesting it will release this year, but nothing more in-depth has been shared. The company has suggested more may come on a June 1 Twitch stream.
For cooling, Alienware has an exclusive “Element 31” thermal interface made of Gallium-Silicone and is also using a quad-fan design to move air effectively enough to allow for strong performance despite how small the chassis is. Photos show a 17-inch device, though it’s possible we’ll see other sizes
(Image credit: Alienware, Dell)
Lastly, Dell is also updating its recently released Dell G15. It will maintain the same angular design, but go up to 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processors with the latest Nvidia RTX GPUs. The 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display will come in either 120 Hz or 165 Hz options. It will start at $799 when it launches on June 3.
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 leaves out a few minor elements but includes everything needed for a satisfying game experience. Its 240 Hz refresh rate with adaptive sync means fast action will render clearly. Accurate color and good contrast deliver a first-rate image and the whole package sells for less than $300. What’s not to love?
For
+ Value
+ Snappy response with low input lag
+ G-Sync & FreeSync
+ Decent contrast
+ Color accurate with calibration
Against
– No extended color
– No additional contrast for HDR content
– No USB ports
Features and Specifications
When it comes to high performance gaming monitors, you usually get what you pay for. Mainstream brands all sell similar levels of speed and features for roughly the same cost. But if you’re willing to stray from the beaten path, there are some terrific value choices out there.
We’ve looked at such displays from smaller companies like Viotek and Pixio. Monoprice is also a major player in the budget monitor category. It’s gone from a few simple enterprise-level offerings to a healthy stable of gaming screens in every popular size and shape.
If high frame rates are your goal, then you’ll want to shop at 240 Hz or higher. And that is considered the premium tier if you buy from Asus or Acer. But the Monoprice Dark Matter series offers much of that same performance for much less cash. Designed to compete with the best gaming monitors, Tthe 27-inch 240 Hz model, product number 40778, delivers FHD resolution in a Fast IPS panel with adaptive sync, HDR and high brightness for less than $300.
Brand & Model
Monoprice Dark Matter 27
Product number: 40778
Panel Type & Backlight
AHVA-IPS / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size & Aspect Ratio
27 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution & Refresh
1920×1080 @ 240 Hz
FreeSync Premium: 48-240 Hz
G-Sync compatible
Native Color Depth & Gamut
8-bit / sRGB
HDR10
Response Time (GTG)
1 ms
Brightness (mfr)
500 nits
Contrast (mfr)
1000:1
Speakers
–
Video Inputs
1x DisplayPort 1.2
1x HDMI 2.0
1x HDMI 1.4
Audio
3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0
–
Power Consumption
22.5w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base
24.3 x 18.3 x 9.9 inches (616 x 465 x 252 mm)
Panel Thickness
2.2 inches (57mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.3 inch (8mm)
Bottom: 0.8 inch (20mm)
Weight
10.7lbs (4.9kg)
Warranty
One year
The Dark Matter 27 is a Fast IPS panel running at 1920×1080 pixels. While that may turn off some buyers, ultimate motion resolution should be considered. 240 fps in FHD will look just as clear if not more so than Ultra HD at 120 Hz. Keeping detail sharp when engaged in a twitch-fest shooting game is more dependent on frame rates than pixel count.
The Dark Matter 27 relies on FreeSync as its native adaptive tech and is G-Sync compatible as confirmed by our tests (see our story on FreeSync vs G-Sync). It has not been certified by Nvidia. HDR10 signals are supported as well with both technologies, again confirmed by our tests. While its IPS panel won’t deliver life changing contrast, and there is no dynamic option for HDR, it offers a bit more dynamic range than many of its more expensive competitors.
The main thing missing here is extended color. Many HDR monitors today include a wide color gamut as part of their feature set but the Monoprice tops out at sRGB. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it is not uncommon in the budget monitor genre. You’ll have to decide how much that extra color is worth because it will cost you a bit more. It should also be noted that many monitors running at 240 Hz and higher don’t offer a wide gamut.
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 also includes gaming options like aiming points, timers and a blur-reduction feature that works fairly well if you prefer that approach over adaptive sync. But at 240 Hz, a rate that’s easy to achieve with a mid-level video card, you won’t need much additional help to smooth out the image.
On paper, the Monoprice Dark Matter 27 looks attractive next to some premium 27-inch screens. How it works in practical application is what we’re here to find out. Let’s take a look.
Assembly and Accessories of Monoprice Dark Matter
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 comes with its upright already attached to a lightweight panel. You’ll need a Phillips head screwdriver to attach the solid metal base. The bolts are found inside the main accessory bag which also contains an HDMI cable. We wondered why there was no DisplayPort cable until we discovered that the monitor would run at 240 Hz with adaptive sync and HDR over its HDMI 2.0 input. The only other item in the box is an external power supply.
Product 360 of Monoprice Dark Matter
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The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 is simply styled with only a few molded in lines in back to indicate its gaming focus. From the front, the bezel is flush and shows an 8mm frame around the top and sides of the image. The trim across the bottom is 20mm wide and features a tiny Monoprice logo.
The base and upright are all metal and finished with a black crackle texture that reflects no light. The only adjustment is tilt which goes 20° back and 5° forward. There is no height adjustment so you’ll either need to tilt the screen up toward you, or place it on a pedestal if you prefer a perfectly vertical panel. There is no swivel adjustment either.
In back, you’ll see some styling features that look a lot like the Pixio PX279 Prime. We initially thought the Monoprice Dark Matter 27 was a rebadged display but after running our suite of benchmarks, there are some differences in the results. We’ll get into those later but suffice it to say that the Monoprice and Pixio monitors are not the same product.
Other external features are minimal. There are no USB ports or built in speakers. The input panel is well-stocked with one HDMI 1.4, one HDMI 2.0, a DisplayPort 1.2 and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The USB port is for service and firmware upgrades only.
OSD Features of Monoprice Dark Matter
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27’s OSD control is managed by a tiny joystick which opens three different quick menus for input selection, picture mode and gaming aids. Pressing it opens the full menu which is divided into six subsections that have image calibration, gaming enhancements and everything else you need to optimize performance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Display menu has basic luminance controls and access to the seven picture modes. User is the default and best preset for all content. Black Equalize raises the black level to make shadow detail easier to see. The sharpness control will add obvious edge enhancement at any level over 50 so we recommend leaving it alone. Ultra Vivid adds a lot of ringing and other artifacts in an attempt to sharpen the picture. It too should be left off.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Color menu has a complete set of image controls including four gamma presets, four color temps and hue & saturation sliders. You also get a low blue light slider to help with fatigue when reading text against white backgrounds. A User color temp offers three very precise RGB sliders which helped us achieve excellent grayscale tracking. Color in general is a tad over saturated but very close to the sRGB spec.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Gaming Setup menu lets the user toggle adaptive sync, choose from three overdrive levels (Low is best), and toggle HDR, dynamic contrast (SDR signals only) and MPRT which is a blur-reducing backlight strobe. It has no pulse width adjustment, but it does work well, if a bit subtly, at reducing blur. It only reduces brightness by about 10%. It cannot be used in conjunction with adaptive sync.
Setup and Calibration of Monoprice Dark Matter
The Dark Matter 27 comes out of the box in its User mode and doesn’t quite qualify for our calibration-not-required list. Grayscale is a little cool though not excessively so. Color is slightly over-saturated but again, this is not objectionable. The default 2.2 gamma preset is accurate, so we just adjusted the RGB sliders to achieve excellent grayscale tracking. Below are our recommended settings.
To engage HDR mode, apply the signal first, then switch modes in the Gaming Setup menu. You’ll have to do the reverse when returning to SDR mode. HDR doesn’t deliver much improvement in contrast as there is no dynamic feature.
Picture Mode
User
Brightness 200 nits
34
Brightness 120 nits
17
Brightness 100 nits
13
Brightness 80 nits
9
Brightness 50 nits
3 (Min. 37 nits)
Gamma
2.2
Color Temp User
Red 51, Green 51, Blue 49
Gaming and Hands-on with Monoprice Dark Matter
The Dark Matter 27 is a competent monitor for everyday tasks and an excellent gaming monitor. For things like spreadsheets and word processing, more resolution would be nice but 82ppi is enough to get the job done. The touch of extra color saturation is certainly welcome when editing graphics or watching video. It’s close enough to spec to look natural but delivers plenty of punch, even though the gamut is sRGB.
This monitor has a little more contrast than the average IPS screen and it shows. Blacks are nice and deep, and the picture has good dimension. We tried the dynamic contrast option and though it had a positive effect on shadow detail, making it blacker and more realistic, it made the overall image much too bright. The backlight can’t be adjusted when it’s engaged so its use was restricted to gaming during our tests.
Booting up Tomb Raider, we saw an immediate advantage to the dynamic contrast. It made blacks truer without washing out detail. Highlights popped nicely without being too harsh. Occasional flares of light looked harsh, but only for short durations. We’d play most SDR games with the option turned on. In either case, color was well saturated and natural in tone.
Video processing was as expected from a 240 Hz FHD monitor. The frame rate remained maxed when playing in G-Sync mode on a GeForce RTX 3090. Our FreeSync platform maintained around 220 fps with a Radeon RX 5700 XT card. We tried the backlight strobe briefly, but it had no impact on image quality, either positive or negative. Adaptive sync is the better choice. The overdrive is very effective at its low setting. Other options caused visible ghosting and trails behind moving objects.
Response was always quick and input lag seemed non-existent. While any refresh rate higher than 60 Hz is an improvement, 240 Hz and higher will spoil you. Once you’ve experienced it, even for a short while, it’s hard to go back. That’s why lower resolution is often the better choice. Frame rate is more important than pixel density. In the Dark Matter 27’s case, you are getting a lot of performance for under $300. We’ve gamed on plenty of high-end monitors and this Monoprice can go toe-to-toe with most of them.
Reviews for Capcom’s Resident Evil Village have gone live, and we’re taking the opportunity to look at how the game runs on the best graphics cards. We’re running the PC version on Steam, and while patches and future driver updates could change things a bit, both AMD and Nvidia have provided Game Ready drivers for REV.
This installment in the Resident Evil series adds DirectX Raytracing (DXR) support for AMD’s RX 6000 RDNA2 architecture, or Nvidia’s RTX cards — both the Ampere architecture and Turing architecture. AMD’s promoting Resident Evil Village, and it’s on the latest gen consoles as well, so there’s no support of Nvidia’s DLSS technology. We’ll look at image quality in a moment, but first let’s hit the official system requirements.
Capcom notes that in either case, the game targets 1080p at 60 fps, using the “Prioritize Performance” and presumably “Recommended” presets. Capcom does state that the framerate “might drop in graphics-intensive scenes,” but most mid-range and higher GPUs should be okay. We didn’t check lower settings, but we can confirm that 60 fps at 1080p will certainly be within reach of a lot of graphics cards.
The main pain point for anyone running a lesser graphics card will be VRAM, particularly at higher resolutions. With AMD pushing 12GB and 16GB on its latest RX 6000-series cards, it’s not too surprising that the Max preset uses 12GB VRAM. It’s possible to run 1080p Max on a 6GB card, and 1440p Max on an 8GB card, but 4K Max definitely wants more than 8GB VRAM — we experienced inconsistent frametimes in our testing. We’ve omitted results on cards where performance wasn’t reliable in the charts.
Anyway, let’s hit the benchmarks. Due to time constraints, we’re not going to run every GPU under the sun in these benchmarks, but will instead focus on the latest gen GPUs, plus the top and bottom RTX 20-series GPUs and a few others as we see fit. We used the ‘Max’ preset, with and without ray tracing, and most of the cards we tested broke 60 fps. Turning on ray tracing disables Ambient Occlusion, because that’s handled by the ray-traced GI and Reflection options, but every other setting is on the highest quality option (which means variable-rate shading is off for our testing).
Our test system consists of a Core i9-9900K CPU, 32GB VRAM and a 2TB SSD — the same PC we’ve been using for our graphics card and gaming benchmarks for about two years now, because it continues to work well. With the current graphics card shortages, acquiring a new high-end GPU will be difficult — our GPU pricing index covers the details. Hopefully, you already have a capable GPU from pre-2021, back in the halcyon days when graphics cards were available at and often below MSRP. [Wistful sigh]
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Granted, these are mostly high-end cards, but even the RTX 2060 still posted an impressive 114 fps in our test sequence — and it also nearly managed 60 fps with ray tracing enabled (see below). Everything else runs more than fast enough as well, with the old GTX 1070 bringing up the caboose with a still more than acceptable 85 fps. Based off what we’ve seen with these GPUs and other games, it’s a safe bet that cards like the GTX 1660, RX 5600 XT, and anything faster than those will do just fine in Resident Evil Village.
AMD’s RDNA2 cards all run smack into an apparent CPU limit at around 195 fps for our test sequence, while Nvidia’s fastest GPUs (2080 Ti and above) end up with a lower 177 fps limit. At 1080p, VRAM doesn’t appear to matter too much, provided your GPU has at least 6GB.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Turning on ray tracing drops performance, but the drop isn’t too painful on many of the cards. Actually, that’s not quite true — the penalty for DXR depends greatly on your GPU. The RTX 3090 only lost about 13% of its performance, and the RTX 3080 performance dropped by 20%. AMD’s RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT both lost about 30-35% of their non-RT performance, while the RTX 2080 Ti, RX 6800, RTX 3070, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 3060 plummeted by 40–45%. Meanwhile, the RX 6700 XT ended up running at less than half its non-DXR rate, and the RTX 2060 also saw performance chopped in half.
Memory and memory bandwidth seem to be major factors with ray tracing enabled, and the 8GB and lower cards were hit particularly hard. Turning down a few settings should help a lot, but for these initial results we wanted to focus on maxed-out graphics quality. Let us know in the comments what other tests you’d like to see us run.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The performance trends we saw at 1080p become more pronounced at higher resolutions. At 1440p Max, more VRAM and memory bandwidth definitely helped. The RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, RTX 3090, and RTX 3080 only lost a few fps in performance compared to 1080p when running without DXR enabled, and the RX 6800 dipped by 10%. All of the other GPUs drop by around 20–30%, but the 6GB RTX 2060 plummeted by 55%. Only the RTX 2060 and GTX 1070 failed to average 60 fps or more.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
1440p and ray tracing with max settings really needs more than 8GB VRAM — which probably explains why the Ray Tracing preset (which we didn’t use) opts for modest settings everywhere else. Anyway, the RTX 2060, 3060 Ti, and 3070 all started having problems at 1440p with DXR, which you can see in the numbers. Some runs were much better than we show here, others much worse, and after repeating each test a bunch of times, we still aren’t confident those three cards will consistently deliver a good experience without further tweaking the graphics settings.
On the other hand, cards with 10GB or more VRAM don’t show nearly the drop that we saw without ray tracing when moving from 1080p to 1440p. The RTX 3060 only lost 18% of its 1080p performance, and chugs along happily at just shy of 60 fps. The higher-end AMD and Nvidia cards were all around the 15% drop mark as well.
But enough dawdling. Let’s just kill everything with some 4K testing…
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Well, ‘kill’ is probably too strong of a word. Without ray tracing, most of the GPUs we tested still broke 60 fps. But of those that came up short, they’re very short. RTX 3060 is still generally playable, but Resident Evil Village appears to expect 30 fps or more, as dropping below that tends to cause the game to slow down. The RX 5700 XT should suffice in a pinch, even though it lost 67% of its 1440p performance, but the 1070 and 2060 would need lower settings to even take a crack at 4K.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Even with DXR, the RTX 2080 Ti and RX 6800 and above continue to deliver 60 fps or more. The RTX 3060 also still manages a playable 41 fps — this isn’t a twitch action game, so sub-60 frame rates aren’t the end of the world. Of course, we’re not showing the cards that dropped into the teens or worse — which is basically all the RTX cards with 8GB or less VRAM.
The point isn’t how badly some of the cards did at 4K Max (with or without DXR), but rather how fast a lot of the cards still remained. The DXR switch often imposed a massive performance hit at 1080p, but at 4K the Nvidia cards with at least 10GB VRAM only lost about 15% of their non-DXR performance. AMD’s GPUs took a larger 25% hit, but it was very consistent across all four GPUs.
Resident Evil Village Graphics Settings
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You can see the various advanced settings available in the above gallery. Besides the usual resolution, refresh rate, vsync, and scaling options, there are 18 individual graphics settings, plus two more settings for ray tracing. Screen space reflections, volumetric lighting and shadow quality are likely to cause the biggest impact on performance, though the sum of the others can add up as well. For anyone with a reasonably high-end GPU, though, you should be able to play at close to max quality (minus ray tracing if you don’t have an appropriate GPU, naturally).
But how does the game look? Capturing screenshots with the various settings on and off is a pain, since there are only scattered save points (typewriters), and some settings appear to require a restart to take effect. Instead of worrying about all of the settings, let’s just look at how ray tracing improves things.
Resident Evil Village Image Quality: Ray Tracing On / Off
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Or doesn’t, I guess. Seriously, the effect is subtle at the best of times, and in many scenes, I couldn’t even tell you whether RT was on or off. If there’s a strong light source, it can make a difference. Sometimes a window or glass surface will change with RT enabled, but even then (e.g., in the images of the truck and van) it’s not always clearly better.
The above gallery should be ordered with RT off and RT on for each pair of images. You can click (on a PC) to get the full images, which I’ve compressed to JPGs (and they look visually almost the same as the original PNG files). Indoor areas tend to show the subtle lighting effects more than outside, but unless a patch dramatically changes the way RT looks, Resident Evil Village will be another entry in the growing list of ray tracing games where you could skip it and not really miss anything.
Resident Evil Village will release to the public on May 7. So far, reviews are quite favorable, and if you enjoyed Resident Evil 7, it’s an easy recommendation. Just don’t go in expecting ray tracing to make a big difference in the way the game looks or feels.
Android tablets still exist, somehow. And people may still be buying them, for some reason. All of this in spite of Google’s best efforts to simply ignore the form factor completely for the past few years, and we don’t mean just by not releasing any more of its own tablets, but also in not adapting Android to the bigger screen sizes at all.
Today the search giant has suddenly remembered that Android tablets exist, and has thus announced a new feature, just for Android tablets. Can you believe it? Something in Android, tailor-made for tablets. Hell is freezing over, surely.
Anyway, that’s probably enough snark and you may be wondering what this is. It’s called Entertainment Space, and, well, the name is pretty descriptive. Google describes it as “a one-stop, personalized home for all your favorite movies, shows, videos, games, and books”.
It lets you not go through the trouble of hopping between apps to try and figure out what’s where, taking care of that for you by presenting an aggregate view of content from your apps, that’s grouped by type.
So you have the Watch tab with movies, TV shows, and YouTube videos. This includes a Continue Watching row, as well as personalized and trending recommendation rows from Google TV, Twitch, Hulu, “and many additional services”.
Then there’s the Games tab, which has a Continue Playing row (see the theme?), as well as recommendations. Select games are available to play instantly too, letting you try without having to download.
Finally, the Read tab is for your books, although it seems like this only plugs into Google Play Books. So if you’re a heavy Kindle user, you’ll still need to go to the app. Anyway, audiobooks are also to be found here, but there’s no sign of Audible. And of course, recommendations.
“Starting this month”, Entertainment Space will be available on Walmart onn. tablets and “later this year” it will roll out globally “on new and select existing Android tablets from Lenovo, Sharp, and more”. That’s about it for availability info, unfortunately.
But, on the plus side, Google says that it’s seen over 30% more people start using Android tablets in the last year, compared to the prior year. Maybe if more and more people start doing that, the company will give us more and more tablet-exclusive features? There’s a thought.
The Epic Games v. Apple trial started on Monday, and if you wanted to follow along and listen to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney talk about the “metaverse,” your options were limited. In theory, there’s public access to the trial, like most court proceedings, but since the courthouse is still closed for lockdown, the only access was through the court’s teleconference line that was briefly overrun by screaming teens.
But for anyone looking for more user-friendly options, there’s good news. A surprising, small community of streamers has decided to rebroadcast the trial on streaming platforms — places built for the people who play Fortnite rather than the antitrust policy wonks in the courtroom. For yesterday’s proceeding, I found a handful of YouTube channels and streamers rebroadcasting the hearing online, including Geoff Keighley (gaming’s Ryan Seacrest) on the Game Awards YouTube channel. Keighley’s YouTube stream sat at around 1,000 viewers throughout Monday’s events, featuring an active side chat filled with Fortnite fans and foes negging the day’s witnesses.
Technically, you’re not supposed to do this. The court’s website explicitly tells users that “any recording, copying, or rebroadcasting of a remote court hearing is absolutely prohibited.” Electronic recording devices are often banned from public sessions for the same reason.
But because you’re breaking the court’s rules and not copyright law, streaming the trial is much less likely to result in an account strike than a sports or television live stream. And while conventional media outlets could have their press credentials stripped for defying the ban, most streamers are far enough outside that system that they don’t care.
A separate Fortnite streamer, Golden (112,000 subscribers), was also following the court hearing, providing commentary for his followers interested in the day’s events. In order to avoid ticking off the court, he muted the trial’s audio and provided a link to Keighley’s stream for viewers looking to follow along themselves. He also listed his Discord server in the video’s bio and had three audio rooms dedicated to re-streaming Keighley’s audio. The Discord’s general chat was a mix of armchair antitrust lawyers and others complaining about Sweeney’s bad mic setup.
“Bruh this audio,” one person wrote, responding to Sweeney’s mumbling.
It’s hard to say how many streamers will be active for today’s proceedings — but if you’re hoping to follow along, searching YouTube and Twitch for rebroadcasts might turn up more options than you think.
G4’s newest host looks a little different from the rest of its lineup: it’s hired CodeMiko — one of the biggest virtual streamers on Twitch — to bring her eccentric interviews to the network.
CodeMiko, unlike the typical G4 host, is not human — or at least, not entirely. CodeMiko is a Vtuber (“virtual YouTuber,” though they’re often found elsewhere), who uses motion capture tech to broadcast herself as a 3D character who can change her appearance on a whim. Since getting started about a year ago, CodeMiko has blown up, with more than 680,000 followers on Twitch and an average audience of more than 6,000 viewers at a time.
On G4, CodeMiko will be interviewing “some of the most notable names in gaming and entertainment” and chatting with other network hosts, including Kevin Pereira and Adam Sessler. “CodeMiko will bring her revolutionary interview experience to G4 and help the network push the boundaries of gaming entertainment,” Kevin Sabbe, G4’s head of content, said in a press release.
If you haven’t seen CodeMiko’s interviews, you should check them out. They’re oddly aggressive and often take advantage of her virtual nature to put CodeMiko into different outfits and environments to match the conversation:
As you might imagine, she’s also walked the line of what’s acceptable on Twitch and has already been banned a couple of times. Hosting on G4 (off of Twitch, at least) could give CodeMiko a way to maintain her wilder material without the constant fear of a ban.
G4 plans to relaunch later this year. The network shut down in 2014, but it’s now being revived by a Comcast-owned gaming brand. For the moment, the network exists on YouTube and Twitch.
Netflix has joined the Vtuber trend, unveiling a virtual streamer this week who will host a weekly show on the company’s YouTube channel to promote its original anime series. The character is named N-ko Mei Kurono, and Netflix describes her as the company’s “anime ambassador.” She also happens to be a “sheep-human lifeform.”
Vtubers, or “virtual YouTubers,” are animated hosts who often vlog on YouTube or stream on Twitch. In general, these characters are operated by a single human, who will use motion capture software (and sometimes a motion-capture outfit) to transform themselves into a cartoony character on-screen. Some Vtubers have become hugely popular over the past year, including Projekt Melody and CodeMiko.
Netflix is using the trend as a way to promote its growing interest in anime. The company said recently that it plans to launch 40 anime series in 2021, following a year in which “the amount of Anime watched” on its service doubled in the US. Netflix is about to debut a new anime from Flying Lotus; a new Sailor Moon movie is coming to the service in June; and a Terminator anime is now in the works.
N-ko, the Vtuber, is played by a Netflix employee who works on their anime lineup. Though her primary purpose is promoting Netflix series, she’s also trying to fit in with the rest of the Vtuber community and become a figure viewers might want to watch for herself. “I love singing, dancing, and getting a massage,” N-ko says, “but I don’t like writing kanji or anything that contains elements of horror.” She plans to upload videos highlighting new shows, collaborate with other Vtubers, and maybe sing songs and do video game commentary, too.
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