Google Play Music is closing very soon. The shutdown started in September in Australia and New Zealand, and since in other territories. In the UK, this is happening on 24th February.
What does this mean? Well, for one you won’t be able to stream tunes either through the mobile app or via your desktop. “We will delete all of your Google Play Music data. This includes your music library, with any uploads, purchases and anything you’ve added from Google Play Music. After this date, there will be no way to recover it,” reads Google’s latest notice email.
But all is not lost. Google is replacing it with YouTube Music, so you can still listen to all the music you’ve bought without paying a penny extra. All you need to do is transfer over all your tunes to YouTube’s service. There is also no obligation to use YouTube Music, though – if you prefer, you can just extract your tunes (along with your user data) using Google’s Takeout tool.
But if you do want to transfer it to YouTube Music, you should find the experience pretty slick. It’s not just your music that will transfer over (both purchases and uploads), but also your playlists and stations, streaming songs you’ve saved to your library, your likes and dislikes, payment info and data about your listening habits.
Here’s how to get started.
How to transfer music from Google Play Music to YouTube Music
(Image credit: YouTube Music)
There are two ways to transfer your music over.
1: Head to music.youtube.com/transfer and click Transfer.
2: On the YouTube Music app, tap your profile picture and then Settings > Transfer > Transfer from Google Play Music.
And that’s it. But there are a few things to note.
You may need a YouTube channel in order to complete the migration. Don’t already have one? You can set one up in just a few seconds.
You can transfer as many times as you like until Google Play Music closes. If you do multiple transfers, only the music added since your last transfer will be included in the latest transfer. Which should save you time and hassle.
Some songs and albums might not transfer due to rights or licensing issues. But if your music disappeared from Google Play Music for the same reason, there’s a chance it could reappear in your YouTube Music library.
If you have a large music library, it might take longer to transfer across to YouTube Music than your billing information. You’ll receive separate emails for each telling you when they’ve successfully migrated.
Your monthly billing rate, payment date and general billing details should stay the same. Google will let you know if you need to confirm your billing details before completing the transfer.
If you’re transferring a family account, only the person who manages the billing can transfer that portion. Other family members will automatically have their accounts transferred unless they don’t meet YouTube Music’s eligibility criteria (which is a bit stricter than Google Play Music’s – YouTube users have to be aged 13 or over).
Where to find your transferred music in YouTube Music
(Image credit: Future)
When you open the YouTube Music app, you’ll notice it looks a little different to Google Play Music.
To find your stations and liked songs, tap Library > Playlists > and then either Your Likes or just find the station or playlist you want.
The way the app works is slightly different too. In YouTube Music, stations are just playlists that you can view like any other playlist. Stations with ‘radio’ in their name will not transfer to YouTube Music. To listen to an artist or radio that you’ve listened to in Google Play Music, search for that artist or radio and tap StartRadio.
It’s simple to find songs that you either purchased or uploaded. On a mobile device, open the YouTube Music app and tap Library > then Albums, Songs or Artists and then the Uploads tab.
On desktop, head to music.youtube.com in a web browser, and click Library > Albums, Songs or Artists to see your tunes. To see your uploads, click the down arrow next to YouTube Music, and click Uploads. Simple as that.
MORE:
Read our YouTube Music review
Best music streaming services 2020: free streams to hi-res audio
Best music streamers 2020: upgrade to a wireless system
Post Malone is joining Pokémon’s 25th anniversary celebration with a virtual concert. The rapper will perform on February 27th in a digital event kicking off at 7PM ET. On YouTube, the company released a teaser video alongside the news, which includes a look at a very Pixar-ish, animated version of the artist ahead of the performance.
The Pokémon Company International announced P25, a series of musical events, last month with news that pop star Katy Perry will headline. Post Malone’s concert will be a free event fans can tune into over on the event’s official website, YouTube, or Twitch. The event is also expected to include more news on upcoming musical acts.
In the absence of live events, more games are turning to virtual concerts these days, with artists like Lil Nas X in Roblox, and last year, Travis Scott’s Fortnite performance turned the entire game into one big stage.
Intel kicked off 2021 with a fresh lineup of mobile processors with a unique twist. The 11th Gen Tiger Lake H35-series processors aren’t just for any ol’ laptop. They target what Intel calls “ultraportable gaming laptops.” And at 3 p.m. ET today on The Tom’s Hardware Show, we’re sitting down with the chipmaker to learn more about what that means.
The Tom’s Hardware Show livestream is every Thursday at 3 p.m. ET. Today, Intel’s general manager of premium and gaming notebook segments, Fredrik Hamberger, will join Tom’s Hardware editors to give us an inside look at Intel’s H35 chips.
You can watch today’s Tom’s Hardware show below at 3 p.m. ET:
You can also catch the show on Facebook and the Tom’s Hardware Twitch channel. Every episode is also available to download as a podcast.
And like with any episode of The Tom’s Hardware Show, we’ll be taking questions from the audience. Join the livestream at 3 p.m. ET to submit your questions via chat YouTube or Facebook, and we may discuss them on air.
Announced during CES 2021 in January, Intel’s H35 CPUs go up to four CPU cores, eight threads and a 35W TDP. The flagship Core i7-11375H Special Edition can hit a 5.0 single-core turbo frequency and has a standard base clock speed of 3.3 GHz at 35W (it drops to 3.0 GHz at 28W).
Intel is positioning the H35 series as an option for the growing number of machines looking to compete with the best gaming laptops by including a discrete graphics cards while remaining portable. Our Asus TUF Dash F15 review showed what the quad-core Core i7-1130H can do alongside a mobile RTX 3070 graphics card in a 0.78-inch thick clamshell.
Join Tom’s Hardware this afternoon to learn more and ask Intel your H35 queries.
(Pocket-lint) – Sony has grown a legion of fans for its growing number of Alpha system cameras. Whether it’s the ultra compact A6000 series or a full-frame A7 series, there’s something for everyone. But it’s videographers who’ve turned more towards Sony’s mirrorless full-frame bodies in recent years – and it’s easy to see why when looking at the Alpha A7S III.
Spec wise, this third-generation ‘S’ model offers some incredible capabilities, with particular focus for video and low-light performance. Rather than go all-out on the pixel count, the A7S III opts for bigger pixels on a quality sensor. But does that limit its appeal?
Design
Dimensions: 128.9mm x 96.9mm x 80.8mm / Weight: 699g (with battery)
3-inch, 1.44m-dot vari-angle LCD touchscreen
Moisture- and dust-resistant design
Sony was among the first manufacturers to put a full-frame sensor in a compact mirrorless body (the original A7, from back in 2013, was revolutionary for its size). And while many manufacturers have since followed suit and Sony – with its own A7C – has made an even smaller one, the size of the A7S III makes it hugely practical to carry around. It’ll fit into most camera carriers, even with a lens on it.
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The body weighs about 700g with a battery and memory card in it, but – of course – that weight goes up once you attach a lens. We were testing with the 12-24mm G Master lens, which is pretty bulky and weighty, but not so much that we got really tired from shooting with it handheld.
A lot of the A7S III’s buttons are well positioned, including the switch-ring around the shutter button at the top of the grip. There’s a dedicated red movie ring for shooting video, plus an exposure gain adjustment ring, a custom function button, and the shoot mode select dial.
The shoot mode dial has to be unlocked by pressing the button in the middle before turning, which adds a bit of security, but also frustration if you’re used to just turning the dial to quickly change between movie mode and one of the photo modes.
The other questionable decision is the position of the menu button. Most buttons on the back of the A7S III are within easy thumb reach. But not the menu button. That’s way off to the other side, on the left side of the viewfinder, meaning you have to use your other hand to dive into the menu system to adjust and change features and settings.
Best mirrorless cameras 2021: The best interchangeable lens cameras available to buy today
By Mike Lowe
·
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There are plenty of customisable function buttons. Four, in fact, which are super useful when you want quick access to essential functions like changing the autofocus area or changing the white balance. Having that autofocus selection mode is super useful, especially if you want to use the joystick to manually pick a small area to focus on. Just for those times when the super smart autofocus engine doesn’t quick pick the right area.
Like a number of Sony’s recent cameras, the A7S III has a proper flip-out touchscreen too. It makes that little monitor way more useful and versatile. It enables better framing at awkward angles and – as importantly – makes shooting to camera easier whether handheld vlogging or when shooting with the camera on the tripod. You can focus and frame without having to go behind the camera or having your view obstructed like on the older models.
Videographer’s multi-tool
Ports: HDMI, 3.5mm, USB-C
XLR adapter available – offers 4-channel 24-bit audio recording
16-bit Raw data output for external recorders
Proxy recording internally
Cards: Dual SD (UHS-II)
If you’re just starting out making video, it’s unlikely you’d look at the A7S III right away, especially as the price point is enough to make your eyes water (it’s several thousand at launch – and we doubt that’ll drop much). But for the seasoned pro or someone wanting to up their game, it’s easy to see the appeal.
It may not look like it from the outside, but there’s a tonne of flexibility here when it comes to connecting additional gear like microphones and monitors. Not only do you get a 3.5mm input for microphone, the hotshoe with the right adapter attached (note: sold separately) can be used to power an XLR adapter for plugging in ‘proper’ microphones too.
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Using the HDMI you can connect the A7S III’s output to an external recorder/monitor (with 16 bit Raw output), plus you have the ability to record proxy files simultaneously while capturing at your desired resolution and bitrate. That means your computer workflow load times should be faster, because you already have the proxies to hand, your desktop shouldn’t have to generate them for you.
That’s without listing all the bitrate, colour profile, resolution and frame-rate options available. And there are many (it’s worth having a look at Sony’s detailed breakdown in the A7S III’s full specifications). You can shoot in S-Log3, S-Gamut3 or Cine gamut profiles, so that your video matches the colour profile on your professional camera and allows you to colour grade it to your heart’s content, including the ability to shoot in HLG for HDR workflows.
Video and photo
12.1MP Exmor R CMOS sensor, Bionz XR processor
ISO sensitivity: 80-102,400 standard
4K video (4:2:2 up to 10bit)
Full-frame 4K at 120fps
S-Log2 and S-Log3
Sony has equipped the A7S III with a 12-megapixel sensor, which is in stark contrast to the much higher resolution 61-megapixel full frame sensor on the A7R IV. The reason: to feature enough pixels to effectively capture full 4K resolution video, but also to enable much better low-light performance. The bigger the sensor diodes (in effect the ‘pixels’), the more light it can draw in. And it works.
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Shooting in tricky situations with little light, using mostly street lights outside after sundown, still enabled us to take decent, sharp images completely handheld. Of course, part of this is down to the built in 5-axis stabilisation – which is great, but not infallible, so if we didn’t quite hold the camera steady enough then some images still came out with a little blur.
Switching the camera into auto mode, the default in our night time shoot was for the camera to select ISO 12,800 – which is rather high – but the sensor still managed to capture an impressive amount of range (at f/4 and a 2/5-second exposure), revealing the clouds in the sky and even silhouettes of hills miles in the distance. It’s not completely image-noise-free, but the results are more grain-like, at an acceptable level, and doesn’t result in the destruction of detail.
Testing with the 12-24mm G Master lens also meant we got to try one of Sony’s most recent wide-angle lenses. It’s not the most versatile lens in the world, but we found it more than usable for our regular close-up product shooting for our YouTube channel. It did struggle to focus when too close, but otherwise is a great tool to have in the studio.
Being able shoot practically unlimited 4K/50p footage meant we never had to worry that the camera would overheat. The redesigned heat dissipation inside the body means the A7S III never struggles – which is a step change from earlier Sony video-focused cameras. The result is smooth, sharp and detailed video with great colour. Rolling shutter seems to be a thing of the past too.
Further helped by that stabilisation – which introduces a 1.1x crop, but can be switched off for full-frame access – it’s easy enough to shoot handheld and keep things smooth and steady. For the times it gets a bit janky when our hands weren’t as steady as we’d like them to be, the resulting shakiness was minimal and easy to fix in post-production with Final Cut’s one-click stabilsation tool.
And for those times where we’d accidentally over-exposed and ended up with highlights that were overexposed, we were able to drop those brightness levels down for to retain detail and surface texture without any hassle. It’s a very forgiving camera.
For those of you who don’t shoot much beyond 60 frames per second, but need 4K for detail and 10 bit for colour grading and detail, the A7S III is more than capable, although the highest bitrate and frame-rate recording does require you to use Sony’s new CFExpress Type A card (also known as XQD). The rest can be recorded internally on UHS-II SD cards.
While it might not be the perfect camera for those looking to creat big, high-resolution images that are great for cropping into, the A7S III still takes great shots in daylight too. Colours are lovely, the depth of field on offer is sublime. Close-ish shots of plants revealed some stunning smooth bokeh.
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Battery performance is strong for a camera this powerful too. It uses one of Sony’s new FX100 batteries – which is good for about 510 shots or 80-95 minutes of video recording, depending on whether you use the viewfinder or LCD monitor. Plus, you can charge it via the USB-C port on the camera, so you could take a Type-C cable and a battery pack to refill while on the move.
Sony’s strength for the past couple of years has been autofocus and tracking and – until the recently announced A1 – the A7S III was the epitome of that effort. It has 759 phase-detection AF points, meaning almost the you can select to focus pretty much anywhere within the frame. What’s more, it combines with 425 contrast detection points, making focusing really quick and accurate.
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Whether we left it to automatically focus on people’s or pet’s eyes, or manually chose the spot we wanted to focus on, it was really quick and tracking was so smooth and responsive we rarely saw it hunting when we took video footage into the edit suite. It does it with such efficiency pretty much all the time.
Digging into the settings you can choose whether you want it tracking a human eye or an animal eye, or whether you want to prioritise a specific eye, or to let the camera decide (it’s actually pretty clever and will choose whichever is closest by default, and does so without fail).
There are a lot more options in the settings menu, and while colour coding and reorganising things has made Sony’s software easier than it used to be, it can still be a bit overwhelming at times. There’s just so much there to get a handle on. You could easily spend an hour just going through the various options and trying to remember where it all is.
Verdict
The Sony Alpha A7S III is the most impressive video-centric consumer camera to date. By using the right sensor, processing power and heat dissipation, Sony offers full-frame recording at staggering resolutions quality. The price might make you wince a bit though.
While the sensor and performance lends the camera to professional video work, it also makes it very good in low-light situations for both stills and video. With a good lens, you can forget the tripod and go shoot dimly lit scenes handheld.
However, those stills photographers looking to shoot ultra-resolute images ought to look elsewhere – but it’s not as if there’s a lack of choice in the Alpha range. But for those invested in Sony for video work, the A7S III will be the mirrorless camera of choice for years to come.
Alternatives to consider
Pocket-lint
Panasonic Lumix S5
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It’s less than half the price of the Sony, and while it doesn’t quite match its performance in terms of video capabilities or low-light capabilities, if you’re wanting a strong video-centric mirrorless with great performance that won’t cost you nearly four grand, the Panasonic is a very strong choice.
Read our review
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Sony A7R IV
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Sony’s A7R IV has a much higher-resolution sensor, making it a more suitable choice for photographers chasing those super-sharp image files that hey can present in huge format or crop into heavily. It’s not as strong on the video side, though, but it can still shoot 4K.
Demand for Pokémon cards has been high the last few weeks as the series celebrates its 25th anniversary. To accommodate the high demand, The Pokémon Company announced today that it will be reprinting trading cards.
The Pokémon Company released a statement on its support page that it is “aware that some fans are experiencing difficulties purchasing certain Pokémon trading card products due to a very high demand and global shipping constraints impacting g availability,” while also confirming that it is reprinting impacted products at “maximum capacity.”
We’re aware that some fans are experiencing difficulties purchasing certain Pokémon TCG products due to very high demand. In response, we are reprinting impacted products at maximum capacity to ensure more fans can enjoy the Pokémon TCG.
More info here: https://t.co/sClZo3BXsp
— Play Pokémon (@playpokemon) February 10, 2021
There’s no specific time frame on when retailers are expected to receive new shipments, but the company pledged that it will “replenish stock at retailers as soon as possible.”
Over the last several months, Pokémon trading cards have been in high demand with products selling out quickly at retailers and older cards selling for as much as $375,000 by third-party sellers. Meanwhile, card opening videos have blown up on YouTube over the last year — in some cases, getting millions of views.
With the franchise celebrating a major milestone this year, Nintendo has been finding various ways to commemorate the occasion. This includes partnering with McDonald’s to give out collectible cards when you buy a Happy Meal at the fast-food chain, but as our sister site Polygon points out, the demand for these items is high, and some people are taking advantage of the situation.
Epic Games has announced a new, browser-based software tool powered by its Unreal Engine called the MetaHuman Creator that can craft highly realistic human faces and help power more realistic body movements and facial animations. Epic provided a sneak peek at the platform today in a pair of YouTube videos showing off examples of creations built using the MetaHuman Creator, and “metahuman” appears to be the term the company is using to describe this brand of virtual, non-real individual.
Epic says the MetaHuman Creator can be used in conjunction with modern motion capture and animation techniques for creating lifelike movements and human interactions scenes built for video games, film, TV, and other formats. The company says these photorealistic humans can be generated in a matter of minutes and equipped with unique hairstyles and clothing, and then they can be tailored further to meet the needs of a production. And these “metahumans” can be manipulated in real time within the tool itself and just using a web browser, Epic says.
“Up until now one of the most arduous tasks in 3D content creation has been constructing truly convincing digital humans. Even the most experienced artists require significant amounts of time, effort, and equipment, just for one character,” said Vladimir Mastilovic, Epic’s vice president of digital humans technology, in a statement. “After decades of research and development, and thanks to bringing companies like 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, and Quixel into the Epic family, that barrier is being erased through Unreal Engine, and we’re thrilled to introduce MetaHuman Creator.”
The humans created with Epic’s new tool don’t approach the photorealism of, say, the digitally rendered photographs of fake people produced by generative adversarial networks, which is the AI technique underpinning projects like “This Person Does Not Exist.”
But as a kind of supercharged video game character creation tool, MetaHuman Creator does seem capable of making some shockingly realistic-looking people that could easily pass for a real-life motion captured actor. Though perhaps we’d need to wait to see what the tool is truly capable of in the hands of third-party creators before making a verdict on whether it escapes the uncanny valley.
It’s not clear when Epic intends to release MetaHuman Creator outside a broad 2021 release window, but interested developers and artists can sign up for updates on the Unreal Engine website.
CBS All Access is set to transform into Paramount Plus on March 4th, but you won’t be able to watch it if you own a second- or third-generation Apple TV. The company announced that it won’t update its app for those devices when the streaming service relaunches next month, as spotted by MacRumors.
Image: MacRumors
The announcement makes CBS All Access / Paramount Plus the latest service to end support for the set-top box. YouTube announced that it will drop support starting next month, while HBO dropped the aging streaming boxes last year. The second-gen Apple TV is over a decade old (it launched in 2010), while the third-generation version was released in 2012, so it’s understandable that we’re starting to see a wave of deprecated apps.
Users will still be able to stream Paramount Plus to older Apple TVs using an iPad or iPhone, however, so they won’t be completely locked out of their content.
Unlike the more recent Apple TV models (starting from 2015 and onward), which feature modern software and an App Store that makes it simple for developers to continue to update their apps, the older Apple TV models generally only saw updates to individual streaming applications when Apple updated the entire operating system — an increasingly rare occurrence these days.
The sunsetting of the CBS app on older TVs isn’t the only change the Paramount Plus transition is causing: 9to5Mac also notes that the company no longer offers its discounted CBS All Access and Showtime bundle for Apple TV Plus subscribers.
After years of niche positioning in the music world, “high-resolution audio” (or “hi-res audio”) finally hit the mainstream, thanks to a huge raft of support in streaming services (such as Tidal and Amazon Music HD) and products (from smartphones to most digital hi-fi components).
So why should you care about hi-res audio? If you want the best digital music experience possible or at least better sound quality than you’re currently used to (and why wouldn’t you?), hi-res audio is definitely worth investigating.
It can be a daunting prospect. After all, what exactly constitutes hi-res audio, what do all the different file formats and numbers mean, where can you download or stream these high quality files, and what devices do you need to play it?
Indeed, where do you even begin?
That’s where we come in. Our handy guide will take you through the ins and outs of hi-res audio. By the end, we hope you’ll know everything you need to know (and then some) and will be well on your way to enjoying your new and improved sonic lifestyle.
50 of the best hi-fi albums for audiophiles
What is high-resolution audio?
Unlike high-definition video, there’s no single universal standard for hi-res audio. In 2014, the Digital Entertainment Group, Consumer Electronics Association and The Recording Academy, together with record labels, formally defined high-resolution audio as “lossless audio that is capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better than CD quality music sources”.
In its simplest terms, hi-res audio tends to refer to music files that have a higher sampling frequency and/or bit depth than CD, which is specified at 16-bit/44.1kHz.
Sampling frequency (or sample rate) refers to the number of times samples of the signal are taken per second during the analogue-to-digital conversion process. The more bits there are, the more accurately the signal can be measured in the first instance, so going 16bit to 24bit can deliver a noticeable leap in quality. Hi-res audio files usually use a sampling frequency of 96kHz or 192kHz at 24bit. You can also have 88.2kHz and 176.4kHz files too.
Hi-res audio does come with a downside though: file size. A hi-res file can typically be tens of megabytes in size, and a few tracks can quickly eat up the storage on your device or be cumbersome to stream over your wi-fi or mobile network. Thankfully, storage is much cheaper than it used to be, so it’s easier to get higher-capacity devices. And technologies such as MQA (see below) have arrived to help tackle that.
That’s not all: there are also several different hi-res audio file formats to choose from, all of which have their own compatibility requirements.
They include the popular FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) formats, both of which are compressed but in a way which means that, in theory, no information is lost. Other formats include the uncompressed WAV and AIFF formats, DSD (the format used for Super Audio CDs) and the more recent MQA (Master Quality Authenticated).
The relative merits of each of the formats can be argued, but the most crucial issue will be the file’s compatibility with your chosen products and software.
Here’s a breakdown of all the main file formats:
MP3 (not hi-res): Popular, lossy compressed format ensures small file size, but far from the best sound quality. Convenient for storing music on smartphones and iPods, but doesn’t support hi-res.
AAC (not hi-res): An alternative to MP3s, it’s lossy and compressed but sounds better. Used for iTunes downloads, Apple Music streaming (at 256kbps) and YouTube streaming.
WAV (hi-res): The standard format all CDs are encoded in. Great sound quality but it’s uncompressed, meaning huge file sizes (especially for hi-res files). It has poor metadata support (that is, album artwork, artist and song title information).
AIFF (hi-res): Apple’s alternative to WAV, with better metadata support. It is lossless and uncompressed (so big file sizes), but not massively popular.
FLAC (hi-res): This lossless compression format supports hi-res sample rates, takes up about half the space of WAV, and stores metadata. It’s royalty-free and widely supported (though not by Apple) and is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing hi-res albums.
ALAC (hi-res): Apple’s own lossless compression format also does hi-res, stores metadata and takes up half the space of WAV. An iTunes- and iOS-friendly alternative to FLAC.
DSD(hi-res): The single-bit format used for Super Audio CDs. It comes in 2.8MHz, 5.6mHz and 11.2mHz varieties, but isn’t widely supported.
MQA(hi-res): A lossless compression format that efficiently packages hi-res files with more emphasis on the time domain. Used for Tidal Masters hi-res streaming, and product support is picking up pace.
MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC: all the audio file formats explained
What’s so good about hi-res audio?
The main claimed benefit of high-resolution audio files is superior sound quality over compressed audio formats such as MP3 and AAC.
Downloads from sites such as Amazon and iTunes, and streaming services such as Spotify, use compressed file formats with relatively low bitrates – such as 256kbps AAC files on Apple Music and 320kbps Ogg Vorbis streams on Spotify.
The use of lossy compression means data is lost in the encoding process, which in turn means resolution is sacrificed for the sake of convenience and smaller file sizes. This has an effect upon the sound quality – those formats aren’t telling the full story of our favourite songs.
This might be fine when you’re listening to Spotify playlists on your smartphone on the bus on the morning commute, but serious audiophiles and music fans should want better. This is where high-resolution audio comes in.
To illustrate why it should sound better than MP3, for example, let’s compare the relative bitrates. The highest quality MP3 has a bitrate of 320kbps, whereas a 24-bit/192kHz file has a data rate of 9216kbps. Music CDs are 1411kbps.
The hi-res 24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz files should, therefore, more closely replicate the sound quality the musicians and engineers were working with in the studio. And they could be that very same recorded file, too. These files are labelled as “Studio Masters” in some cases.
With more information on the file to play with, hi-res audio tends to boast greater detail and texture, bringing listeners closer to the original performance – provided your system is transparent enough.
What do I need to play hi-res audio?
There’s a huge variety of products that can playback hi-res audio. It all depends on how big or small you want your system to be, how much your budget is, and what method you’ll mostly be using to listen to your tunes. But it’s never been easier to get involved, now that plenty of the digital and streaming ecosystem supports hi-res, and especially as popular streaming platforms such as Google Chromecast (although not AirPlay 2) do.
These days, even, you don’t have to completely abandon your vinyl collection to go hi-res, either; turntables such as the Sony PS-HX500 let you digitise your vinyl collection by ripping your record tracks into hi-res audio files.
Smartphones If you’re going portable, smartphones are increasingly supporting hi-res playback. This is restricted to higher-end Android models, though – Apple iPhones so far don’t support hi-res audio out of the box (though there are ways around this by using the right app, and then either plugging in a DAC or using Lightning headphones with the iPhones’ Lightning connector).
Phones that have USB-C sockets instead of 3.5mm headphones jacks for music playback – as is becoming the norm – can boost their USB-C output with adapters such as Zorloo’s Ztella USB-C DAC.
Hi-res audio is increasingly easy to stream wirelessly thanks to new advancements in Bluetooth. Phones with aptX HD Bluetooth support (which many these days have, although Apple’s iPhones are an exception) can wirelessly transmit hi-res audio to aptX HD-supporting headphones (such as the Sony WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM3 and Bowers & Wilkins PX7 noise-cancelling headphones).
aptX HD Bluetooth: What is it? How can you get it?
Portable music players Alternatively, there are plenty of dedicated portable hi-res music players such as various Sony Walkmans and Award-winning Astell & Kerns and Cowons that offer more storage space and far better sound quality than a multi-tasking smartphone. More digital players than not support hi-res audio, although again an Apple product is the exception, this time the iPod Touch.
Desktop For a desktop solution, your laptop (Windows, Mac, Linux) is a prime source for storing and playing hi-res music (after all, this is where you’ll be downloading the tunes from hi-res download sites anyway), but make sure the software you use to play music also supports hi-res playback. Apple iTunes, for instance, doesn’t support it, even if your MacBook does, so you’ll need to buy and download separate music playing software. The likes of Channel D’s Pure Music and Amarra are worth considering for a Mac. On a PC? Try JRiver Media Center.
DACs We wouldn’t just rely on your computer or phone’s internal DAC to do hi-res audio justice, either. A USB or desktop DAC (such as the Cyrus soundKey, Chord Mojo or Audiolab M-DAC nano) is a good way to get great sound quality out of hi-res files stored on your computer or smartphone (whose audio circuits don’t tend to be optimised for sound quality). Simply plug a decent digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) in between your source and headphones for an instant sonic boost.
Best DACs: USB, portable and desktop DAC
Music streamers
If you’re after a proper hi-fi set-up, you’ll need to look into music streamers that support hi-res, and highly recommendable contenders include the Audiolab 6000N Play, Cambridge CXN V2 and NAD C 658. This is especially if you’ll be storing your growing hi-res library on a NAS (Network Attached Storage, essentially a hard-drive with processing built in), which we would recommend.
Systems
There are plenty of other products that also support hi-res playback, including hybrid DAC-amp-streamer systems (Moon Neo Ace), speaker systems with everything built into them (KEF LS50 Wireless II), just-add-speaker systems (Marantz PM7000N) and current AV receivers (Sony STR-DN1080).
The ever-popular Sonos multi-room system still has no plans to support hi-res audio, and neither does Apple. But that has led rival companies such as Bluesound to offer hi-res playback across their range of connected products (for a higher price, of course).
Wireless speakers At the higher end of the wireless speaker market you’ll find hi-res support the norm. The likes of the Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation, Linn Series 3 and Bowers & Wilkins Formation Wedge are all able to handle hi-res file playback over wi-fi.
Best wireless speakers 2021
Where can I buy and download hi-res music?
Now that you’re armed with all this information on hi-res music, your next question should be: where can I get all these glorious hi-res music tracks?
There are currently a handful of UK download sites that let you buy and download single tracks and full albums in various hi-res formats. There are also plenty of US and European sites, though not all of them let you purchase from the UK.
Major music labels such as Sony, Warner and Universal have made their extensive music catalogues available to these hi-res download services – which is a real shot in the arm for fans of high-resolution audio. With all sites, make sure it’s clear what file format and bitrate you are buying. Ultimately, you may end up with a favourite go-to site, but even then, it’s worth checking across the different sites for the same album or track, too, as some stores can offer better prices than others.
Here are the top UK hi-res download sites:
7Digital With a strong catalogue offering hi-res music from all genres and a website that makes buying music easy, 7digital is an excellent all-rounder. There’s an accurate search function and the website is simple to navigate. You can easily spot hi-res recordings thanks to a ’24bit FLAC’ badge on an album or song’s thumbnail, and there’s also a dedicated hi-res section. The sole drawback is that it only offers downloads in the FLAC format. Prices are affordable, though, and you can buy individual tracks as well as full albums.
Qobuz Sublime
Music discovery and front-end intuitiveness get full marks on French download store Qobuz. Both the website and dedicated app are easy to navigate, and you can search by genre or new releases, which can be sorted by sample rate. There is a strong Francophile focus, although the catalogue is growing more varied every day. Pricing is competitive, but if you opt for the hybrid download-and-streaming Sublime+ service you do get discounts when buying hi-res albums.
HDtracks
HDtracks may be one of the most established hi-res download stores, but it’s in need of a refresh in looks and catalogue. It can feel aimed at an older audience (there’s strong focus on jazz, classical and dad rock), which can be off-putting for wider audiences, especially fans of more current, popular music. On the other hand, whereas other download sites offer FLAC as default, HDtracks lets you choose between FLAC, ALAC, WAV and AIFF (and the sampling rate for each) before downloading. There’s a selection of DSD tunes, too, which is great for audiophiles.
How to build the perfect hi-fi system
Where can I stream hi-res music?
Not ready to download hi-res files, or simply prefer streaming? Tidal and Qobuz streaming services have offered hi-res and CD-quality streams for years, putting them ahead of rivals Spotify and Apple Music. And now that Amazon has joined the party with its HD service, hi-res streaming is now firmly in the mainstream domain.
Tidal Masters Tidal and MQA’s partnership has brought us one step closer to mainstream hi-res music streaming. You’ll need to subscribe to Tidal’s HiFi tier (which offers CD quality streaming) to unlock the Masters section, and then you can stream hi-res MQA files through the desktop app and Android/iOS mobile apps.
Tidal claims a 30,000-strong catalogue of MQA files, with about 400 clearly labelled. The MQA files have a resolution of up to 24-bit/96kHz (any 192kHz files will be unpackaged to 96kHz by MQA’s core decoding). With the right kit, the streamed tunes sound great, too. It’s a solid foundation from which the hi-res streaming experience can only evolve.
Qobuz Sublime+ Qobuz strikes again here and says its hybrid download-and-streaming tier is ‘”the best music subscription in the world.” This top-tier package offers hi-res streaming up to 24bit/192kHz files (as well as CD quality tracks) on its desktop and mobile apps, with its 50-million-track catalogue including more than 240,000 hi-res albums.
The big downside is the price – you have to pay an upfront £250 annual fee to use Sublime+ and all its perks (which does include good discounts when buying hi-res albums). And in comparison, we found Tidal offers more drive and dynamism when it comes to sound quality. Qobuz’s hi-res streaming tier is a great venture, but only if you’re fully committed to hi-res streaming.
Amazon Music HD The most recent entrant into the hi-res streaming service world is Amazon – and its arrival at the end of 2019 largely marked hi-res streaming going mainstream. The cheapest hi-res service of the three, the value-packed streaming service is up there with the best thanks to its Intuitive desktop and mobile apps, good CD-quality and hi-res library and excellent value.
What’s next for hi-res audio?
With more support than ever before, hi-res audio is a viable choice for anyone interested in audio quality, whether part of your home audio system or when on the move.
Whether the biggest players – Apple, Sonos and Spotify – will ever natively support hi-res remains to be seen, but there are plenty of other, increasingly affordable ways that you can start delving into the hi-res audio world. (Interestingly, 360-degree or surround sound formats such as Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos Music respectively are also making headway in offering higher quality, if not necessarily ‘hi-res’, music experiences, so they’re other options for melomaniacs to explore.)
With this wider availability, more people are able to learn and understand exactly what high-resolution audio is, and the benefits it can bring to music. There’s plenty of content out there, and there’s plenty of hardware to go with it.
So if you want the ultimate sonic solution, you know what to do.
MORE:
Where is Spotify Hi-Fi? And do we still want a lossless Spotify tier?
3 of the best high-res audio systems
Here’s a superb-sounding hi-fi system with streaming skills
Hackers successfully infiltrated the computer system controlling a water treatment facility in the city of Oldsmar, Florida, according to a report from the Tampa Bay Times. In doing so, the hackers were able to remotely control a computer to change the chemical levels of the water supply, increasing the amount of sodium hydroxide before a supervisor was able to catch the act in real time and revert the changes.
“At no time was there a significant adverse effect on the water being treated,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a press conference on Monday, which was later posted to YouTube. “Importantly, the public was never in danger.” Sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye, is used in water to regulate acidity levels, the Tampa Bay Times reports, but in excess it can be dangerous to human beings because it’s the same inorganic compound used in corrosive household cleaners like Drano.
Although no one was injured, the incident is a disturbing example of hackers taking aim at public infrastructure with unclear intentions. Pinellas County is currently investigating the hack alongside the FBI and the Secret Service. Other nearby cities and towns have also been alerted to the potential threat.
It is not the first incident of water supplies being targeted — a water utility in Illinois was targeted by suspected Russian hackers in November of last year, while an attempted cyberattack on Israel last year that intelligence officials have linked to Iran involved attempts to manipulate the water supply, The Washington Post reported.
The Tampa Bay Times has a rather chilling anecdote in its report detailing the moment the remote plant operator noticed something was terribly wrong, when his mouse started moving on-screen without him touching it:
A plant operator was monitoring the system at about 8 a.m. Friday and noticed that someone briefly accessed it. He didn’t find this unusual, Gualtieri said, because his supervisor remotely accessed the system regularly.
But at about 1:30 p.m. the same day, Gualtieri said, someone accessed the system again. This time, he said, the operator watched as someone took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water treatment, worked inside it for three to five minutes and increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
The attacker left the system, Gualtieri said, and the operator immediately changed the concentration back to 100 parts per million.
The county says there are other safeguards in place that would have prevented direct harm to the 15,000 or so residents that rely on the Oldsmar plant for drinking water. For one, the water would have taken more than a day to enter the water supply, the sheriff says, meaning ample public warnings could have been issued in that time. There are also “redundancies in the system” that would have caught changes to the acidity of the water supply, the sheriff says.
Leaked images of the unannounced OnePlus 9 Pro suggest the flagship smartphone will include a Hasselblad-branded camera array. The images shared in a recent Dave Lee YouTube video show four cameras on the rear of the phone. These include wide-angle, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, the latter of which appears to offer up to a 3.3x optical zoom.
At this point it’s unclear exactly what this Hasselblad branding could mean for the OnePlus 9 Pro’s cameras. The Swedish manufacturer, which is majority owned by Chinese company DJI, is best known for its expensive medium format cameras, and has previously worked with Lenovo on a modular camera accessory for Moto Z devices, as well as Vertu for its Signature Touch smartphone. Hopefully the presence of its logo means Hasselblad has provided some real camera expertise to OnePlus beyond just brand cache.
While Dave Lee outlines three of the phone’s four rear cameras, it’s not obvious what the last sensor might be. Previous OnePlus phones have offered novelties like a color-filter camera and a black-and-while monochrome sensor. Dave Lee’s video mentions that the phone could have a built-in tilt-shift photography mode that could relate to the fourth sensor, but it could equally just be a depth-sensing or macro camera based on OnePlus’ previous phones.
Beyond the camera array, the photos shared on the Dave2D channel corroborate a previous leak reported by Android Authority that said the phone will include a curved 1440p 120Hz display. The device shown by Dave Lee appears to have an unusual 11GB of RAM (most other phones have 12GB or 8GB), and 256GB of internal storage. A separate report previously claimed the phone will be able to fast-charge at 45W wirelessly, up from the OnePlus 8 Pro’s 30W wireless fast-charging speed.
The OnePlus 9 Pro is expected to be one of two or even three phones announced by the company next month, Android Central reports. Alongside it, we could see the OnePlus 9 (which itself was leaked in a series of photos last December), as well as a more affordable OnePlus 9 Lite.
Super Bowl 2021 — the 55th Super Bowl — is happening today.
The championship game pits the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champs, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan will sing the national anthem, while The Weeknd will perform in the halftime show.
If you are planning to watch the football game, you have a few options, and many of them are free. Below, we have listed a few ways you can watch this year’s Super Bowl. Keep in mind that, due to production limits imposed by the pandemic, Super Bowl 2021 will not be streaming in 4K resolution.
Where is the Super Bowl being played?
Super Bowl 2021 will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the home field of the Buccaneers.
What time will the Super Bowl start?
The broadcast will begin at 6:30PM ET / 3:30PM PT. But if you want to tune in ahead of kickoff, CBS will be running coverage throughout the day.
What network is televising the Super Bowl?
Super Bowl 2021 will be televised on CBS, the “official” network on which viewers in the US can watch the big game. Last year, the game was televised on Fox.
How can I watch the Super Bowl?
While Super Bowl 21 will be televised on CBS, there are a few ways you can view the game. Below is a list of services, streaming and otherwise, you can take advantage of. Some will require a paid subscription, but most of those include a free trial for first-time users.
On a smart TV or computer:
AT&T TV Now (seven-day free trial)
CBS All Access (seven-day free trial)
CBS Sports App
CBS Sports website
NFL App
NFL website
Hulu with Live TV (seven-day free trial)
YouTube TV (five-day free trial)
Sling TV (three-day free trial)
FuboTV (seven-day free trial)
Vidgo (seven-day free trial)
Locast (free)
On a smartphone or tablet:
If you are looking to watch the game on the go or just prefer watching it on a smaller screen, you can stream it using the following apps:
CBS Sports App (iOS and Android)
CBS All-Access App (iOS and Android — subscription or TV provider login required)
CBSSports.com website
NFL App (iOS and Android)
Yahoo Sports App (iOS and Android)
Any streaming service app that includes CBS or a CBS affiliate
Via cable, antenna, or satellite:
If you’re feeling old-school, you can tune in to the big game through your local CBS channel, either via cable or using an antenna.
International options:
If you’re watching from outside the US, many countries will have broadcasts. You can see a full list over on the official NFL website.
Here are a few options for viewers overseas to watch the game:
Canada: CTV is one of the few channels in Canada broadcasting Super Bowl 2021. You can watch it on TV or through the CTV Go app, which is available on a few platforms, including Android TV, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.
United Kingdom: You can watch the game through Sky Sports, including the official Sky Sports website, or through the Sky Go app (if you are a Sky TV customer).
Australia: Super Bowl 2021 will air on two channels in Australia: ESPN and Channel Seven.
Listen to the game:
If you don’t want to watch the game and would rather listen to it, Super Bowl 2021 will be broadcast via several services:
Senate Democrats unveiled a new bill Friday that could force tech giants like Facebook and Google to be held more accountable for harmful content that leads to real-world violence.
The SAFE TECH Act, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), would overhaul Section 230 to the Communications Decency Act, a law that protects large tech platforms from liability over the content posted by their users. The Democrats’ bill would open new pathways for users to sue companies if content posted on their platforms threatens them personally with harassment, discrimination, or other forms of abuse.
The bill also prohibits Section 230 from applying to ads or other paid content on platforms, targeting a large source of revenue for companies like Facebook and Google.
“When Section 230 was enacted in 1996, the Internet looked very different than it does today. A law meant to encourage service providers to develop tools and policies to support effective moderation has instead conferred sweeping immunity on online providers even when they do nothing to address foreseeable, obvious and repeated misuse of their products and services to cause harm,” Warner said in a statement Friday.
The SAFE TECH Act is the Democrats’ first big content moderation bill following last month’s deadly attack on the Capitol. Shortly after the riot, tech platforms from Twitter to Parler were targeted for their alleged roles in the violence that transpired in Washington. Parler, the right’s formerly favored free speech platform, was forced offline for weeks after web hosts like AWS pulled their services to the site, alleging that posts on the platform encouraged violence.
Following the Capitol riots, lawmakers looked to Section 230 as a means of addressing misinformation and harmful content that may have led rioters to storm the Capitol. Days after, House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) called on the FBI to open an investigation into Parler for its perceived role in the attack. Other House Democrats, like Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), signed onto letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube calling on them to audit their algorithms and make changes that could limit virality on harmful content.
With Democrats now in control of Congress and the presidency, previous negotiations on Section 230 have been flipped on their heads. Changing the law was first championed by Republicans who sought to punish tech companies over the lawmakers’ baseless claims that the platforms were biased against conservatives. Now, Democrats are moving to reform 230 in a way that punishes platforms for disinformation and harmful content.
“We need to be asking more from big tech companies, not less. How they operate has a real-life effect on the safety and civil rights of Americans and people around the world, as well as our democracy. Holding these platforms accountable for ads and content that can lead to real-world harm is critical, and this legislation will do just that,” Klobuchar said in a statement Friday.
If you’re shopping for 144 Hz and 25 inches, the BenQ EX2510 is one of the best IPS panels we’ve seen for under $300. There’s no extended color, but it delivers top-notch gaming and surprisingly good HDR. Users seeking a high performance-to-price ratio should definitely check it out.
For
Good contrast and color accuracy
Decent HDR
Good gaming performance
Strong build quality
Against
No extended color
No dynamic contrast in HDR
Features and Specifications
The price of a good gaming monitor is generally dictated by screen size, resolution and refresh rate. Other gaming features, like Adaptive-Sync, are pretty much a given for any display marketed to enthusiasts. And color accuracy and build quality do not necessarily go hand-in-hand with cost.
BenQ may not be as well known for its gaming screens as brands like Asus or Acer, but it offers products that deliver performance, quality and value. Lately, it has brought out new models with interesting names like Zowie and Mobiuz. But these creative monikers don’t attempt to make up for any shortfall. The new Mobiuz EX2510 is a great example. It’s a 25-inch, 1080p resolution IPS panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate, FreeSync and G-Sync compatibility and HDR with BenQ’s HDRi emulation mode. At publication time, it’s selling for around $250, making it much more affordable than many of the market’s best gaming monitors.
BenQ Mobiuz EX2510 Specs
Panel Type / Backlight
IPS / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size / Aspect Ratio
24.5 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution & Refresh Rate
1920 x 1080 @ 144 Hz
FreeSync: 48-144 Hz
Native Color Depth & Gamut
8-bit / sRGB; HDR10
Response Time (GTG)
2ms
Brightness
400 nits
Contrast
1,000:1
Speakers
2x 2.5w treVolo audio w/DSP
Video Inputs
1x DisplayPort 1.2
2x HDMI 2.0
Audio
3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0
None
Power Consumption
15.8w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base
22 x 15.5-20.5 x 8.5 inches (559 x 394-521 x 216mm)
Panel Thickness
2 inches (51mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.3 inch (7mm)
Bottom: 0.8 inch (21mm)
Weight
12.4 pounds (5.6kg)
Warranty
3 years
The 25-inch gaming monitor category is filled with super-fast 1080p resolution models running above 240 Hz and priced at the premium level. The 360 Hz Asus ROG Swift PG259QN is a perfect example. It’s a 25-inch, 1080p IPS monitor that costs an eye-watering $700. But if you’re OK with 144 Hz, you can save quite a bit of money. In fact, the BenQ EX2510 is a great alternative to 27-inch 1080p and 1440p monitors that typically cost about $75-100 more.
The EX2510’s 144 Hz refresh rate is achieved without overclock. The monitor’s AMD FreeSync-certified, and we were also able to run Nvidia G-Sync on it, even though it’s not certified (to do this yourself, check out our How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor tutorial).
Though it’s compatible with HDR10 signals, the EX2510 does not include an extended color gamut. Color depth is a true 8 bits achieved without Frame Rate Compensation, and the backlight is flicker-free.
Assembly and Accessories of BenQ Mobiuz EX2510
The EX2510’s build quality is apparent when you unpack its three parts. The base is nicely finished in silver with an orange rubber accent across the front. The upright is quite heavy and solid. Just attach it to the base with a captive bolt. The panel then snaps in place. A 100mm VESA mount is included for aftermarket hardware.
In the box, you’ll find an HDMI cable and IEC power cord for the internal power supply. There’s also a snap-on cover for the input panel. You can pass the cables through a hole in the upright for a tidier look.
BenQ Mobiuz EX2510: Product 360
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The BenQ EX2510’s styling is somewhat blocky and understated for a gaming monitor., but it’s all about function. Straight lines dominate its shape with the only curve being a smooth taper across the back. The bezel is flush and free of physical framing, but you can see a thin 7mm border when the power’s on. The bottom trim is 21mm wide and features the BenQ logo and an HDRi button (more on that later). The front anti-glare layer is free of grain and presents a sharp image without reflecting any room light.
The stand features 5 inches of height adjustment plus 20-degree swivel each way and -5/20 degrees of tilt. There is no portrait mode. Movements are very firm and solid with no play at all. Even if you shake up your desk during intense frag sessions the EX2510 will stay put.
In addition to the HDRi button on the front, there are two more keys in the back-right corner, plus a joystick for menu navigation. One key toggles power, its status indicated by a white LED, and the other changes the signal source. The controls click firmly and respond quickly to user input.
In the bezel’s center, you can see a small protrusion that houses the sensor for BenQ’s Brightness Intelligence Plus (BI+) feature. It works with two of the HDRi modes to adjust brightness and color temperature to the environment. It responds quickly to changes and, in most cases, you won’t see it working.
The input panel includes two HDMI 2.0 ports and a DisplayPort version 1.2 (for help picking one, check out our HDMI vs DisplayPort article). You also get a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones or powered speakers.
OSD Features of BenQ Mobiuz EX2510
The on-screen display (OSD) appears when you press the joystick button and scroll down to the menu option. You can configure the quick menu to the user to allow easy access to commonly used options like brightness or picture mode.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The EX2510 includes three HDR and seven SDR presets. Standard is the default and most accurate choice with good out-of-box color and access to all picture options, like gamma and color temp. Other features include Light Tuner, which changes highlight and shadow detail levels. You can also access a low blue light mode from the Eye Care menu, along with the aforementioned BI+ feature, which engages the light sensor to change brightness and color temp automatically for different ambient lighting conditions.
There are five gamma options and three preset color temps, plus a very precise user mode, which we used to calibrate the EX2510 to a high standard. Also here is AMA, BenQ’s term for overdrive. It worked well on the highest of three settings to curb motion blur without ghosting artifacts. If you want to try the backlight strobe for blur reduction, you’ll have to turn off FreeSync.
For HDR content, the EX2510 will automatically switch to its default HDR mode, which is the best of the three. Cinema and Game turn the color temp quite blue, though the effect varies if you use the BI+ sensor. For testing purposes, we left these automatic enhancements off.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To engage the bezel’s light sensor, turn it on in the Eye Care menu. It can vary brightness and color temp in the HDRi modes, as well as adjust itself over time to prevent eye fatigue. BenQ also includes red and green filters with 20 steps each to compensate for varying levels of user color blindness.
BenQ Mobiuz EX2510 Calibration Settings
In its Standard picture mode, the EX2510 is very accurate in the sRGB color space with no need for calibration. But a few gains are possible with adjustment of the RGB sliders in the user color temp mode. Gamma is spot-on with no adjustment necessary. Other picture modes are less accurate but may appeal to users playing specific game types. Using the HDRi emulations makes SDR content punchier but at the expense of some clarity in shadow and highlight areas. On page four, we’ll show you its effect with a few measurement charts.
Below are our recommended calibration settings for the BenQ Mobiuz EX2510 and SDR content. They produce perfect gamma with very accurate grayscale and color tracking.
Picture Mode
Standard
Brightness 200 nits
56
Brightness 120 nits
25
Brightness 100 nits
18
Brightness 80 nits
10 (min. 53 nits)
Contrast
50
Gamma
3
Color Temp User
Red 97, Green 99, Blue 100
For HDR, the best picture comes in the default mode.
Gaming and Hands-on with BenQ Mobiuz EX2510
One of the EX2510’s most unique features is its HDRi HDR emulation mode. It’s accessed by a button on the front panel and can give an HDR look to SDR content. HDRi works by manipulating gamma to increase perceived contrast. While not strictly accurate, it may appeal to some.
BenQ simplified the EX2510’s image options by eliminating any sort of dynamic contrast feature and leaving the HDRi modes the task of altering contrast for SDR content. We tested the three HDRi modes — HDR, Game HDRi and Cinema HDRi — with Windows apps and various games. It’s also possible to use the Cinema and Game modes with HDR-encoded content.
In SDR mode, we booted up Tomb Raider, and all three HDRi modes degraded the image to varying degrees. HDR was the least offensive but darkened the picture too much overall. Brighter scenes looked about the same, but dimly lit indoor areas were too hard to make out. Game and Cinema HDRi made the effect worse and created a blue tint over everything. With these observations in mind, we recommend avoiding the HDRi HDR emulations unless the content is predominantly bright, like a sports game or animated movie.
Turning on HDR in the Windows Control Panel had a positive effect. Very few HDR monitors actually look good running things like word processors and spreadsheets, but the EX2510 is an exception. By default, the monitor is set to 100% brightness with HDR content. That isn’t as harsh as you might think, given that it’s peaking at around 450 nits. Small highlights in photos and YouTube videos popped nicely, but the overall picture was very pleasing to look at.
Our only complaint is elevated black levels. Though perceived contrast is very good, dark material looked a bit too gray and washed out. A Harry Potter film, for example, looked murky. You’re better off watching your HDR movies in SDR mode. Since there’s no extended color gamut, you won’t see any difference in saturation between SDR and HDR. But in terms of color overall, the monitor has very accurate color tracking, so we didn’t miss the DCI-P3 color space too much.
With Windows HDR on, we played a few rounds of Call of Duty: WWII. This title makes great use of HDR, which is why we use it for testing. Bright cutscenes looked incredibly lifelike with sharp highlights and loads of detail on the EX2510. Darker areas were a bit gray, but detail was still easy to see.
In all cases, we had no trouble with video processing. You can set overdrive to its highest value without ghosting, and blur was a non-issue. Adaptive-Sync worked perfectly on both AMD and Nvidia platforms (even though it’s not G-Sync-certified) with or without HDR. Frame rates stayed maxed at 144 frames per second (fps) in all the games we played. Input lag was also a non-issue with snappy control response and no stuttering or flicker. At this price, it’s hard to imagine finding superior gaming performance.
BenQ put extra effort into its audio by tuning the built-in speakers with a technology called TreVolo. It’s a digital signal processor (DSP) devoted to tweaking the frequency response and phase of the speakers. There are three sound modes, and though they don’t deliver thumping bass at ear-bleeding levels, they sounded better than the average monitor speakers.
Another bonus feature is in the ability to engage a sensor to alter brightness and color temperature to better suit the room’s lighting. This is also something that will deviate from accepted imaging parameters but won’t degrade the picture.
Fans are remastering the soundtrack to Super Mario World, creating uncompressed versions of the original tracks that were never possible on the Super Nintendo hardware. The Super Mario World Restored project is ongoing, but you can already listen to nine tracks from the original game over on The Brickster’s YouTube channel.
As The Brickster explains on Twitter, this isn’t simply a case of taking the tracks from the original game and cleaning them up. Instead, creators like Moola, michael02022, and unknown are tracking down the original samples used to produce the tracks and rebuilding the songs, without having to compress them to fit into the SNES console’s piddly 64kb of audio RAM.
For anyone curious as to how these findings were done, its actually rather simple. Know how the Gigaleak had source code for Super Mario Advanced? That game reuses samples from Super Mario World. Those samples had names we didn’t have, which is how we were able to find them. pic.twitter.com/qWFTG1YdYW
— The Brickster (@lebrickster) February 3, 2021
Actually tracking down these samples was helped by last year’s Nintendo gigaleak, which contained the original source code to Super Mario Advance, The Brickster explains. Since that Game Boy game reused samples from Super Mario World, the team was able to use it to track down the uncompressed samples used in the original SNES title.
Listen to the new tracks side by side with the originals, and the difference in quality is stark. The new tracks sound brighter and more lively, and although the music is still obviously synthesized, it almost feels like real instruments are playing each sound, rather than a computer. But there’s also something about them that feels distinctly weird. This music was originally composed with very specific hardware in mind, and there’s something odd about hearing them in this high quality. It’s like playing an SNES game on a modern TV without scan lines.
Regardless of whether you prefer these tracks or the originals, it’s still an excellent project. The Brickster says the team is still working on putting out more tracks, meaning this is unlikely to be the last we’ll hear from the Super Mario World Restored project. In the meantime, Nerdwriter1’s video from 2018 offers a nice overview of how the Super Nintendo’s music worked.
Along with news, features, opinions, and tech reviews, video has become an increasingly important part of The Verge’s content. But to make great, involving videos, you’ve got to have staff with the expertise to create that video — along with the tools that allow those staff members to let their imaginations soar.
Alix Diaconis is one of the directors who helps make video magic for The Verge. We talked to Alix about what she does and what tools she uses.
Alix, what do you do for The Verge?
I’m one of the video directors for The Verge. I get to work every day with my three co-workers (but really, friends) to create the videos on The Verge’s YouTube channel. Sometimes deadlines are fast because tech and news are fast, but our team has been working together for years, so even live events feel seamless and fun. We each shoot, take photos, and edit; then the video gets treated by our sound and graphics wizards. Then bam, on to the next one!
What hardware and software tools are needed to produce a video for a site like The Verge?
It really varies video to video. For some videos, we’ll pull out all the stops, while for others, we need to do quick and light. Heck, I think we’ve shot videos with just a GoPro.
When we go to a press event, we’ll keep it very light with a monopod, lavalier microphone, and a camera we feel most comfortable with. And then I’ll edit at the event on my MacBook Pro.
But most of the time when we’re shooting on location, we’ll bring a bigger kit with an HD monitor, a slider (which helps you do tracking shots), maybe a drone. And when we’re making the big stuff, like a flagship phone review, we like to bring out everything, including a probe lens like the Venus Optics Laowa to make intro shots like this.
The opening shot on this video was created using a probe lens.
Since we’re uploading videos for our job, good internet upload speeds make life a lot easier. We also have a shared server so we have access to our terabytes and terabytes of footage at all times.
Oh, and also teamwork. Lots and lots of teamwork.
What specific hardware tools do you use for your work?
For shooting, I prefer to use the Canon EOS C200 — I think it looks really cinematic — and my preferred lens is the Canon EF 70-200mm (for B-roll at least). Sometimes I’ll use the Sony A7S II or III, which looks extra crisp, but I’m not a big fan of Sony menus. For sound, I’ll typically use a Sennheiser G3 lavalier or a Zoom H6 recorder. For photos, I use the Canon 50D.
For post-production in The Verge offices, I would edit on a 27-inch iMac, which is due for an upgrade. At home, though, I have a more powerful editing PC that my producer built for me. It has an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core processor, 2TB NVMe drive, a Radeon RX 580 series video card, 32GB RAM, and an Asus 28-inch 4K display. Of course, there are always technical issues — it’s part of editing — but the PC is the best editing machine I’ve personally owned. (Thank you, Phil!) I do miss the beautiful iMac display though.
Also, since video takes up a lot of space, I’ll sometimes use an additional SSD for projects. And as for headphones, I use the Sony MDR-7506, which are the only headphones I can wear comfortably all day.
And then there’s the fun, random gear: a GoPro Hero 8, an Insta360 panoramic video camera (which we recently used for this e-bike video), a Zhiyun Crane, a DJI Mavic Pro drone… and whatever else we can get our hands on.
This video was created using an Insta360 panoramic video camera.
What software tools do you use for your work?
All Adobe everything. Premiere Pro for editing, After Effects for basic graphics, and Photoshop for the video thumbnails. You can do a lot in Premiere, but it does have its bugs, and it’s not always optimized for Apple’s hardware.
What tools do you use for your own projects?
I’ve been teaching myself DaVinci Resolve to color footage. I still barely understand the program, but it makes footage look 100x better than coloring it in Premiere. And purely for fun, I shoot 35mm film on my dad’s old Minolta camera.
What hardware and software tools would you recommend for somebody just starting out?
Premiere is very common for editing. But if you want to try something free and you have an iPhone or iPad, there’s the Splice app. It’s really intuitive, but you’re limited to clips you have on your device. There’s also DaVinci Resolve, which is free and as advanced as most paid editing softwares.
As for cameras, just get one that you feel comfortable using! And for a computer, invest in a good one if you see yourself editing for a long time; iMacs and Windows PCs are both good, and the specs will just depend on how big your projects will be. I haven’t had a chance to use Apple’s new M1 MacBook Air or Pro yet, but both seem like good choices if you’d prefer a laptop.
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