As first reported by Android Police, some users have reported that the desktop and mobile versions of YouTube have begun showing options for automatic translation of titles. The videos spotted by users displays the titles, descriptions, and closed captions all translated automatically.
YouTube titles auto-translated into Spanish
Those users who submitted these screenshots to Android Police have so far only confirmed that auto translation on YouTube is being tested for users with their primary languages set to either Portuguese, Spanish, or Turkish. A video with translated titles shows a small translation icon that precedes the title.
YouTube Videos translated into Portuguese and Turkish
The change appears to be happening on the server end, so updating the app likely won’t have an effect on enabling the auto-translate feature. Automatic translation of videos in English gives videos the potential to reach more audiences and opens accessibility for English videos to non-English speakers.
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.
Resident Evil Village is the latest addition to the long-running horror series, and just like last year’s Resident Evil 3 remake, it is built on Capcom’s RE Engine. We test over 25 GPUs at 1080p, 1440p and 4K to find out what sort of hardware you need to run this game at maximum settings, while also looking at the performance and visual quality of the game’s ray tracing options.
Watch via our Vimeo channel (below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
In terms of visual settings, there are a number of options in the display menu. Texture and texture filtering settings are on offer, as well as variable rate shading, resolution, shadows, and so on. There’s also selection of quick presets, and for our benchmarking today we opted for the Max preset, but with V-Sync and CAS disabled.
One interesting thing about the Max preset is the default ambient occlusion setting – FidelityFX CACAO, which stands for Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion, a technology optimised for RDNA-based GPUs. To make sure this setting wouldn’t unfairly penalise Nvidia GPUs, we tested CACAO vs SSAO with both the RX 6800 and RTX 3070:
Both GPUs only lost 3% performance when using CACAO instead of SSAO, so we were happy to use the former setting for our benchmarking today.
Driver Notes
AMD GPUs were benchmarked with a pre-release driver provided by AMD for Resident Evil Village.
Nvidia GPUs were benchmarked with the 466.27 driver.
Test System
We test using the a custom built system from PCSpecialist, based on Intel’s Comet Lake-S platform. You can read more about it over HERE, and configure your own system from PCSpecialist HERE.
CPU
Intel Core i9-10900K
Overclocked to 5.1GHz on all cores
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi
Memory
Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600MHz (4 X 8GB)
CL 18-22-22-42
Graphics Card
Varies
System Drive
500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2
Games Drive
2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5″ SSD
Chassis
Fractal Meshify S2 Blackout Tempered Glass
CPU Cooler
Corsair H115i RGB Platinum Hydro Series
Power Supply
Corsair 1200W HX Series Modular 80 Plus Platinum
Operating System
Windows 10 2004
Our 1-minute benchmark pass came from quite early on in the game, as the player descends down into the village for the first time. Over the hour or so that I played, the results do seem representative of wider gameplay, with the exception of intense combat scenes which can be a bit more demanding. Those are much harder to benchmark accurately though, as there’s more variation from run to run, so I stuck with this outdoor scene.
1080p Benchmarks
1440p Benchmarks
2160p (4K) Benchmarks
Closing Thoughts
After previously looking at the Resident Evil 3 remake last year, a game which is also built on Capcom’s RE Engine, I wasn’t too surprised to see that overall performance is pretty similar between both games.
That’s certainly a good thing though, as the game plays very well across a wide range of hardware. At the lower end, weaker GPUs like the GTX 1650, or older cards like the GTX 1060 6GB, still deliver a very playable experience at 1080p max settings. Village also scales very well, so if you have a higher-end GPU, you will be rewarded with significantly higher frame rates.
AMD does see the benefit to its partnership with Capcom for this one, as RDNA-based GPUs do over-perform here compared to the average performance we’d expect from those cards. The RX 6700 XT is matching the RX 3070 for instance – when we’d typically expect it to be slower – while the RX 6900 XT is 7% faster than the RTX 3090 at 1440p.
In terms of visual fidelity, I don’t think the RE Engine delivers a cutting edge experience like you’d get from Cyberpunk 2077 or Red Dead Redemption 2 when using Ultra settings, but it still looks good and I am particularly impressed with the detailed character models.
The only negative point for me is that the ray tracing is pretty underwhelming. As we demonstrate in the video above, it doesn’t really deliver much extra from a visual perspective, at least in my opinion. Overall though, Resident Evil Village looks good and runs well on pretty much any GPU, so it definitely gets a thumbs up from me.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Capcom’s newest game built on the RE Engine delivers impressive performance and looks good while doing so.
The Anker PowerConf C300 is a consistent strong performer across lighting conditions, with a bevy of genuinely useful features that help make up for some stumbles in presentation.
For
+ Consistent image quality
+ Bonus features work well
+ Lots of value
Against
– Detachable camera shutter feels cheap
– Laggy Software
Anker’s new $130 PowerConf C300 webcam is part of a new initiative from the charger company to break into productivity gear. Labeled under the Anker Work brand, this camera is clearly aimed at professionals looking to buy the best webcams for video conferences. That means it packs a detailed 1080p sensor with multiple field of view options including 78 degrees, 90 degrees and 115 degrees, plus plenty of advanced features like AI framing, HDR and 60 FPS recording.
That’s a level of customizability that’s usually reserved for more expensive, enthusiast shooters like the Razer Kiyo Pro. But while the Anker’s visual fidelity didn’t quite live up to those $200 Kiyo Pro’s, probably because it doesn’t have the Kiyo’s powerful sensor, its strong suite of features still make a strong argument for spending slightly more on it than you would on a more casual but proven camera like the Logitech C920.
Regarding those features, the Anker PowerConf C300 comes with 4 shooting modes, including Personal, Meeting, Streaming and Custom. Personal and Meeting modes both use a “flexible angle” that adjusts the field of view and image framing based on your head movement and placement, although the former tends to be more zoomed-in while the latter is more zoomed out. Streaming mode, meanwhile, locks the camera at a 90-degree field of view and turns on 60 fps recording, while custom mode lets you set your own field of view and frame rate combinations in addition to getting the option to toggle on the HDR and Anti-Flicker settings.
In practical use, I found that most Streaming mode and Meeting mode photos tended to look identical, so for the below tests, I stuck to taking photos in Personal and Meeting modes. I did not include Custom mode in my tests, as I do not have an HDR monitor to test with.
Well-Lit Room
Anker PowerConf C300 Personal Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Anker PowerConf C300 Meeting Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Logitech C920
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In terms of image fidelity, the Anker PowerConf C300 was roughly on par in a well-lit room with the Logitech C920, which is our leading mid-range 1080p webcam. However, perhaps reflecting its slightly higher price and more extended feature set, the Anker PowerConf C300 was much more accurate when it came to colors.
While the Logitech tends to give me a cooler color temperature than in real life, color in photos taken with the Anker came across as far more neutral and natural. This also extended to background elements, which tend to get washed out when using the Logitech.
Low-Light Room
Anker PowerConf C300 Personal Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Anker PowerConf C300 Meeting Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Logitech C920
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
When I drew my curtain and turned off all light sources in my office except for my computer monitor, I found that the difference between the Anker and Logitech webcams was, well, night and day. While the Anker now portrayed me with a cooler but still accurate color tone, its fidelity remained largely unchanged.
Meanwhile, the Logitech C920 introduced significant grain to its photos, especially on background elements. The Logitech’s color temperature also got even cooler than before, which made me look sickly.
Overexposed Room
Anker PowerConf C300 Personal Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Anker PowerConf C300 Meeting Mode
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Logitech C920
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I also took shots with the Anker PowerConf C300 and Logitech C920 pointing towards my window, to test how they work in an overexposed environment. While this is an over exaggeration of most user setups, it can help shed light on how a webcam might work under heavy light saturation.
The Logitech was, unfortunately, mostly unusable. While it did catch a glimpse of the buildings outside my window, which is impressive given that many webcams instead render windows as pure sheets of white, my face is bathed in too much shadow for me to want to call anyone under these conditions.
The Anker, however, again retained most of its fidelity in these conditions. The edges of my head were tinged by light in shots I took with it, but none of my face was hidden by excessive shadow. And while photos did suffer from a “white sheet” effect, putting the emphasis on the face is the right choice here. Even background elements appeared without issue, arguably looking better than in more neutrally lit shots.
Build Quality of the Anker PowerConf C300
Build quality is where it feels like the Anker PowerConf C300 stumbles most, although its emphasis on versatility extends to its build as well. That means you can tilt it forward 180 degrees, plus swivel it a full 360 degrees. For placement, the monitor mount fits snugly and has the typical hole for connecting a tripod on the bottom. It also connects using a detachable USB-C cable and has an optional privacy cover, but it’s here that the camera starts to show its weaknesses.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The first, and less egregious, problem is that the webcam only includes a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. If you want to connect over USB Type-A, you have to use a small adapter that you’re likely to lose. It’s a small price to pay for USB-C functionality and can be easily resolved with your own USB-C to USB-A cable, but small and easily lost parts are still worth bringing up. Which takes us to the removable privacy slider.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The privacy slider is a detachable and purely physical switch, which means there’s no hardware level shut-off here, and you get two in the box. While that sounds like a nice gesture, it’s a testament to how easy it is to make one of these unusable. That’s because the slider attaches using glue. This introduced a few problems, the most dramatic one being that you probably won’t want to take the slider on and off a lot. Doing so can weaken the adhesive, and it’s not like it’s easy to find a place to store the slider in the meantime without leaving the glue open to the air. While this doesn’t present a major issue if you plan to use it all the time, I personally think the slider’s kind of ugly, and wouldn’t want it on at all times. Additionally, if we’re not meant to remove it frequently, why make it detachable instead of building it into the device?
There’s also the question of whether the glue will leave residue on your device, although I haven’t found this to be the case with my unit. It can be tricky to pry the slider off, though, which I suppose makes me happy that I have long fingernails.
As for the slider itself, it does its job well when attached securely, although its thin plastic has me worried about the slide rail’s durability over time. I’m also worried that the glue could break down over time, although this didn’t happen to me in the few days I used this camera while writing this review.
There’s also no guiding marks for where the slider should go on the webcam, so it’s easy to make a mistake when installing it, and adjusting it could weaken the glue.
The Anker PowerConf C300’s cord measured a little over 59 inches when pulled fully taut, which was long enough to easily reach all of my desktop’s USB ports.Logitech says the C920 has having a nearly-identical 60-inch cord, but as you can see in the picture above, its cord is noticeably longer than the PowerConf C300’s. When I pulled it taut and measured it with some measuring tape, it hit 70 inches, making it nearly a foot longer.
The PowerConf C300 also has built-in dual microphones that produce loud audio but also tended to give my voice a somewhat warbly effect that hurt clarity.
Special Features on the Anker PowerConf C300
The Anker PowerConf C300’s guide gives you instructions for downloading the free AnkerWork app, which is how you’ll access the camera’s different preset recording modes, adjust settings like brightness and saturation and set up a custom recording mode with HDR, anti-flicker, and/or 60FPS support.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The user interface is simple and light, although it’s a bit annoying to me that I need to scroll down a long list to see all the different ways a recording preset will affect my shot. I would have preferred a layout that puts as much information on my screen at once as possible. But the biggest problem here is lag, which makes the image setting section (where you can adjust photo settings like brightness or sharpness) near unusable.
Every time you press a button or move a slider in the AnkerWork app, you’re going to need to wait at least a second while it applies your changes to the camera. This is obnoxious but not insurmountable when turning HDR or Anti-Flicker on or off. But for image settings, it makes it difficult for you to select a specific number, move by small increments, or test out different settings. That’s because the lag starts as soon as you click on the slider and move your mouse, and can last as long as 5 seconds. You won’t get to see where your slider ended up until after the lag ends. There’s buttons to move the slider by increments of 1 for fine tuning, which helps with this somewhat, but using them takes agonizingly long thanks to each button press triggering even more lag.
Compare this to the user interface and snappy response times for the software for the Razer Kiyo Pro, which also supports HDR and 60fps shots, and it’s easy to see there’s a lot of room for improvement here. A large firmware update and software pitch did hit as I was finishing this review, which helped reduce lag times in most instances, but they are still present and still make the image menu almost intolerable to use.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
As for the HDR and Anti-Flicker support, turning them on is as simple as flipping a toggle (and waiting for the lag), although the former is only available when recording at 30 fps. I wasn’t able to test HDR as I don’t have an HDR monitor, but turning it on even on my non-HDR setup still made images appear slightly brighter and richer.
As for 60 fps recording, it works smoothly once you click the toggle on. A 20 second video recorded at 60 fps also only took up 45.5 MB on my hard drive, which was only 0.5 MB larger than a 30 fps video of the same length. You can also stream at 60 fps, which I had no issue doing on a private YouTube stream.
Anker’s auto frame and solo frame options can be a little trickier to see the benefits of. While they automatically zoom in to put the focus on your face as soon as you turn them on, you really have to move a lot to see the frame actually adjust to follow you.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Anker PowerConf C300 has consistent fidelity and enough premium features to more than justify its $130 price tag, even if the implementation for those features needs some work. Regardless of lighting conditions, it always had color accurate shots with no visible artifacting in my testing. And on top of that, its multiple fields of view and auto framing options made taking those shots in the best conditions possible easy.
60 FPS and HDR recording are also boons at this price point, as they’d usually require you to upgrade to something like the $199 Razer Kiyo Pro. They work well here, although the PowerConf C300’s picture quality doesn’t match those premium webcams and the software for accessing those features can frequently be unbearably laggy.
Still, if you want a webcam that can do more than your typical casual shooter but don’t need to go full premium, the Anker PowerConf C300 is an easy choice.
Loki, the upcoming Disney Plus show about the trickster god and brother of Thor, will be coming out slightly earlier than originally planned: the premiere date has moved to June 9th, from the 11th. The show will also air on a new day of the week, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays instead of Fridays.
The announcement was made in a video uploaded to Marvel’s YouTube channel. The video starts with a typical Marvel montage, but then is interrupted by Tom Hiddleston talking about how Loki is always left out of superhero montages. (It’s understandable that he’d feel left out — even in articles about a show dedicated to the character, he’s typically described in relation to his brother.) “Wednesdays are the new Fridays,” he says, before the new date is revealed.
It’s currently unclear why the day change was made, but fans of the series will have a slightly shorter wait until the show premieres. Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the reasoning behind the change.
YouTube announced a new slate of original series today that includes some huge stars at the top of the lineup. Will Smith will star in a six-part reality series about fitness and “returning his body into the best shape of his life,” and a four-part series will go behind the scenes with Alicia Keys as she records a new album.
The new lineup of originals also includes a third season of Liza Koshy’s Liza on Demand; a new special focused on Asian American chefs, celebrities, activists, and creators that counts LeBron James and Michelle Kwan as executive producers; and a new special called Barbershop Medicine that explores the intersection of race and socioeconomic status that came out of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund that was announced last year.
YouTube has regularly changed up its approach to original content since it started making originals about five years ago. They started out as subscriber-only shows centered around creators, pivoted to ad-supported shows featuring mainstream stars like Kevin Hart and Will Smith (making this his secondYouTube original), and more recently have delivered more of a mix of the two, with most shows being largely available to anyone who visits YouTube.
Still, big names like Will Smith and Alicia Keys guarantee views, and they provide credibility to YouTube and comfort for advertisers who may be worried about some of the platform’s wilder content. These series were, not coincidentally, announced in the middle of a YouTube presentation for advertisers.
Will Smith’s new series will debut next year; Alicia Keys’ arrives this summer.
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.
The Epic Games v. Apple trial is starting today, and it has begun with a court conference call full of kids screaming for Fortnite to return to mobile. The public call line allows anyone to dial in and listen to today’s proceedings, but the court didn’t manage to properly mute all participants for more than 20 minutes. The result was what sounded like a chaotic Discord call.
More than 200 participants were dialed into the public line, with many screaming “free Fortnite” or “bring back Fortnite on mobile please judge.” Others played Travis Scott tunes, chatted away, or advertised their YouTube channels.
The trial was supposed to begin at 11:15AM ET, and court clerks could be heard attempting to mute participants multiple times unsuccessfully. At 11:30AM ET, silence finally fell on the line in preparation for the court to hear Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney today.
For a brief period, though, Fortnite fans were pleading for the return of the game on the iPhone and iPad. Over the next few weeks, we’ll find out whether that’s likely to happen.
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.
If you’d like a visual of one way that doom could overtake Earth almost immediately, then YouTube user Anselo La Manna has just the video for you: a large asteroid impact simulation scored to nothing other than Pink Floyd.
Specifically, that’s “Great Gig in the Sky,” off what might be the band’s most beloved and over-analyzed album, Dark Side of the Moon. It’s got everything total annihilation needs: contemplative piano, pedal steel guitar, and of course, a plaintive wail, capturing the whole range of emotions that people might feel if they were burned to a crisp because one big rock hit another.
Anselo La Manna also hosts the original clip the mashup video uses on their YouTube page, a simulation of a large asteroid impact. It appears to be from Miracle Planet, a documentary series that aired on the Discovery Channel. For comparison, our last brush with a potential asteroid-based death in 2020 was neither deadly nor exceptionally exciting. The asteroid missed us, and was only about the size of a smart car in the first place.
You could quibble that this video isn’t synced perfectly (the vocals could come in right on impact), or that it might not compare to playing Dark Side of the Moon with the Wizard of Oz. But it captures the timeless quality of the end of the world perfectly, in my opinion.
We all dread it, but on a Friday, at least the weekend’s right around the corner.
Suspiciously, Big Ben is somehow still standing in the aftermath of the asteroid’s impact.
Hulu’s live TV service is finally getting nine new ViacomCBS channels — Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., VH1, CMT, MTV, TV Land, and Paramount Network — as part of its regular $64.99 per month cost.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Hulu first announced that these channels would be coming to its service on January 4th, almost four months ago. But despite the long gap, the new channels are finally debuting for subscribers today. Customers who pay for Hulu’s live TV service will also get on-demand access to additional ViacomCBS library titles, including Freaks and Geeks, Moesha, and Sister, Sister,starting today.
Other ViacomCBS channels — BETher, MTV2, NickToons, TeenNick, and MTV Classic – will also be available for Hulu’s live TV customers starting today, but only through Hulu’s $7.99 per month Entertainment package, which also includes channels like CNBC World, the Cooking Channel, and Discovery Family.
Hulu isn’t announcing any price hikes to go with the new channels at this time: the basic live TV service will still cost $64.99 per month (which the company has charged for the service since its $10 price increase last November.) That price also puts Hulu’s live TV service at exactly the same starting point as Google’s YouTube TV.
That said, there’s a strong possibility that Hulu could raise prices in the future to help cover the new ViacomCBS channels, similar to YouTube TV (which increased its price from $50 per month to $65 per month last summer after it added ViacomCBS’ lineup.)
We’re just a week out from the release of Resident Evil Village, and as part of the game’s promotional campaign, Capcom has uploaded an absolute treat to the YouTube channel for Biohazard (which is the name of the Resident Evil series in Japan): an official puppet show starring characters from the game. Yes, everyone’s favorite tall vampire lady, Lady Dimitrescu, is one of the puppets.
The three-minute video is simultaneously adorable and terrifying. The show is entirely in Japanese, so I don’t have any idea what the actual story is — I think all of the puppets are meeting up to paint together, using blood as the ink? But it’s worth watching for some seriously silly puppet antics, like puppet-Lady Dimitrescu gleefully gulping down a bucket of blood. And the video’s title suggests this is just the first episode, according to Kotaku, so it appears there’s more to come.
Resident Evil Village will launch on May 7th for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PC, and Stadia. The game’s final demo will unlock in North America tomorrow, May 1st, at 8PM ET, and Capcom recently extended its availability so you can play it through May 9th at 8PM ET. Once you start the demo, though, you only have 60 minutes to play it.
Organising your digital music collection, you might be struck by the number of different audio file formats in your library. Almost everyone’s heard of MP3, but what about OGG, AIFF, MQA or DSD?
If the list leaves you wondering whether all those songs studied at different universities to get such official-looking letters after their names, don’t worry. We’re here to break down the meaning of the most common music file formats, the differences between them, and why you should care.
Whether you’re listening to low-quality MP3 files, probably slightly better AAC tracks, or hi-res audio in FLAC or WAV, it’s time to understand exactly what you’re getting – and which is the best file format for you.
Read on to learn about the pros and cons of each audio file format…
File formats and codecs at-a-glance
Want to cut straight to the chase? Here’s a handy guide to all the file formats and the differences between them. If you want to know more, read on below for a more in-depth look at the differences in size, sound quality and compatibility.
AAC (not hi-res): Apple’s alternative to MP3 – stands for ‘Advanced Audio Coding’. Lossy and compressed, but sounds generally better. Used for Apple Music streaming.
AIFF (hi-res): Apple’s alternative to WAV, with better metadata support. It is lossless and uncompressed (so big file sizes), but not hugely popular.
DSD (hi-res): The single-bit format used for Super Audio CDs. It comes in 2.8mHz, 5.6mHz and 11.2mHz varieties, but due to its high-quality codec, it’s (mostly) impractical for streaming. Uncompressed.
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 is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing hi-res albums. The downside is, it’s not supported by Apple (so not compatible with Apple Music).
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.
MQA (hi-res): A lossless compression format that packages hi-res files for more efficient streaming. Used for Tidal Masters hi-res streaming.
OGG (not hi-res): Sometimes called by its full name, Ogg Vorbis. A lossy, open-source alternative to MP3 and AAC, unrestricted by patents. The file format used (at 320kbps) in Spotify streaming.
WAV (hi-res): The standard format in which all CDs are encoded. 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).
WMA Lossless (hi-res): A lossless incarnation of Windows Media Audio, but no longer well-supported by smartphones or tablets.
Best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
MQA audio: everything you need to know
What is DSD audio?
Compressed vs. uncompressed audio files
First, let’s talk about the three categories all audio files can be grouped into. It comes down to how compressed the data is (if at all) and as a result, how much quality or “loss” you’ll experience, as a listener.
If no compression algorithm (or codec) has been used to compress the audio within your file, two things happen: zero loss in sound quality, and soon-enough, a “startup disk full” warning on your laptop.
Essentially, an uncompressed track is a reproduction of the original audio file, where real-world signals are transformed into digital audio.
WAV vs AIFF vs FLAC: uncompressed file formats
WAV and AIFF are arguably the most popular uncompressed audio file formats, both based on PCM (Pulse Code Modulation), which is widely recognised as the most straightforward audio storage mechanism in the digital domain. Both WAV and AIFF files use similar technology, but store data in slightly different ways. They can store CD-quality or high-resolution audio files.
WAV was developed by Microsoft and IBM, hence it’s used in Windows-based platforms, and is the standard format all CDs are encoded in.
AIFF was developed by Apple as an alternative to WAV, and although not as widely popular, AIFF files have better metadata support, meaning you can include album artwork, song titles and the like.
The drawback? These babies are big. A CD-quality (16-bit, 44.1kHz) file will take around 10MB of your hard drive per minute in length.
ALAC vs FLAC vs WMA Lossless: lossless audio formats
Everyone loves a FLAC. A lossless file, the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is compressed to nearly half the size of an uncompressed WAV or AIFF of equivalent sample rate, but there should be no “loss” in terms of how it sounds. FLAC files can also provide a resolution of up to 32-bit, 96kHz, so better than CD-quality.
Other lossless audio file formats include ALAC (Apple Lossless) and WMA Lossless (Windows Media Audio). The former is a good iOS and iTunes compatible alternative to FLAC, although the files are slightly less compact than FLACs. Check for smartphone and tablet compatibility, though.
AAC vs MP3: lossy audio formats
Who’s heard of an MP3? Course you have. Steve Jobs famously pulled 1000 of them out of his pocket on 23rd October 2001. It is easily the most common audio format, and MP3s are convenient for storing music on portable players or tablets and work on almost all playback devices. But to do that, you have to lose a load of information in the process. In order to make audio files up to ten times smaller than CD quality files, some original data must be discarded, resulting in a loss of sound quality.
The bit-rate at which an MP3 is recorded also affects the sound quality. MP3s encoded at 128kbps will incur more sound loss than those encoded at 320kbps (kilobits per second, where each “bit” is essentially a “piece” of the song). Now that storage is so much cheaper, we’d avoid 128kbps at all costs, though 320kbps MP3s still have their purpose if your storage is limited – and they remain a standard on download stores.
Another lossy format is AAC (Apple’s Advanced Audio Coding) which is compressed much like an MP3, but it’s slightly more efficient and sounds better. AAC is used for Apple Music streaming (at 256kbps) and YouTube streaming.
The Vorbis format, often called Ogg Vorbis owing to its Ogg container, (the best way to think of this is that OGG is the can, Vorbis is the ring-pull) is a lossy, open-source alternative to MP3 and AAC, unrestricted by patents. Ogg Vorbis is the file format used (at 320kbps) in Spotify streaming.
If you’re sticking with lossy, it’s worth remembering this: while more “bits” usually means better sound, it depends on the efficiency of the codec in your file. Although you might notice that much of the music in your collection is encoded at 128kbps so should be much of a muchness, an MP3 will likely sound a fair bit (see what we did there?) worse than an AAC or Ogg Vorbis file, due to the inefficiency of the codec in an MP3.
What about high-resolution audio?
Unlike high-definition video, there’s no single universal standard when it comes to high-resolution audio.
However, in its simplest terms, hi-res audio tends to refer to music files which have a higher sampling frequency and/or bit depth than CD – which is specified at 16-bit/44.1kHz. Hi-res files therefore come in the form of 16-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz, for example.
So why should you care? Quite simply, hi-res audio files have a lot of extra audio information and thus sound a lot better than compressed audio formats, which lose information in the compression process. They will take up more storage space but we definitely think it’s worth the trade off.
Uncompressed files like AIFF and WAV are hi-res, as are those lossless FLAC and ALAC file formats. DSD (the somewhat niche format used for Super Audio CDs) is also hi-res, but it’s not as widely supported. When it comes to streaming, MQA is a file packing format used by the likes of Tidal Masters, which helps to bring hi-res audio to streaming services using as little bandwidth as possible.
As for playing hi-res audio, an increasing amount of products now support it. Premium portable music players such as the Award-winning Cowon Plenue D2 plus the newer and rather splendid Cowon Plenue D3 support 24-bit/192kHz WAV, FLAC, ALAC and AIFF files. Both players boast DSD128 file compatibility too – and that support is native, so DSD files aren’t converted to PCM during playback.
The Astell & Kern Kann Alpha and another 2020 Award-winner, the Astell & Kern A&futura SE200 digital audio players are like many A&K players (including the entry-level A&norma SR25) in that file support goes all the way up to 32-bit/384kHz and includes native DSD256 and MQA playback.
KEF’s new LS50 Wireless II speakers will play 24-bit/192kHz files in all their glory, and support for DSD256 is also onboard too this time, as is MQA decoding for the playback of compatible downloaded files and hi-res Tidal Masters.
Hi-res audio can also be played on most flagship Android smartphones, but you can’t play hi-res on a box-fresh iPhone. We’ve found ways around that, but it’s worth remembering that hi-res audio isn’t quite as portable as its lossy brethren – yet. You can find more info on which hi-fi products support hi-res audio here.
Which is the best audio file format for you?
The file format you choose will depend on whether storage or sound quality is your key concern, as well as which devices you intend to use for playback.
MP3s became hugely popular when storage was at a premium. Now that phones, music players and laptops have far more storage space, we think you really should be looking to use better-than-CD-quality files.
If you’re archiving your audio files, a FLAC or other lossless file might be a good shout for ripping your music, though. Lossless files strike a good balance between compression and sound quality, allowing you to listen to the best quality digital music without taking up all your storage space. Just make sure your devices are all compatible with your file format of choice.
High-resolution audio: everything you need to know
Best portable music players 2021: from budget to hi-res music
Dominic Moass 15 hours ago Featured Tech Reviews, Monitors, Reviews
Announced back at CES 2020, the ASUS ROG Swift PG32UQX is billed as the world’s first mini LED 4K HDR gaming monitor. It’s certainly not short on features, with a 32in 4K 144Hz panel from AU Optronics, DisplayHDR 1400 certification, 1152 local dimming zones, as well as a hardware G-Sync Ultimate module. On paper, it looks to have it all, including an exorbitant price tag of $2999.99. Is it as good as it sounds, or is there more to the story?
Watch video via Vimeo (below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
4K 144Hz screens have been around for a little while now, with ASUS’ own PG27UQ being one of the first to hit the market in 2018. Until now though, high refresh-rate 4K gaming has been limited to the 27in form factor, which, personally speaking, has always felt too small to justify the resolution increase over a 1440p screen.
With the ASUS ROG Swift PG32UQX, however, 4K resolution is delivered in a screen measuring 32in across. Not only that, but the panel is split into 1152 local dimming zones, each housing four mini LEDs, to enable a much more granular approach to full array local dimming than previous screens.
Factor in the DisplayHDR 1400 certification, G-Sync Ultimate and a claimed 98% DCI-P3 colour gamut, the PG32UQX looks very strong on paper. Let’s dive in and see if it can live up to its billing.
Specification:
Panel Size (inch): 32
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Color Space (DCI-P3) : 98%
Color Space (sRGB) : 160%
Panel Type: IPS
Panel Backlight: Mini-LED
True Resolution: 3840×2160
Display Viewing Area(HxV): 708.48 x 398.52 mm
Display Surface: Non-Glare
Pixel Pitch: 0.185mm
Brightness (Max):500cd/㎡
Brightness (HDR, Peak): 1,400 cd/㎡
Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
Contrast Ratio (HDR, Max): 400,000:1
Viewing Angle (CR≧10): 178°/ 178°
Display Colors: 1073.7M (10 bit)
Flicker free: Yes
HDR (High Dynamic Range) Support: HDR10
Dynamically Local Dimming: Yes
Refresh Rate(max): 144Hz
Become a Patron!
Check Also
Asus ROG Strix XG349C boasts ultrawide resolution and 180Hz refresh rate
Asus is on a monitor announcement spree. Following the Strix XG43UQ and the XG27AQM, the …
Nvidia made a big splash when they announced their planned CPU named Grace at their recent virtual GTC event. We all know about Nvidia’s GPUs and we are sort-of aware of Bluefield which is described as a DPU. Now Nvidia also has plans for a CPU, so that means they have a Three Chip Strategy which surely merits a video from Leo.
Watch the video via our VIMEO Channel (Below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:15 Leo starts a rant
01:20 Jim @ Adored
01:50 Leo rant continues
02:47 Nvidia mobile
03:12 Acquisitions
03:55 bet against Jen-Hsun?
05:55 Graphics cards and Omniverse
07:41 Nvidia Compute and the future?
09:38 A feel for Nvidia’s ambition
ARM Alps
ARM Grace
Auto DRIVE Atlan
Enterprise AI BlueField 3
Enterprise AI Jarvis
Nvidia DGX SuperPOD
Leo’s notes:
Gamers have a distorted view of Nvidia as ‘that damned company that utterly fails to supply over-priced graphics cards.’
We know that Nvidia was ditched by Apple back in the days of Intel Core Duo after the bump gate shocker
Nvidia claimed design win after design win for Tegra yet I have never seen an Nvidia tablet, with the exception of their own Shield product.
Where are Nvidia powered smart phones?
Covering Nvidia drove Jim to quit doing tech analysis videos for AdoredTV.
And yet, the graphics cards I have bought over the past few years for my own PC have been an EVGA GTX 980, reference GTX 1080 and a Founder’s Edition RTX 2080.
Just look at Nvidia’s stock price and market cap!
Nvidia acquired Mellanox for $7 billion in April 2020 In September 2020 Nvidia announced they want to buy ARM for US$40 billion
Omniverse and Digital Twins Auto – Orin can replace many electronic control units with a single SoC with Atlan, due in 2024.
Hyperion 8 is a platform for cars. Nvidia DRIVE includes Grace, Bluefield and Ampere Next
Three chip strategy for data centres – GPU, CPU and DPU
GPUs generate a lot of cross-datacenter traffic, including Deep learning,
There is need for Nvidia’s networking processors, the Data Processing Unit (DPU)
The Bluefield family of DPUs comes from Mellanox, and is now a core part of Nvidia’s offerings
Bluefield is designed to offload a major part of network functions, including all the processing that goes with them, such as SSL and security analysis.
SuperPOD has been updated with Bluefield 2 and can include the A100 with 80GB
Enterprise AI A10 and A30, SuperPOD with BlueField 2 and EGX
SuperPOD starts at US$7 million and scales to US $60 million for a full system
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
