When Mitsubishi admitted that it was holding hands with NVIDIA and Aspen Media for no other reason than to prove that they all three hearted 3D, we must say, we were miffed. Now, however, it seems that plans are finally coming to light, and everything is starting to make a whole lot more sense. Reportedly, the three firms are gearing up to showcase how well they can work together to produce eye-pleasing 3D PC gaming results in select retail outlets this July. At first, none of the components will be sold together per se, but bundle deals are definitely in the works. Whether or not budding PC gamers are ready to switch to a DLP-based HDTV as their primary monitor, however, remains to be seen.

Neither Mitsubishi, NVIDIA nor Aspen Media are members of the recently formed 3D@Home Consortium, but that's not stopping the trio from teaming up in order to bring the third-dimension into the home. In a rather vague release issued today, the three companies are seemingly coming together in order deliver "high-value 3D content to the consumer at home in one convenient package." What exactly is in that package remains to be seen. From what we can glean, Aspen will be providing the Aspen Media Server, which will in turn possess one of NVIDIA's 3D-capable GeForce FX Go GPUs. From there, we'd bet Mitsubishi throws in an HDTV to seal the deal. C'mon you guys, throw us a bone here, will ya?

Earlier this month, ASUS introduced the "world's first HDMI 1.3a compliant audio / video enhancement combo card." Who knew numero dos was so close behind? Auzentech has just announced its very own HDMI 1.3-native PCIe audio combo card, which is built around Creative's X-Fi processor and enables PC users to easily output 7.1-channel audio with no downsampling. Essentially, the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 "accepts video from either an internal or external connection, mixes it with digital audio, and outputs the combined video and lossless multichannel audio via a single HDMI 1.3 port." Yep, that means Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs are fully supported. The only digs? For one, pricing remains a mystery, but the real kicker is the September release -- talk about a long wait.

Yesterday we told you about NVIDIA's new mobile platform, Tegra, and today, we've got some videos from the company showing off the system, and giving you a good impression of just how much less juice this architecture uses compared to the competition. Check the videos after the break demonstrating the systems' lean energy needs, HDMI output capabilities, blazing fast gaming, and that fancy UI we keep telling you about.

While around here you're more likely to see a flame war erupt about Blu-ray versus HD DVD, on many computer gaming websites the war is over ATI and nVidia, with the two major video card manufacturers constantly leapfrogging each other in an attempt to benchmark the highest scores on games like Unreal Tournament and Doom. Ars Technica has a head-to-head comparison on how well the their latest offerings perform decoding high-definition content, using an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive and some prerecorded 1080p and 1080i content. While both camps did similarly well, ATI was better at playing back VC-1-encoded HD DVD content, and nVidia held a slight edge on 1080i recordings. The benefits to both allow even older video hardware to take a load off the CPU, meaning home theater PC builders can pair a cheaper CPU and video card for playing back HD on the cheap.

Flashy though it may be, Alienware's first major attempt at a end-all HTPC solution certainly fell short in a number of areas, but it looks like the brains of the operation are already well aware and looking to make things right. According to a recent interview with the company, Chris Lanier found that Alienware is disappointed by the lack of CableCARD support in the current Hangar 18, and while it was "originally supposed to ship" with said technology, the next revision -- "due within the next month or two" -- should give users the option. Additionally, Blu-ray support will supposedly be included as well, but it wasn't clear if we'd be seeing a writer or just a reader. It's hard out there for an early adopter, eh?

Just because HP has buried the Digital Entertainment Center doesn't mean that it's forgetting about the media-centric crowd, as the company's forthcoming m8010y and d4890y will offer up some fairly swank high-definition niceties. Aside from offering customers the option for an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor and NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card, this duo will also include a mysterious dual-format combo drive to handle both BD and HD DVD responsibilities. While we can only assume that the GGW-H10N will be the drive of choice, both PCs will boast HD DVD / Blu-ray playback with burning abilities including on the latter, and as if that wasn't enough HD goodness crammed into a PC, moneyed consumers can also opt to have ATI's TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner pre-installed as well. There's no word just yet surrounding pricing, exact configurations, or a launch timeframe, but word on the street suggests that the combo drive should be made available to the adoring public within "four to six weeks."

Asus is no stranger to kicking out curious motherboards and other peripherals that we geeks just can't help but love, and following up on its undertaking of auxiliary displays and the AquaTank PCI card is a couple of swank new video cards that tout an HDCP-friendly HDMI port. The half-height ATI Radeon X1600 EAX1600PRO was apparently crafted with the common HTPC builder in mind, as its diminutive size lends itself to becoming a perfect fit for those tight spaces within AV-like media center PC cases. But before you gamers get too excited, you should probably know that in-game performance is likely to be less than stellar, but HotHardware did note that its model wasn't shy when overclocked. Interestingly, this HTPC-centric card comes bundled sans a true HDMI-to-HDMI cable, which leaves us all a bit miffed considering the niche it's trying to appease. The EN7600GT ups the ante by delivering the frame rate luxuries as only an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 can, but its full-height design will definitely cause problems in slimmer enclosures. Other extras found on this device are its SLI-capabilities, DVI / S-video outputs, and optical audio jack, but considering it packs just 256MB of GDDR3 RAM, the hardcore gamers in the crowd are still not likely to find themselves impressed. Still, with the EAX1600PRO ringing up at just around a cool hundred, and the more powerful EN7600GT asking just about twice that, these here cards look to be solid options if you're just getting around to creating your own HTPC.

[Via Slashdot]

It looks like Okoro Media Systems' flagship HTPC is getting yet another upgrade, as this time the well-spec'd beast picks up a quad-core 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor and an HDCP-compliant NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card to compliment the rest of the luxuries you'll find here. Aside from the sleek, black chassis with built-in seven-inch touchscreen display, you'll also be graced with up to 4GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 RAM, twin dual-layer DVD burners (c'mon, where's the high definition?), DTS Connect / Dolby Digital Live, 1TB of SATA hard drive space, 9-in-1 flash card reader, dual TV tuners, and a range of OS choices including Vista Ultimate. As for the port assortment, you'll find FireWire, optical / digital audio, four USB 2.0 connectors, Ethernet, two DVI outputs, VGA / component / S-Video / composite outs, microphone in, and the obligatory OTA cable inputs. So while the OMS-GX300 probably includes everything you need for the quickest, most feature-packed media PC experience, all these niceties will run you somewhere between $4,595 and infinity, depending on your credit limit.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

Whether playing HD DVD and Blu-ray discs from a drive, or files obtained or stored via other means, you'll need plenty of horsepower to keep the HD flowing smoothly. Hardware Zone took a look at NVIDIA and ATI's competing platforms for hardware acceleration of h.264 and VC-1 decoding on PCs. They tested a few 1080i h.264-encoded movies from Japan and found neither solution was able reduce CPU load by more than 20-30% on their Core 2 Duo equipped test machine, with similar reductions on less CPU-intensive VC-1 discs. Overall they like the NVIDIA's PureVideo GeForce 7600 GT over the comparably priced ATI Radeon X1650 XT with Avivo, but check out the head to head for all the numbers before deciding which videocard goes in your next Media PC.

[Via MPEG4.net]

NVIDIA, like Intervideo, wants to help you build that next Blu-ray or HD DVD drive-equipped media PC, and has released new ForceWare drivers for GeForce 7-series graphics cards to enable PureVideo HD acceleration. It'll take plenty of processing power to move that HD video, with a recommended minimum of a dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. FiringSquad got an early look at a PureVideo HD-powered setup, and confirmed that on PCs, unless ICT is enabled, you will be able to play back AACS-protected discs at full resolution over VGA. DVI connections without HDCP support on the graphics card and monitor get nothing, but HDCP support on both ends enables full resolution playback in any situation. NVIDIA has also launched an nZone store with links to all the graphics cards, monitors and software one could ever need -- how nice of them. Since FiringSquad's tests showed even on a Core 2 Duo system high bitrate h.264-encoded files were chugging without assistance, we see a system upgrade in your future.

[Via DV Guru]

Read - NVIDIA PureVideo HD with HD-DVD Quick Shot
Read - NVIDIA Enables an Outstanding HD DVD and Blu-Ray Movie Experience with Newly Released NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology

Amidst the rumors and quickly reversed statements, there has been very little clear information about what media PC owners can expect in terms of Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. HardOCP sat down with NVIDIA exec Scott Vouri recently with ten questions on what will and won't work when plugging in that Blu-ray or HD DVD drive. Just like the Xbox 360's HD DVD player, that analog VGA connector will support any resolution you choose -- or that your hardware can run without chugging -- as long as the ICT digital-only flag is not enabled (which it has not been for any content released so far). For digital video connections, with or without ICT, AACS makes HDCP a must. Older DVI monitors without content protection will get nothing but a blank screen when playing protected content (read: any commercial Blu-ray or HD DVD disc released). All that high tech digital circuitry doesn't mean problem-free though as they experienced issues trying to hook up to a Pioneer plasma via HDMI (they're not the only ones), but no problems on an older CRT monitor connected via VGA.

[Thanks, Tyler]

For future-proofing PC builders looking ahead to HDCP, you now have an NVIDIA-based graphics option for your HDMI-compatible Media Center box. While Sapphire was the first to release an ATI AMD ATI-based HDMI graphics card, the MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus brings its copy protected digital audio/video output to the masses, unlike previous NVIDIA HDMI cards which were only available in Sony OEM boxes. Beyond the 560Mhz 7600GT GPU and 256MB of GDDR3 RAM this card utilizes an Silicon Image SiI 1930 HDCP PanelLink Transmitter for both encryption and audio mixing, with support for 7.1 audio sources. If for some reason you don't want your A and your V in one cable, there are DVI-I and S/PDIF outputs available, but why? 1080p output, PureVideo HD support and a pricetage between $200 and $250 make this an ideal card if you're looking to build your own Blu-ray or HD DVD player, shipping later this month.

Toshiba may still actually make both HD DVD standalone players available, but they no longer have the laptop market to themselves and "firm Blu-ray supporters" LG (thanks for the reminder Zach). (. Acer's Aspire 9800 laptop started shipping today, coming with a 20.1-inch screen, Core Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go-powered graphics and of course the HD DVD drive (no recording here yet). If the 1680x1050 resolution laptop screen isn't enough there is an HDMI output, future-proofing against ICT-enabled discs of the future. All this starts at $2799 and isn't bad, but our most pressing question is if print screen still works.

[Via laptoping]

This went under the radar 'till TG Daily picked it up. Nvidia is prepping a version of their 7900 graphics card to be HDCP compliant and should be out sometime in July or August. The cards will be based on the 7900 GTX and GT flavors but will include everyones favorite content protection on the card. They do have plans to include HDCP in entry-level to mid-range level cards in the near future as well. There isn't any word on price yet but lets hope that it isn't any near their current HDCP card, the 7950 GX2.

There are many times in consumer electronics it simply is not worth waiting till the next version is out - this one is.

[via TG Daily]