Category: Let us know your thoughts

Back in September

on November 8, 2012

Back in September, we made a prerelease version of a patch to let HDXPRT run on Windows 8. (See Working towards Windows 8.) We’ve been testing the final version of the patch and hope to release it in the next few days.

We wanted to give you a heads up that there are a few differences between the versions of Windows that may affect your HDXPRT testing. For example, we have found that some that older systems that meet the minimum specs for HDXPRT 2012 and Windows 8 may not have Windows 8 drivers available. The lack of these drivers can cause the benchmark to fail.

Also, while it was possible for a lab like ours to test without activation of Windows 7 during the 30-day grace period, activation is different under Windows 8. To reliably run HDXPRT on Windows 8, activation is required.

We are updating the HDXPRT documentation based on our testing. Generally, though, testing on Windows 8 is very similar to testing on Windows 7.

We are releasing the patch on Friday, November 9 . Please try it out and let us know what you think!

Eric

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT development process, Let us know your thoughts, Windows 8 |

Make sure your voice is heard

By Eric Hale

on October 4, 2012

One thing about the community model we use for developing HDXPRT is that is depends on the community. Your input is essential to making the benchmark the best it can be. As the community grows, we’re learning more about your priorities.

During the development of HDXPRT 2012, we made the decision to remove the playback tests from the benchmark. While the design document called for the playback test to include 4K H.264, Windows Media Player does not play that format by default. Because less demanding codecs were not differentiating systems, and because the stars used to report the results confused some people, it seemed like a reasonable decision. Bill announced the decision in a blog post, More HDXPRT 2012 changes.

Fast forward to September 18, when Bill hosted the HDXPRT 2012 Webinar. During the Q&A session, a new member of the community said that the playback tests from HDXPRT 2011 were what got him interested in the benchmark. For now, he has to use HDXPRT 2011 for those tests, although, as per Bill’s original blog post, we may release a more demanding playback test as a standalone inspection test later this year.

The suggestion period for HDXPRT 2013 started on October 1. Now is the time to let us know what tests are the most useful to you. If there are tests you’d like us to add, tests you’d like us to change, applications you’d like us to consider, we need to know that too. You can post your suggestions to the forum in the HDXPRT 2013 Suggestions section or mail them to hdxprtsupport@hdxprt.com.

In November, we’ll develop an RFC for HDXPRT 2013 and send it to the community for review.

While the suggestions we receive early have the best chance of being implemented, comments we receive after the formal suggestion period still get our attention. We’re always listening. Contact us anytime and make sure that HDXPRT 2013 includes the things that are important to you.

Eric

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Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2013, HDXPRT Webinar, Let us know your thoughts |

Working towards Windows 8

By Eric Hale

on September 20, 2012

This past Wednesday, Bill hosted a Webinar to discuss HDXPRT 2012. He covered a lot of material. We’ll make a recording of it available on the site fairly soon.

During the Webinar, Bill mentioned that we’re working on a patch to let HDXPRT run on Windows 8. We have begun testing this patch. However, given the high level of interest in the community about testing HDXPRT on Windows 8, we are going to offer the patch on Friday to any community members that want to try it on an “as is” basis.

Using the patch is straightforward. Having installed HDXPRT on a Windows 8 system, you copy a few files to the HDXPRT\Bin folder, run a DOS script, and reboot. At that point, HDXPRT should run on the Windows 8 system. We will include detailed instructions with the download.

The patch should have no impact on the scores. This means you can compare results from Windows 8 systems with the results you already have from Windows 7 systems.

We hope that you will try HDXPRT on Windows 8 and let us know what you see. We’ll use your feedback as we finalize the update of HDXPRT 2012 that will fully support Windows 8.

When the update is available, we’ll post to the community forum, tweet, and put a notice on the Web page.

In other news, there’s a post on the forum that gives instructions for getting more detailed timing information from HDXPRT. Community members can read that post here: How to get more detailed timing information from HDXPRT 2012

Finally, the comment period for HDXPRT 2013 starts October 1. Be thinking about what you’d like to see in HDXPRT 2013!

Eric

Update: The prerelease Patch for Windows 8 is now available. You can download it here.

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT metrics, HDXPRT Webinar, Let us know your thoughts, Uncategorized, Windows 8 |

Meeting the old fashioned way

By Mark Van Name

on August 30, 2012

As Bill discussed last week, we work in many different ways to build the community. Facebook, Webinars, Twitter, this blog—all of these social media venues help connect those of us in the community.

Sometimes, though, it’s nice to sit down in person and chat.

Which is precisely what I’m inviting fellow community members to do at the upcoming Intel Developer Forum (IDF). IDF runs from September 11 to 13 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco. While I’ll be busy attending the show for part of each day, I’d love to spend some of my free time talking with people about both HDXPRT and TouchXPRT. We could do it informally, by simply running across each other on the show floor, or we could schedule some meetings.

We could even make a group lunch of it. If a few folks can agree on a day and time, I’d be happy to set up and host a lunch at a nearby restaurant so we can share ideas while enjoying a meal.

If you’re interested, feel free to email me, and we’ll arrange to get together. I hope to have many good conversations with community members at the show!

Mark Van Name

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Posted in Benchmarking, Collaborative benchmark development, Let us know your thoughts |

HDXPRT 2012 has left the building! Now what?

By Bill Catchings

on July 27, 2012

HDXPRT 2012 is finished! We are shipping out the HDXPRT 2012 DVDs to the Development Community membership. If you don’t get yours next week, please let us know. If you would like a copy of HDXPRT 2012, please join the community and we will gladly send you one.

We are also putting out a press release, preparing white papers, and doing the myriad things involved in shipping a product. The benchmark itself, however, is done.

Now that we have had a couple minutes to celebrate that moment, it is time to ask, “What next?” The first and most obvious thing will be to get the RTM of Windows 8 and see what we need to fix to make HDXPRT 2012 work with it. We hope we won’t need to change much–maybe we’ll get lucky and everything will work fine. Regardless, we’ll let you know what is necessary to make HDXPRT 2012 work on Windows 8 or will create an updated version that works on Windows 8.

We will also begin the next cycle for HDXPRT 2013. Now, however, is the best time for you to let us know what you would like to see. Are there particular tests you would like to see? We can add inspection tests to HDXPRT even before the next full version. By an inspection test, I mean a test that may not be relevant for all users or environments and is not part of the overall score. The test might also be an experimental one that we want to try out for possible inclusion in the overall score in the future.

But, for the moment, we plan to enjoy our weekend. We hope you have a great weekend as well!

Bill

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT 2013, Let us know your thoughts, Windows 8 |

Keep them coming

By Eric Hale

on June 22, 2012

At the beginning of June we mailed out the HDXPRT 2012 beta to the members of the Development community. This has been an exciting week, as the feedback has started coming in. We want to thank everyone who’s been using the benchmark.

We really appreciate the results you’ve been sending. Obviously, we can’t test every possible configuration in our lab, and it’s very reassuring to see good results coming from configurations we haven’t tried.

Of course it is a beta, and there are still wrinkles to iron out. The error logs we’ve been getting may not be gratifying, but they are enormously helpful. The more problems we see now, the better we can make the release version of HDXPRT 2012.

One of our members asked about the terms of use for HDXPRT 2012. For the final version, the terms will be the same as for HDXPRT 2011—it is free for download and you are free to publish results. The beta, however, is only available to community members. You cannot publish the results from the beta because things could still change. (If you haven’t joined the community yet, click this link <a href=”http://hdxprt.com/includes/join_us_2.php”>Register for HDXPRT</a>)

If you have questions, please do send them. We’ll get you an answer, and post the answers on the forum.

The comment period ends June 29th, so there’s still a week left. Please send compliments, complaints, results, errors—anything you think would make for a better benchmark. We take every comment seriously, and appreciate them more than we can say.

Eric

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012 beta, HDXPRT Development Community benefits, Let us know your thoughts |

Category: Let us know your thoughts

Back in September

Make sure your voice is heard

Working towards Windows 8

Meeting the old fashioned way

HDXPRT 2012 has left the building! Now what?

Keep them coming

Check out the other XPRTs: