INQ, AMD help CyberLink fix its SNAFU

WE HEARD A LOT of feedback upon posting our first Inpressions with CyberLink's latest tool, BD/HD Advisor. Even though the application was in beta status, we saw that QA department didn't made the necessary tests and the press release was published.

Upon feedback from AMD and yours truly, CyberLink re-released beta version of their BD/HD Advisor. The correct version of the tool is marked 1.0.0831, and we have tested the new version and here you can read the updated verdict of this, still in beta, product.

The revision

The main problem of first product was an error in identifying the AMD CPUs, but also the number of recommended processors in the database. Only CPUs capable of getting a green flag were supposed to be the following:

Athlon 64 FX-60 and FX-62

Pentium D 840 and 940

Extreme Edition 955

Core 2 Duo E6300 and above

Turion 64 X2 ML-60 and above

After making detailed tests with 25Mbit/s Blu-ray and 36.55 Mbit/s with HD DVD files, the company enlarged the list by significant number, and now the company has evidence that a user with entry-level dual-core CPUs, such as Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and Pentium D 840 - will have sufficient horsepower to live through when they're loaded with decoding Blu-ray and HD streams in their highest quality. Of course, CPU is only one part of the whole BD/HD equation.

Testing, testing...

So, we have downloaded the new version of the tool and run the test again with all of our respective CPUs. The new version has enlarged by around 30-35% in size, but it still isn't hitting the one megabyte mark. Vista-style interface and the new detection engine are the reason for the enlargement, but we were more interested in seeing the app work than seeing nice interface.

Remainder of the configurations:

Testing configuration #1 - AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 CPU on a Foxconn breakyournamewhileyouspellit nForce 590 based motherboard, two gigs of excellent GeIL MultiSpec memory (full review coming out next week), Nvidia GeForce 7950GX2 graphics adapter, 250 Gig Seagate and Hiper 580W PSU. DVD device was Samsung SATA DVD burner. Monitor connected to the graphics card was four year old Dell's 19" LCD baby with zero HDCP compliance.

Testing configuration #2 - Intel EE 955 CPU and Core 2 Duo X6800 switching places on a D975XBX motherboard, four gigs of Corsair memory and Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX graphics card. 250gig Seagate and a PSU from a company which makes most other PSUs look amateurish - Tagan 580W in EasyCon variant. The monitor was of course, non-HDCP 19" Samsung 959NF CRT. The DVD device is Plextor PX-760A.

Testing configuration #3 - Samsung Q30Plus notebook, equipped with Intel Pentium M 753 (1.2 GHz), 512 megs of memory, 32 gigs of flash drive and an external firewire DVD burner. Graphics is Intel's crappola', e.g. integrated graphics GMA 900, Monitor is not HDCP compliant, nor do I have the ability to DRM-infect it, of course.

Testing configuration #4 - MSI MegaBook S271 notebook. Dual-core Turion 64 ML-50 (1.6 GHz), 1GB of system memory, 80 gig hard drive and internal DVD burner. Integrated graphics is luckily ATI Mobility Radeon X300, and the screen is pretty much same as Samsung's one - 12.1 inches and a resolution of 1280x800 pixels.

Difference between updated version and the old one is that only single-core Pentium M 735 from Samsung's notebook is marked red, while all other CPUs passed the test. The slowest dual-core Turion 64 ML-50 went from red to yellow, since its 1.6 GHz clock isn't deemed enough fast for the green light. But, Athlon 64 FX-62 is now properly recognized.

We have also received a picture from our reader Zorbuz, which tested the new version on its X2 3800+, and that CPU passed the test as well.

In the end, we still feel that this is a welcomed app in the world still unsure of the real requirements of DRM-infected next-generation mediums, so good utility is always welcomed. We can now say that BD/HD advisor works, but we'll keep track of this software in the future.

However, one question constantly eludes me: why CyberLink didn't thoroughly check and test the application before releasing? µ

L'INQ:
First Inqpression
Download the updated utility
Updated CPU list, refreshing constantly