The latest initiative to revolutionise your digital media has arrived - this time from AMD
Both Intel and AMD believe that in the future the home PC will be defined by what it can do rather than just by how fast it does it. Today’s desktop PCs are perfect for recording and storing large quantities of high-definition content, but with their size and noise they aren’t ideal living-room companions.
AMD thinks it has the answer – a powerful PC acting as a media hub, hidden away in a quiet corner of the house. From there, it can stream video and audio to other devices such as speakers and screens over a network. Without the design constraints of being pretty, small and quiet, the emphasis is on performance, flexibility and, crucially, cost.
This doesn’t mean Viiv is all about small-form-factor PCs and LIVE all about large media hubs: Intel’s Media Server software is a key component of Viiv. Conversely, given that AMD’s new Athlon 64 X2 3800+ has a TDP of just 35W, it would be no surprise to hear AMD start espousing the benefits of hi-fi-style PCs.
LIVE Entertainment Suite
Aside from the minimal hardware requirements, AMD LIVE is primarily a collection of software known as the AMD LIVE Entertainment Suite. Most of this, however, lacks any AMD branding, and all of it is already available for free without needing any kind of AMD hardware.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that you can gain all of the current features of LIVE, if not the hardware, with nothing more than a broadband connection. Nonetheless, it’s a useful collection of applications, and once AMD has grouped it into a single, branded suite (ideally accessible from the MCE interface) we hope the LIVE experience will be much more cohesive.
LIVE On Demand is a standard version of Orb (www.orb.com), an application that allows you to access your PC’s media via the Internet.
LIVE Network Magic already exists in the form of Network Magic (www.networkmagic.com), providing user-friendly network management.
LIVE Media Vault is a rebadged version of Streamload (www.streamload.com), which provides online media storage. You get 25GB for free and can upgrade to Media Vault Pro (250GB) from US$10 a month.
LIVE LogMeIn Pro provides direct access to your PC over the Internet. Your Desktop, files and applications are all made available.
LIVE Compress provides on-the-fly video compression. You can adjust the level of compression and accessibility from Media Center’s interface so that streaming video uses less bandwidth.
Requirements
While Intel’s Viiv platform requires specific hardware, the core specifications for LIVE PCs are fairly minimal: a dual-core AM2 Socket CPU, 1GB of RAM and, like Viiv, at least 10/100 Ethernet. Audio will be 5.1 surround or higher, while a TV tuner is recommended but not essential. And although Intel also makes its own software available, AMD is turning to third
parties (see LIVE Entertainment Suite). The only software required for LIVE compliance is Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 or Windows Vista Premium.
The specification for LIVE also supports Windows Media Center’s Away Mode. This is halfway between standby and hibernation, meaning that your PC won’t need full power to record TV and respond to network requests, and switching it on and off should be nearly as quick as turning on your TV. Currently, owning a Viiv PC is the only other way to take advantage of Away Mode.
AMD’s bold marketing claim is that a LIVE PC is the only new hardware you’ll need to buy. That done, says AMD, you’ll be able to access your media through your existing devices; set-top boxes, game consoles, MP3 players and mobile phones. AMD’s goals for third-party hardware are altogether more modest than Intel’s. Eventually, Viiv branding will be on all manner of peripherals, but although AMD says that it’s worked ‘closely’ with its partners to produce hardware with specific features and LIVE optimisations, there are no plans for non-AMD devices to bear the AMD LIVE logo.
And, unlike Viiv, AMD’s compatibility plans are generic, which means devices that work with LIVE PCs will be UPnP rather than using a proprietary service like Intel’s Media Server. AMD has built up an auspicious list of hardware partners: Asus, Gigabyte and MSI for motherboards, Creative for sound cards and portable media centres, and D-Link for wireless peripherals. Acer, Fujitsu, Gateway and HP have signed up too.
Ease of use will be the crucial factor. Even if you have a small LIVE network consisting of a single PC and a UPnP set-top box, that’s currently still an advanced setup for most people. If AMD really wants to tempt consumers, it and its hardware partners will to have to go the extra mile to make sure everything works flawlessly out of the box.
Apart from the incentive of buying a new, powerful PC, there’s currently little to tempt consumers over to AMD’s platform, and much hangs on the quality and range of LIVE-associated hardware and software. It also remains to be seen exactly how straightforward AMD and its partners can make setting up an advanced home network for media streaming. This will be the real test for both Intel and AMD: neither platform currently offers anything that an interested enthusiast can’t already do. In order to be seen as more than just another sticker for an expensive PC, AMD LIVE will need to offer something truly new.