14 DAY TRIAL // High-definition media took over the world by providing eminent quality image and sound that rely on pretty expensive hardware. Software on the other hand is cheaper, and although it won't get your movies to look to the HD standards, it can do quite an impressive job. Of course, there must exist a synergy between hardware and software in order to achieve the desired results.
ArcSoft has developed a high-definition simulator for computers that is capable of displaying video media with near HD quality. SimHD is actually a plugin for ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre Platinum designed to upscale standard-definition files and which relies on NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture for real-time results. With CUDA-enabled video cards the complex calculations required for the quality upscale are solved in a fraction of the time required on a CPU.
The simulator has a retail version that sells for $19.95 and can be downloaded from here. It works with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre Platinum offering you a set of options to improve the quality of the playing video.
ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre Platinum comes at the huge price of $89.99, as opposed to the regular DVD players on the market, but it also provides benefits above the standard. You have 15 days to try the application and decide on its value.
The list of supported video formats is extensive enough to comprise FLV, MKV, MOV, QT, 3GP, OGG, AAC, AVI, ASF, WMV, Video CD files or MP4 video (MP4, DIV, DIVX). Not to mention that it is perfectly capable of playing Blu-Ray discs and provides region playback control possibilities directly from the interface.
Fiddling with TotalMedia Theatre is no difficult job, not even for a total noob as the software intelligently detects the optical drive of the system and starts reading it by default. It can also be configured to read from other source if the default one is not what you want, such as a disc folder, media file (and there are plenty of formats supported) or a UpnP file.
The default black interface looks absolutely great and if you have a matching monitor, an awesome combination is achieved. However, black is not the only shade of the interface and you can choose between other 7 color schemes and adjust the hue, saturation and luminosity, thus having at your disposal an extremely varied palette of color choices.
The main application window is neatly tailored not to incommodate you with unnecessary functions and menus, providing the basic play controls such as play/pause, stop, skip to the next chapter, fast forward and “rewind” with different speeds (up to 60x) and volume control.
Additionally, there is the image capturing button and a control panel utility that provides a few more options like the common skipping to a specific chapter, time search or adding bookmarks. The edge of the control panel is represented by the fact that you can mark a piece of the video and repeat it indefinitely (set points A and B and repeat the playing of the video enclosed between the two points); time stretch allows you to set video play the same context in less or more time. What's interesting about this is that audio is still intelligible.
The settings list of the video player is not too extensive but supplies the necessary options even for a beginner to get by successfully. The “General” section deals with the overall settings for the application: enable auto-play, auto-resume options, location for captured images and bookmarks.
But “Video” is where the real fun begins because it is here where SimHD options are located. ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre Platinum offers the possibility to enable hardware acceleration, but in this case high-definition simulation would no longer be possible. The three video modes that can be applied are auto deinterlace, force deinterlace and interlace.
Although not too varied, SimHD's settings can bring the quality of the playback closer to high definition and there are also a few tweaks to tinker with, such as sharpness level (1 to 5) and resolution (1280x720, 1440x960, 1920x1080 and adaptive). In order to see the difference between SimHD-enabled and no SimHD-enabled video, suffice to pick either the splitting mode or comparing mode and witness the difference.
Color adjustment is part of the video settings panel. Five presets to pick from await and you can also modify brightness, contrast, color saturation and hue. This way the application provides the means to correct video display easily and efficiently.
Audio is a significant part in a movie, so these settings also have to raise to the high-definition standards. Besides the regular output mode choices, which cover headphones, 2 channel stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 channel, S/PDIF and HDMI, there is an advanced section and an effects center.
The advanced section features settings for Dolby Digital, Dolby True HD and DTS. The options let you configure the dynamic range compression and the downmix mode for super-quality sound. If you move to Effect Center you'll find two modes that can be configured individually and which offer the choices that make the best out of your hardware. There is also the 10-band equalizer, which lets you save your choice and brings a suite of 15 preset audio configurations that boost low, mid-range and high frequencies.
Parental Control is not forgotten either. The application lets you enter a password to protect children from watching restricted movies. Just set a level, enter the desired password and that is it. Keep in mind that movie level is rated according to MPAA standards and only applied in the USA.
Optimized for notebooks and laptops, TotalMedia Theatre Platinum supplies a power manager section where you can select the mode you want to be applied: maximum performance, balance or maximum battery. More than this, you get to set up alerts when battery level is below a user-defined threshold.
Take a look at the following images in order to compare the quality of the video with SimHD enabled and without it. For the test we used Peter Jackson's 2005 "King Kong" in DVD9 format and Francis Lawrence's 2005 "Constantine" in DVD5 format. The pictures have been taken in both "splitting" and "compared" modes.
ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre Platinum is designed for the average user and there is plenty of effort invested in it. Its looks are simple but sleek and, provided you have the necessary hardware, the results it brings are pretty incredible. However, on the downside, you need a pretty powerful system, not to play the Blu-Ray discs, but for DVD playback, if you plan on using SimHD for upscaled video quality.
And even if you have CUDA-enabled graphics taking off the load on the CPU, system resources will still be stressed. All these combined with the over-average price do nothing but keep users away.
The Good
SimHD's action is visible not only to the trained eye, but also to beginners, plus there is the possibility to compare the near-HD experience to the standard one.
The range of supported video files is amazing as ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre Platinum is capable of playing not only Blu-Ray and DVD discs but also standards such as AVI, FLV or MKV; and they benefit from SimHD quality upscale as well.
The Bad
There is also the hardware component to take into consideration, which is not to be found on the average Joe's computer and the hardware required is a bit steep for mid-class systems.
The Truth
Also, the handling of the software is great and the fact that it can be operated via remote control (it seamlessly integrates into Windows Media Center) only adds more value to the application.
