New Windows Vista Ultimate Extras

I seem to have miised this one the other day.

Despite no announcement being made on UltimatePC.com, Microsoft have released a new sound scheme and a content pack for Windows DreamScene as part of its Windows Vista Ultimate Extras offerings for customers who purchased the Ultimate edition of Vista.
After installing the sound pack customers get Ultimate Extras Pearl and Glass sound schemes and additional Windows DreamScene Content.
For those who have been waiting for Ultimate Extras perhaps this is a sign that more is to come from the software giant.

Source:- Neowin.net - Microsoft Launches New Windows Vista Ultimate Extras

 

[z3r010]

OK I have just tried the new sound schemes and TBH the are crap, it must of taken somebody a full 10mins to make this release.

I would try the dreamscene, but it is not supported on my setup as I'm running multiple monitors with multiple cards.....So much for "Ultimate".

 

[joel406]

z3r010: I run multiple monitors. I run dreamscene. You should have no problems.

 

[z3r010]

It does not support 4 monitors on two cards

 

[Bubba]

That was the last download I was able to download. Or last time I was able to access windows update. I started not to do it since I have all my windows sounds turned off but decided what the heck. I still haven't used any of the Ultimate features or the Windows Media Center, even though I downloaded all the stuff that's come out for them, well all the stuff til yesterday when for unmentionable reasons my new Vista Ultimate got corrupted.

 

[soldatz]

OK I have just tried the new sound schemes and TBH the are crap, it must of taken somebody a full 10mins to make this release.

Agreed. The new sound schemes are not worthy of the "Ultimate" name. There are plenty of other free sound schemes out there that are much better.

I don't use Dreamscene so I can't comment on that.

 

[alexdonwarez]

the dreamscenes are good

 

[petrossa]

Usually i rip my rented dvd's to disk to get rid of the annoying 'extra's'. I rip them to wmv. One day i thought, he why not run a movie as dream? Having installed deskscapes i found that (on my box at least) this way the film played full screen 1080p smoothly on both monitors attached at the same time with on average half the processorcycle consumption of the regular players (tried them all, blaze, windvd, fantasydvd, cool dvd, wound up buying powerdvd) putting out on one monitor.
Sound is ouput over directsound, giving me full control over the 6.1 digital soundscheme.
All it needs is a few simple controls and you have a very powerfull movieplayer indeed.

Tried contacting stardock, but they ignore any suggestion. What is the feeling here? Seems like a good idea?

 

[soldatz]

Yup, I run movies in the desktop background all the time, sometimes just to listen to while I'm working. Of course if I'm doing processor-intensive tasks, playing HD video isn't really feasible since that eats up CPU cycles like popcorn, even on my dual-core. Regular TV-quality is doable.

 

[petrossa]

playing HD video isn't really feasible since that eats up CPU cycles like popcorn, even on my dual-core. Regular TV-quality is doable.

really? which graphics card do you run? The reason i was amazed is that when i run hdvideo with a regular player it eats cycles like corned pop and can only output to the primary, but using the dream it nearly halves and outputs to all monitors. Was wondering if stardock has some inside info from ms the others dont, and if they do why not just add a few simple controls and make deskscapes a basic movieplayer. Dont dont seemto want to respond to much was thinking to build up a fanbase to pressure them a bit

 

[candymancan]

Yup, I run movies in the desktop background all the time, sometimes just to listen to while I'm working. Of course if I'm doing processor-intensive tasks, playing HD video isn't really feasible since that eats up CPU cycles like popcorn, even on my dual-core. Regular TV-quality is doable.

You must be using WMV files. That uses alot of cpu to decode, you need to watch MPEG2-MPEG4 video's that will lower the cpu usage.

If you use WMV video's for dreamscene it will use alot of cpu so try to convert or find MPEG only. When i use WMV video's for dreamscene for say 1080 im using 20% cpu on both cores. If i use MPEG video's im using only 10% on one core

Btw i have a 8800GTS 640m, the cpu usage is only cut down if you use MPEG video's as i said before it doesnt matter what video card you have as long as its a 6800 or higher or equivalent. They only take the cpu load if there MPEG video's or puredvd or similer.

Sadly, nvidia only includes the codec's that enable this if you buy them lol :P

 

[petrossa]

you use WMV video's for dreamscene it will use alot of cpu so try to convert or find MPEG only. When i use WMV video's for dreamscene for say 1080 im using 20% cpu on both cores. If i use MPEG video's im using only 10% on one core

[/QUOTE]

after having installed deskscapes 2 it has taken wmv as file ext for dreamscenes. I had a hd1080 as mkv renamed as wmv with matroska codes installed(i am legend, beautifull opening shot) and wanted to watch clicked it without thinking. Was very surprised to suddenly watch the movie on my 2 monitors one in 1440/900 the other 1280/1024 running perfectly clean. I looked at cpu..... 3% on 4cores. I ran it in powerdvd also fullscreen. Only on primary monitor, cpu.... 12% on 4cores. i have geforce 8600 gts overclocked lightly to 715 mhz.

 

[Lid8nhx]

I have to agree the sound pack is less than stellar... the sounds are strained and rough to say the least... Have to say that the "extras" promised haven't lived up to their name.. Perhaps the "extras" was only referring to the EXTRA money paid for the OS...

 

[Donovan]

I have to agree the sound pack is less than stellar... the sounds are strained and rough to say the least... Have to say that the "extras" promised haven't lived up to their name.. Perhaps the "extras" was only referring to the EXTRA money paid for the OS...

I think you're right. However, I don't feel too bad since I was able to get my copy from a friend of a friend at the MS employee store

 

[dmex]

lol Donovan I really doubt that story There is no employee store but its ok...

I do agree the Extras features are just

Steven

I have to agree the sound pack is less than stellar... the sounds are strained and rough to say the least... Have to say that the "extras" promised haven't lived up to their name.. Perhaps the "extras" was only referring to the EXTRA money paid for the OS...

I think you're right. However, I don't feel too bad since I was able to get my copy from a friend of a friend at the MS employee store

 

[Donovan]

lol Donovan I really doubt that story There is no employee store but its ok...

I do agree the Extras features are just

Steven

Whatever they have for the MS employees, that's where it came from- one of my coworkers here has some kind of in. Got it last summer for a great price, the unfortunate part of it, they deface the cool package with an obnoxious sticker

Back on topic though, anyone know when we can expect some new Ultimate Extras??

 

[dmex]

No idea, Microsoft have yet to release any details about any extras planned at any time in the future...

I think its all just a ploy to get people to buy Ultimate more than actually releasing any Ultimate Extras...

Back on topic though, anyone know when we can expect some new Ultimate Extras??

 

[candymancan]

after having installed deskscapes 2 it has taken wmv as file ext for dreamscenes. I had a hd1080 as mkv renamed as wmv with matroska codes installed(i am legend, beautifull opening shot) and wanted to watch clicked it without thinking. Was very surprised to suddenly watch the movie on my 2 monitors one in 1440/900 the other 1280/1024 running perfectly clean. I looked at cpu..... 3% on 4cores. I ran it in powerdvd also fullscreen. Only on primary monitor, cpu.... 12% on 4cores. i have geforce 8600 gts overclocked lightly to 715 mhz.

12% on 4 cores lol, thats 10-20-30-40% cpu usage.

I have 2 cores 20% on each with HD1080 using WMV. Your trying to disprove what i said only made you sound stupid sorry...

Also diff video's take diff usage. For example if i watch the green video on dreamscene it uses only 3% cpu. If i watch the waterall it uses 10% Big diff ?

Its a proven fact WMV uses more cpu then MPEG2.

 

[petrossa]

yeah that must be it, stupid me. never guessed to play the same FULL LENGTH HD MOVIE in both to see the difference. I bow graciously to your superior knowledge but forgive since i am so dense as to stick to real time observed results. Which lets me display a FULL LENGTH HD MOVIE on 2 monitors at once using less cpu as the same FULL LENGTH HD MOVIE using a software player putting out on 1 monitor. Lucky i am just to stupid to realise it doesn't work

 

[johngalt]

Just out of curiosity, how do you get the movies playable by Dreamscene in Vista Ultimate 64bit? I have been using Vista for a long while now but have yet to explore how to *make* .dreams, though I have downloaded and installed the required software (Deskscapes and DreamScene).

I have loads of video that I want to convert, such as the first 26 episodes of Eureka 7 (Anime) that I would love to have playing in the background as I work on my dual monitor system powered by a single 8800GTS KO 512MB card.