And there we go. My desktop's answering all questions I've given it so far and has taken over from the laptop for first choice machine for watching internet video on. The laptop could handle one of those video streams (but in lower quality) but would struggle for space and capacity with more. And that's with its 17" monsta screen. My laptop is an AMD machine, which means it's pushed to the limit of what it can do and doesn't like to stay at that limit for long. However, the desktop is a much higher performance Intel machine and can stay at its limit all day.
What's on the screen there ? Firstly, it's a 23" Samsung running at 1920x1080 pixels, so the picture size of each video is still pretty good.
Top left is the BBC1 stream, showing the cycling. Team GB is breaking all records in the cycling at the moment, with the last 5 rides all beating world record times. Latest was in the Women's Team Pursuit.
Bottom left is the Hockey stream, showing GB Women vs China. On screen there is Kate Walsh, back in the starting lineup just 6 days after breaking her jaw. In that picture, she's sporting the bits n pieces holding her head together.
Wow. That's true grit. Nearly scored a couple of times too. It's 0-0 at half time.
Right hand side is the sailing, with Team GB sailors continuing to do well today. The sailing competition isn't won in a day, it's won through consistent results over the entire regatta. And Team GB is doing pretty well. I'll be watching Ben Ainslie hopefully overcome his Danish nemesis tomorrow.
What else is there ? Steam is just poking through in the background there, with me downloading Rage (£6.50 in another sale). I'd actually stopped when I took the screenie, otherwise the network meter would have been a straight line showing 10Mbits/s download. If I let Rage download, it'll blow through my download cap which puts me into traffic management :-( And that means less quality on the video streaming.
There's 2 performance meters in the top right, network and cpu. Network is curious - I think I reset it this time last week, which means my desktop has downloaded 72GB since then. And most of that is Olympics or youtube ... Crikey. The CPU meter is showing that my desktop is somewhat overpowered for all this, it's barely turning itself on. It does help having plenty of memory - the meter is showing 2.7GB used, which is more memory than my laptop has available to it (3GB installed, some of that is taken by graphics).
Any desktop from the last few years should be able to handle the BBC streaming - noting that the BBC streaming is some of the best on the web at the moment. ITV streaming is far more greedy in terms of cpu cycles.
I've since switched the hockey over to Tennis, with Laura Robson and Andy Murray playing again today in the mixed doubles. I watched them have a hard fought win earlier, this time it's the semi finals with medals beckoning ... Fingers crossed, hope they win. Andy Murray would expect to do well in the Tennis but Laura Robson has been a revelation. They're a set up at the moment.
What does get confusing is which commentary refers to which video stream ...
PS I also have the cricket coverage on the main telly, with new kid on the block James Taylor currently going through a trial by fire courtesy of the South African bowlers.
PS2 Sailing commentators definitely win the Shoutcraft stakes, their clarity cuts straight through the other streams.
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