David Hingtgen

I'm still leaning towards a stand-alone HD-DVD. Many range from only a bit more to a bit less than a 360's add-on, cost-wise. I'll be surprised if my 360 lasts another year. But for Blu-Ray, PS3's the only sensible choice. Cheapest and among the best in several categories.

They're very backwards compatible. I don't know of any "disc" technology that isn't able to read all previous versions. CD players can only do CD. By CD-ROM drives can also do CD's. DVD's can read CD-ROM and CD, DVD-ROM can also do DVD, CD-ROM, and CD. And HD-DVD's and BluRay can read DVD's, and usually do a good job upscaling them. (AFAIK the PS3 is among the very best at upscaling normal DVD's) So if you buy a HD-DVD player, and it does decent upscaling, you can watch normal DVD's in the infamous "near-HD quality". Yes, they have the amazing ability to improve the image of old, normal DVD's. They will all be able to play normal DVD's at non-HD resolution, but depending on what player you get, you may be able to see a MUCH improved picture out of them. Google around or ask which ones are best at "upscaling" normal DVD's if that's a big concern for you. (It is for me when I'm going to get one). One of the most common current HD-DVD players is Toshiba's HD-A3. It lists that it can play: HD-DVD DVD DVD-R DVD-RW CD-R CD-RW CD Plus upscale any standard DVD to 480p, 720p, or 1080i. (if you want 1080*p* out of an HD-DVD player, you have to buy one of the higher-end ones) Note: Toshiba keeps mentioning that upconverting DVD's requires you to use the HDMI inputs (probably a HDCP compliance thing).

Ack, and I wasn't thinking. I figured it was for Tuesday, didn't realize Tues was the 18th. Regardless, it's "right now only".

Whoa, just noticed this: http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/12/Bourne.jpg Get the entire Bourne trilogy in HD for free, if you buy the 360's HD-DVD add-on. Only valid at Amazon, only Dec 17th.

Honestly, many of us (in the US at least) got it weeks/months ago and played online for many hours and pretty much did all there is to do already. I've got dozens of hours online, but am pretty much 'done' with the game for the moment. Shin's still on, but he's the only US-based player from MW I know of that's still online regularly.

HP 800 series does rock, mine's an 832C. Reading some reviews, I found the 832C's actually fairly in demand now (despite being long out of production), as it's about the fastest, highest-quality and most reliable inkjet there is for basic "black text on white". I think it's jammed one sheet of paper ever, in all the years I've had it. Plus it has (by modern standards) a massive ink capacity, yet the cartridge costs no more than ones that hold only 1/4 the ink. I only have to buy black ink about once a year due to that. Lastly, it has a less-than-a-second startup time and nearly instant shutoff. No 30-sec warmup like most, then wait another 20 noisy secs for the print head(s) to park when your done. (I counted the Epsons at 43 secs at Best Buy, minimum time from startup to printing--that's insanely slow) Buying a photo-capable printer would force me to make WAY too many sacrifices from what I currently own--speed, ink capacity, startup/warmup time, reliability, etc. Plus the most important "massive drop in basic black text quality". My 832C also beats them all for ease of paper handling/loading. You just drop it in. No fluffling/rifling a new stack, using trays/casettes, carefully aligning various sliders, etc. Just shove in a handful when you run low. So long as it can grab it, it'll be fine.

I still have neither HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray, but I plan to pick up an HD copy. Just have to decide which...

Just a little update: Now that I'm finally over the flu I checked out all the printers I was considering again, this time testing black/text instead of photos. And: They all suck. Every one (even $400+) is vastly inferior at basic "black text on white paper" than my years-old cheap HP inkjet. It is very true that text quality is sacrificed for photo quality on newer printers. They are a million times better at photos than mine, but not half as good at basic black text. And I print words a whole lot more than photos. The only one which might possibly do well at both is a Canon (has 2 different blacks, one just for text) that absolutely won't fit in my computer desk and isn't sold here so I can't see it first-hand anyways. (plus I truly hate top/rear-loaders). Guess I just won't be getting a new printer for a while, maybe in another couple years photo-capable printers will be able to print text as well as a late-90's inket.

More OT: Top 10 80's cartoon intros, starting with Visionaries: (Hunt around, and you'll also find the 30 min one, and the 5-part series) Best theme I never knew about before: Mighty Orbots. Best theme not included in any list: Denver the Last Dinosaur. Also, plenty of KITT vs KARR on youtube.

Got mine today from LAF Toys. It's darker and deeper than it photographs. More of a wine red than anything else. Almost a purplish shade of burgundy. The overwing boosters are the very definition of low-vis, they look like almost perfect matches for 36375 grey with 36320 grey accents (F-14/15/18/A-6/10/Harrier/Gripen). The missiles are more of a 36270 grey, the main grey of an F-16.

Most people just leave the TV at the default factory setting (sad, but true). Most of the people reading this thread probably fiddle with tint/contrast/brighness/sharpness for a while until the picture's as good as it can get. If you're really obsessive ::cough:: you go into service mode and start adjusting the geometry, overscan, and might even fiddle with the individual guns (most of that only applies to CRT's, though most decent HDTV's should allow blue/green/red independent level adjustment). A professional calibrator, will go DEEP into the service menu, into the "can permanently screw up the TV" level of stuff, and have actual colored filters, DVD's, etc to truly match the screen colors and sharpness to perfection. Or as close as that TV can get. However, IMHO, since every TV is different, and no pro is going to know exactly what everything in every TV's service options can do (even the service techs often don't), you're paying a lot for someone who knows what they're doing to fiddle with a TV they don't. I've gone into the "low level" service menus on my TV and adjusted overscan and geometry, but have never actually tried to align/compensate the individual colors relative to each other. Might try on my new one though, as people go so indepth on the forums and reviews I could at least get the basic red level right (that's the one usually off, due to the "bright in the store" setting effect)

A boxy Camaro is still sleeker than your standard Mustang. ::goes back to staying up late watching 80's intros on Youtube::

The Thunderhawk in MASK was a 3rd gen Camaro---it was basically a red KITT. Equally wrong for a Mustang. Obligatory link to MASK opening: (still one of the all-time best 80's intros)

The skull's completely wrong though. They just drew up a generic (and IMHO, poor) "skull and bones". It's not THE skull and crossbones, of either Macross nor any real squadron.

I check the Samsung thread at AVS daily, because the 3253H is currently #1 on my list of TV's. It SEEMS that Oct. and later builds have new boards and there are no problems (most problems are trying to fix older boards with new firmware--which helps but doesn't totally eliminate the problems). But I am still waiting for at least one person to say "I have a 3253H built in October, that I play my 360 on using 720p over component and I have no problems at all". There's people with new 3253H's, people with 360's, and people using 720p over component---but none with that exact combo that I've seen. Because a 360 doing 720p over HDMI is a different issue--HDMI is better than component, when it comes to tearing on a Samsung. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....105&page=87 Sony S3000 is probably #2 choice. They have no real issues, just high odds of clouding and/or buzzing.

Yes, Mission 9 with RCL's is super-easy, especially with the A-10 and it's huge load of them. (Su-33 has very few of them, Typhoon has a few more) It's not so much how many it has total, but how many rockets per salvo. I made my "attacker medal" run also my "no damage" run. Not TOO hard, though mission 12 and 13 took a bunch of tries. Tornado's your best bet IMHO, but a Strigon or Typhoon would ALWAYS get just one little bullet in you...

Very true. Mustangs are ricey now, and the new KITT is among the riciest cars I've ever seen. It should be in The Fast and the Furious, not Knight Rider. And going with that--frankly, the original KITT wasn't a muscle car (again, they died in the 70's). It was a Trans Am. A sleek, slick, black Trans Am. Not muscley. The only new cars which could truly be muscle cars are the new Camaro, or the new Challenger. (New Challenger rocks--I'm a huge F-body fan, but that Challenger is the first "retro" car ever that actually looks how a retro car should---it's so "musclecar-esque" that it looks 10x more like a Charger than the new Charger does) The new KITT would be better served as a Vette (or heck, Porsche) so as to be SLEEK. It's Hollywood as always---they tried to latch on to a feature to explain its success, but picked the wrong element and grossly exaggerated it.

But Godzilla's breath can burn through anything in the way, thus creating line of sight. If a building's blocking his view--it won't be for long.

Umm, I was just saying that topic has already been discussed here. What part of my post made you think I was being a jerk?

You have a 64 series Sharp with banding? Hmmn. I thought it was more limited to the 62/92 range. Well, regardless, I personally saw it constantly on the 32in ones. Maybe the bigger ones handle it better.

I personally doubt we'll ever see anything with new polygons. (Which is the only thing I'd pay for). Hmmn, new team battle. But you gotta pay? C'mon, maps should be free.

Yup. Like half of Sixshot's modes. "Cybertronian tank". "Cybertronian car". "Cybertronian flying thing".

Here's the basic issues to look for of all 2007 LCD's: Sharp: horizontal banding Samsung: tearing Sony: clouding (worse on XBR's, 3000's do better)

Most F-14 fans are aware of what they did to the last F-14 ever built. I believe it has been repainted yet again. Black Aces on one side (who didn't even HAVE F-14D's) and I think the Black Lions on the other.

I want a classic Gears. Why? Because no one loves Gears.