mikeszekely

Sad but true. Unfortunately, the PSU is the part I'd say I need the most. I bought an IDE Pioneer burner for a Lenovo I resurrected a few months back, OEM from Newegg. It'd be nice if it had LightScribe, but for $30 I wasn't going to complain. The thing's solid, fast, and quiet. I was thinking about getting a SATA one for this new build, but on the other hand, the board does have an IDE controller (right beside the 5.25" bays). I might save the SATA ports for more hard drives down the road (after all, the case does have 6 3.5" bays, and the board has six SATA ports, but there's a good chance I'll put a memory card reader in the one bay that has front-panel access). Honestly, though, I couldn't be happier with my choices so far. Intel's really got a winner with the Wolfdale cores, and while the mobo doesn't support SLI, I'm not really interested in it (I can't afford one video card, let alone two!). I'm more interested in potential over-clocking, which this board's supposed to be great for. And while I've heard some people gripe about the P132's unconventional layout, it's got plenty of room, its modular design makes adding/removing parts a breeze, and three 120mm fans keep everything nice and cool. All I need is another $600-$650 to finish it. *sigh* Anyone want to buy a kidney?

Not that anyone cares, but I got a new motherboard and processor today. Processor is a Wolfdale Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz, mobo is a DFI LanParty Dark P35 Series. I stuck both into an Antec P182 case. The thing's like a gleaming gunmetal obelisk. Unfortunately, I'm out of money, so I couldn't buy any of the other parts I needed. A friend brought a video card, RAM, optical drive, and a PSU, and I pulled a spare storage drive out of one of the computer this one's going to replace, and I set everything up and made sure everything fired up okay and that nothing was DOA, and it seems good. Even with just a gig of RAM, after XP was installed it goes from cold boot to Windows desktop in about 40 seconds. My friend told me I could keep the RAM, optical drive, and video card until I could afford to replace them (this friend of mine tends to pick up lots of stuff on clearance or on sale that he doesn't need, and he never throws anything out, so he doesn't need that stuff). Too bad, though, but he needed the PSU back right away. Now the rest of my shopping list for this computer, for the people who are curious (I'm guessing none of you), will be three 1GB sticks of Kingston PC 800 RAM, a Western Digital 500GB SATA II HDD, a Pioneer dual-layer DVD burner, probably an Antec True Power Trio 650w PSU, and either a BFG, PNY, or eVGA GeForce 9800GTX.

Continuing the discussion of the VF-25/VF-171 vs. the VF-19/VF-22, Kawamori's only given us his real reasoning. In-continuity, we're just left with speculation, so here's mine: When the UN Spacy became NUNS, NUNS might have been less than satisfied with the VF-19, and canceled the old Spacy's contract. We know for a fact that the YF-19 was difficult to fly, and I don't know what changes were made between between the YF-19 and the VF-19A that would have made a difference. As for the VF-19F/S, they obviously had significant revisions, and were just starting to enter service five years after Super Nova. The VF-19F/S, with its stubby little wings, might not have had the atmospheric performance they wanted. Wasn't that one of the reasons the VF-4 was dumped for the VF-5000? Another thing to consider, using the US military branches as a model, is that different NUN military branches might be buying different variable fighters (just like how the Navy and the Air Force operate different planes), and even within a single branch multiple fighters could be in use (just like how the USAF is using the F-22, F-15, and F-16, in addition to bombers and other aircraft lacking the F designation). Frontier could be using the VF-171 because it's easy to fly and maintain, and perhaps requires less resources on the part of a fleet that gets minimal resupply, but for all we know forces on Eden or Earth are stocked with the VF-19. As for the VF-22, it's not that surprising that we're not seeing it. Even though Max, Milia, and Diamond Force managed to get some, it was always clear that the VF-19 won Super Nova and that the UN would be buying VF-22s in very small numbers.

Well, that and wanting to wait for a subbed episode before attempting to join in on any discussion, only to find 20+ pages of posts already, a quarter of which were made before a raw was even available. It's rough when you want to discuss plot points in an episode, but to do so you have to read a book's worth of text, sifting through the debate on animation quality to see if someone already brought up your point 10 pages ago.

Okay, yeah, I can kinda see that. The blue color and the narrower head threw me off, but he's sorta got Shockwave's ears.

Is that... Whirl in one of those pics?!

Yeah... I never liked the Boondocks.

Man, am I glad for this topic! Now I know when to look for new Venture Bros! Adult Swim peaked with VB. Everything before it was just leading up to it, and everything after it is living it its shadow. My favorite episode was "Are You There God? It's Me, Dean." But every episode was gold.

You tired of wings that fold like a beetle's after awhile, and the way the VF-25's wings fold beats Kawamori's "hang 'em off the hips" phase.

Seconded.

The DVD audio was worthless. The HD-DVD wasn't bad, but the blackout scene was definitely missing a lot of the bass it had in the theater.

That was my initial reaction, too, but it actually makes a certain sense. I mean, after Children of the Atom, we had between X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom a Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Marvel's biggest rival is DC, and Street Fighter's was always Mortal Kombat. Of course, DC vs MK is over 10 years late to the party...

Yeah, if Serenity gets a Blu-ray release, and Transformers, I'll be able to stick my HD-DVD stuff in closet somewhere and forget about it. As for Iron Man, I kinda hope that we get a Blu-ray release of the animated Iron Man movie, maybe to help promote the new one. It's the only one of the four newer animated Marvel movies that didn't get a Blu-ray release, and I own the other three. I'd like to complete that set.

I think all of them, the captain and Pixie included, are SMS (that is, I don't think that guy's the captain of Frontier-1, but of some kind of SMS command). I think it was Ozuma who used the "my guys" line, and he was probably just referring to Skull squadron. Edit: Chronocidal beat me to it.

Episode 4 isn't turning me off, Klein is. I'm fine with humor, too. Alto's training has been, in my opinion, a high point of the series, including the hazing. Heck, I'm one of the members on this board that actually liked Macross 7, so I'd say I'm fairly tolerant of silliness. But I don't find Klein amusing, at all. She's like some kind of Tenchi Muyo reject, and jarringly out of place in Frontier.

Forgive me if this has been brought up already, but I just watched episode 4 today (skipping Gattai, wait for AiA) and while I'm really digging this show, Klein Klan is the worst thing that's happened to Macross since faces on Valkyries. I don't care if they explain away her issue with some "genes are screwed up" line, taking a perfectly fine Zentraedi warrior, micronizing her, and having her turn into not just a child, but a cheesy caricature of every bossy underage girl that's ever turned up in anime is just a travesty.

Wal-Mart exclusive Mirage repaint = Challenge of the Gobots Crasher? SOLD! Oh, my poor wallet...

I installed the CCCP on all of my Windows boxes. I pretty much stick to my HTPC, but occasionally use my primary desktop for viewing stuff. I've tried Windows Media Center, but I don't have a remote for it and don't care for it as much as Front Row anyway, so I use VLC for everything now. I haven't had any trouble playing any files. Granted, I haven't bothered with the Gattai subs (I've been watching AiA, but I might try Menclave's), but my HTPC at least could play Menclave's HD Gundam 00 files. I guess that some media players are more efficient than others, but I guess if you have enough computer you can use any media player you like.

The funny thing is, I was thinking about getting some of the Cybertron Scout repaints that Target's been selling in the movie line and repainting them as Ironhide, Hound, and Seaspray. Now Hasbro's gone and made two of them for me. I'm telling you, if I could just get Jazz and Wheeljack in Universe, I'd have all the Autobots I want. Cyclonus is a welcome addition to the Decepticon ranks, but I still want the rest of the Seekers, Scourge, Shockwave, Blitzwing, and as long as we're talking repaints, maybe Swindle as a repaint of Hound.

Man, just when my interested in Universe/Classics 2.0 starts to wane, Hasbro announces at Botcon that pretty much every other character except the missing Seekers (except, if I'm reading right, we ARE getting Dirge, and Camo Seeker), Jazz, and Wheeljack that I wanted a toy for are coming. And for someone who's somehow managed to miss every other G1 Prime re-release, a G1 Prime re-release! Man, I haven't bought a toy yet in 2008 (save MP Megatron), but by the end of the year I'll remember 2008 as the year I spent more on Transformers than videogames. EDIT: From the looks of it, Dirge is a repaint of Cybertron Starscream, not Classics Ramjet. And I see another Classics Prime repaint next to Titanium Skywarp.

Constant readjustments, yes. Constant MANUAL adjustments, though? I'd have a hard time believing that, since we've had flight control computers with the main purpose of making numerous tiny adjustments to planes' flight control surfaces so that pilots can keep less-than-aerodynamic planes like the F-117 in the air since at least the late 80's. Honestly, if Mikhail's VF is dependent on standing on something to be stable enough to fire its sniper rifle, that kind of limits its role. Might as well be a Destroid.

Sounds like you have the same receiver I do. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but that doesn't explain why Dolby True HD and uncompressed audio tracks were playing fine on all five channels pre-firmware update. It also doesn't explain why I was only getting two channels with the regular Dolby Digital audio track. So I'm still thinking Sony's firmware update messed something up.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try before I watch my next Blu-ray. I'm not ready to upgrade my receiver yet, since I live in an apartment with paper-thin walls (my neighbors probably don't complain about me because their kids are much louder and more irritating), and I want to build a new desktop computer. Speaking of computers... That's what I wound up doing. Depending on what you want out of it, it doesn't have to be expensive, either. I only spend about $350, and the only part I had on hand was a DVD-ROM I pulled from another unit that didn't really need two of them. I used an In-Win case (with 350w PSU), Gigabyte mobo, 500GB Maxtor HDD, Best Buy's store brand flash card reader, a single 2GB stick of RAM (Transcend, maybe? I forget), and a low-watt Celeron Conroe, and a Logitech Easy Call wireless mouse/keyboard combo I got on Clearance. The Gigabyte board has an HDCP certified nForce 630i chipset with integrated gigabit ethernet, GeForce 7150 graphics, HDMI video, and optical digital audio. Honestly, I bought the cheapest processor I could find, so it's not really technically HD ready, but the processor is the only thing holding it back (I'm looking to get an E8400 for the desktop I want to build, but later on when Intel starts releasing Nehalem I was going to replace the motherboard, RAM, and CPU and re-use the Wolfdale in the HTPC). The nForce chipset is fine for an HTPC, and since there's no expansion cards, the whole thing doesn't draw too much power and runs much cooler than my current desktop. And even though it's not really ready for HD, it's played everything I've thrown at it, only stuttering once on one of Menclave's Gundam 00 episodes (but not any of the other 24). My TV's a DLP, but the nForce software has settings to compensate for overscan, so widescreen video played in VLC fills the whole screen. The case hides the DVD drive and flash card reader behind a door, and the front USB and front audio behind a smaller door, so it blends nicely into my home theater without looking like a computer. And the Wii's Virtual Console be damned, but I even installed emulators for NES, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy/GBA, Game Gear/Master System, TG-16, and Sega Saturn. I moved my iTunes library to that computer, and I added a Pinnacle HD Pro Stick USB TV tuner and an external Sony DVD burner that, sitting vertically on the one end, balances the Wii at the other end. It's not the kind of computer I'd use comfortably as my main computer, but I love it for what it is and what it does. In fact, the only complaint I have with it at all is that, maybe because HDMI is sometimes finicky, but if you switch the receiver input away from the HTPC while it's still running, it'll drop the video and won't be able to get it back without rebooting.

Thanks. Anyway, I can't say I recommend YDL and MPlayer. I tried the AiA mp4 of episode 3 of Macross Frontier, as well as a DivX avi of Scrubs. Both files played without any lag or sound issues, sure, but they opened in a small window. When I set MPlayer to fullscreen, I had a tiny video playing on a huge field of black. I don't think it did anything to the settings. I double checked, and here's what I got: Under Blu-ray Audio, Optical Digital (which is what I use, since my receiver only does HDMI pass-through), I have it set to Linear PCM. Under the Settings, then Sound, I have it set to Digital Out (Optical), then for the checked supported audio, I have the following checked: DTS 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1 AAC Linear PCM 41.6KHz Linear PCM 48KHz For my test disc, I decided to use Harry Potter and the Whatever-the-New-One-Was, since it has a Dolby Digital track followed by a uncompressed audio track. My receiver reported the same audio as the PS3, but for some reason, was only displaying two channels (even with just two channels, the uncompressed audio was noticeably better). I tried messing with the audio settings on the receiver, but I couldn't find the manual. The only way I could get it to show all the channels was if I set the receiver to Pro Logic II.