mikeszekely

Phalanx, may I suggest you sell some of your brother's things to get the money to buy a new Dreamcast?

I'm sorry, but why attack JB0 for stating the obvious? Most Chinese consumer electronics are not the highest of quality. They use cheaper labor and cheaper materials, and wind up with a product that they can sell for a lot less than a competing American or Japanese brand. This is a strategy that has paid off in spades. As Wal-Mart shoppers gleefully buy the cheapest electronics they can find, China's economic is taking off. Following that logic, if he's blaming anyone, he's blaming his fellow Americans for buying so many "off-brand" electronics in the first place. If Joe Six-Pack would spend a little more on the better brands, he'd be sending a message that he prefers quality over cost.

The Air Force Delta games weren't bad... they just weren't as balanced as the Ace Combat games. The original on Dreamcast was too easy, Storm and Strike were too frustrating. One good thing about the AFD games is that they had a ton of planes... far more than Ace Combat. Down side was that they made you use a lot of obscure fighters before you could actually fly things you wanted to fly, like the F-14.

Because I think that, in some ways, the issue is less the quality of the device (the higher quality units are the ones with the problems) and more like another case of companies so anxious to protect themselves from piracy that they down right screw their customers. Slightly OT, I'm still pissed that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will down-res your movies if you use a component video connection.

But why should we have to? I had the same 19" TV, and hand-me-down from my parents, for something like 15 years. It didn't stop playing TV shows. In fact, I still own the TV, but it hasn't been hooked up for the last four years because I've had two better TVs since. But we're expected to buy new DVD players every five years to keep up with the latest security encryptions? Piracy protection is becoming more and more of an excuse for extortion.

David, I have the Hitachi drive in mine, and sure, while I've noticed some drive noise, I'd never say it buzzed, and is certainly NOT louder than the burner in my computer. I'd consider calling Microsoft.

Actually, a little G Gundam action is okay. Graham and I were talking about the feathered monstrousity that is Wing Zero Custom. 389737[/snapback] Its not that bad, really. Its actually quit useful once you evolve it to no limiter Wing Zero. But again, like the G Gundam there's a single mission for it, and you can ignore it completly.... I did. =/ 389772[/snapback] Evolve? My mecha evolve? How do I go about that? Sounds like it might be useful, since I'm stuck on a mission. Let's see... it's the second mission where you have multiple ground targets to take out, all while some cannon is sometimes shooting you from off screen. I've gotten plenty good at ducking into the canyon to avoid the shots, but I ran out of time before I could eliminate all the targets.

So one particular poorly set up DLP TV at one particular Circuit City is representative of every make and model DLP on the market? Hey guys, I saw a car with a COMBUSTION ENGINE up on blocks near my brother's place in the sticks. It was clearly poo, so all cars with combustion engines suck. Don't drive them. Fact is, there are shitty DLPs and there are good ones... and even the best TVs look like ass when they're not set up right. The rainbow effect is supposedly only noticed by a very small portion of the population. I've certainly never noticed any rainbows. I'm not sure what you mean by wobulation. As for the footprint, at 14" deep and about 80lbs, my 52" is both much shorter and much lighter than my old 27" Panasonic tube TV. Granted, you're not going to hang it on a wall, but for as long as I've lived, we've set our TVs on top of furniture. Seems silly to hold that against a particular tech. I agree on the bulb thing, though, but who knows? Maybe I'll just get a new TV instead. Oh, I agree there. My buddy's dad's more or less an invalid, and can't see real well. But since he can't move much, all he does is watch TV. So my buddy got him a 60" SXRD. First time I bought my Toshiba that I'd seen a TV in someone's house to make me jealous. But SXRD wasn't really an option for me. When I bought my TV, LCoS TVs were just hitting the market. They were more expensive, and at that time, really didn't look much better than the newest DLP units.

Actually, a little G Gundam action is okay. Graham and I were talking about the feathered monstrousity that is Wing Zero Custom.

By now, I've played a ton of missions. The game sometimes requires a bit of trial and error to figure out what is what in the menues, and the ability to read katakana helps too. But the menues aren't terribly difficult, and the gameplay itself is simple, and reminiscent of ZOE. I still haven't got any mecha from Macross. The story seems to play out the same reguardless of which you pick at the beginning. If that's the case, Graham, you might be dissapointed to hear that you'll aquire that Turkey Gundam before a VF-1. Although I haven't a Valkyrie, the Gun Ark (the A.C.E original mecha you start with) is variable, and the ReGZ launches with the backpack weapon system. In jet mode, your mecha is undwieldly and it can be difficult to line up shots. My advice is to avoid it if you can, and when I do get a Valkyrie, I'll probably keep it in Battroid mode. Two games with the ReGZ in about a month... not too bad.

[VADER] NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! [/VADER] SEED's already had more animated material than any other AU Gundam, and in my opinion, it's been the worst of the AUs. It needs to die off (espececially after Destiny's craptastic ending) and make way for either an all new AU Gundam series that doesn't suck, or a return to to UC, as long as it's NOT another One Year War story.

Thank you for educating me, my friends. If you'll permit me one more question, the documentation with my TV says it supports 480p, 720p, and 1080i. If DLP TVs use a fixed resolution technology, which is it? In any case, to assuage all our curiousities, I tried several games on my PS2 this evening, both in "Natural" setting (with the bars on each side) and "Theater Wide 1," a kind of widescreen display that stretches the picture gradually toward the edges, designed for displaying 4:3 signals in 16:9 with a minimal ammount of the top and bottom being cut off, and without very overt stretching. And, for the record, my TV is a Toshiba 52HM84, which was replaced a few months ago by the 52HM95. Anyway, the games tested were: We Love Katamari (4:3) Megaman Anniversary Collection (Megaman 2) (4:3) Megaman X Collection (Megaman X4) (4:3) Guitar Hero (16:9) Devil May Cry 3 (16:9) Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (16:9) I assumed that, even though I hadn't noticed lag before, I might if I was actively looking for it. And I have to report that, in fact, I still didn't notice any lag. The only game that even remotely felt a little off to me was Megaman 2, but I think that has more to do with the way Atomic Planet rebuilt the game instead of simply emulating it, and even at that, I think it's only because I'd played the NES version probably more than 100 times. The game felt a little sluggish, but I noted that whenever I pressed a button, the corresponding action happened immediately. Megaman X4, which is the X series game I'd play the most, felt exactly as I'd remembered it. We Love Katamari and Onimusha just got played because I'd been playing them. But Devil May Cry 3, I picked for its twitchy action, and I didn't notice any lag there. And Guitar Hero, being a bemani game (even if it wasn't made by Japanese developers), relies on timing. Surely, if there was any lag, I'd notice it there, and I just flat out didn't. My conclusion, then would be that whatever time my TV takes to take the video source and upconvert it before displaying it is fast enough to be, for all intents and purposes, nonexistant. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that info helps David, since he's already explained that a TV of that size is simply impossible for his situation, and that since Toshiba is outsourcing their CRTs, whatever Toshiba quality I'm seeing in my unit may not be applicable to a smaller CRT unit. Of course, if someone else is poking around in this thread and is looking for a solid HDTV on a $2500 budget, by all means, get the 52HM95. On a side note, my experimenting did leave me with one other conclusion... while all PS2 games look slightly worse for the wear upconverted and blown up onto my TV than they would on a solid 480i tube TV, some games suffer for it much worse than others. We Love Katamari and Guitar Heroes looked the best, perhaps because of their more simple graphics. And, believe it or not, Megaman X4 looked the worst. PSX sprites that blew my mind on the old 19" unit I had my PSX hooked up to back in the day were simply not meant to be cranked in 52" of upconverted glory.

My PS2 is just connected through one of the S-Video inputs... I know my TV is capable of upconverting to 1080i, but isn't that only through the component video inputs? In any case, I honestly haven't play much Megaman on it yet... but I didn't notice any lag with Gundam vs. Z Gundam, We Love Katamari, Guitar Hero, or Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, A.C.E 2, or Climax UC. which were the last few non-RPG games in my PS2. I'll play some Megaman later tonight and get back to you for sure.

Have some faith. Toshiba has a pretty good reputation, and I already can say they make excellent DLP units. Wait until the 26HF66 hits stores, then take another look. I'd also suggest reading a professional review, if you can. It's not as good as seeing and tweaking the unit in person to see how you feel about it, but professional reviews tend to give a lot more info than consumer reviews.

Sorry for the long wait until my reply. I had to work. I haven't noticed any lag, and since I've played a lot of Burnout Revenge and Dead or Alive 4, I'd like to think that if there was any lag, I'd have noticed it. I'd read about lag being a problem on some sets, but I thought it was more common in rear projection LCDs than in DLPs. In fact, until only recently, most publications I'd read considered DLP to be best bang for the buck. And I haven't had any complaints about mine, aside from the fact that it only has two component video inputs and one HDMI. I used up all three fast. But my TV has an excellent picture, good viewing angles, and a wonderfully large screen. I only paid $2000 for it. I know you said that's more than you want to spend, but had you condsidered financing it? Best Buy and CompUSA are always doing financing deals. I got no interest for 18 months, so I get to make manageable payments until then and still get the satisfaction of not paying interest. I noticed you also don't seem to be putting this in your living room? Any particular reason? Is that what's limiting you on space, or your furniture? I actually dismantled my old entertainment center, turned the sides of it into component towers, and bought a new TV stand.

But it's still an idea that was never really developed. I mean, they happened upon a recent wreck, and we know from the beginning of Macross that there are Zentraedi fleets out hunting for remnants of the Supervision Army... yet for the next 45 years, all they come across is the Protodeviln sealed on Varauta 4, despite a mass exodus of humankind to colonize the galaxy?

A series whose main character is part of an alien race with little to no personality, and who pilots a mech we've already seen plenty of times? Pass. You mean Macross Zero? If Kawamori and Big West are going to do a new Macross, I'd rather it be after Space War 1... either in the time period between Flashback 2012 and Macross Plus (great chance for Kawamori to fill in some of the gaps in the VF numbering and give us some finalized designs for stuff like the VF-16), or sometime after 2050 (brown VF-19A cannon fodder!), likewise with some new designs. I'd prefer the series to be a bit more mature, militaristic, and gritty. I also tend to enjoy the Protoculture mythos, although I'd hope if they revist some of that mythos, they do us a shade better than Macross Zero and it's WTF ending.

Out of curiousity, why not go bigger, David? I absolutely adore my 52" Toshiba DLP TV (although a lot of PS2 games don't look so hot on it, the original Xbox and Xbox 360 both look fantastic, and for awhile I was even using it for my computer monitor). In fact, the only HDTV I've seen that I like better are the Sony SXRDs. It'll be a long time before I need a new HDTV, but if I was going to buy one today, I'd probably go LCoS.

I'm with JB0. In fact, unless your source is HD, I see more of a difference going from composite to S-Video than from S-Video to component.

My Gamestop has had some in stock all week, and the Best Buy across the street was advertising that they had some. I'd expect Xbox 360's to start to become more readily available.

I thought Microsoft left it up the publishers, and that some games were playable on other consoles. That is, to use DVDs for an analogy, the US 360 might be R1, but games could still be Region All. For example, the US Call of Duty 2 was playable on Japanese consoles. The publishers have been using the region coding because they're worried about losing sales in one territory if everyone imports it from another before it's release. But I actually think that going regionless will cut down on piracy. I mean, how many of use modded a system to import a game we really wanted, like the Macross PS2 game? And then afterward, stopped importing games and started downloading them off of bittorrent, or even started ripping and burning domestic games? I know I have a ton of burnt games now, but I never would have bothered had I not chipped my PS2 to play Macross and AEUG vs. Titans.

I think one of the biggest reasons to have not previously been interseted in the Xbox brand was a distinct lack of solid Japanese software. And while that's been true so far for the 360, I don't think it's going to be as bad as the original Xbox. They're working on a ton of games in Japan for the 360, including a number of exclusives. In addition to Gundam, Namco-Bandai is working on another mech game and an RPG, Microsoft is working with Tri-Ace on an RPG, Mistwalker's got Nintey-Nine Nights, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey, and Square Enix announced that they're working on an an exclusive shooter, likely in the Silpheed series. In a way, I think it's a very good thing. More Japanese support means more and better games for the 360. But, American developers are already in the habit of making their games available for ever console under the sun. With rising development costs, the more games you can sell, the better, so it makes sense to go multi-platform. A lot of these games could be 360 exclusive simply because the PS3 isn't ready yet. In the future, will Japanese games also wind up being multi-platform? If so, outside of a few key franchises, there's becoming less and less of a reason to pick one over the other. I digress. It's hard to get excited for the PS3 yet, when the PS2 still has some kick-ass releases left, like Ace Combat Zero and God of War 2. Now if only Harmonix would release a sequel, hell, even an expansion, to Guitar Hero...

Hey, congrats! D'oh! I've been having weird browser issues lately. Firefox suddenly stopped displaying Flash objects and switched all my settings back to the default. I uninstalled then reinstalled both Flash Player and Firefox, and the problem is yet to be resolved. Likewise, both Firefox and IE have been prone to crashing randomly. My double-post was probably related to my browser issues. Anyway, back on-topic, I really think Sony's in a weird position. They dominate the home console market, and everyone and their mother is going to buy a PS3 simply because it has the PlayStation logo. But at the same time, of the three, Sony is the company that's in the worst position right now. Like I said, the Revolution could be a flop (which I doubt), and they will still turn plenty of profit. Microsoft will continue to lose money on the Xbox, but that'll be a drop in the bucket to them. But Sony needs to find a price point where they can sell PS3s competetively without losing too much money on hardware. Since Sony pulled a 180 on the hard drive issue, which is going to drive the price up, I have a feeling that the PS3 is going to end up $499 (dollars, not Euros). Anything more, and the gap between it and the other consoles is too great. Any less, and Sony will likely be taking too big a hit. More random speculation? I think Sony may end up increasing their licensing fees, to try to recoup some money from third parties that they'll be losing on hardware.

Later revisions of the PS2 have turned a profit. But MS and Sony DID get in a price war with the GameCube, sort of. They kept their prices 50$ above the 'Cube. Nintendo's "ZOMG KIDDIE!1111" reputation meant they didn't have to price-match, but they couldn't let the 'Cube get too far ahead, or they became "overpriced." Another important factor to remember is that while the PS2 console itself was initially sold at a loss, the Computer Entertainment division of Sony was still profitable. And, right now, most of Sony's other divisions aren't. So, while Microsoft can lose more money than some countries' annual GDP on the the Xbox/360, figuring they'll make it back through Windows and what not, Sony can't afford to lose too much money on hardware.... SCE's profits make up for the money their losing on televisions. Nintendo, mind you, is sitting pretty right now. The Revolution could be a spectacular failure (which I doubt), costing Nintendo millions... and they'll make it all back on the DS, which is apparently like some kind of license to print yen in Japan right now.

The Brain Powered mecha have got to be my least favorite in the game. The story sounds mildly interesting, but poorly executed.