Roderick

And today, I also bought my Xbox 360! Premium edition, HDMI slot bearing. It came with Viva Pinata and Forza 2, but I don't care about both and they were disappointingly packaged in just a flimsy white envelope. The biggest victory however is that I peered inside with a flashlight and I believe I have the 65nm chips on the motherboard. That means this unit has a lot better a chance to remain RRoD-free. Just to be sure, I'm keeping the thing horizontally and won't stack anything against or on top of it. A huge disappointment was that the actual HDMI cable wasn't in the package, and Microsoft is willing to sell it to me for the astounding price of 50 Euros. Methinks I'll get a third party cable.

Hahaha, that was good. Goooood.

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml Colbert does a 'Tom'. This'll be replaced tomorrow by the new show, so get it while you can.

I've just bought the TV I chose after careful deliberation: a 32" HD Ready Samsung (LE32 R82 , LCD, with good contrast ratio (8000:1) and other great features (zounds of connections for instance). It got good reviews on the internet and the price was great. There was a bargain at the local electronics boutique and I paid 600 Euros for it. They gave me the wrong TV though, and when I returned to the shop and they went looking for the real one, it was out of stock. Now I have to wait until next week before I can play Bioshock on the Xbox 360 I'll buy tomorrow on my brandnew spiffy 'No Union' Samsung!

I recently tried Myst for the DS again, which was pure rubbish, but even on the PC a while ago, I just couldn't get into that world. It was so obscure, so lifeless, so still. Perhaps Riven would be better to play.

Bah, tragic. We'll be able to appreciate him once more, however, this summer. Why so serious?

Your recommendation is noted.

Saurkraut for me, which is actually great because saurkraut sucks and now I have a legitimate reason to avoid it like the bubonic plague. I mean, just take the word saurkraut. It sounds like an evil Nazi scientist. Would that be a wholesome thing to put in your mouth?

Thank you, Marek Abraham Bronstring! That is information that's valuable to me. It's strange that the jump to 720p would be bigger than the difference between 720p and 1080p. If you look at the resolution scale, both seem like a doubling of the lesser value. So why is that? Perhaps the difference only becomes really visible if you are watching something on the two meters wide 80.000 Euros TV that's on display in the local Mediamarkt? My final question in this post is: the 360 is capable of upscaling its games to 1080p. Does it make everything look better, crisper, on the tv, or is the effect negligable? Because this goes all the way in making me decide to go for a 720p set, if it's the latter.

I am utterly exhausted, because all day I've been erratically cracking up just thinking about the name 'David Miscaviage'. See, there I go again. I mean, that's not even a real name. That's a made-up name.

Still, if I were worth several hundreds of millions, I'd go insane too, just because I could.

I can't help but wonder what brings you to these sites, Yuf? BWAHAHAHAH

That's kind of what I'm considering now... going for a cheaper, 720p tv now instead of full-blown HD. a. They will decrease in price substantially over the coming years, while the quality will rise (stuff like black levels and processing are still a bit meh here and there) b. How much access do I have to Full HD content anyway? Only my Xbox 360 (not even HD DVD's then!) and most games are made for 720p, right? Can anyone confirm this, or am I talking out of my ass? Are there, or will there soon be, 1080p games for the 360?

Marek; Hahaha, that's quite true. I had actually already settled for the 37" Hitachi, so the step to 40" isn't so big. I wouldn't consider a 45" or even 50" television though. My space, though small, has a setup where the tv isn't cramped, so 40" is very doable. At the same time, should I go for a smaller model, then Full HD becomes less of a necessity and I'd be able to go for a cheaper model (prices nearing even 600 Euros). Damn, such a wealth of options! =)

Yes, this this aggressively disappointing. Then again, there is a particularly noteworthy Tom Cruise thread going on demanding everyone's fullest attention.

Hey Everyone. Have you... you know... all been reading the KSW? Cause that was it. That was... it. Tell me more. No, you're a, you're a PTS. Shoo! ... God, you're nowhere... near as happy as I am. It's just like... such as and... you know? Take your SP attitude elsewhere! ? A critic! Quick! Like... Close the doors and hope this guy's glare leaves our, our hallowed halls, you know! Poof! ... BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

I just realised what that laughter is. That hysterical, beady-eyed guffaw. It sounds like someone who has heard an incredibly good joke, after just have been tortured for three weeks. He's laughing, but you can hear the strain and agony behind it, you know? It's almost sad.

Marek, you said that Samsung offers the best bang for your Eurobuck? I saw a nice Full HD Samsung (40") for 1200 Euros. That seems like an excellent price. Do you have any research or reviews that compare this stuff, or Samsung tv's in particular?

Also, I want you to remember that it's not just David Miscaviage!

Coincidence?

It's especially creepy when Tom starts laughing hysterically at his own jokes that nobody understands what with all the unlikely abbreviations thrown in

Hahaha, that is grade-A bullshit =D Also:

Vimes; that's not right. 720p shows 720 horizontal lines progressively (30 fps), 1080i shows 1080 horizontal lines interlaces (60 fps). Toblix; thanks. Though it is VERY difficult to judge anything in the stores, since their contrast is usually cranked all the way up, there's little information on anything but the resolution and contrast ratio (which is hugely tampered with because of weird double standard tests), and you can't expect stores to appreciate youwatching your own stuff and carefully examining all tv's. Of course you should do internet research, but with all the tv's coming out it's often difficult to find anything, and it still doesn't show you the true picture quality. And if you have to wait until you've already bought it and calibrated the tv... well, then you've already bought it, haven't you?

Based on what I've read and the distance I'll be viewing at, I'm better off with 1080, but you're right in essence. You're also very right, Toblix, about other settings mattering equally or more; like contrast, greyscale range, hertz, blahblah. The tough thing is, those things are rarely specified and I'm by no means knowledgeable enough to discover them adequately in the store. I need a tv maven. Do make an argument, by the way, why in those range of inches you'd rather go for a 720 setup? Nachimir; that would be ideal if the store were to provide such setups, but the demo video they run on all tv's at the local chain is horribly encoded and 720i only, making all the tv's look like oversaturated shit. Perhaps I should visit a better store to find out which tv really kicks most ass.

Good choice, it seems. At 32" and smaller it becomes increasingly irrelevant to take Full HD, unless you're literally with your nose on the screen. There's a nice graph somewhere showing the viewing distince you should have to take maximum advantage of your resolution and screen size. Are second-hand tv's reliable, by the way? No guarantees, after all. In fact, I thought the market for second hand was as good as dead (at least, for non-HD sets anyway).