Jasper

Apple introduced USB to the iMacs, and from there it's popularity grew. Apple would have had their way nif they didn't charge that much, wich was the downfall of FireWire. Apple's own properties never really take off because of High pricing. But that's a little off topic, so let's go back to HD DVD vs. Blu Ray.

You know, all your arguments are so easy to take down. "It's just a better product" - keep youyr personal taste on the side. "Blu-Ray has stuff like more space, scratch resistance" - more space, yes, if you're talking data, not if you're talking movie. The compression is better on HD DVD. "A spec below Blu Ray" - honestly, again that's your opinion. The specs are equally good, movies run fine on it. That the PS3 is the most powerfull player out there, much more powerfull than any HD DVD player except Xbox, is not a valid argument. "It also helps that the PS3 is the best HD player on the market by far." - Again, that's you personal opiinion. It's not the best HD Player, because it's not actually an HD player. If you take all the other functionality out of the PS3, then it's just another player. It's dishonnest saying thatBluRay wins because of the PS3 being the best player. "It just works effortlessly and gives the best Picture. " - I think that, if I read this thread and some arguments posted, that Blu-Ray and HD DVD give the same quality picture and sound. So all your 'just better' arguments are worthless now. Don't twist my words - I'm only speaking from the marketing side. And for marketing, Blu-Ray has huge advantages. I personally think that this war will be won by the choice that Apple makes. Call me a fanboy, but all those USB ports you're using wouldn't be there if Apple didn't put them on their iMacs. All those iPods out there - even the fake ones - wouldn't have been a huge market like it is now without Apple. And the computer industry as a whole wouldn't have been anything without Apple's early computers and GUI. Don't forget, Bill Gates used Macs as inspiration (wich isn't an accusation, I don't want to start that again, but every gets influenced and inspired by what happens around them - watch 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' for more background on that). So if Apple decides to go only for Blu-Ray, than it's HD DVD that's in trouble. I know Apple is in the Blu-Ray alliance, but that doesn't mean they'll have to choose.

In term's of marketing, Blu-Ray is better. Because it's much more surprising. HD DVD is too long, says to much (and therefore passing curiosity away from the user). Blu-Ray can pull this attraction from users because of it's high-priced curiosity. Also, HD DVD is starting with too low prices, way too early in the war. HD is still something that's supposed to cost a lot of money - not because it has too, but because it's an awesome buzzword that will only become popular when the heat settles down. Most people don't buy into the buzz - they wait it out and see afterwards. But HD DVD is already within their price range, and is therefore not really a part of the buzz anymore - but the problem is that they're supposed to be buzz. People look at HD DVD as if the buzz without HD. Sounds logical anyone?

From a marketing point of view, Blu-Ray will win. It's much easier to remember than HD DVD (wich takes twice as long to pronounce). AFter CD, people looked for the new name. DVD got that, and now we need a new name. VCD didn't make it either (although it's not technically the same, off course). Now I'm looking from a marketing standpoint, never forget that. But Blu-Ray is marketed by Sony, who can pull huge strings on the movie industry thanks to Sonys own film companies. A lot of films are being made by Sony, and the real big films are made by choosers of blu-ray. I'de place my bet on Blu-Ray, like with DVD, thansk to PlayStation's unsurpassed name in Media. It made DVD big, it'll make Blu-Ray big - if digital download doesn't do that before them.

But you advice a) not an 'cheap' (Apple-terms) APpleTV b) a Mac (it's pretty expensive for what you get and what you need). But honestly shorty, I think there are cheap windows pc's out there that you can use as media center, even PC's that go as low as beneath €100.

i could've known that emasher would make it tooo apple... Be has a point, but you'de better get a windows media pc, since the can pull alot off, alot better. More formats supported, more compatible. And mac mini is overpriced.

If you're on Mac you could go for an Apple TV? wich is pretty good at streaming? I know, crappy solution (it'll cost you), but you could go for that. The only thing you need is: a mac, an Apple TV and a wireless network. Or you could try to connect a tiny computer to your TV and install iTunes on it? It allows for streaming from the other person's library (only streaming, though)

You're, uhm, shot in the head or something? I don't know, but no man living can come up with such scary-yet-santa avatars. Good job, that is. That's eight heartbeats out of ten, pal.

What i've noticed is that firefox only saves favicons of websites you visit frequently. I think he deletes them every day, unless you visit those websites.

Now that's just silly. I have a better idea: why can't N-Europe start shifting their focus a little? Yes, there are forums and there's the limited blog - but why doesn't N-Europe start their own matchmaking site? N-Europe matchmaker or something. All the people on the forums would autmaticly be registred, but it's not a forum: it's just a possibility to set matches and trade all WiiCodes before the match. This would make it incredibly easy and because N-Europe endorses it, it could become the best Wii Matchmaker. Come on, N-Europe, start branching out and use your name for other projects, too.

Looks really cut-'n-paste, but it's full of that christmas love. It's worth an 8, just because it's christmas. And because it's christmas, I decided to change my avatar. But here's a tip to all of you: after Christmas, I'll return my horrific Wii-man avatar again!

I'm going to be honest: it's good. Enough. What you miss is a more interesting sound track (there's too much talking with no background noise or sound). Try to find a recurring tune for every time you zoom into the appartment. Speed up the animation a little (everything is moving a tad to slow) and make you jokes faster en more to-the-point (by wich I don't mean 'change them', I actually mean, make them get to the point a little faster). The animation is 'nice' (although it's sad that some things are drown very detailed and others are just basic shapes) - try to get some consistency in the visual appearance of characters and decide to make you background fit in with the characters (and the other way around). If you wantg to make it look crap (wich isn't always bad), do so - but do'nt mix up crap with kind-of nice art (like realistic link and the guy in blue). But if you keep this up, speed up the talking scenes and get a decent sound-track behind it, you'll probably make a pretty succesfull cartoon if you want to.

Wii Online Manager Nintendo Wi-Fi Manager Wi-Fi competition manager (I just really like the word manager, don't I?) MatchMaker (that exists, doesn't it? Okay, let's kall it WiiatchMaker or MatchWiiker) Or even better: WiiMatch. Okay I'm all sucked dry of ideas. I can keep saying ridiculous stuff, but I won't.

The blue screen of death! Didn't know that even existed anymore. I thought it was a legend, like the Loch Ness Monster! Can you describe exactly what you were doing when the system crashed and made your eyes all blue-y?

Or dub it for some hilarious effects. But you have a mic and a camera in your mac, you just need the correct software now. I would tell you to take on Leopard (since your computer is pretty recent) with heaps of new features and ease to tape video podcasts with photo booth.

If you have a build-in isight, you will have an build in microphone (or is that iMic?). If you want to do videopodcasts, use Apple's Photo Booth. You can record movies with that, and it will include sound. Just make sure you're close enough to the microphone (those aren't perfect, dear). You can still cut it in iMovie later.

Just throwing it in there, I would personally never buy an Apple TV if only because of the lack of supported formats (wich I said). I was just mentioning it for now. But yeah, that's what to be expected from me :wink:.

I knopw I'm going to get flamed for this one, but... get an Apple TV? It's a great next-to-your tv solution, and people have managed to crack and run macos X on it, too, so that would be a possibility. Apple TV is an example of a topsetbox that streams for you, so it's a I know I'm gonna get flamed for this, but why not try Apple TV? It's a genuine solution for your media-center problems. The only downside is the lack of format support for Quicktime. But some even managed to get OSX ruunning on it, so maybe you should go for that? Just saying, don't shoot me for this one.

So that makes it better? Tsss... Apparantly, Windows can do it - but it still does it the same way, since it uses a real lot of space, wich to me means he switches to that space and then changes the other part. Ah well. The admin did it again.

That's seems odd. There is a reason why there's a difference, so he'll at least will need to rewrite the data. If it just changes the tag on your hard disk from FAT32 to NTFS, than I don't see why there are different systems at all. But yes, it's probably possible. Even though I can' write those commans anyway.

You can't just switch the drive without losing data on it, so no. You can't convert a FAT32 drive without reformatting it, because FAT32 uses an entirely different way of storing files than NTFS. It's not just a name, you know.

You're not still wondering why people had Apple fans, are you? Because here it is: They just can't stand to be wrong. 'Windows sucks!' ('But it isn't all that bad!' 'No, Windows sucks ass! And mac rules! Everything is perfect about it! No flaws at all, and those who find flaws should probably have bought a new computer. You don't run Leopard on an iBook even though it's supported! You're a freak!') This is exactly the same thing that happened in the mac thread. Because I'm not not British or American I can't participate since I'm going to make errors along the typo-way anyway. But let's be honest here: my English is way better than some of the British people over here who think MSN is the only language in existence. I know, we've (again) strayed far from the topic here but I'm really sick and tired of all the off-the-point stuff here that isn't helping anyone. Version number? Who gives a damn, jsut answer the question and if necessary, add the version you're using to point out that it's guaranteed to work in that version. Podcast (and videopodcasts) can easely be taped with Photo Booth - with or without additional h. Was that something to comment on? I find it offensive that you guys respond to a typo (or a strange belgian habit of not usualy having an h at the end of a word) as if I can't even write English. We all know what I meant, and still you had to point it out in such an offending way. You could have said: "You can tape podcasts with Photo Booth, but you've made a typo there". That would have been fine. Actually it's offensive to yourselves. If one letter makes your logical references fade away, then you're plain dumb. No offense, but hey, if one missing h makes you search for an entirely different application, than that's just plain stupid.

So now I'm nitpicky? First you start asking the version number, wich doesn't help at all and even after asking you can't answer his question (so that was pretty pointless) and then Emasher comments on a typo (that's nitpicky!) in a post that was related to a question by someone. You guys really are the stereotype Aple-freaks, wanting to know every little detail is right, but not knowing how it works.

Yes, since it's an actual argument. It's more of a I-dont-know-what-to-say-so-lets-piss-off-jasper argument than it is about taping a podcast with photo booth. I really like Photo Booth, but what the hell is it doing on my iBook without a camera? Really odd, and it crashes once you try to load it, so it's pretty useless.

Oh my God. I forgot the h. I must really have been talking drible those last two posts! Come on, Emasher, if you want to start nitpicking, do it somewhere else, but stop bothering me because of a typo.