McPhee

We've got two plasma screens in our house. Both are made by Panasonic, a 2005 model and a 2008 one. I've never had any problems with image burn on either. I did get image retention on the 2005 model once but that was after leaving a TV show on pause, nipping up to my room to get something, falling asleep, getting up the next morning, heading off to work and stopping off at the pub for a few on the way back. Easily 20 hours of the same image displayed on screen. I completely freaked out when i realised and was pretty much in panic because the image was still on screen. A few hours of TV though an it faded, the image was retained but it didn't burn in. Other than that little incident i've had no issues. I wouldn't say i only game for a few hours at a time either. I've completed both Devil May Cry 4 and CoD:WaW in a single sitting each on the newer TV without any problems from it. Personally i'd go for a Plasma. The blacks tend to be deeper resulting in more accurate colours and they don't suffer from the ghosting you get on cheaper LCD sets. LCDs do tend to have brighter, move vibrant colours and a sharper image but i can't say i see either as an advantage. That said i have heard mixed reports about Samsung plasma screens. Their technology isn't up to the same standard as Panasonic or Pioneer (or rather just Panasonic now as Pio left the TV game). The TVs generally aren't as good and you do still hear the occasional horror story about burn-in on Samsung/LG/Hitatchi models. If you can't grab a good deal on a Panasonic then it might be better to get the Samsung LCD set. This. Was about to say the same thing.

Pop the Windows disk in, reboot and follow the on-screen instructions. There should be an option to do a "repair install".

I can't say i really see the point to be honest. It sounds like the sort of thing i'd dual boot with Windows (like i did with Sabayon/Ubuntu Linux when i had Vista) to give me a cleaner, quicker to boot OS for simple web tasks. To that end i'd rather have seen the Netbook edition of Android pre-installed on motherboards (ala Asus MagicGate) instead, it'd fill the same tasks and be a darn site faster. On the little info available i'm pretty skeptical. With Windows incompatable with Tegra, Snapdragon and ARM processors i can see it being successfull in the netbook market, but i'm not quite sure what advantages it offers this market over Android. I can't see it ever becoming an OS X/Windows competitor either, the initial release to the netbook market will define it and the apps made for it.

The last thread we had on this was locked, that's why there "isn't one". As for the upscaling debate i'm really not sure where any of you are going with it? Wii games are designed to be played on TVs at a resolution of 640x480. Try playing it on a TV with a resolution of 1920x1080 and you'll get an image that's been (rather crudely) upscaled by the TV. This emulator should yield better results because it's able to apply Anti-Aliasing, Anti-Filtering and Bloom Lighting to smooth over the jaggies created by the upscaling process. The result is that while Wii games will likely look better on a small screen 480p CRT the emulator (and with it any prospective HD-enabled Wii) will do a better job of displaying Wii games on high defenition sets (sets that are always going to highlight the flaws in the original game anyway). As most people aren't going to keep a "Wii TV" along with their shiny new HDTV it does make sense to move down this sort of direction, it's making the most of a bad situation. Anyone care to argue that i'm wrong? Or can i lock this thread now?

If you've not bought yet then get this; http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-786V2G Along with this; http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168023 Two different stores ain't ideal, but you can't beat those prices

If he bought him a jacket from a charity shop there's no reason this guy has to know it's from a charity shop. He doesn't know for sure that the jacket that Flink had was his jacket yet, could be interesting to see if he admits that it isn't his or if he would just take it...

I'd say the toughest games i've ever played are Ikaruga, Alien vs Predator, Battletoads, Alien Hominid and Metal Slug 3. Every one is nails! Of those AvP is probably the toughest.

The mistake you made is agreeing to get the jacket back to him in the first place. You should have left it to the person who took the jacket. If you agreed to this guy that you'd get this jacket back to him then i can kinda see how it's your fault that he hasn't got it, you didn't make sure that he got it back. If you left it in the care of other people after agreeing to get it back to him then that is your problem really. I wouldn't say you're the one owe him the money back though, the responsibility for it going missing is with the people you left it with.

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/blu-ray-software-general-discussion/81007-new-tier-system-blu-ray.html Worth a look. Pretty good list so far, though it needs updating. I buy Blu-Rays because the colours are so many times better than on DVD. Black, for example actually is black (or pretty close to it) rather than the grey found on DVDs. Every colour is just a lot more accurate and vibrant than on DVD. The resolution is talked about a lot but i find it secondary.

O2 are determined to push the UK to US style mobile phone pricing. Tis all about the profit, the US market and the iPhone in the UK are both proof that people will pay through the nose for their mobile contracts if they feel they have to. Moving the market towards 24-month contracts and reducing handsets subsidies is vastly boosting the profit that the networks are making. The next step is to get rid (or control) companies like The Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U (there's already a rumor of a P4U buyout by the networks) to reduce competition. At the rate things are going next year could be teh suck for buying phone contracts, especially for O2 customers. Then again if Vodafone succeed in buying T-Mobile then it'll be them dictating the direction the phone market moves in rather than O2, they'll have a 45% share of the UK market.

Um... yeah. It's not exactly a new feature, the first phone i had that could manage this was an N91 about 6 years ago now. The reason why it hasn't replaced broadband is because of cost. Most mobile networks limit your downloads over mobile internet to 512MB/month. They're tolerant about it, i've used a couple of GB before without any trouble. If you used it as your sole internet connection there is a good chance you'd run up enough GBs of downloads to get slapped with a ruddy huge bill.

Will be me tomorrow, can't wait! Really can't think of many things better than seeing Blur in Hyde Park on my birthday with the sun shining! (I know the weather forecast says it's gonna piss it down but it's wrong. It's wrong until the moment i get caught in a thunder storm, until then it's gonna be the hottest day of the year tomorrow! )

The Nokia 5800 has hit that price point a few times. Same goes for the E71, Both cracking phones, best ones Nokia has put out since the N95. Might be worth looking at 2nd hand though, you'd be suprised what you can pick up sub-£200 on AVForums or What Mobile. Seen mint condition Blackberry Storms, Xperia X1s, Touch HDs and T-Mobile G1s all go at bargain prices!

How did you lot manage to pick the one weekend this month that i'm not in London? Curse yooos!

One day, not in my plans for a long time though! If it happens, it happens i guess. I did get someone pregnant once but she freaked out, tried to commit suicide and ended up aborting the baby instead. Oh what a fun week that was, nearly lost my job through it all as well. True story. The psycho bitch actually thinks there's a chance of us getting back together too, a year on and she still hasn't given up despite the fact i'm seeing someone else. Rez, any chance on some advice on restraining orders? :p

Sony do a good range of sound kit. My Dad got a HT-SF1300 for Christmas (now discontiued) and it's pretty good for what it is. Other than that it's either all-in-one kits (probably worth getting one with Blu-Ray as you're looking at buying a player anyway) or seperates (AV Amp + Speakers + BD Player). Going with seperates can be expensive and there's a bit more set up required than in the all in one kits but the results are generally better.

For the DVD player and Gamecube your best bet is to hook them up by component, Scart will look terrible. Then it's a case of tweaking sharpness until you're happy (but bare in mind it'll probably need turning back up for Blu-Ray and other HD stuff).

It'd make sense to go Panasonic seeing as you're already using a Panny TV, you can control both devices through one remote and the TV will switch itself on when you put a disk in the Blu-Ray player. As for models i'm not really sure what the more expensive ones buy you. I know that when i bought mine the only significant difference between the BD35 and BD55 was a few extra connections on the 55 (stuff for connecting to older amps, not really usefull if your kit uses HDMI). Picture quality was supposedly the same on both and on all but the most expensive players.

Assuming it's the same as last year turn Intelligent Frame Creation off (Menu - Setup Menu), turn Colour Management and P-NR off (Menu - Picture Menu) and make sure sound is set to speech (Menu - Sound Menu - Mode) and Speaker Distance to Wall is set correctly (Menu - Sound Menu). Might be worth turning Sharpness down a bit too (Menu - Picture Menu). There'll be more specific recommended base settings around for your set, i'm just going off mine here but they should be similar. If you're still not happy try tweaking Viewing Mode and Colour Balance. This is different between models but i know on mine Cinema and Warm look the best. If you still find the sound to be poor then you're going to need a seperate sound system. Pretty much all flat screen tellys suck for sound quality. If picture quality is still a problem when watching TV then try Freesat instead. Comet were running a free install offer when i bought my set.

Coxon's always on fire, you should see him play solo! The guy was freakin retuning his guitar mid-solo last time i saw him (pretty impressive to watch, his right hand was constantly bouncing between the tuning heads and the frets). Can't wait to see Blur on Friday! Neil Young looked like it twas great from what i saw on TV. Same goes for Springstien. Heard it was his first UK festival or sommat like that, incredible that the old fart hasn't played before :p

My guess is users being asked if they want IE8 or not on first boot. If they do then it'll be downloaded through Windows Update. If they don't then they'll have to figure out their own way of getting a browser on to the PC. It fits with reports i've heard that the EU aren't too happy with MS's solution, they wanted MS to leave IE8 out entirely or bundle in various browsers with the OS (though i can't see how this is fair on the browsers that are left out tbh).

Oh crap. I just realized i bought this too Why does this sort of thing seem like a good idea at 4am after a night of drinking? Might see if i can cancel, it's DIRE.

Kingdom of heaven looks pretty bleedin fantastic. It's the director's cut edition too which is actually a really good film. Black Hawk Down is supposed to be phenominal too, especiallyif you have a good sound system!

Not sure where you got that info from, it's completely duff. There will be no upgrade versions in Europe because of the EU's ruling that MS can't bundle IE with Windows anymore. Every version of Windows 7 will require a fresh install as a result. The UK launch pricing is as follows; Windows 7 Home Premium E - £79.99 Windows 7 Professional E - £189.99 Windows 7 Ultimate E - £199.99 All versions are full retail. Home premium will increase in price to £149.99 at some point in 2010 (likely when the beta ends). Microsoft will also be launching a pre-order program starting on 15th July and running through to 14th August. Within this time you can preorder Windows 7 Home Premium E for £49.99 or Professional E for £99.99. These are again full retail versions and will be available while stocks last. Source; http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19061

He booked something like five shows. His agents got a little over enthusiastic (or more likely they had $$$ signes in their eyes) and booked the other 45, then told him Surprised he didn't have a heart attack then tbh. How long do people give it before some lame tribute album is released? Contributing artists? Katie Perry, Lady Gaga, The Jonnas Brothers, Rhianna, Flo Rida? I hate it already