McPhee

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

The greatest artist of all time imo, he just had everything in his prime. Really wish i'd had the chance to see him perform God damnit, listening to Billie Jean and Don't Stop Til You Get Enough just brought a tear to my eye

Fuck... *Goes off in search of MJ CDs*

Yup. Argos sell them: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5345605/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CHome+entertainment+and+sat+nav%7C12108813/c_2/2%7Ccat_12108813%7CElectrical+accessories%7C12108814/c_3/3%7Ccat_12108814%7CLeads%2C+connectors+and+adaptors%7C12108815.htm http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5342811/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CHome+entertainment+and+sat+nav%7C12108813/c_2/2%7Ccat_12108813%7CElectrical+accessories%7C12108814/c_3/3%7Ccat_12108814%7CLeads%2C+connectors+and+adaptors%7C12108815.htm

I bought this a couple of days ago. Completed the single player in a single sitting, going to try it on the hardest setting when i'm off work next week. Hopefully changing ISPs soon so will get online for a few games too

You can still check for motion blur and artifacts, which are pretty much the biggest inherrent problems with LCDs. Plus some RS stores have demo rooms that you can book to view the kit you're thinking of buying. I know my local one does.

Personally i think more restrictions are needed on motorists. Firstly i'd like to see unmarked cars and speed cameras solely out to catch people doing in excess of 10mph over the speed limit. A £500 fine and three points for the first 10mph, £100 extra for every mph over that and an instant ban for going 20mph over. I'd also like to see regular (every 10 years?) driving tests being brought in, the older people get the more sloppy their driving gets. Experience helps correct this until something unexpected happens, then the problems start. The main problem i have when cycling around roundabouts is indicators. Why the hell don't car drivers use them? I'm cycling round a freaking motorway exit roundabout with no mirrors, trying to watch for traffic in all directions at once. If people don't indicate i've got no way of knowing they're going to exit, and most don't seem to care for that fact. I've taken to using the pavements to get around them instead. If i die on a bike it'll be for one of two reasons; 1. Some prat forgets to indicate, plows straight in to the side of me. 2. Some idiot overtakes me in to incoming traffic, miscalculates, hits incoming traffic and causes a pile up. Neither of those are my fault, they're down to drivers being thick in the head. The last one is the worst, i do a lot of cycling through country lanes. Had a few near misses already. There's new guidelines telling cyclists to do this (when there's no cycle lane present) which is why you see people doing it now. See point 2 above, it stops you overtaking them in to oncoming traffic I don't use it because in my experience it just aggravates car drivers (due to ignorance), making accidents more likely. It's the "40-something, 3 pints in the pub on the way back from the office before doing 90 down country lanes" brigade that annoy me. Boy racers are so overly blamed...

You just highlighted some of the best local multiplayer games in the list There's a lot in there that isn't anything special. Heck, i'd say there's only a few games on the list that actually are. There isn't one game on there though that isn't worth a play through if it's your sort of thing. Most of them are dirt cheap now too, £10-£15 tops. PGR? It's more of an arcade racer, not a sim so not really much of a comparison to that as yet unreleased PS3 game you're referring to

If you're looking for a safe bet try looking in a Richer Sounds. They seem to set their TVs up a bit better than Currys, their staff are more knowledgeable and they'll match any online/offline price in the UK. As for sets, on a £700 budget anything Panasonic would be a good bet. They don't do any budget models and haven't released a bad TV in years, very little chance of getting a dud with them.

Or both, they're both cracking games in their own right. Bought WaW yesterday, did the campaign in one go last night. Not as good as CoD4, but damn fun nonetheless. As for games, other than those already mentioned; GRAW GRAW 2 Dead Rising Street Fighter IV Soul Calibur IV The Orange Box (though better on PC) Far Cry 2 Devil May Cry IV Fable II TESIV: Oblivion The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (if you haven't played 'Escape From Butcher's Bay' then get this. It was one of the best games on the first Xbox and is included in this pack, fully remastered) Pure Fallout 3 Bioshock The Darkness Forza 2 Dead Space Burnout Revenge Burnout Paradise PGR3 PRG4 Fight Night 3 Fight Night 4 Skate Skate 2 GRID UFC Undisputed Viva Pinatta Viva Pinatta 2 DiRT BattleField: Bad Company Loooooong list lol. I just started typing and that's what i came up with. Every one of them worth checking out if they're your thing

ShopTo.net do the codes by email now i believe Creed is great fun. Kinda miss it, might pick it up again soon.

Anyone ever considered starting their own company? Been reading a few blogs lately from people who got so sick to death of being unemployed that they employed themselves. It turns out buying a catering van and cooking burgers for a living is VERY good money. Was chatting to a bloke in town today in his Mr Sizzler van and he was telling me his record takings in a single week was £2k, £1500 profit! Always considered it myself, just never thought there'd be much money in it. You mean Brown? Out of a job? Maybe for about a week but not likely for very long. The guy is one of this contry's greatest financial minds, he'll be snapped up by the private sector damn fast when he stops being PM.

GDP PP is GDP/Population. Not much difference between the figures for England and Scotland though really, the Scots are about £2k below. And i think you'll find that the majority of Scots don't have an irrational dislike of England or the English. Certainly don't know anyone first-hand that hates English people (apart from a few Muslims, but that's a story for a different thread). You're thinking of North Wales there :p

Sod that then. I could take a holiday to Italy and buy one while i'm there and still be quids in against Play.com's price lol

I guess i'd only like to see a relocation of government because London is traditionally seen as the seat of the English parliament, but at the same time it'd be a silly waste of money to move it. Maybe distributing elements of it across the country would make people feel less like everything revloves around events 'down south'? A 'Bank of Britain' in Edinburgh, for example.

That's pretty much what i said though. They'd have to renegotiate the rules of North Sea oil ownership with all of the concerned countries. I've no idea how that'd turn out, but i'd love to see someone try and convince the Norwegian government to sign off on something that says oil isn't necessarily the property of the nearest country. A cut of the profit is far more likely than a cut of the ownership, it's far easier to negotiate. I don't expect the deal to go exactly as the SNP would want it either, there's plenty of sacrifices that'd have to be made. For a start Lloyds and RBS are property of the government these days. Scotland would have to buy them back, baring the brunt of their debt. This is money Scotland doesn't actually have and likely where an oil deal would start from. Fairly moot discussion anyway. I'm more in favour of a properly united Great Britain. I favour Scottish independence over this current sham of a Union, but i'd much rather see Britishness be promoted and ties to old nations disolved. The Union is out dated and doesn't really serve much purpose these days, we're definitely not "Great Britain" at all. Stuff like the Bank of England needs to replaced with a Bank of Britain. Regional sports teams should be replaced by a British team. The English, Scottish and Welsh parliaments should be dissolved and a new one created in a different location (to remove the ties to the parliaments of the old nations).

Locked. Some of you should expect infractions.

So by your own admission you were flame baiting then? Fair enough, i'll remove the infraction for the insult and give you one for that instead. Happy? And i do understand the irony of calling you a twat, that's the exact sense in which it was meant. A lot of figures on Scotland's independant economic position are confusing to be honest. It really doesn't help that most articles haven't been updated recently, they found a new oil field equaling at least 32 Billion barrels (roughly the amount that's been hauled out of the North Sea already) in February. Then there's the fact that RBS and Lloyd's Bank are both based in Edinburgh, to become independant Scotland would likely have to raise the capital to buy both banks from London. As for this; What does me being a mod have to do with my opinion? I don't recall saying "accept that i'm right or i'll infract you all!" did I? No, i merely put forward my take on things (which has one hell of a lot more basis in fact than most of the posts so far in this thread). If they did lay claim to it they'd have to get Norway, Denmark, Holland and Germany to agree to rewrite the ownership rules. Denmark, Holland and Germany might be interested, but not Norway (they already own most of the oil in the North Sea, no way they'll risk putting that up for discussion). As for when the oil runs out, well what does $3 Trillion of investment over 30 years (the amount of time it'll take the oil to run out at current drill rates) buy you? Pre-banking crisis Edinburgh was one of the biggest financial services centers in Europe. It'll have recovered by then. There's also Silicon Glen where some of the biggest electronics and IT companies in Europe are based (along with some of Europe's leading Universities in these fields). Scotland is also tipped as the best place to farm tidal and wind energy in the whole of Europe. In 30 years time they could be exporting pure electricity rather than Oil and Petrolium. The possibilities for people living up there are much better under an independent government. The country already has a pretty good GDP PP (turns out i read the wrong figure earlier, it's already higher in Scotland than in England by about $1000 per capita).

The difference over here is the TV companies are cheap. They broadcast everything at really low bit rates making the picture quality very poor. HDTVs highlight this. Combine a really bad TV channel with a cheap 1080p LCD TV and you get an aweful picture. My Grandpa's set is 720p and that's bad enough (feel sorry for him really, he thinks he got a good deal but in reality he god ripped off by a local independant TV store).