McPhee

Just seen that myself. Downloading the Buckley version now! We won the MTV Awards, now it's round 2. COME ON INTERNET! : peace: TBH i think this is new thread worthy, got to help the cause. ANYTHING to stop Cowell from scoring another Xmas #1

Theoretically the only difference should be that with seperates you have more choice, more combinations and you can upgrade each piece seperately. In reality though they are usually of higher quality and far more feature packed than all-in-one kits. A good starter system for seperates would be something like this; http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/4312 Two months ago it was £400 and a cracking deal at that price (the amp was retailing for £250 and the speakers for £200). At that price it's a steal. And for all-in-one something down these lines; http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/281/363/-/5599155/Sony-HT-SS1300-5-1-Channel-Home-Cinema-System/Product.html?searchtype=genre http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/281/363/-/5599157/Sony-HT-SF1300-5-1-Channel-Home-Cinema-System/Product.html?searchtype=genre (there's some 5% off codes floating around for play.com btw) Got that last one for my dad's Christmas, seperates wouldn't fit in his AV cabinet On that note actually, size is something worth noting. AV Amps are HUGE and very heavy. If space is an issue then all-in-ones are the only choice really.

They aren't silly comments, "mobile broadband" probably will be the future in the UK. Our telecomms networks are old and in desperate need of upgrading, BT are doing it but it's a very slow and expensive process. The mobile networks on the other hand are rolling out mobile data at an alarming rate, every year coverage gets higher, speeds get faster and download limits are raised. Three and T-Mobile have already started to attack the home market, their websites now stock wireless routers that can take a sim card! Most of the country can now get mobile broadband on Vodafone, T-Mobile or Three. Orange aren't far behind now either. The next obstacle the operators are concentrating on is building penetration, walls do too good a job of decreasing reception at the moment. The networks are looking to get 100% coverage in all towns and cities in the UK and along all major road and rail networks. This leaves something like 0.2% of the population uncovered, but that population is so spread out it's not financially viable to cover them. Even BT are dragging their heels on that one... http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/11/02/Dell-Inspiron-Mini-9-Netbook-on-Vodafone/p1 I'm struggling to resist buying it! Voda's coverage is great around here, the town centre is full 7.2Mbps (or at least the Vodafone shop is...) Frame rates are always averages though, that's why there's always so much fuss about getting games to run at high rates.

How much do you want to spend? Can't really give much advice without knowing, it's basically the key factor in deciding between an all-in-one kit and seperates. You're looking at sub-£300 for an all-in-one really and anywhere from £300 up for seperates.

All this really means for the gaming division is a slower next generation hardware race. Manufacturers will look towards hardware that they can at least break even on rather than choosing to loose hundreds of pounds per sale. There's no way any of the big players would pull out, gaming is far too profitable these days.

In 4 years SSDs would have to drop below today's Hard Drive prices for you to find a 512GB SSD in any console. Prices drop, but not that quickly. Bare in mind here that a 500GB 2.5" HDD is still going to set you back the best part of £100 and a 256GB SSD will set you back £3000! To get a 512GB SSD in Nintendo's next console prices would have to be half of that by 2011.

What are you using it for? The Sony looks stunning with games and Blu-Ray but every time i demo'd it was really, really crap with Freeview. The Panasonic is more middling, pretty good with both and not outstanding with either. Check them out in store (your local Sony Centre and Shop@Panasonic are going to be your best bets for a decent look at the sets). I ended up buying the Panasonic TH-42PZ81. Definitely the right purchase for me

I was refering to how Sony do a wider range of sets, not the quality of their high-end sets. If you bought a Sony set at random it could be a good one (V, W, X or Z series) or it could be a duff (L, U, S, and by this year's standards P and D). There isn't a budget set or a bad set in Panasonic's range, I can't even name a year where there has been one! I wouldn't say Panasonic's sets are "beaten" by Sony's, there's usually quite a difference between the two with both having their positives and negatives. Simply put, Sony's LCD sets are better on High Definition material and handle colours better. Panasonic have done a far better job of scaling SD material on their LCD sets, but the processing involved detracts from the quality of HD pictures. Plasma on the other hand is a whole different ball game. Fair point about LG though, they haven't got much that competes this year. Samsung do better sets at every price point. They do a 37" Plasma and 32" and 37" LCDs. Might be a 32" Plasma in the works for next year too given LG managed it over a year ago now.

I'd try one before buying, not having a hardware keyboard can be a pain in the arse if the touch screen isn't very good. It's a compromise to keep the screen large rather than an effective method of typing.

I never get why people try to generalise the quality of one brand's TVs, it never works! Each set is different and Sony, Samsung and LG.Philips aim for the whole market with their sets. They all compete pretty well at each level. The only brands that can be said to be "safe" buys are Panasonic and Pioneer. They keep a good reputation by ignoring the low (or in Pio's case mid) range of the market. Panasonic's cheapest TV from this year's range is £500 and Pio's is £1000! Not yet they don't, Pioneer don't switch to Panasonic panels until next year. The current 9G Pioneer sets are the last ones to use in-house panels. What? Most PC monitors are dross! They come with the bare minimum of picture processing and rely on the PC to provide the picture processing (which is fine until you give them a different feed). Until you start spending big money the colours are also usually inaccurate and black levels poor. PC monitors have their use, and pound for pound they are better under the right application. Feed them something that isn't made for them though and they crumple (like a feed from a Sky box or a PS3).

I've not enjoyed many games this year really. Played plenty, but i can really see where Jordan is coming from. Team Fortress 2 keeps pulling me back in despite being a year old and NOTHING has kept me away from it yet. Fable 2 was awesome as is Left 4 Dead. Gears 2 and GTAIV were disappointing and i've still not played anything on Wii that has kept me entertained for more than 5 minutes. Little Big Planet is the only game left that i really want to play from this year, it looks stunning! I've been entertained this year, i've just not been blown away. 2009 is looking up though, Empire: Total War and Street Fighter IV at the start of the year!

Sharp provide the LCD panels for Pioneer's LCD TVs. Does this mean that Sharp sets are better than Pioneer ones? It doesn't matter who makes the panel, they are all built to the spec of the company who assemble the TV. LG don't necessarily use the best panels that they can manufacture in their own TVs, they use the best ones that they can afford. The panel itself doesn't matter that much any way, it's all about the picture processing. The market leaders in this area are Philips and Pioneer, both of them do fantastic things with fairly flawed technology. Their top-end sets are so much better than LG and Sharp's top-end sets and yet they use the same panels.

It looks like a CE that's actually worth buying! Still need an arcade stick though, wish they'd bundle one in!

I know, it sucks! I needed another copy, but i'm not paying that much for it! I'm gonna have to use "other methods" to keep me going until 7 is released (i'm talking about Linux, honest )

Check the amp is powerful enough over the two front channels to power the new speakers. If it is then you're all set

No, but most manufacturers only do budget sets at 720p now. The top end sets (i.e. the ones with the better build quality, colour, contrast, etc.) are all 1080p. The Panasonic PX80 and Sony V4500 are the only exception to this rule that i can think of from this years releases. That doesn't mean that all 1080p sets are better than their 720p counterparts, there are budget 1080p sets too.

To be fair, the magazine publisher actually has the statistics about all this stuff (how much they were selling of this magazine, of other magazines and of competitors magazines). There's quite a good chance that they actually do know what they are talking about, if there's a general slump among Nintendo magazines that isn't mirrored in magazines based on other platforms then maybe it is due to the demographic shift. To say that their reason is rubbish is plain dumb, there's nobody on here that actually has any way of knowing either way.

There's a few around. Philips Aurea, 9803 and Sony Bravia EX1 are white along with some of the Loewe sets. Problem is they all cost a bare minimum of £2000! It's wierd i guess. Maybe you're ahead of the curve here, what starts in the high-end usually filters down. Those Philips sets are the best LCD TVs on the market, the Sony is a triumph on engineering and Loewe are basically home cinema style gods. White is the new black?

This is starting to get in to dodgy territory, sorry guys [LOCKED]

http://www.play.com/HOME/HOME/3-/245082/2-/Promo.html Far Cry 2, £17.99 The Force Unleashed, £17.99 Midnight Club: LA, £17.99 The Last Remnant, £17.99 GTAIV, £17.99 Shawn White, £17.99 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, £14.99 (PC Version) Manhunt 2, £17.99 (Wii) Bioshock, £17.99 (PS3) Also, the Rock Band drum kit is now only £49.99 on play.com

It's not just a Sony problem. Samsung have always been the most guilty of exagerating contrast ratios. Using this year as an example the top end started out with the Samsung A656 (50,000:1), Sony W4000 (33,000:1) and Panasonic PZ80 (30,000:1). Reviews had the Panny down as having the best black level response and lowest level of black crush (loss of detail in dark scenes). The Sony and Samsung were pretty much equal. To cement the joke Samsung have claimed a 2,000,000:1 ratio on their new A956 model. It's become that much of a joke that Pioneer have actually stopped publishing figures for their sets. That said black level has improved dramatically in the past few years. The figures being quoted do give a true impression even if they are exagerated, both LCD and Plasma technology are fast approaching true black at the top end of the market (Pioneer are already there, Samsung and Philips are close, Sony and Panasonic will release their attempts soon).

The codes aren't specific to the disk, but they are specific to the manufacturer and sometimes range of laptops. You might get away with robbing a key, but at the same time you might not. It's luck of the draw, not to mention illegal. When the same thing happened to me i wound up running Linux for a bit until Vista came out then i bought a copy of Vista.

It's worth £40, at £20 it's a steal! Still my favourite game this year, despite how awesome Left 4 Dead is!

There's a few minor differences. Firstly you don't get "Visual Voicemail" unless you're on an iPhone tariff, secondly you get unlimited data or unlimited wi-fi rather than both. O2's 3G network isn't great so Wi-Fi is a great bonus really, you get much better speeds where coverage is available (i.e. in pretty much every town center in the country). If you keep the phone for 18-months then you're marginally better off with the contract. It works out a little cheaper, you get Visual Voicemail and Wi-Fi on top of data and at the end of the contract you're likely to be offered a good upgrade deal (usually significantly better than the new customer price). Also, rumoured price drop after Christmas and possible new iPhone at Mac World

Think that's what i'm going for. Might wait until after Christmas though and see, if RIM fix the firmware and Vodafone drop the price a little then i could still be tempted by the Storm. The G1 is available for £99 on a £20/month contract now so it's quite possible.