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That's much less than Bang & Olufsen charged me for the SD card in my MP3 player, so I don't know where you got such a callous term as "raped" from.

Besides, using non-Sony accessories in a Sony device is just asking for trouble. I buy my electronics at boutiques and premium retailers, so I assume things are different in your neighborhood.

I suppose you think that MP3s, which do not benefit the artist at all are better than my Sony compact discs, which are specially desgned to protect the artist.

Granted, the PSP can play games, but who really wants to pay $250 for the one or two good games it has to offer?

On the other hand, for almost $100 less money you can have this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6970 469&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat139000500 18&id=1099386329954

That gives you access to your EXISTING dvd collection, rather than paying more money for lower quality versions of movies you may very well already have, that will not play on ANY other device besides the PSP. Furthermore, get yourself a DVD burner and burn 4.7GB (or 8.5gb if you shell the cash for DL) worth of MP3's to listen to on the go.

Granted, the PSP is smaller and looks "sexier" but it also only has a, what, 4.5" screen? The dvd player I cite (and there are others, especially in the car-only segment, you can get a dual screen setup for $250) has a 7" tft.

Battery time is also directly comparable, not due to portable dvd players having good battery life, but instead due to the PSP having terrible battery life.

Clearly there are pros and cons to both, but, this post claiming "Nice that they're finally doing something defining with the console" makes me realize just how sad the PSP's showing really is.

Nothing in the post today can't be done on a DVD. I guess if you really want to shell out $249.99 msrp for vendor media lockin on movies, a smaller screen, and access to *WOW* digital comics *laugh*, then by all means, buy a PSP.

p.s. I didn't even bother comparing digital media players due to price, but, the price vs. feature set, with emphasis on size comparison with the PSP, also makes these devices a much better deal if you're looking at the PSP with movie watching in mind.

Not sure what you're talking about. Tiger is $129. You get this nifty operating system to go with your iPhoto too, plus a pile of other excellent programs! Better than paying $300 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=670 9065&type=product&id=1083713449054) for a copy of Paint, isn't it?

Ever priced an HDTV TV set lately?

Wonder why those TV sets under 35 inches do not support HDTV? Only the wealthy can afford them.

Now try to convince them to spend thousands of dollars on an HDTV system to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disks

This is the BetaMax vs. VHS wars all over again.

The worst of it is, you can't upgrade to a better 3D card without re-buying the TV tuner features again and again, since if you use them as a secondary card (PCI versions) the TV features don't work! I tend to upgrade my video card and CPU a lot more often than I need to upgrade me TV-in ability. I've since switched to stand-alone generic PCI tuner cards, which work much better, and don't get in the way of upgrading my main AGP or PCI-express video card when I need to play newer 3D games.

This is the best point I've ever seen anyone make against the AiW series (or any combined 3D/Capture card, for that matter). Considering that the AiW version of the card can apparently cost over $100 more than the base card, it's definitely something to consider, even without the added headache of the drivers (I had a 9600 AiW running on Win2k for awhile--every reinstall, you had to install the drivers in a very specific order or you didn't show TV on the machine).

The worst of it is, you can't upgrade to a better 3D card without re-buying the TV tuner features again and again, since if you use them as a secondary card (PCI versions) the TV features don't work! I tend to upgrade my video card and CPU a lot more often than I need to upgrade me TV-in ability. I've since switched to stand-alone generic PCI tuner cards, which work much better, and don't get in the way of upgrading my main AGP or PCI-express video card when I need to play newer 3D games.

This is the best point I've ever seen anyone make against the AiW series (or any combined 3D/Capture card, for that matter). Considering that the AiW version of the card can apparently cost over $100 more than the base card, it's definitely something to consider, even without the added headache of the drivers (I had a 9600 AiW running on Win2k for awhile--every reinstall, you had to install the drivers in a very specific order or you didn't show TV on the machine).

First point me to a sub-$1000 50" HDTV that supports 1080i.

The only things I could find in that price range don't natively support 1080i- they downscale to 720p.

And they're mostly projection displays, which come with a huge set of drawbacks (hugely limited optimum viewing angle for one).

I find that the online price of PATA and SATA is similar, but at places like Best Buy the really good rebates go with the PATA ones. For instance, I just bought this drive http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7035 095&type=product&id=1099395865274 a Western digital 300 GB PATA drive for $160 (+$8 in tax, free shipping) then $90 in rebates (net $78). Compare that to newegg.com, the SATA version is $121.50+$4 shipping, and interestingling enough, the PATA version is 129.50+$4 shipping. So, the PATA version is cheaper by a large margin, and I see deals like this pretty much every weekend from some big box retailer.

$2,315? Sounds a little steep for me. I'd rather buy a 42-inch plasma TV.

Read the fine print on the rebate, it probably says it will take up to 3 or 4 months. That's legalese for it will take 3 to 4 months. But really, the reason for this seems to be to allow offering huge doorbuster sales without people coming in and buying ten or twenty of an item (usually at a loss to the company) and then turning around and selling them at a higher price on Ebay or wherever (note that the fine print allows only one rebate per household, although they usually let you get away with two or three.)

That's the price you pay for getting a halfway decent 120 gig Western Digital Hard Drive for about $40 (or rather about $100, and then you get $60 back in a few months.) If you're not comfortable with this, you can just go and buy pretty much the same hard drive from Best Buy for about $110. Or just get it from Newegg, well, closest I found is a 160 gig, pretty much same drive otherwise, for $76.00.

But the point of the really good deal on the Circuit City stuff isn't for them to make money on the sale. The point is for them to get you in the store, where you will hopefully buy something else. But I've never really been pressured into buying more thigns, and have generally found the staff to be very helpful when there are stocking issues... Last time I got something that they had on massive rebate, they didn't have any in stock buy did tell me when the next expected shipment was (about 2-3 hours later.) Are they offering the rebates out of a sense of benevolence? No, but I didn't take them out of a sense of pity for the company either. I bought the stuff I wanted and filled out and mailed in the rebates cause that was a way for me to get stuff I wanted at a pretty decent price.

3ghz celeron pc just over $200
http://cgi.ebay.com/CELERON-D-345-PRESCOTT-3-06-Gh z-450w-BAREBONES-SYSTEM_W0QQitemZ8729952145QQcateg oryZ52476QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
3.2ghz P4 about $360
http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-3-2GHZ-P4-512MB-80G-CDRW -USB2-VIDEO-LAN-COMPUTER_W0QQitemZ8729845117QQcate goryZ52476QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

xbox360 about $400
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9999 46700050005&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat6 6900050001&id=pcmprd46900050005

If you're going to make a cluster why not just use common PC equipment ?
It's cheaper than the 360 and I'd guess at alot easier

If I paid $250 for a friggin' remote, you can bet I'd be crawling on my hands and knees looking for it.

Call of Duty 2 for the PC has been out since October.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6884 204&type=product&id=1095432669123/

They're apparently very proud

Huh? So if Microsoft didn't exist, Apple would be out of business? I think, more likely, they'd be huge.

Mac is a niche platform and they will continue for support Office for Mac until they see Mac as a real threat.

That's a concern among Mac users, but it's not as clear cut as that. First of all, failure to open Office file formats in addition to failure to produce a version of office for any other platform would probably land Microsoft in some more anti-trust hot water. Additionally, Microsoft really has *two* cash-cow monopolies. Office doesn't just prop up Windows, it's a big deal in its own right. If Apple grew to the point of being a real threat, Microsoft would probably be hesitant to lose that market for their Office suite. The more threatened Windows is, the more Microsoft needs to ensure the viability of Office in order to survive.

Apple's merits and "you-get-what-you-pay for" philosophy only make sense with an alternative such as MS that works but isn't sexy or stylish.

Again, huh? Are you implying that Microsoft products are cheap? The retail price of Windows XP is $300.

It just seems like owning a Apple product turns people into RDFed Steve fans.

So, essentially, you don't want to buy an Apple machine because you're afraid that you'll like it so much it'll turn you into a fan of Apple products?

"the word on the street is that Samsung will have a 4ms display available this year"

I just saw a Samsung LCD at Best Buy ratd at 4 ms, so I guess the word on the street is a little slow.

See: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7440 726&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01011&id=112 4432188195

and one to keep the kid quiet in the car.

If your kid breaks a $130 DVD player, it's cheaper than if your kid breaks a $250 PSP. In fact, you could almost buy a Nintendo DS and a portable DVD player for the price of a PSP.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7015 794&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat139000500 18&id=1099394245802 I just got it from Best Buy's website and selected the store pickup option. It looks like their sale ended (I got it yesterday), it's $129.99 now, but it looks like there's a 2 free DVD promotion with it now, so that might make up for it.

I think consumers are going to be turned off by the fact that they can just get the DVD for the same price or less. That said, I'm sure the people who come home and miss the show once or twice will download it. Or the ones who can't wait to watch it all at once. They might even lure in the people who won't make big buys but will shell out the same amount a dollar or 2 at a time. But I think they need to price below the DVDs to really get it kicked off.

That said, just the idea is definately enough to get me to install iTunes on my media center box back home. And, you know, I might shell out a buck or 2 for a few shows. Just to see what I think. I hope there is an option to burn to DVD though.

People talking out of their ass with no idea what they're saying get modded up to +5, and all the replies below him pointing out how wrong he is don't.

Retard.

A lot of the decent ATI cards, and all of the Hauppauge cards (that I know of) run with Linux.

Just because you either a) bought a crappy card, or b) have no idea how to get Linux running, or c) are a Microsoft fanboy does not mean that you have to order a "specialized Linux supporting card."

Double retard.

I must be color blind or something, because this Gamecube looks black to me...

Looking at Best Buy, more than a few (although that of course is not before mp3 players, but portable radios are not exactly a new technology so I doubt it was that different a few years ago). And I do remember my old walkman had a radio that I used all the time, so it is not a new concept.

But so what? My point was that there was a very small market for mp3 players before the iPod but Apple was able to build one around their product. Why can't they do the same thing for a video player?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7045 388&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat526000500 07&id=1099396976753 i think thats what your looking for. it does cd's, but the usb port is convenient enough.

Bob buys a PS3 and uses a memory stick to save his game data. He decides to buy a digital camera and lo and behold, he sees that the sony digital cameras use the same memory format his PS3 uses. no need for him to buy that extra memory card or at least if he does, he can use it along with his ps3. imagine if he brings his camera over to a friend's house. friend has a PS3 as well. Want to see the pictures? Plug it into the PS3. Want to play that party game with everything unlocked? Wait a minute, it's in his memory card that he uses for both PS3 and digital camera so he has it with him because he has his digital camera. What? He didn't save it onto his camera's memory stick? Why, just download it from some gaming website, copy it to the memory stick through your sony vaio, and play the party game with all games unlocked that way.

Bob buys a PS3 and uses a memory stick to save his game data. He decides to buy a digital camera and lo and behold, he sees that the sony digital cameras use the same memory format his PS3 uses. no need for him to buy that extra memory card or at least if he does, he can use it along with his ps3. imagine if he brings his camera over to a friend's house. friend has a PS3 as well. Want to see the pictures? Plug it into the PS3. Want to play that party game with everything unlocked? Wait a minute, it's in his memory card that he uses for both PS3 and digital camera so he has it with him because he has his digital camera. What? He didn't save it onto his camera's memory stick? Why, just download it from some gaming website, copy it to the memory stick through your sony vaio, and play the party game with all games unlocked that way.

I haven't had any trouble with printer sharing with ubuntu. Check out the forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/.

There are still new TVs being sold now without HDMI or DVI inputs. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7017 694&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat318000500 31&id=1099394251016 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7045 477&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat318000500 31&id=1099396991085

There are still new TVs being sold now without HDMI or DVI inputs. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7017 694&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat318000500 31&id=1099394251016 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7045 477&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat318000500 31&id=1099396991085

You can get one of these brand new from Best Buy. It even includes a built-in pre-amp, so you can hook it directly to the line-in on your sound card. I'm sure it'll make audiophiles scream (what doesn't, though?) ... but I'm perfectly happy using this setup to convert vinyl to CDs.

The UK version is being released from Best Buy stores as an early exclusive.. The differences between it and the US version are generally the music and a changed title on one episode.

Really good professional shops are few and far between anymore because it is hard to make money this way.

The professional shop, however, can usually save your data for you instead of just wiping the drive. And geeks love to through off wiping and reinstalling a system as trivial. Well, most people in the daily light world have no idea where the driver or proram disks are and of course no backups.

So, $70 vs. $400. And keep in mind that $400 gets you an eMachine or toy Compaq. Trashing a $1000 pc for want of cleaning it up is in excusable.

And the first thing the people get after buying the $400 pc (and loosing the disks) is Simms 2 or Guild Wars. Now they need a $150 video card.

For some reason it's not too well publicized, but the Season 1 DVD should be available in about 2 weeks from Best Buy. Link to Best Buy

Best Buy has a lot of CDs for $12.99 or less.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=categ ory&id=cat01167 for floppies. Floppy disks aren't dead yet. Because of the EXTREME ease of use, non-techies still use floppy disks. Some of my friends at college still use floppys to save papers, reports, etc. They do this because it is easy to use, and almost every [purchased] computer has one! I've bought about 6 pc's since 1999, and all have included a floppy drive: 3 sony vaio's 1 compaq 2 linux

http://www.bestbuy.com/

$229!? Please... go to your local best buy and buy one of these: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6559 887&type=product&id=1077630305377

You don't need Directv service to use the OTA tuner in it, and it costs $50. If they wanted to make only a tuner without the satallite equipment it would be far cheaper. Of course, if your TV is so old it doesn't accept a composite signal you will need a $5 transcoder in addition to that box.

Well, me and the other owners of those 33 million TVs might just give a hoot. Not everyone [wants|can afford] cable or dish service, y'know.

Lets see, 33 million? That's a lot of people when you think about it. New York state only has 19.1 million people in it. 33 million is more than the population of most states.

Just how much will I need to spend in order to keep watching TV once they ram this through?

Depends on how much a D/A downconverter box costs at that point. At Best Buy the Funai ATSC/HDTV Receiver with Indoor Antenna will recieve H/DTV (HDTV and SDTV) and convert them to analog ouputs. Cost? $229. It's still a little bit more than you need for your current TV as it will output DVI (although if you have an LCD monitor you can watch it on there).

The CEA (or at least some of its members) have been asking congress for a hard cut off date for when analog will be shut down. They then will start about 12-18 months prior to that date mass producing D/A converter boxes. They expect that they can produce them for sale for somewhere between $50-$80. Specific numbers I have read about are $50 and $66.

I suggest reading TV Technology as they cover the issue quite frequently.

Disclaimer: I work at a TV Network.

Here's a few options.
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/171980.asp
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/156041.asp
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=642 254
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=3598 770&type=product&id=1051806262714

The only place I saw that didn't have same day shipping was outpost.com.

No major manufacturer doesn't offer drives with a 3 year warranty, but most (all but Segate?) offer drives with 1 year warranties. WD's special edition drives have 3 yr warranties, and Maxtor's MaxPlus drives have 3 yr warranties, but their lower end drives are all 1.

Examples:
250GB WD from Best Buy
120GB WD from Best Buy

80 GB Maxtor from Best Buy
80GB Hitachi from Best Buy
Actually, I looked at 6 drives at Best Buy's website; 4 had 1 yr warranties, and 1 was a Segate I never expected to.

300GB Maxtor from Newegg
120GB Iomega drive from Newegg
120GB external WD drive from Newegg

No major manufacturer doesn't offer drives with a 3 year warranty, but most (all but Segate?) offer drives with 1 year warranties. WD's special edition drives have 3 yr warranties, and Maxtor's MaxPlus drives have 3 yr warranties, but their lower end drives are all 1.

Examples:
250GB WD from Best Buy
120GB WD from Best Buy

80 GB Maxtor from Best Buy
80GB Hitachi from Best Buy
Actually, I looked at 6 drives at Best Buy's website; 4 had 1 yr warranties, and 1 was a Segate I never expected to.

300GB Maxtor from Newegg
120GB Iomega drive from Newegg
120GB external WD drive from Newegg

No major manufacturer doesn't offer drives with a 3 year warranty, but most (all but Segate?) offer drives with 1 year warranties. WD's special edition drives have 3 yr warranties, and Maxtor's MaxPlus drives have 3 yr warranties, but their lower end drives are all 1.

Examples:
250GB WD from Best Buy
120GB WD from Best Buy

80 GB Maxtor from Best Buy
80GB Hitachi from Best Buy
Actually, I looked at 6 drives at Best Buy's website; 4 had 1 yr warranties, and 1 was a Segate I never expected to.

300GB Maxtor from Newegg
120GB Iomega drive from Newegg
120GB external WD drive from Newegg

Portable DVD players aren't exactly $300 plus bucks. I know, I know, depending on which one you get the price will go up. Just looking at best buy real quick shows that this off brand Insignia(TM) 7" 16:9 Widescreen Portable DVD Player costs $129. That's cheap. Cheap and it plays your DVDs from home...the ones you already own AND you don't have to purchase the movie twice. You can also hook it to your TV to watch the same movies and share with everyone. It supports DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW, MP3 and JPEG formats, has dolby digital, Composite video and stereo audio outputs and a remote and car adapter.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7006 704&type=product&id=1099392260799

3 monitors? I'm sure you've heard of a KVM switch? I use one for my four boxes and it's life in heaven. Of course, if you're referencing things on one to do work on the other it could be a nuisence. Anyway, the energy costs are far lower than having 3 CRTs chugging away.

I use the IOGEAR 4 port: clickity

Also, LCD screens use a lot less energy but are obviosly too cost prohibitive in your area. Good luck with that.

In the UK you can pick up a "Freeview" box (which receives free to air digital programming via an aerial) for about 40 quid.

Like hell it is.

Windows XP Professional, retail, non-upgrade is $299.00

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6709 065&type=product&cmp=++&id=1083713449054

It's ~130$ for OEMs, which is not available to the public.

Thanks genius, your solution would have me staring at $350 of high-definition static.

I've seen that TV in purpose and have considered it.

Trouble is, it doesn't come with an HDTV tuner. It's "HDTV Ready". Tuners cost $250, and I'll still need to get cable/satellite (what a rip off) or a HDTV antenna ($30+, which is acceptable). Either way, this is $300 more then the $250 solution I'm looking for.

Also, how exactly will you judge that something will last 11 years without a single problem?

Well first off, usually they'll be made by a company with a good reputation and has a good warranty (My 11 year old Magnavox had a 3 year warranty I think?). Who is "Advent"?

Okay

That took me about 30 seconds to find. Best Buy happened to be the first retailer I hit, but I'm sure you'd have similar results elsewhere.

1) Granted, it's $329 instead of $250, but it's also 27" instead of 21". Don't forget to factor inflation.
2) In a few months, a TV like that will be required to receive free over-the-air transmissions, so I'm sure you'll see a model sometime closer to the end of this year with those features.
3) I don't know what sort of Home Theater equipment you have, but this thing has plenty of inputs and a line-level audio out, so I don't see how it couldn't.
4) Done plus 6"
5) There's a 26" Widescreen Samsung CRT on that same site for $450, so it's $120 more.
6) Wouldn't we all like that. Hell, you can't say that about anything, and it's not a by-product of DTV or not. My folks have a cheap Magnavox from the mid 80's that still works, and I've seen quality, name-brand TVs from many different time periods crap out. This one will be a crapshoot. Also, how exactly will you judge that something will last 11 years without a single problem?

Remember: $8,000 65" HDMI-equipped LCoS TVs with 1080p display capability are NOT the only DTVs out there.

You can get Laser printers pretty darn cheap now. Samsung has one for $150 that is proudly proclaimed to work with Linux.

OK, so apparently the people who replied think that "out of stock" means that there aren't any available. I apologize for not linking every single retailer selling every single 64bit laptop out there. My bad.

Instead of asking them to just google themselves, here is one that is available:
At Tiger Direct with a gaming video card.

That one has the 3200+ cpu (2.0GHz), and here is one that is faster (3700+):
at best buy even.