PS3 fiasco
Rootkit
Laptop batteries
BluRay
RIAA/MPAA support
Sony is looking more and more like a company that is poorly led and one that maybe can't be trusted. These are all (so far) huge public relation disasters. I think they need to rethink their strategy, in the meantime, I will be politely avoiding their products.
DLP technology, as others have mentioned, is really cool and has a lot of potential. It is also less expensive than LCD/Plasma, but it is not without problems. (For anyone interested in really researching this, go to AVS Forum, the bible on this sort of thing.) If going DLP, I highly recommend looking into waiting for LED light based models. The first one is coming out right about now. Lots of DLP owners are having trouble with lamps breaking within 1 year at costs of >$200 -- sometimes as high as $400. Other complain about fan noise, rainbow effects, or breaking color wheels. LED based models, in theory, should solve all of these problems, and finally create a large 1080p wide screen tv technology that doesn't lose significant picture quality over time.
WTF? If I've got anyone in IT putting 1,000,000 rows in a spreadsheet, I'm seriously considering demoting them. If you're going to have a million rows, get a database.
I hope you are not a developer because an attitude like this makes software less useable. Frankly, nobody cares what you think (and I hope you realize that there is a point there). As computers get bigger and faster, the software should also grow to accommodate more resources. The fact of the matter is, people hit the limit on excel all the time, and my IT group has to deal with that bs. It wastes my productivity (and my teams), and I have absolutely no say in the matter. You may be right, but that approach is idealistic and not realistic.
You are correct in theory, however, most, 1080p tv's only accept a 1080i HDMI signal, even though HDMI and the TV supports 1080p (I think the HP dlp is the only tv that can). I think the reason for this is that the engineers know that 1080i60 can be converted to 1080p24 without loss. So you can get upset about it and deprive yourself of something cool, or you can realize that it really doesn't make any difference anyway.
For further examples, TV shows are 30 interlaced frames a second which in HD world would be 1080i60. Movies are progressive 24 frames a second. If you want to do this as cheap as possible, you would realize that 1080i60 can do both television (30fps, interlaced) and movies (24fps, progressive), while if they only supported 1080p24, they couldn't support TV shows without loss. So at some point they must have decided not to support 1080p24 because it would cost more to provide support for both. And they knew that it would not be distiguishable anyway.
I disagree. The Toshiba retails for $499 and can be found for $430 w/shipping. This fight is going to take way longer than a year or two to finish. Most probably buy new computer equipment that costs more than that to keep up with technology, at least once every three years. So buy a player, get a netflix rental account and watch high def movies. Why deprive yourself of something, when you probably waste that much money on computer equipment regularly.
You are not totally correct and very misleading. The Toshiba HD-DVD player outputs 1080i at 60fps. Movies are encoded at 1080p at 24fps. So actually, the bandwidth required for 1080i60 is actually, larger than the 1080p you so desire. Unfortunately, 24 does not evenly go into 60, so there are some digital issues that need to be overcome, but in general 1080i should be just fine when upscaled to 1080p.
I hear this during press conferences all the time on live tv. It really isn't a bzzz, but more of a repeating, rapid blip-budup-budup-budup... Listen for it, it happens a lot. In san francisco, it used to happen near the cellphone antenna's on my old walkman.
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It is possible to do better than this, however. For example, heat pumps are more 'efficient' than electric heaters, although you are technically correct.
Are they getting more out of it than they put in? Does it matter? At the worst it will be as efficient as a normal electric heater. So my guess is that they are going to pitch a super efficient heater. Given that, even producing such a device won't resolve the controversy -- even if they sell them. If they can't prove to scientists they are doing this, I can't believe they will be lowering anybody's heating bill soon.
Read AVS Forum, and hear about some of the problems people are having with their TVs. There are tons of issues out there. Plasma TVs degrade over time (years), for example. Another serious problem (in my opinion) seems to be the rear projection tv's (RPTV's) that have bulb issues (such as dlp tv). $250-$400 per bulb, and some consumers are getting blown bulbs after less than $1000 hours of use (the manufacturer specifically says something ridiculous like 6k+ hours). I want a new TV, but I'm not going to spend $3k on something than needs to be worked on or replaced within years. Also, it is ridiculous that 1080p tv's can only accept a 1080i signal through HDMI (If they say it is an 1080p tv it should take a 1080p signal).
Although many of us use different browsers than Opera, the influence of Opera on the browser war is (and was) undeniable. When Microsoft was telling the Dept. of Justice (and americans in general) that they were the real innovators, Opera was out there proving them wrong. Features that were introduced in Opera were later adapted into Mozilla and, I'm confident that many features in future versions of IE will have their roots in Opera.
I hope that Geir Ivarsoy is remembered as being an innovator well after the Opera project has left our collective minds.
All of the stories I've seen is that LG and HP are no longer exclusively going to support Blu-ray (Don't know about Fujitsu-Siemens). Lets review. HD-DVD is coming out in two weeks, and Blu-ray isn't. HD-DVD players are as much as $500 cheaper than Blu-ray. HD-DVD is (not necessarily exclusively) backed by HP, Microsoft, Toshiba, Intel, NEC, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros and other industry giants. The PS3 is ridiculously delayed and its success must be considered in doubt, given its cost and the 360's early release.
Why is Blu-ray even interesting? Because sony supports it? I realize it is a superior format in terms of technology (not price), however, with companies jumping off the exclusivity bandwagon, HD-DVD may have already won. Sony must realize this.
As far as I am concerned, this will have serious consequences on the adoption of Blu-ray, given that Toshiba's HD DVD drive is coming out in three weeks at less than $500. Sony wants to turn video (movie) technology into a war not unlike the video game console wars. Unfortunately, they are going to lose this one, because the 360 is already out, HD DVD is coming very soon, and Sony is already taking a huge risk/loss on the PS3.
I can't say I feel sorry for them, being proprietary is inherently consumer unfriendly, so they have an uphill marketing battle ahead of them. (I realize that HD DVD is pretty proprietary, too, but it is first and less expensive and that will make a huge marketing difference)
So far, there is a lot of evidence that Blu-ray is DOA. HD-DVD is faster to market. HD-DVD players are likely to be more than $500 less expensive than Blu-ray. HD-DVD is cheaper to manufacture. HD-DVD will be backward compatible with DVD with little overhead. The blackhorse in all this is the PS3, but the PS3 looks like it is going to be a *huge* risk for Sony.
The depressing part is that this is turning into a Microsoft vs. Sony fight. Choosing between those to companies doesn't sit well with me, given their track record on doing things good for the consumer.
Slashdot Mirror
PS3 fiasco
Rootkit
Laptop batteries
BluRay
RIAA/MPAA support
Sony is looking more and more like a company that is poorly led and one that maybe can't be trusted. These are all (so far) huge public relation disasters. I think they need to rethink their strategy, in the meantime, I will be politely avoiding their products.
Oops submitted too early. They are also very expensive. There are DLP and LCD options, though. The 24" Dell widescreen might suffice as well.
Not plasmas. There really aren't very many 1080p plasmas.
May 18th is also the day Mt. St. Helens blew up. Generally a bad day.
DLP technology, as others have mentioned, is really cool and has a lot of potential. It is also less expensive than LCD/Plasma, but it is not without problems. (For anyone interested in really researching this, go to AVS Forum, the bible on this sort of thing.) If going DLP, I highly recommend looking into waiting for LED light based models. The first one is coming out right about now. Lots of DLP owners are having trouble with lamps breaking within 1 year at costs of >$200 -- sometimes as high as $400. Other complain about fan noise, rainbow effects, or breaking color wheels. LED based models, in theory, should solve all of these problems, and finally create a large 1080p wide screen tv technology that doesn't lose significant picture quality over time.
WTF? If I've got anyone in IT putting 1,000,000 rows in a spreadsheet, I'm seriously considering demoting them. If you're going to have a million rows, get a database. I hope you are not a developer because an attitude like this makes software less useable. Frankly, nobody cares what you think (and I hope you realize that there is a point there). As computers get bigger and faster, the software should also grow to accommodate more resources. The fact of the matter is, people hit the limit on excel all the time, and my IT group has to deal with that bs. It wastes my productivity (and my teams), and I have absolutely no say in the matter. You may be right, but that approach is idealistic and not realistic.
Most 1080p capable monitors only accept 1080i inputs through hdmi.
You are correct in theory, however, most, 1080p tv's only accept a 1080i HDMI signal, even though HDMI and the TV supports 1080p (I think the HP dlp is the only tv that can). I think the reason for this is that the engineers know that 1080i60 can be converted to 1080p24 without loss. So you can get upset about it and deprive yourself of something cool, or you can realize that it really doesn't make any difference anyway.
For further examples, TV shows are 30 interlaced frames a second which in HD world would be 1080i60. Movies are progressive 24 frames a second. If you want to do this as cheap as possible, you would realize that 1080i60 can do both television (30fps, interlaced) and movies (24fps, progressive), while if they only supported 1080p24, they couldn't support TV shows without loss. So at some point they must have decided not to support 1080p24 because it would cost more to provide support for both. And they knew that it would not be distiguishable anyway.
I disagree. The Toshiba retails for $499 and can be found for $430 w/shipping. This fight is going to take way longer than a year or two to finish. Most probably buy new computer equipment that costs more than that to keep up with technology, at least once every three years. So buy a player, get a netflix rental account and watch high def movies. Why deprive yourself of something, when you probably waste that much money on computer equipment regularly.
Yes, but lots of people have 1280x1024 monitors (or higher) that will support this through component, just fine.
Oops, missed the previous comment that covered this.
You are not totally correct and very misleading. The Toshiba HD-DVD player outputs 1080i at 60fps. Movies are encoded at 1080p at 24fps. So actually, the bandwidth required for 1080i60 is actually, larger than the 1080p you so desire. Unfortunately, 24 does not evenly go into 60, so there are some digital issues that need to be overcome, but in general 1080i should be just fine when upscaled to 1080p.
I hear this during press conferences all the time on live tv. It really isn't a bzzz, but more of a repeating, rapid blip-budup-budup-budup... Listen for it, it happens a lot. In san francisco, it used to happen near the cellphone antenna's on my old walkman.
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and one wonders why there aren't more geek women...
It is possible to do better than this, however. For example, heat pumps are more 'efficient' than electric heaters, although you are technically correct.
Are they getting more out of it than they put in? Does it matter? At the worst it will be as efficient as a normal electric heater. So my guess is that they are going to pitch a super efficient heater. Given that, even producing such a device won't resolve the controversy -- even if they sell them. If they can't prove to scientists they are doing this, I can't believe they will be lowering anybody's heating bill soon.
Read AVS Forum, and hear about some of the problems people are having with their TVs. There are tons of issues out there. Plasma TVs degrade over time (years), for example. Another serious problem (in my opinion) seems to be the rear projection tv's (RPTV's) that have bulb issues (such as dlp tv). $250-$400 per bulb, and some consumers are getting blown bulbs after less than $1000 hours of use (the manufacturer specifically says something ridiculous like 6k+ hours). I want a new TV, but I'm not going to spend $3k on something than needs to be worked on or replaced within years. Also, it is ridiculous that 1080p tv's can only accept a 1080i signal through HDMI (If they say it is an 1080p tv it should take a 1080p signal).
Just remember: "The pioneers take all the arrows"
Although many of us use different browsers than Opera, the influence of Opera on the browser war is (and was) undeniable. When Microsoft was telling the Dept. of Justice (and americans in general) that they were the real innovators, Opera was out there proving them wrong. Features that were introduced in Opera were later adapted into Mozilla and, I'm confident that many features in future versions of IE will have their roots in Opera.
I hope that Geir Ivarsoy is remembered as being an innovator well after the Opera project has left our collective minds.
All of the stories I've seen is that LG and HP are no longer exclusively going to support Blu-ray (Don't know about Fujitsu-Siemens). Lets review. HD-DVD is coming out in two weeks, and Blu-ray isn't. HD-DVD players are as much as $500 cheaper than Blu-ray. HD-DVD is (not necessarily exclusively) backed by HP, Microsoft, Toshiba, Intel, NEC, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros and other industry giants. The PS3 is ridiculously delayed and its success must be considered in doubt, given its cost and the 360's early release.
Why is Blu-ray even interesting? Because sony supports it? I realize it is a superior format in terms of technology (not price), however, with companies jumping off the exclusivity bandwagon, HD-DVD may have already won. Sony must realize this.
As far as I am concerned, this will have serious consequences on the adoption of Blu-ray, given that Toshiba's HD DVD drive is coming out in three weeks at less than $500. Sony wants to turn video (movie) technology into a war not unlike the video game console wars. Unfortunately, they are going to lose this one, because the 360 is already out, HD DVD is coming very soon, and Sony is already taking a huge risk/loss on the PS3.
I can't say I feel sorry for them, being proprietary is inherently consumer unfriendly, so they have an uphill marketing battle ahead of them. (I realize that HD DVD is pretty proprietary, too, but it is first and less expensive and that will make a huge marketing difference)
Yes, but it is commonly against school policy, which in some universities is apparently more important than law.
That is pretty short sighted, imo. If it really comes down to that, do you think the XBox 360 won't bundle hd-dvd?
So far, there is a lot of evidence that Blu-ray is DOA. HD-DVD is faster to market. HD-DVD players are likely to be more than $500 less expensive than Blu-ray. HD-DVD is cheaper to manufacture. HD-DVD will be backward compatible with DVD with little overhead. The blackhorse in all this is the PS3, but the PS3 looks like it is going to be a *huge* risk for Sony. The depressing part is that this is turning into a Microsoft vs. Sony fight. Choosing between those to companies doesn't sit well with me, given their track record on doing things good for the consumer.
Twice the MSRP of Toshiba.