Engadget HD Podcast 083 - 04.30.2008
By Trent Wolbe 
posted Apr 30th 2008 3:35PM
posted Apr 30th 2008 3:35PM
Lots of lists this week as we run down ten off the wall facts about HD and the ten worst HD scams, lies and ripoffs. The future of the Kuro becomes a little more clear, and Onkyo releases the 2nd generation TrueHD AVR. There's a few HTPC posts again, but more interestingly we're captivated by the possibility that News Corp may've hired a hacker to pirate DISH Network access cards. Last up, we continue to beat the deal LCD vs plasma debate.Get the podcast
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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh and Steve Kim
Producer: Trent Wolbe
03:42 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 082 - 04.23.2008
17:44 - Ten off-the-wall facts about high-definition
20:14 - 10 of the worst scams, lies, and ripoffs surrounding HDTVs
24:08 - Pioneer, Panasonic reach basic agreement on Kuro production, first new displays due fall '09
27:02 - Onkyo continues its receiver refreshes with TX-SR606
30:20 - Hauppauge not officially supporting dual tuner setups with HD PVR?
31:31 - TotalMedia Theater gets BD Live "Certified"
36:41 - Warner to release a Blu-ray title before it's available on DVD
38:08 - Indies see, seize HD opportunities
40:31 - News Corp hired hacker to pirate DISH Network access cards
43:36 - Samsung LN52A650 review
46:48 - Poll: What will your next display be?
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You guys are just Plasma Fanboys!
It takes one to know one ;)
Ben -- Instead of MS-DVR tool box for your Vista Media Center commercial skipping and file shrinking, try MCE Buddy. www.mcebuddy.com Very nice interface and plays nicely with Vista. It will run in the background and can convert too many different file types, though I don't think it can convert your protected recordings.
This comment system DOES NOT WORK!!!!! Com'on Guys, get this working... This is not Rocket Science!
Guys:
Just wanted to let you know about MKV2VOB. I use this to convert files for streaming to my PS3. It will basically just split the container. Give it a try.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/mkv2vob
i use lifextender as well and it works flawlessly for me (going on about 8 months now). its missed a few commercials from shows but thats really been the only problem. its very accurate in general and while its very scary that it manually cuts the commercials out of the show (so if it were to ever screw up it could cause big problems) i havent had that problem yet. its also nice getting the hard drive space savings as well because 1/4 of a show is wasted space for commercials so you increase your capacity quite a bit.
ben- whats your beef with 120hz?
the plasma elitist attitude was funny at first... its getting tacky. Apparently all LCDs are visio/sabre.
I'll agree with this: LCDs aren't ideal in a blackened room environment. But they're great with ambient light. Come to think of it, all theaters I've been to recently use ambient lighting. I didn't even completely blacken the room when I had guests over to watch movies on my 36" sony wega CRT years ago.
Bottom line-- the tone of voice reminds me of h4ldol preaching to "J6P".
This may be a little off the usual plasma topic. But my four year old HP 42" suffers from a lack of burn in, on the sides of the the display. I think that since early on when I bought the set I watched little HD content on the pillar bars are now lighter than the center section. It's not always evident, but since I know it's there lurking it bothers me.
I was thinking of creating a gradient image in photoshop that I would keep on the screen for a couple of hours at a time to see if I could burn in the sides to match the center. Is this a crazy idea?
Also, I wonder if the lack of pillar burn in is a fairly common occurence with fairly early adopters?