Engadget HD Podcast 199 - 06.22.2010
By Trent Wolbe 
posted June 22nd 2010 4:35PM
posted June 22nd 2010 4:35PM
Welcome to episode 199, while we prepare for our milestone 200th episode, there's plenty of news including the new Mac mini, Logitech's Revue gets a name and the best 2DTV is... a 3DTV? After that say hello to an old friend as Steve Kim arrives mid podcast, just in time for us to reminisce over our first HDTV purchase and talk plenty of 3D news including HDMI detecting, universal glasses, 2D to 3D conversion and PS3 gaming. The newest revision of the Xbox 360 is here (it's quiet) and we wrap things up with a nasty surprise for former FiOS customers shifted to Frontier, see you next week!Get the podcast
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS - AAC] Enhanced feed, subscribe to this with iTunes.
[RSS - MP3] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
[MP3] Download the show (MP3).
Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh (@bjdraw), Richard Lawler (@Rjcc)
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Program
00:01:18 - Mac mini (mid 2010) review
00:21:05 - Logitech Revue gets official: Google TV companion box coming this Fall
00:28:50 - CNet review of the Panasonic TC-P65VT25, "it's the best 2D TV we've ever tested"
00:33:51 - A year after the digital transition
00:33:55 - Poll: When did you join the HDTV ownership club?
00:46:00 - How to force your DirecTV receiver to output 3D
00:52:05 - Why there's no such thing as universal 3D glasses
00:56:05 - Samsung 3DTVs put to the test with World Cup, Monsters vs. Aliens and... iCarly?
01:02:21 - PlayStation 3 in 3D impressions: almost, but not quite
01:12:27 - The new Xbox 360 is here -- we go head-to-head with the 360 Original, PS3 Slim, and Wii
01:15:29 - FiOS customers moved to Frontier getting Copy Once DRM
LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)
Steve back two weeks in a row! I think you should try to be all three on the show, it is really entertaining to listen to you.
Not only is that new Panny the best TV available, but they are getting cheaper to manufacture. The new 65' is the same price as my 58' I bought 2 years ago. Roughly a 33% price drop in two years. Thats amazing to me.
Okay I think I might have every one beat because my first HDTV was the Toshiba TW65x81 that I bought brand new back in 1999. This was one of the very first HDTV on the market. It had no internal ATSC tuner and I didn't get to see any HDTV on it until Dish released there add on to the DISH 6000 STB that added a ATSC tuner in 2000. At that time in Portland, OR had only two channels (KGW and our local PBS) broadcasting in HD . I would watch the HD loop on KGW over and over of the moving of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This loop would last 15 minutes and go 24 hours straight for awhile until NBC aired some HD shows.
Now there were only 2 games in North America that were in HD on the PS2. According to wikipedia the only PS2 game's that were capable of 1080i was Gran Turismo 4, and Tourist Trophy. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria was only found in the NTSC-J format that could not play on the North American PS2. So was GT 4 the game you played in HD on the PS2 Richard and how did it look like because I had no idea the PS2 could even do anything above 480p until you brought that up on the show.
Here's the link for proof. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_HD_support
Now 4 games for the Xbox were capable of 720p and they were Amped 2, Atari Anthology, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and Enter The Matrix. So I have no idea why you would buy an Xbox just to play those games in HD but I guess if your desperate for some HD gaming those could do at the time.
Sounds liked I missed a good ustream live broadcast.
See yea Monday
Signed,
Chevelleman
@buck11772 Nah, there were a lot more games on Xbox that did 720p, and many that did 480p. A lot of the later 2KSports games did 720p, that wikipedia list is weirdly incomplete and a lot of the other sites are offline or just incorrect. I know I played NFL 2K5 in 720p on Xbox for example, but for the most part, games were 480p and widescreen.
@RichardLawler Okay after really looking around I found this list on 720p xbox games. Not official in anyway.
720p games:
Amped® 2 (Xbox Live™-enabled)
Crash Nitro Kart™
Delta Force®—Black Hawk Down™ (Xbox Live-enabled)
ESPN Major League Baseball (Xbox Live-enabled)
ESPN NBA Basketball 2005 (Xbox Live-enabled)
Freedom Fighters™
MVP Baseball™ 2004
NBA® 2K3 (Xbox Live-enabled)
NBA® Ballers™
Sega Sports™ World Series® Baseball 2K3
SoulCalibur® II
Steel Battalion™—Line of Contact (Xbox Live-enabled)
Street Hoops
Terminator® 3: The Redemption
The Sims™ Bustin’ Out
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk’s Underground
True Crime: Streets of L.A.
1080i games:
Dragons Lair 3D: Return to the Lair
Enter the Matrix™
MX Unleashed™
Syberia
Also I knew already that the xbox supported 16:9 480p as did the PS2 for a lot of the games that came out late in the generation.
Oh and to prove Ben wrong about Toshiba being a sub par brand, that TV is still running perfectly for the guy I sold it to after almost 11 years while the Pioneer and Mitsubishi rear projection TV's my friends bought back in 2002 have all died on them and been replaced.
The new Panasonics are still NOT as good as the last gen Pioneers.
One note about the Hauppauge. It works really well on linux. Apparently the linux community built their own drivers that kick the crap out of the windows ones which haven't been updated in years. People use those with sage or myth really reliably.
Can anyone make good usenet recommendations? I'm getting worried people are gonna start tracking torrents. Also have not been able to really test out my 25Mbit download speeds.
@S4Rs
I use http://usenet-news.net/
Really good deal on block prices. Don't be turned away by the simple website, I've used them a number times no problems.