@locke6854

The other difference being that proctologists generally pull stuff out of *other people's* asses.

Well, better now than later, I guess.

Still not buying a PS3. :p

"I'm hopeful that they will announce a Mac version at CES."

It's been long overdue. If they were to somehow make it work with appleTV, I might actually buy one.

@Josh*

No, I meant what I said. A price drop wont add better graphics or a faster HDD.

The pricier mini also comes with a larger HDD and a faster CPU standard. Although the HDD is upgradeable in the cheaper model, the CPU is not.

A new desktop computer without a proper DVD+/-RW DL drive at the current lower price point is a bit much to take. I'm not too keen on paying the Apple RAM tax either.

Good point.

Although, I may be wrong about the speaker remapping being dependent on DTS-HD metadata. The website wasn't too clear on that. Now I'm starting to think that maybe this is a receiver DSP mode, similar to DTS Neo:6.

You should be glad they're moving away from it for two reasons:

1) LPCM is a bandwidth hog compared to lossless. Dropping LPCM allows more bandwidth for video, in theory anyway. This may not make much of a difference if MPEG2 is used.

2) LPCM is only raw data, and the metadata possibilities inherent in the lossless codec most prevalent on Blu-ray right now could allow you to do cool stuff like speaker remapping:

"Home theater systems are often set up with different speaker layouts, sometimes dictated by room dimensions or furniture placement. DTS-HD Audio includes a 7.1 Speaker Layout feature, which allows the user to select from multiple speaker layouts depending on listening preferences and speaker location. 7.1 Speaker Layout uses sophisticated algorithms to electronically 'reposition' speakers and is designed to let you play back the audio as the artist originally intended. The DTS-HD 7.1 Speaker Layout feature works for 6.1 or 7.1 channel configurations."

http://www.dtsonline.com/dts-hd/dtshd-speaker-remapping.php

"That or why not shot movies in either 30 or 60fps?"

Because then they wouldn't look like movies. ;)

Aesthetics aside, the biggest hurdle against doing this with film has been added cost. Or maybe it was because you lose the PAL markets for video. OK, it's complicated.

Even with digital acquisition, imagine doing a CGI heavy feature. You're effects budget would go up along with the frame rate.

I'm still holding out hope for 48fps features somewhere down the line, though.

@PeterAudio7

This is true in theory, but so far not in practice. AFAIK, there are currently no 120Hz LCD sets that do actual 5:5 pulldown. Instead, what you usually get is regular 3:2 pulldown (not always done properly) @60Hz times two. There are some 120Hz sets that do a sort of frame interpolation, but this is not true 5:5 pulldown either.

AFAIK, your choices for non-interpolated judder-free 24p playback are a Pioneer plasma with 3:3 pulldown @ 72Hz or some front projectors.

I'd settle for non-integrated graphics, a 7200rpm HDD and Super Drive standard on the cheaper model.

"DVD Studio Pro 4 allows for the burning of HD DVD content to both standard DVDs and HD DVD media (even though no HD DVD burners are currently available for Macintosh)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Studio_Pro