I'm in

There must be a secret Dell XPS site of which I'm not aware. I was visited the configure a m1530 section and there is no options or mention of the new processors. What am I missing?

HD-DVD

Blu-ray is Doomed! And not just because Ben's predictions are ALWAYS wrong.

http://www.wxpnews.com/0G6VXB/060523-Blueray_Doomed

Hey Ben, excellent question "But will they notice". I noticed that the players are sold out in Tampa and many other markets as well. I hope this isn't another XBox 360 fiasco, as it seems that the market has taken to this "underdog" technology. Count me as still in the "I just don't get Blu-ray" camp.

I went down to Bestbuy today and bought my HD-DVD player and two discs (Last Samurai and Serenity). I had to reach under the Tobshiba display unit to get the box with my player and the two BestBuy guys were standing there trying to get the demo model to work. They were having all kinds of problems and didn't have it working by the time I left.

However, I got mine home and while the setup process is less than straightforward was watching the Last Samurai in HD in about 20 minutes. It looked great! I'm going to watch Serenity tonight.

An "interesting" podcast to say the least. I learned a lot about each of your eating and theater habits at least as far as dating and going alone is concerned. Not sure what that has to do with HDTV, but I hung in there because I thought that Ben could make it all the way thru a podcast without mentioning Apple. And he almost did! Until you mentioned WME, which is a Microsoft product Ben, and out popped a reference (although not necessarily complementary) to Front Row and Apple. I've given up. Maybe you should just change the podcast name to MacBeat.

And no Kevin, Ben has not given me a Madden rematch. The XBox 360 will be out the door and off to eBay while he pretends that he forgot and had a hot buyer who just couldn't wait for him to schedule a rematch.

Ending on a positive note, I thought the whole discussion of 1080p was well worth the listen. I hope you guys will continue to explore all the terminology and technology. I agree that it may be a long time, if ever, before we see it over cable/fiber/air natively. I'm hopeful they can improve the technology enough to lessen the pain of watching sporting events in 1080i. However, it should look great on our HD-DVD/Blu-ray players.

Well it doesn't happen often, but I'm going to have to agree with you. Wobulation or not, it's a hack. Maybe a good one, but as much as you pay for the set, I'd rather have the "real" thing.

I recorded the Final Four and the Championship game (I'm a Florida fan) while I watched it. It went back again and looked at the games and didn't see any of the problems you are describing. Was it a perfect broadcast? No, there were some fuzzy shots, some pixelation at times and some sound drops outs, but overall I thought the quality was on par with CBS's coverage of the College Football season. Perhaps, people are seeing issues with their local stations, because it looked fine here in Tampa Bay.

I know you aren't a basketball guy, but CBS did a great job with the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully, you didn't miss the Gators cutting down the nets last night for their first National Championship in Basketball, while you and Kevin were doing your podcast (shameless plug)! You did give the tournament a passing note in one of podcast, but College Basketball looks really good in HD and CBS does a great job.