Funny how Endgadget does and International HD News Roundup but still can't bring itself to recognize soccer as a sport. The Arsenal/Tottenham derby between should be good for a few goals and is certainly the pick of the week. Besides, what better excuse have you got to start drinking beer before 8AM?

Yummy... watched a few scenes from Ironman on the Sony OLED at the local Sony Store this week-end. What a display that little thing is: the color and black levels are incredible on that tiny little screen. Makes Sony's best LCD display look pants, for sure. But 11 inches it can't compete with my Kuro 151 but the next telly I buy will definitely be an OLED. Glad to hear LG is coming to market - competition is a good thing. Here's a small tip: Make it LARGER! I would consider buying at 30 inches to go in the bedroom.

Much much more exciting than the return of American "Football" is the arrival of real English Premier League football, or soccer as we yanks tend to call it, in glorious High Definition on Saturday mornings on ESPN2. Watched Chelsea vs. Hull City and it was just like being back at the Bridge, except with an added zoom function.

HD or no HD, American "Football" I can happily leave to those that like their sport with highly processed starches, well-coated in fluff and dusted with powdered sugar.

Sweet, those look totally awesome for wiring distributed audio to the toilet in my private plane!

Okay, that's wishful thinking but they probably better match the toilet decor back where I'm sitting in coach. I'm sure they sound incredibly sweet compared to this 13 year-old listening to pirated mp3s on open-air headphones at max volume 12 inches away from my poor virgin uncanned ears.

This is a bit old news you got from your crack tipster there. I ordered mine last week and I'm awaiting notice of shipment. Ship Oppo Ship!

I had determined that the sole remaining useful application for my Samsung BDPOS-1400 was to be offered as a ritualistic sacrifice it to the blu-ray gods. I got tired of Waiting for Oppo and I'll now have to decide whether to return the Pio 51 - not a bad player at all with the current firmware. However, when BDP-83 pre-orders started shortly after the ceremony was performed, I realized I had to at least have a taste of the Oppo.

Comcast: The Most COMPRESSED HD in the N. Va.!

Forget 1080i and 720p, my comcast HD is starting to look more and more like youtube. So they added more HD channels in our area this week-end meaning the existing HD line-up is now available in the lowest HD quality available.

PLEASE STOP ADDING CHANNELS.

It's doubtful that they'll ever broadcast 1080p content. the reality is that 720p content actually requires more bandwidth than it's higher-rez brethren, so you can imagine how bandwidth hungry 1080p material would be. So you can bet that they'll use the bandwidth to provide more HD channels. Since 1080i content + deinterlacing = 1080p content they figure videophiles will just get a decent video processor or buy a tv that deinterlaces 1080i content to display at 1080p.

Anyways, I bought a 40" 768 lcd about a year ago after returning from the land of superior PAL video. The biggest PQ issue for me is judder - watching movie credits puts me on the verge of an epileptic fit. Anyways, I'll go 1080p when they make a 50 inch plasma which displays 24Hz and can inverse telecine 3:2 pulldown material to display at the original 24Hz.

I've had this player for a while and think it's feature set is solid. Some of the annoying things the player does are really software dependent - for instance it doesn't restart after a few minutes paused on every disc just certain ones - like the spectacularly annoying Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Otherwise no issues - video quality is very good on blu-ray and better sound quality than i expected for around $300. (I don't use it for SD-DVD as it's maybe a 5 or 6 out of 10 at deinterlacing/scaling.)

However, I'm not convinced about build quality and reliability as mine seems to have developed a few ticks in the time since it left the 3 month warranty period. Anyways, I'm sure I'll replace it sooner than my wife was thinking, now that the format war is over and the higher-end manufacturers like Denon are releasing BD players.