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FEATURES: Holiday Gift Guide 3D tech comes home
  • Lee Branchie
  • Member Since Jan 2nd, 2006
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I thought we were going to have this function on freesat, a year on and nothing has happened yet....come on
Is HD on freeview really needed since new equipment will be needed and creating the extra space to host the channels will reduce the picture quality on the other channels, after all bandwidth is very limited on freeview and its never going to go beyond 4 HD channels max.

Why not advertise the recently created freesat service more, the equipment is available now for less than £100 for some HD receivers and bandwidth is unlimited.
Is it just me, or do lots of you tube videos now just show a black screen after the update?
Will the divx file have to be encoded at the screens resolution or will it just scale any old Divx file to fit the screen. If you have to re-encode it to the right resolution and frame rate then its a waste of time.

I think this is going to be an amazing bit of kit, 2 SD card slots, can use a PSP charger, 10 hours battery life, 600 mhz CPU overclockable to 900 mhz, a 3d graphics chip. If it's a success I could see commercial games on it.

The best thing would be a fast web browser as standard unlike the PSP offering, and Divx support - again something the PSP is sadly missing.

PDA functions and push email would be real nice!
I think i would be happy to buy if:

1. It included a mains charger
2. Had SD card ports - or even a cut down model that just had 2 SD card slots and no HDD
3. Replaceable battery pack - would be an idea to make these compatible with PSP battery packs and they are so cheap and available - you can carry 2 on holiday then.
4. Divx support
5. The CPU seems powerful so it could support things like emulators - so we need a usb plug in controller as well.

Thinking about it, if they just supported Divx on the PSP and put a good fast browser like firefox on it I would not need to be looking around!, or the Pandora project seems to do much of this as well!.
Includes a web browser this time, but still does not include a mains power supply, just usb charging which I think is a mistake. Also can't see Divx support? Starting price is £279 which also seems steep. Might go for a Pandora at £199 instead as it should do much more for less cash.
Lets hope the new machine actually comes with a real power supply not a usb cable, the ability to swap a battery and a built in web browser not one you have to purchase extra!
I would love to say the PSP, but it does not support Divx which is a major flaw, also the memory cards are very expensive.

I think the Pandora console might be perfect, its has Divx support, a large touch screen, a 10 hour battery as standard, Wifi & Bluetooth and should have a good browser on launch. Also supports 2 SD cards and we know how cheap they are!.

I did look at the Archos 605 but did not like all the extras you have to buy on it, i.e. even a mains transformer is an extra and you even have to buy a browser!. Crazy.

It's not a coverage problem that can be solved with more transmitters, it's a lack of spectrum problem i.e. Ofcom are selling it all off to the highest bidder (mobile phone companies) and not considering the benefit it would have to the UK public to keep the spectrum to expand HDTV.

Satellites don't have the same problems, and have oodles of bandwidth for HD channels. They have other benefits as well i.e 1 satellite can cover the whole of the UK rather than the cost of building & maintaining lots of transmitters. Plus they use solar panels to provide the power to transmit rather than mega watts of grid energy.

Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"What is the best wireless surround sound speaker solution? I have a home theater where running wires is just not feasible. I have my own speakers, so I don't want a system that has speakers with integrated wireless. I've done a far amount of research and have only come across a few companies that even offer a reasonable solution: KEF, Kenwood and Rocketfish. Is there anything else out there? What do you recommend? Thank you!"

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