The Nature of the Beast

My favorite evil mad scientist inspired me to commiserate…

Ever since I stumbled across the Lego trebuchet while searching for other Lego creations like the Lego bottle opener, I’ve been hooked on the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories blog. (I’ve mentioned the site before) Being a food art creator, and a cat lover as well,  I also liked the peeps and the 3D printed candy. Which reminds me of the very cool FigurePrints… check out this interview on the PC Gamer podcast. (interview starts at 31:07 into the podcast)

This is a Triumph

I’m making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS.

Sometime late November 2006 I disappeared from my blog. The reasons are all good as I had finally made a decision on my HDTV. The TV I chose was the Sony Bravia 46” LCD KDL-W3000. More on that later…

Here are some of the steps of how it went up.

Once it was all installed and my cable service was upgraded I was glued to the TV. The Time Warner DVR is great. Originally, I was very anxious to put in a media center PC to record high definition, but not only are there technical problems with that due to restrictions by Cable Labs on Cable Cards (they can only be used in a certified system; i.e. a manufacturer like Dell would need to have the model certified which eliminates the possibility for home built PCs), I didn’t need it; the DVR is very functional and easy to use.

Then, after Christmas, I had even more reason to never leave the Barley Room… the Wii. I have been playing Wii sports, Madden 08, and watching everyone else play Super Paper Mario, Smooth Moves, and snowboarding. We have had several, very successful, Wii parties.

I’ve also been watching movies in my NetFlix queue that I have been waiting on until I got the TV. (by the way, Spiderman 3 was not very good) On top of all that, the home theater itself had just so many things to play with… calibrating the sound and picture, learning the remotes, watching my favorite movie scenes in high-def and surround sound, and lots more.

One of the greatest SuperBowls ever…

It is hard to truly describe and show how well this room works. My wife keeps saying, “what would we do without this room?”

The home theater experience really showed itself when we watched Transformers. I had already seen the movie in the theater, and I don’t know if it was because it was the second time around, or if because I watched how they made the movie, but I concluded that this movie is now one of my favoroties, ever. The sound, the comfy seating, the picture… it was just off the hook. (Did I mention the sound???)

It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Sony Wins! (or do they?)

After Time Warner, NetFlix, and Wal-mart moved to Blu-Ray only, they drove Toshiba to do the only sensible thing which was to cut their losses and bend a knee to Blu-Ray. Sony has won the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war. So what are they going to do next…? From BBSpot.com, top 11 Ways Sony Plans to Celebrate their Blu-Ray Victory:

Ways Sony Plans to Celebrate Their Blu-Ray Victory
11.	Add rootkit code to all Blu-Ray DVDs.
10.	Send solid gold fruit basket to Time Warner.
9.	Change name of Blu-Ray to something more meaningful. Like HD-DVD.
8.	Get unused “Victory for Betamax” banners out of storage. Edit them for the party.
7.	Call guys at Toshiba, and play Beck’s “Loser” over the phone.
6.	Watch Rising Sun on their HD-DVD player.
5.	Release next generation of Higher-Definition video.
4.	Get T-shirts printed up that say, “The HD stands for Hopeless Despair” and send them to engineers at Toshiba.
3.	Raise price on Playstation 3 by $100.
2.	Release Gigli on Blu-Ray.
1.	Savor the brief moment of victory, while preparing for the next embarrassing defeat.

The war may be over, but we will be counting the losses for at least a year. Here is how I see it… Sony has spent millions (billions?) to win this war. The losses will take a long time to re-coupe. The remaining Hollywood studios need to get Blu-Ray savvy. The Blu-Ray specification needs to be ironed out and made as good as the HD-DVD spec. Manufacturers need to incorporate the new Blu-Ray specs. Prices need to come down which will now take longer since there is less competition. The Sony PS3 will only gain a small boost in sales as it still needs games, and game makers won’t make games until people buy a PS3. Microsoft can come out with a Blu-Ray add on drive and sell that drive to its 10 million XBox 360 owners.

In a couple years, Blu-Ray will become the popular disc format. Too bad the “disc” format will no longer be the most popular medium… as I’ve argued before, it still doesn’t matter.