Category: Blog

Early E3 Snippets

  • HD-DVD add-on for the 360 will link via the USB ports. No word on price or launch (maybe tomorrow after PS3 details tonight)
  • Unreal Tournament 2007 and Virtua Fighter 5 (both PS3) developers confirm they are targeting 720p and not 1080p. Interesting but need to see other E3 announcements before laughing at Phil Harrison’s 1080p quote which could still be argued for Blu-Ray movies and indeed looking at the quote again he doesn’t specifically mention 1080p games.
  • Lots of new content on the 360 Marketplace. Test Drive Unlimited demo and loads of trailers – details here. Well done MS for getting the E3 content out to the masses – shame the download service is as slow as a day in Barrow which makes getting the content a pain.

Denon 2910 Firmware

Bitten with the firmware update bug I hunted around for an update to my DVD player – the Denon 2910. The player has been excellent but I remember reading that there was a firmware update that improved picture quality (especially blacks) over HDMI.

A search on AV Forums produced the answer. There have been several firmware updates issued since last year, the most recent and multi region from December 05. Visit the (unofficial) Denon 2910 firmware page and download the version required. Follow the instructions on the site or on the thread and you’ll have a lovely up to date multi region player. There were notable improvements in the picture quality over HDMI so it’s a worthwhile upgrade.

ABC – TV for Free

ABC has launched it’s full episode TV streaming servicee. For free. Users can watch advert supported episodes from the comfort of their PC. When I first heard about this I thought the adverts would be more intrusive than on TV but they break at the same time and are no different to a normal viewing. Finally a broadcaster wakes up to the modern day requirements of TV watchers and provides a credible alternative to pirating.

Note that this is only available to US viewers although I’ve had joy with Tor. Charon is another alternative as described here.

Holiday Weekend

Busy in the garden for the last couple of days as can be seen below.
Raised Bed
This bed previously had bricks all round it and the rockery had been damaged during the fence install last year. Lots of work on Saturday and a trip to the garden centre on Sunday has rescued it. Enjoyed being out and doing work – the weather was great although it’s a sure sign of turning into an old man. Flickr set here. First full grass cut of the year and some weeding too although there is less to do than last year which is a good sign.

Today was finishing off the painting in the hall. Taken longer than I thought and I’ve still some cornice painting to do. That’s this weekends little task. Hope your weekend was as fulfilling.

Yahoo! Go TV

Yahoo bought Meedio last week and has already released the Meedio Pro software ($45) as a free beta. Meedio is similar to Windows Media Centre or FrontRow in that it groups all your media together in a TV friendly format. Yay! for Yahoo! The bad news is that on start-up it checks to make sure you are located in the US using your IP address so will only work for US users. Boo!

However you can get round the US check and run the software although none of the internet functionality will work. I hope you like purple and blue screens.

Genuine Windows Update

Heard it from one of the guys at work today who was annoyed that his pirated Windows was now suffering from pop-ups telling him so and confirmed on tech sites also – Microsoft are updating their Windows Genuine Advantage software this week to make sure that those without officially licensed copies of Windows will know that it is pirated and keep nagging you until:

  • You buy a Windows license OR
  • You agree to not receive Windows updates from Microsoft

I guess it’s to be expected of Microsoft but seems a strange time to do it less than 12 months away from the launch of Vista. Crackers will undoubtedly get round it and you can disable the service although you will no longer be able to download updates. Time to budget for purchasing an O/S. It seems daft that people are willing to spend £30-£40 on a variety of games but not the £60-£100 on an operating system.