Hey Everyone I’ve been thinking about putting out a very nice informational guide for HDTV purchases. I am currently in the works of creating a pull blown guide for the community.
Things it will talk about are.
Viewing Height
Viewing Distances
HDMI
Cables
HD DVD
Blu-Ray
Xbox 360
PS3
Resolutions
Recommendations
The Future
Categories: HDTV
Sorry i’ve been away from home attempting to get a real job. On with some current updates:
It appears that the Gaming Console war has gone into a tornado of new exploits being announced. First it was the Wii with a Mod chip and now the PS3 might be hacked on its first day of release to the European market. Rumor is that sometime on or near March 23rd the day that the PS3 will be available that Paradox a cracking group will release a working boot loader for ps3 games. This could seriously open to door worldwide for PS3 hacking.
Team Xecuter Hints at Paradox Loader Around Euro PS3 Launch
From an interview with Team Xecuter on soft-mods.com:
[QUOTE]
* Soft-Mods: It seems like you guys have some knowledge about the upcoming Paradox Loader, can you share some of that with us? What firmware versions it will work on? How it will boot? And if it is a full blown exploit?
* Team Xecuter: Just wait till the European release of the PS3. imsure more will happen around then.
[/QUOTE]
Categories: Breaking News
The WiiKey a Nintendo Modchip will be shipping later this week. Currently their is no posted pricing yet. Quote “You can expect the first units to show up in reseller shops during the next week. A picture of the final version and installation manuals will be uploaded during this week.” – WiiKey.cn
WiiKey Features:
Categories: Breaking News
Satellite radio operators Sirius and XM are expected to announce their long-awaited merger today, according to a source familiar with the deal. The two sides were locked in negotiations over the weekend trying to hammer out a final agreement with an eye toward going public with the merger today in Washington, D.C. This sounds to be good for consumers considering that more content will be put out there. My parents who are XM subscribers enjoy stations that will read a novel for long road trips. While i enjoy the better quality of sound you get verses standard radio.
Categories: Breaking News
While this might just be another elaborate hoax or amateur Photoshop user trying to stir things up, it could potentially be real. Back when Windows XP was released there was a keygen that allowed people to make their own CD keys for installing Windows XP. It would appear that the same might happen to Windows Vista. Some people claim this is a tool that Microsoft developed. But I question that statement with WHY on earth would they. Real or fake I certainly would like to test the MAK activator feature. Look at the screen shot to get a better idea.
* Slight update for those that have already read this post. It appears that someone has posted what appears to be this app on the web. Now i have downloaded the archived file but i’am worried that it could just be a virus so I’ll be doing some safety precautions first. If this does infact work i will post more about it.
* Ok so i ran the program under multiple AV software and a few online anti-virus scans and it appears to not pose a threat. I’ve included screenshots but the application does not work. It is without the proper DLLs to generate a CD Key. Whether this is just a Shell App – meaning just some fancy layout or the real deal time will tell. I’ve included some screenshots that i took while running the program and some of the DLL errors i got.
*Update while this has made more news then i ever anticipated i do want to point out something else that crossed my mine. Now this is pure speculation. If you recall their is a Windows Office 2007 Keygen that is reported to work. Within the release of the Windows Office 2007 Keygen their is a statement that says “Vista Offline Activator” Coming Soon. Could this be related? The icons for the applications are almost identical so it may be safe to say they are in fact from the same creators.
Categories: Breaking News · Random
While i’m not a huge Fan of BluRay i do think the Sonys gaming console the PS3 is an awsome machine. I still believe that Sony over spent developing it and over thought that a cell processor was the way to go. Not to mention that in the beginning i remember reading about how the PS3 was much more difficult to develop for. But thats not what im here to write about today.
PS3 owners can now look forward to new and exciting features. Starting with some news that has been circulating. Sony hints that users will have the ultimate experience with the PS3. So great that you too will be able to download HDTV and movies onto your PS3 HD. Expected date is still unknown but Phil Harrison assures us in a quote that “We have a hard drive, we have a commerce engine, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on the network very shortly”. Hopfully in a similar fashion like Xbox Live or perhaps Netflix? Want the full scoop read it here. Now the meat of this post comes from a clever mate by the name of hacked2123 from PS3NEWS.com
While I’m not a huge Fan of Blu-Ray I do think the Sony’s gaming console the PS3 is an awesome machine. I still believe that Sony over spent developing it and over thought that a cell processor was the way to go. Not to mention that in the beginning I remember reading about how the PS3 was much more difficult to develop for. Nevertheless, that’s not what I’m here to write about today.
PS3 owners can now look forward to new and exciting features. Sony hints that users will have the ultimate experience with the PS3. So great that you too will be able to download HDTV and movies onto your PS3 HD. Expected date is still unknown but Phil Harrison assures us in a quote that “We have a hard drive, we have a commerce engine, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on the network very shortly”. Hopefully in a similar fashion like Xbox Live or perhaps Netflix? Want the full scoop read it here. Now the meat of this post comes from a clever mate by the name of hacked2123 from PS3NEWS.com who loves his PS3 but felt he wanted to watch his movie on his PS3 Hard drive rather than playing it from the BluRay disc. He might be thinking it is going to break if he uses it too much. The entire process really is not too hard if you can follow simple directions. The process involves booting into Linux on your PS3, running BackupBluRayv021, using a file splitter and then re-encoding the video/audio to another format that can be played back in the VLC media player. If your daring enough and have the patience this should take the average PC about 1 hr to decode. If your man enough to try it read about it here.
Now since I have said something positive about the PS3 let me start an objectionable statement and say that I strongly believe that the Blu-Ray Format is bad for consumers. People seem to quickly forget how Sony has tried before to monopolize the market with its formats. Sony’s only goal with Blu-Ray is simply to leverage a proprietary format onto the world. They have tried it so many times with limited to nonexistent success. Sony even went to desperate measures with installing a rootkit on its music CDs. Its true Blu-Ray has backing from just about every major studio but how did Sony win them over and at what price?
Sony enticed more support from the studios because they made their format more studio-friendly in terms of DRM and content protection. Sony does not have the consumer in mind and neither does the movie studios. Let’s face it BluRay wasn’t developed with the consumer in mind, it was developed with the shareholders in mind. Sony has a lot more invested in Blu-Ray simply because it owns its own studios. Sony’s a media and a content company. I love this quote by Wayde Robson “I respect Sony as an innovative electronics hardware company. But I fear the ramifications of a conflict of interest when they’re controlling so many ends of the entertainment picture”. Simply put they are double dipping consumers and while we are jumping up and down in excitement Sony and the Studios that have their pockets open waiting to be paid.
A great read is here
Categories: Breaking News · Gaming
Some unfortunate Mac user noticed that he was being charged more, go figure. Quote “I decided to do my taxes today, so I open up Safari and go to turbotax.com. I decided to open up their site in Firefox as well and noticed a price difference. In Safari the price was $2 more for the Basic and $5 to $10 more for other packages. I took a screen shot of the two side by side and the layout is basically identical except for the cost.” What’s very interesting is if you use Firefox you actually get an offer to file for Free, whereas Internet Explorer doesn’t give you this option.
Categories: Breaking News
It was not to long ago that i posted news about a Beta version of AnyDVD HD and well today i get word that it has gone Retail. AnyDVD HD can be purchased for a price of $79.00 USD. Or why not just get the bundle package. Don’t forget to add the discount code of “valentine” that takes a whooping $ 5 – $20 bucks off the full price depending on what bundle you get.
Press Release is as follows:
AnyDVD beats HD-DVD and AACS
After a Beta test-phase of a mere ten days, conducted by a few chosen scene gurus, SlySoft announced the first official release of AnyDVD HD.
The change-log, although not so significant at first glance, abounds in understatement:
- New: added HD DVD and AACS support (registered users need an upgrade key for HD DVD & AACS support)
- New: added support for new versions of SONY’s Arccos protection to the option “Remove Protection based on unreadable Sectors”
- Added AnyDVD HD Ripper
- Fixed: Problem with multi-angle titles and Sony Arccos protection
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages
At first look, the mention of “Added HD DVD and AACS Support” appears rather “so-so” but behind this annoucement exists a real revolution. For the first time, it is possible for the average user to get around the previously uncrackable AACS copy protection of the new HD-DVD generation with a few simple clicks of the mouse.
Officially, the film industry and the AACS consortium is, of course, not very happy about this development. However, behind closed doors, they are likely pleased to have learned from past experiences with the CD and DVD that the users are now finally able to make unlimited use of this new medium HD DVD, i.e to enjoy his “fair-use rights”. It is expected that a real “boom” will occur with HD-DVDs. All the same, AnyDVD contains several rather interesting features:
* watch movies over a digital display connection without HDCP-compliant graphics card and HDCP-compliant display.
* playback those discs on the PC with PowerDVD Ultra which otherwise would not play or would cause a software crash
* Removes user prohibitions. You can select language and subtitle tracks without going through the disc’s menu.
* Removes parental restrictions.
* Allows you to remove or skip Studio Logos and warning messages.
* With “magic file replacement ™” you can remaster any commercial movie disc using simple XML scripts.
* Includes a UDF 2.5 file ripper; no need to install 3rd party UDF 2.5 filesystem under Windows XP.
AnyDVD HD is indeed a “must have” utility for the serious home theater enthusiast using a media center or home-theater PC.
“The way AnyDVD HD addresses and solves the problem doesn’t have much in common with the discoveries of individual members of the OpenSource community in reading AACS keys from the USB bus”, says Peer van Heuen, one of SlySoft’s lead developers. He adds further, “As one can expect from SlySoft, our solution works fully automatic with all known titles while the so-called hacker tools require laborious reading out of memory or the USB bus. This is not to say that their efforts are completely fruitless; it’s just that ours need to be user-friendly. It’s just that simple.”
To add icing on the cake, Peer van Heuen takes particular joy in stating that SlySoft was ready with AnyDVD HD in an incredibly short period of time. He adds, “We could only begin our development some weeks ago and we are immensely proud to get this product out to the users so quickly. This speaks to the commitment to our users: get good and easy-to-use products out on the market fast!”
Tom Xiang, Marketing Director: “When we considered Blu-Ray, our strategy was simply to initially support HD-DVD and await further developments in the marketplace. Already during the beta phase we got many inquiries about Blu-Ray so we decided to go ahead and also provide support for this as soon as possible. Blu-Ray employs the same AACS process as HD-DVD. An implementation was really just a matter of form. A beta version is planned for availability this quarter.””
http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
Categories: Breaking News
This is just a tad bit late but if you haven’t caught on to the news yet then your in for a treat. It seems that the Andy Pennell posted on his blog that he received something special. His team helped develop the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive and was rewarded with some Limited Edition Black HD DVD drives that were made especially for those of us who helped work on the product. It comes with a black remote control too. I say this is great news but unfortunatly its not for everyone. Besides isn’t HD DVD struggling over the big giant Sony and their PS3 BluRay player. And mind you were is our black Xbox 360 with HDMI and a larger Hard drive.
A quote from Andy himself “Different teams at Microsoft give different things to team members as “Ship-It” awards, and how good they are depends on the coolness of the team and the coolness of the product. Fortunately our team is cool in both regards. My old team (Visual C#) once gave us empty cardboard boxes of the product as a Ship-It award. Not-very-cool-at-all. Unlike some other Microsoft-internal goodies, we are permitted to sell these, so if you want one you might be lucky and a co-worker could put one on eBay. Or not.” I say bribes are in order!
Thanks Xbox Scene for the heads up
Categories: Breaking News · Gaming
I often find myself loving XBMC and well the current dashboard is great dont get me wrong but well you cant help but fall in love with this new skin. MC360 gives the appearance that your xbox is on steroids. Im happy to say that i will be using this as soon as possible. The 1.0 version of MC360, the Xbox 360 replica skin for Xbox Media Center on the original Xbox, has been released.
Blackbolts Release Notes: MC360 1.01 skin for Xbox Media Center
Its been a long time since MC360 was first thought of until its actual release today. The team has seen many members come and go, many clashes, many ideas and changes. Since December 29th 2005, MC360 has been in production and we are so glad to finally be able to release the 1.0 build. We will all be taking a little time away from skinning for a couple of weeks before we begin anything else, permitting theres no problems with release. So we would like to invite you all to download our latest offering and give it a try. You can use our comments function here on the site or go to the official forums and let us know what you think. You can also donate towards Team Blackbolt skins to say thanks, a donations button is located at the bottom of every page on the left. Thank you.
So, here is the 1.0 finished version of Media Center 360, a skin for Xbox Media Center. You will need the very latest version of XBMC to use this skin, we recommend the latest t3ch build or if you build your own, Rev 7841 or sooner. Visit our MC360 skins page found in the XBMC section of Skins or just click here. You can download the skin along with the Official T3Ch release, of which you can find more information by visiting T3CHs page, found in our links section. You can also download MC360 1.0 from our new Public SVN, details can be found on the MC360 1.0 page at the bottom.
A Direct Link to Download the Release Can be found here http://blackbolt.x-scene.com/?p=skins&cat=mc360
Categories: Breaking News
