Search results

  1. 8

    Speaker Recommendations

    I would scour craigslist to find something local. Your two best bets would be to either find someone dumping old 5.1 HTIB speakers (I found a few of these for $50-75 on my own local cl page just now) or two slightly-less-awful bookshelf speakers to use in stereo instead of 5.1
  2. 8

    Need Recommendations for a stop-gap TV

    My 6 year-old 42" Panasonic plasma just died, and I need to buy a new TV for the living room. Down the road when I have some extra disposable income, I plan to buy another Panny plasma - 60" or larger. For the time being, however, that's out of my price range. I'd like to buy something that...
  3. 8

    Witcher 2 devs claim 100% accurate pirate identifaction -PCGamer

    That's a great question, at least as a thought experiment. An interesting difference with someone shoplifting a hard copy from a B&M store is that the content creator has already been paid for that copy. The disparity in fines seems reasonable when you consider that far more people are...
  4. 8

    Witcher 2 devs claim 100% accurate pirate identifaction -PCGamer

    This is how literally every lawsuit ever starts. It's called a demand letter. Some statutes actually require one of these threatening demand letters be sent as a prerequisite to filing the suit with a court.
  5. 8

    Report: Xbox 720 Will Be Smaller, Cheaper Than Xbox 360

    Having the console OS based on Windows 9 and having the console running the standard version of the OS with all its overhead in the background are two entirely different things. I wouldn't worry about this.
  6. 8

    Rocksmith. The real guitar hero game with a Real guitar.

    I picked up the game last night and played for an hour or so. I already play a bit (no problem moving among chords, can play scales and some easy solos) My initial impressions: 1. The "learn the song, then play the gig" level design seems flawed so far. I played through one rehearsal for each...
  7. 8

    Recommend me software to sync two computers

    I'm looking for something that will allow me to easily keep all of my personal files (office documents, photo's etc) synced between two PC's in a way that works similar to iTunes home sharing, where I can see which files I have on one computer but not the other and easily copy them over. I...
  8. 8

    How to raise money to build a prototype of a new engine design (Now with more PAINT)

    My advice would be to find yourself an angel investor who can get you started on a more modest budget with a short term goal (maybe getting another engineer or two with a solid background to sign on and confirm the viability of the design). Then look for venture capital. If you really have a...
  9. 8

    3GS -> iPhone 4 - buying online, cutting mini-SIM

    Just a heads up that you can keep the unlimited data plan even if you sign up for another 2 years with AT&T. I picked up a 4 on launch day it was my understanding that as long as you already had the unlimited data plan you could keep it if you wanted.
  10. 8

    Apple apologists can suck it! CR no longer recommends iPhone 4 due to reception issue

    First, I realize that there are other cases out there besides the bumper. I just wanted to point out the insanity of charging $30 for a colored rubber band that they conveniently started offering when they released a poorly designed product. Second, It's not an $800 device, it's $200. And why...
  11. 8

    Apple apologists can suck it! CR no longer recommends iPhone 4 due to reception issue

    This post is all kinds of logical failure. I have an iPhone 4 and I happen to live in a large city where AT&T generally has a strong signal. Thus, while my phone suffers some signal degradation when you use the "death grip", it still functions just fine most of the time. However, if I travel to...
  12. 8

    Where to begin?

    My personal experience is that integrated audio on laptop devices tends to be of somewhat lesser quality than the onboard audio chips on most newer desktop motherboards - my recent laptops have had a bit of noise and interference, but its usually only noticeable at very low volume levels. Again...
  13. 8

    Where to begin?

    This is misleading, for two reasons. First, it's just wrong. On-board sound used to be crap, but many of the options available now are quite good and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who can actually hear the difference between on-board and dedicated sound cards (at least for music...
  14. 8

    Vista Stuttering

    If it gets to the point where I have to reinstall an OS, I'll be sticking with Vista. That said, if anyone has anything to suggest short of wiping the OS, I'm all ears...
  15. 8

    Vista Stuttering

    Hi all, this problem just began in the past day or so. Everything I do in Vista right now has a slight stutter or hitch to it every few seconds. For example, if I play a video file, both the audio and video stutter every 5 seconds or so. Moving the mouse around screen also seems to to experience...
  16. 8

    Anyone had experience with rear projection HDTV repair?

    I did a little googling the other week for a Sony Rear Projection TV that was developing green lines across the screen horizontally. Not sure if this is the same problem your tv is having, but this link was helpful and the same procedure apparently works for most brands of RPTV. I gave the...
  17. 8

    Dell XPS M1530 Battery not Charging

    It's almost 2 years old. The capacity isn't what it once was, but I didn't think a battery would just stop accepting a charge at all. This behavior is more like when the battery hits 100% and the system stops charging.
  18. 8

    Dell XPS M1530 Battery not Charging

    Hi, I have a Dell XPS M1530 running Vista (x86). The battery has stopped charging - if i hover the mouse over the icon it indicates that it's on AC power and the battery still has a 28% charge, but is not actively charging. Any ideas on how to fix this? The battery itself seems to still...
  19. 8

    Merging iTunes libraries and an iPhone calendar question

    Hi, I have two similar music libraries (laptop and desktop) that I would like to merge/reconcile. Is there a way to easily combine the two libraries and remove duplicates? I'd also like to preserve the playlists from each library if possible. These are both windows systems, if that changes...
  20. 8

    PS3 repair

    That's not necessarily true. They've released numerous iterations of the console with different hardware inside (for example, there have are several different blu-ray drives and lasers used since launch) so there's no reason to think that a given firmware update couldn't disable some consoles'...
  21. 8

    PS3 repair

    I'd be getting the new drive for $50 and I wouldn't have to wait for Sony to ship me back a console. However, I was just been reading that the 3.0/3.01 firmware update has killed a bunch of people's blu-ray drives, so I might be completely SOL either way. I guess I'm going to wait it out and...
  22. 8

    PS3 repair

    My 40GB PS3 recently started freezing in mid game and getting disk read errors and now it doesn't even recognize that a disk has been inserted. I found a guy with a 40GB system that got a YLOD and won't turn on anymore who's willing to sell to me on the cheap. Is it safe to assume that the...
  23. 8

    Replace factory CD changer

    CD changer, eh? This sounds like a great excuse to go buy an an adapter for your factory headunit that converts the cd changer input to RCA stereo plugs and then run an RCA-to-3.5mm cable from there to somewhere convenient in your center console and use an iPod. Quick google search will find...
  24. 8

    Thinking About A New Receiver

    Thanks for the suggestionsso far. I'll take a look at the Pioneer. Aiming to come in under $500 on the budget, unless there's a really good reason to go over that.
  25. 8

    Thinking About A New Receiver

    Hi All, I'm thinking about picking up a new receiver to replace a Kenwood that's about 5 years old. I haven't done much research yet, but here's what I think I need: -Need 3 HDMI inputs (Cable box, PS3, Apple TV) -HDMI out to the TV -Only needs to be 5.1, but the ability to expand is...
  26. 8

    Worst Experience Ever

    I have no interest in continuing this further, because, frankly, you're a sorely misguided person if you actually believe your own internet rhetoric. I hope that in reality you're just bored and spouting off at your computer. But I'll point out that you misread your own state's statute. You...
  27. 8

    Worst Experience Ever

    This is just wrong. If you shoot the guy in the back as he's running away with your shit there is no longer any direct threat to your person, so you'd have difficulty arguing self-defense. It also makes zero difference whether he has your property or not - defense of property (especially...
  28. 8

    Worst Experience Ever

    Brilliant. Nowhere did I blame either company for what happened or say that they were somehow "liable". I said it's a dumb policy to not even allow someone to purchase a replacement phone after an incident like that. You also clearly don't live in a city. If you'd actually pull a knife or a...
  29. 8

    Worst Experience Ever

    I understand the not selling me another phone at subsidy price, even if it sucks. What really made me feel like nobody cared at all is that they want to make me wait 30 days before I can even buy a replacement at $400. In the meantime I'm supposed to go buy some other crappy phone or just pay my...
  30. 8

    Worst Experience Ever

    Bought an iPhone Friday morning. Friday night I got mugged for the first time in my life, phone is stolen. Call AT&T, cancel service. AT&T and Apple both tell me that even though I signed up for a brand new plan less than 24 hours ago, neither one will sell me a replacement phone for less than...
  31. 8

    USB studio micrphone vs XLR microphone

    As PurdueRy noted, XLR is the analog signal from the mic. Basically, the USB version of a mic contains a preamp and an analog-digital converter. With a standard XLR mic, the pre-amp and analog to digital conversion happens in a seperate, dedicated device. If you're willing to drop a little more...
  32. 8

    $10,000 budget for dedicated theatre build....

    Here are my thoughts: What will make having a dedicated theater room REALLY special is the quality of the seating, the carpeting, the lighting, the screen etc. If I were in your shoes I would shift more of the budget to purchasing top-end home theater seating and misc. appointments to the...
  33. 8

    Headphones for running

    Yeah I've had a couple pairs of them now, used them in a whole bunch of marathon training with no complaints.
  34. 8

    Headphones for running

    I highly recommend the Nike Flight model. http://store.nike.com/index.js...nline/cid-1/pid-162396 They're inexpensive, lightweight, they wrap around the back of your head (so no interference with hats or sunglasses) and because the cable connection is on the back of your neck, the wire...
  35. 8

    "Real D" on a Home Projector?

    I actually got to tour the projectionist's booth at a IMAX theater recently. They actually use two seperate projectors for the right eye and left eye images when they're projecting 3D stuff. So at the moment, I think the answer is no, but I did read recently that Panasonic is working on...
  36. 8

    Moving my 42" Plasma crossed country

    This. I've moved a 42" set a couple of times by putting it in the back seat and using the seatbelt harnesses to make sure it stays upright and surrounding it with a bit of makeshift padding (pillows, blankets, etc). I figure the car seats probably help dampen the vibrations more than some...
  37. 8

    Standard definition and the perfect display

    Not sure if this is a plasma/lcd difference or maybe the upconversion abilities between different brands or what, so take this for what it's worth - my panasonic plasma still looks really great with the few channels I still only get in SD while my Sony LCD looks like crap on those same channels.
  38. 8

    What video format should I convert my DVDs to?

    I use Handbrake to encode to x.264 mp4's. I encode at 63% Constant Quality with most of the high profile features turned on (CABAC Entropy encoding, no fast p-skip, no dct decimate). I keep the 5.1 AC3 track in addition to a ProLogic II AAC track so I can play it back on a variety of...
  39. 8

    Help me find a new receiver

    Have you checked your tv's outputs closely? My set has 2HDMI inputs and sends the digital audio to the receiver via optical. That would solve your problem.
  40. 8

    How can I get a Macbook on the cheap?

    This post sounds like you're just trying to bait people into the never-ending "mac's are too expensive, so PC's are better!" debate, but if you're not then i suggest checking ebay or craigslist for a used 15" MBP or buying the Dell and installing Leopard on that. (google "Hackintosh")