New PS3!

I am now the proud owner of a PS3. I’ve updated my Netflix account to reflect my new Blu-ray player.

I haven’t purchased any games yet; but I have rented Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and it is beautiful. I’ve also added a few PS3 games to my GameFly queue (the Netflix of videogames); but I don’t foresee any PS3 title purchases in the immediate future. Most of the really good games on the PS3 are multiplatform and I’d rather play them on the 360 due to the larger online community.

It's Dead

Well, that’s it; HDDVD is officially dead.

In a statement on its Japanese website Toshiba says it has "decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders".

Toshiba said it will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, with HD DVD to be withdrawn completely from the market by the end of March 2008.

My HDDVD collection consists of 300, plus the free movies I got as a rebate for buying the Xbox360 HDDVD add-on. The only additions to my library of this format will be $10 and under titles from the future sales that are sure to materialize.

I guess this makes it a really good time to buy a PS3 as a Blu-ray player.

I've Entered The HD World - VU42LF

I did it, I’ve finally ventured into the HD world. Vizio’s new VU42LF combined with Costco’s $200 off coupon was too much for me to bear. I’ve been planning this purchase for quite a while now and yesterday morning I finally went out and got it. Unfortunately I had an entire day of work ahead of me with my thoughts turning back to the tv every five minutes.

Oh quick note, be sure to always carefully measure the transporting vehicle for both final storage as well as getting the box into the car. I ended up with about six inches between my chest and the steering wheel, not exactly a comfortable position.

Some discomfort driving was worth it though. Last night I was like the proverbial kid on Christmas. I got everything hooked up, calibrated the display using the handy dandy THX Optimizer from my copy of Clone Wars, and basked in 1080P goodness.

I popped Gears of War into the 360 and it was amazing. DVDs were upscaled nicely too. The wife was happy about her tv channels coming in crystal clear. Of course CBS is only available in fuzzy analog (darn indoor antenna). Strangely enough, Fox has a digital channel here that runs music videos all day and there are several channels of something called ION which I’ve never even heard of before.