for all the ranting i do about how much better the quality of hd-dvd is than regular dvd, it’s pretty difficult to tell the difference when they’re not compared side-by-side. since i recently bought the top gun hd-dvd, and already had the standard dvd version, i decided to take some comparison shots.

click through to see the results. Read more

damn, i remember saying only a few months ago, that i bet that the next gen dvd players would be down to $200 by christmas. this morning, walmart had an early black friday-like sale and had the toshiba hd-a2 hd-dvd player for less than $100 so i couldn’t help but pick one up on my way to work.

i’ve got to imagine that toshiba is selling these at a loss. i’m sure they’re also phasing out this particular model, but a year ago they were selling this for $700 so unless they were making a huge profit before, or have improved their production technology 7-fold, i bet they’re just trying get players out there and help win this dumb format war. i had planned on waiting until there was a clear winner, but at $100, i can afford to have this just be collecting dust in a year or two if hd-dvd loses, and since metal gear solid and final fantasy are coming out next year for the ps3, i’m bound to also have a blue-ray player anyway.

i went to the walmart on carson/cherry in long beach and they seemed to have plenty in stock at about 8:30am. i was in a hurry to get to work though, so i didn’t have time to get my wallet stolen.

so while i wait for february’s iphone sdk release, i installed the new appsnapp installer which jailbreaks the phone’s firmware and installes the apptapp software to install apps directly from the phone, over the web. i could have been a good boy and waited until the official programs start coming out, but 5+ months is a long time in the life of a cell phone. i figured i might as well get the most out of this phone while i still have it. i’m guessing that in 5 months, there will already be leaked details of the next amazing phone that i’ll be eyeing and saving my pennies for.

the scary part of this new install is how easy it was to perform. the original jailbreak app, required me to download back-up firmware updates from apple, restart several times, and then run a couple different apps before the system was ready to go. the new appsnapp only required me to visit a website, and while using a .tiff flaw, instantly gained root access to the phone, jailbreak’d the firmware and installed apptap, all without a single prompt from the phone itself. the most ironic part of the process is that appsnapp closes the .tiff loophole that it used to gain access, making it more secure than it was when i started.

if you’re so inclined, hit this site from your iphone for the jailbreak:
http://www.jailbreakme.com/

yep, back with good ‘ole tivo brand tivo. i remember a few years back when my first tivo was a hand-me-down gift from ben for letting him borrow my honda civic while he was in between cars. it was the greatest and only thing out there. the problem was interfacing with the cable box was really slow since there was no cable card support, and once i went HD, regular tivo was pretty worthless.

tivo eventually caught up and put out an hd tivo that had cable card support and atsc tuners, but it was about $1000, so i went with the moxi box offered from charter. however the interface of the moxi box sucked, the system was super slow, and it seemed i could only store a few hours of hd content. at the end of the tv season last year, i went ahead and ditched hd cable altogether and found the goodness of free over the air hd.

finally last month tivo released an affordable version of their hd tivo, and since good fall tv is starting again i pulled the trigger. for now i’m still just doing ota broadcast, but i really only ever watch 2,4,5,7,11, and when i’m feeling black gay or mexican or both, 13.

setting up tivo with the familiar beeps and bloops felt like hanging out with a long-lost friend. tivo, you’ve made tv fun again.

my mobile internet (at&t’s edge network) has been on sketchy or just all together down today, and i blame all 500,000 of you iphone users = no chat capabilities = lonely kent… grrrr.

since i moved between apartments (again), i had to transfer my cable services to the new place, and the representatives at charter are the biggest idiots ever so i decided to tell ‘em to fuck off. my building has a big antenna on the roof, so i thought i’d give the over the air hd a try, and guess what? the major channels: 2,4,5,7,9 and 11 are clearer than they were through charter communications, and are… free! i typically only watch the main channels anyway, plus ota digital broadcasts also have subchannels like 5-2 which is “the tube”, a channel that just plays music videos. i also get kcal 9 in hd, which wasn’t offered in hd through charter, so now i can watch lakers games in high-def (good timing, seeing how their season just ended a week or two ago =P)

as for the other tv shows i can’t get, there’s always the internet, and as far as accessing it without charter? there are 5 unlocked networks at almost full signal floating around my complex. when will people learn ;)

mike’s girlfriend lisa is a chemist that designs epoxies for carbon fiber products, and knowing of my infatuation with the composite material, had a technician make me and taka carbon fiber bookmarks! my reading has never been more fast or furious.

ben’s had a harmony remote for a while, and eric got one with his huge 50″ plasma that he just picked up, and both of them have been raving about it. i was skeptical if it would work as well they claimed, but it turns out that it’s the perfect solution for my entertainment setup. for instance if i want to watch a dvd, i have to switch my tv to input 4, my tuner to the dvd input, and i have to turn on and control the dvd player. the harmony remote lets me press “watch dvd” and everything switches in harmony. it also seemlessly switches between my pvr, computer, vcr and video games.

the remote has a usb port and a huge online-database of devices, so setting up complex macros is simple, and as new devices come to market, the remote information is added to their database, so it’s a remote that won’t be outdated for a while.

i was checking out the site: www.dnscoop.com which said that kentomatic is valued at $1090. not that anyone would buy it, because honestly, what would kentomatic be without me? but it also said that it was worth $13 per text link, so i figured wtf ever. so starting in a couple of days there’ll be topic-related text links on the side bar and i’m supposed to magically make money from them. it’s not even a pay-per-click, so i’m not sure what it’s based on, but it took almost no effort to setup and if i only make a buck, that’s a buck more than i would’ve made from this site anyway. so hope it doesn’t bug anyone, and if there is something interesting in the ads, please click through <3

that dnscoop site was also nice enough to tell me that kentomatic is 2 years, 1 month and 20 days old. huzzah!