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Or maybe it's something along the lines of HDCD, which manages to squeeze 20 bits of audio information into a standard 16 bit redbook CD by sneaking some meaningful bits into inconspicuous places in the stream.

Sony is coming out with some new receivers that are 1080p capable, supposedly this month. See this zdnet review. All but the lowest end model do HDMI audio processing (as opposed to HDMI audio pass-through that most HDMI-capable receivers currently do). The exact specs haven't been released yet.

I like Stick It Out too. If anything, this thread shows how diverse people's opinions of Rush songs are. I guess we don't all listen to Rush in the same way. One of my all-time favorites is Distant Early Warning, but I almost never hear people bring that one up.

Here's a couple of recent ones. Kellie Pickler (yep, her) - I Wonder. About how she wonders whether her mom that abandoned her as a child ever thinks about her. Blue October - Hate Me. He wishes his girlfriend would move on so that he won't be an emotional burden to her any more.

One major difference in markets is that the movies you can download via Xbox 360 Marketplace are 24-hour rentals. HD-DVD on the other hand is marketed to people who want to OWN the movie. Yes, you can rent them, but that's not the target market.

Too bad the movie sucks (IMO, of course).

I'd also add that most Dells don't have integrated components. I've owned 3 Dell desktops over the years and none of them had anything integrated beyond what you'd find on a typical motherboard. My most recent Dell, purchased last April, has integrated ethernet, but that's fine. It has standard...

The format of surround sound from your PC to your receiver depends on your sound card. The most common is to send it as analog signals that require a set of multi-channel analog inputs on your receiver. There are also some sound cards that do real-time encoding of surround sound to either Dolby...

I'm not really looking for what most people would call a gaming notebook, but something that can play some of the less demanding 3D games at a tolerable resolution. I may be clueless, but not so clueless that I think I'm going to get a top of the line laptop for $1k. It's just that my work...

I'm in the market for a new laptop. I really don't know anything about laptop hardware and was wondering what to expect from today's machines. For work I've been using a Dell M60 with a Pentium M 2.0 GHz. How do current processors compare? A lot of new laptops seem to come with a Core Duo...

You can sign up for cable broadband at Best Buy instead of contacting the cable company directly. You usually get a better deal that way, including a free modem. Plus you can go home and start surfing that same day instead of waiting on the cable company to come out to your house.

Ah, gotcha. I agree completely.

We've been through this issue before. I know we'll just end up agreeing to disagree as we have before, but... This is an example of why Apple's DRM is more toxic than other approaches. Roku and others don't support iTunes purchases because Apple won't let them. The alternatives (primarily MS)...

Oh, and it is compatible with a number of subscription services too.

How about a Roku Sound Bridge? You can control it from a computer, it can play media from your computer, it can stream internet radio with or without a computer turned on, and it can be connected to the network wired or wirelessly. I don't have any experience with it myself, but it looks promising.

I've been a Napster subscriber for about 18 months now. I've also got a limited Rhapsody account that came with my broadband subscription, but I've only used it a few times. To me the sound quality is pretty good with both services, only rarely worse than CD to my ears. The idea of renting...

Are you sure you've got an HDCP compliant graphics card? My understanding is that there are a grand total of zero HDCP capable cards right now. Some advertise being compliant on the box, but don't actually have the HDCP keys.

A perfect analogy is tough to come by. My jeans and panties analogy was definitely worse than the DVD/VHS analogy. The memory stick example isn't great either because Sony does license the technology to other companies. My non-Sony monitor has a memory stick reader, as does my non-Sony PDA...

Obviously I realize that. But if my wife uses that gift certificate to buy some undies she can wear them with jeans from K-Mart if she so chooses. With an iTunes gift certificate I am understandably restricted to buying an Apple product, but that purchase can only be used with other Apple...

It's an issue if you want to have a non-iTunes based setup. Anything you purchase from the iTunes Music Store will only work in iTunes or on an iPod. Anything else and you're out of luck unless you transcode. So don't buy from ITMS you say? Well, it's kind of rude to tell my brother to un-buy...

There are a couple of sound cards that do on the fly dolby encoding. An example is the Mystique. There are also a couple of motherboards that do real-time DD encoding.

It sounds to me like the big issue is "the ability for a consumer to make authorized copies of a legally obtained disc". But it goes beyond just making copies. Both Intel and MS are very focused on Media Center style use of HD content. Microsoft is currently putting a lot of resources into their...

In response to the itnews article: I think the difference in our points of view is that I separate my opinion of DRM from my opinion of DRM's integration into the OS. Yes, DRM is a pain in the butt and treats everyone as a criminal, including the innocent. But DRM is a reality, and it's...

You could keep your movies on your hard drive and access them via a GUI instead of digging through your pile of DVD cases. You would pick a movie in exactly the same way you pick a TV station - with your remote control. Ripping DVDs is the smallest of the benefits of PVP-OPM. Allowing you to...

Actually, this is directly related to the major reason I'm looking forward to Vista - media protection integrated as part of the OS. It's called PVP-OPM, and it allows you to get copywrited, DRM-wrapped content into your computer in a standard, legal way, along with playing back that content in...

I'm trying to avoid hijacking this thread, so I started this one. Windows Vista will include something called PVP-OPM. It's like DRM (digital rights management) built into the OS. The PVP part stands for "protected video path," so called because the video stream remains encrypted right up...

If the first OzzFest was 9 years ago, this is the 10th OzzFest.

Dell isn't telling their customers the facts about their version of the Audigy 2 ZS, so I thought I'd warn any potential Dell customers about what they are really getting with this sound card. Unlike retail versions of the Audigy 2 ZS, Dell's version of the card does not have any hardware...

I bought one of these new Dell 24" monitors last week. I paid an incredibly low $665 using an employee discount ($1199 base, $100 off sale, stackable 33% off coupon, 12% employee discount, 2% discount for applying for Dell credit, add 5% tax, free shipping). UPS tried to deliver it last night...

All I can say is that my computer plays the DVD-V (DD) portion of DVD-As with no special software and with no problems...just looks like a movie to my computer.