[Stuart Wright]

Get the Hardware edition MP3
Get the Hardware M4B
36.3Mb, 37 minutes and 39 seconds

Get the Movies & Games edition MP3
Get the Movies & Games M4B
52.8Mb, 55 minutes and 1 second

In the Hardware episode:

AV News ( 0.46 – 5.37 )
New plasmas from Panasonic, the UK’s second Blu-ray player - this time from Samsung; a top-end DVD player from Denon and good news for NTL:Telewest customers.

Gadget of the Week ( 5.37 - 8.53 )
Jason tells us of his first experience of the Nintendo Wii.

Round Table Discussion (8.53 - 36.11 )
Our editorial team discuss our experience of the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Blu-ray demo by Don Eklund.

To comment on this podcast, please reply to the official thread here.

In the Movies & Games episode:

Movie News ( 0.58 - 4.43 )
With Phil and Seth

Family Guy Season 5 review ( 4.43 - 10.08 )

The Breakup HD DVD review ( 10.08 - 13.31 )

Competitions ( 13.31 - 15.28 )
3 new competition this week. Get on and try your luck.

Gaming News ( 15.28 - 20.32 )
With Ian and Seth

Football Manager 2007 review ( 20.32 - 23.24 )

Halloween movie round table discussion ( 23.24 - 53.21 )
With Phil, Seth, Simon, Cas and Chris

This week because we had over an hour of podcast, we decided to split the production into two. We will probably continue in this vein.

[rupbert]

Great podcast, I enjoy the 'roundtable' style disscussion it's much more natural.

Great work guys!

[jwramsay]

Good move on splitting the file!

[ash]

Any chance of a complete version as well

Nintendo Wii, sounds interesting. Thanks guys!

[Shakey21]

Very informative about Sony and Blu-ray. I find it interesting that they are going to the trouble of organising, in your words, 'viral marketing' by giving you guys a full insight into the format that you could report back through the podcast but it beggers belief that you can't actually see the format in a sony centre in the UK, or that they can't even show me a 1080p picture on a 1080p screen.

The quickest way Sony will get punters interested in this is by letting them see it, not many will pay the prices for the players (I know they are only Samsung at the moment) or the 1080p capable screens without being able to see what they are buying before hand.

But a good insightful podcast all the same.

[LicensedTaximan]

Haven't listened to the podcast yet (Not Going Out is on BBC1 at the momet) but separating the games from the rest of the hardware/dvd reviews is a very good idea. I'm not into games and I always skip past that section...so a very nice piece of streamling, thank you.

[LicensedTaximan]

Er how dors one edit mistakes now, streamling should be streamlining.

[LicensedTaximan]

Dors=does

[ash]

Been using the mp3 versions of the podcast, now got my iPod 4G monochrome version fixed, will there be an advantage if I get the M4B version?

[jwramsay]

Distressed to hear that the round table reckoned BlueRay & HD-DVD must have a 1080p display, surely the 720ps of today will be good enough?

[Phil Hinton]

Originally Posted by PDP-434HDE

Distressed to hear that the round table reckoned BlueRay & HD-DVD must have a 1080p display, surely the 720ps of today will be good enough?

Although todays screens will handle HD pictures of 1080 in the 720p standard there is a percievable loss in fine detail and image sharpness, to be honest, and at present i run at 720p, the pictures on a 40" or above screen at 1080P from two screen heights distance is like night and day to my eyes. The loss of resolution is there when downscaling to 720p Imho. But you also lose the ability to distinguish the resolution as you move further back than two screen heights so some will argue that it's no big difference between 1080 and 720. My personal view is get the largest screen size possible and sit at two screen heights and the benefits become apparent. That's my views anyway.

[ianccoleman]

Originally Posted by Phil Hinton

But you also lose the ability to distinguish the resolution as you move further back than two screen heights so some will argue that it's no big difference between 1080 and 720.

Viewing from 2 screen heights away (equivalent to 42 inches on my 43 inch set) seems very close and somewhat impractical - where would the other members of the family sit?

If you sit at the more normal distance of 8 x screen height (13 feet), I suspect that it would even be difficult to distinguish between BlueRay and upscaled DVD.

What have you found?

Ian

[Seth Gecko]

Originally Posted by ianccoleman

If you sit at the more normal distance of 8 x screen height (13 feet), I suspect that it would even be difficult to distinguish between BlueRay and upscaled DVD.

I have to say I wouldn't sit that far away ever from my screen. Of course the further away you are, the less noticable it would be as Phil mentioned.

Personally - and this is no slight on you - home cinema is obviously to reproduce the same effect at home and I would have thought that at the size screen you're talking, you should be sitting much closer.

[ash]

Hey guys, you said you were going to post photos of the Sony event. Has this been done, if so please link me, if not I can't wait

[ruhe]

Hello!
Good idea with the split, but the HW MP3 is only 238 KB when doing "save target as...". Please advise.

(Converting the M4B to mp3 with JHymn doesn't work either. )