Marshal

I agree with Lovedrummin on 2 things. Like him, I've always loved Linda Ronstadt's voice. I can understand and agree with why so many other singers have admired her crystal clear, but powerful voice. Not the least of her admirers are Trisha Yearwood and Martina McBride. Vocal powerhouses themselves. And yes, Linda was quite a babe back in her younger years. Love to have some DVD-A or SACDs of her. As for Pink Floyd, I wish their entire catalog would come out on DVD-A or SACD. And if only I could get a DVD Video of Pulse. Oh well, "One of These Days" maybe.

I'm getting the 4 disc set. I don't need all the other stuff. Supposedly, the 4 disc set comes with a movie ticket for The Two Towers, which is cool. I just hope it'll be accepted at my local theaters. The 30 extra minutes of Fellowship is what I'm looking forward to. I've seen the TV commercial for the new DVDs twice the last week. I downloaded the final trailer for the new movie and it does look awesome.

Have any of you downloaded the Beta version of Windows Media 9? Is it significantly better than the previous versions? I have WMP 7.1 on my Win98SE PC. I already have PowerDVD4.0XP as my DVD playing software. Is WM9 worth the trouble to download? As a general rule, I don't use Beta versions, but am curious about this program.

Yeah, I've seen that a couple times. It's hilarious!

Perhaps the best reason to see Star Wars Ep2 is seeing the Matrix 2 & 3 trailers. Or teaser trailer would be a better word. You'll also get to see the next Bond flick trailer. Or you can just check it out here. www.whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com This message has been edited by Marshal on 05-25-2002 at 12:42 AM

I have read some people talking about being able to connect their Wintel based PC to the 22" Apple Cinema Display using the Dr. Bott DVIator adapter cord with a DVI equipped video card. Well, I tried that with my P3 Windows 98SE Dell and an ATI Radeon 8500 DVI equipped card and it doesn't work. At least not on my PC. Have any of you had success with this and how did you do it?

Pretty nice. :-) Steve Miller and Foreigner will probably be next on my list. And here's a weird or unlikely one to add to that mix-the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. But then I am a bit weird like that. I once bought a Robert Plant CD and also one from Trisha Yearwood at the same time one day. The cashier must've thought I was peculiar, or maybe just assumed I was buying them as gifts.

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but Saving Private Ryan, Widescreen & DTS edition is nothing short of awesome!! It should be required viewing for everyone from a historical standpoint if nothing else, because of its brutally accurate depiction of WWII and the heroic sacrifice of the men who fought it. All gave some, but some gave all.

Thanks Justin. I'll try to remember to tell them, although if I forget I hope they'd do that anyway as standard procedure. The whole hardware/software conflict thing reminds me of one of Steven Wright's old jokes: "I once got a humidifier and a dehumidifier for my birthday. So I put em both in the same room and decided to let em fight it out."

I've got W98SE and so far I don't think it's locked up on me. As best I can remember.

I never read the book and when I found out the movie was being made, decided not to read it still. I didn't want to go into the theater with any preconceptions as to what it should look like. I saw the trailers and had already gotten some idea even before then about what it was basically about. So when I finally did see it a few weeks ago, I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, at three hours it is a bit long, but don't let that stop you. It is a visual feast. Makes me want to go to NZ even more. A beautifully filmed movie and a good story so far. Looking forward to the next two.

Okay, this may sound like a stupid question, but I will be upgrading my PC in a couple days and having the video and sound cards replaced along with the CD-RW drive. Should I go ahead and uninstall the programs for my current components before handing it over to the techies, or is it safe to assume they will remove those programs before installing the drivers for the new equipment? For instance I don't want some kind of hardware/software conflict with two audio card drivers on my PC(i.e. SB Live vs Audigy). Ditto for two CD burning programs, HP and Pioneer. Should I delete all the software for the soon to be replaced equipment or leave it to the tech guys to do?

You're not Eddie Adams the photographer are you? LOL! Yeah I've seen the Mitsu 46 and it looks nice and so does the 36XBR 450. The local BestBuy has the non XBR version of the 36", for a little less and I wouldn't have to have it shipped in out of state. Still, that XBR quality is a real nice plus.

I've narrowed my choices down to the Pioneer DVR-AO3 DVD-RW drive or the HP dvd100i DVD+RW drive. I should tell you that I'm not into digital video editing. What I need this for most is storing a large number of photo files and also MP3/WMA music. Will the Pioneer even do that or does it all have to be video? I need to store large photo files and then music in that order. Which would be best? Thanks in advance.

I got mine at BestBuy too. I'm still hoping for more Eagles stuff in multichannel DVD or SACD. Maybe Greatest Hits Volume 1 and maybe 2 also. And some Pink Floyd stuff as I mentioned under the Rumours thread. All that would be pretty cool. :-)

I'm not getting that Lindsay B guitar sound over or above my left shoulder stuff, but what I do know is that it sounds great. I'm also thinking about getting Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle, Foreigner's 4 and maybe the Jimmy Hendrix concert DVDs all in DVD-A This message has been edited by Marshal on 01-17-2002 at 01:02 AM

I also have both versions, the DCC Gold disc version and the new DVD-A version. I agree with your observations.

I would also say that after listening to Hotel California in both DD 5.1 & DTS I keep favoring the DD version. Although DTS reveals a few details in some of the songs I've never caught before and that DD might have missed, it seems to my ears at least that DD 5.1 has an overall richer and fuller sound. Just my opinion for whatever it's worth. Everyone's ears are a little different of course. Sometimes more than a little different. Another thing to consider is that it just may be how the PowerDVD reproduces DTS and that it(DTS)may sound much better on a higher end HT setup. I'm sure it would.

Both Rumours and Hotel california work on my PowerDVD4.0 XP equipped PC, although I can't hear the highest resolution sound. I can hear the DD 5.1 sound and it is impressive. Most magazine reviews seem to think that SACD, at least multichannel SACD is better than DVD-A, so I'm hoping to get a SACD player or SA equipped DVD player before too long. I'm hoping for more Eagles stuff in either high res format, like the Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2. Also some Pink Floyd stuff like DSoTM, WYWH and The Wall on SACD perhaps.

Best 21" PC monitor for DVDs please? Does anyone have the Sony GDM-F520 or Hitachi CM815+? Or know someone who does? Both of them are flat display CRTs with .22 AG pitch and 2048X1536 resolution. Recommendations for any others are also welcome. Thanks in advance.

I need to buy a new 21" monitor, for Photoshop work and also for multimedia like videos and DVD. I need recommendations please. I've narrowed it down to the Sony GDM-F520 and the Hitachi CM815+. Both of them are flat display CRTs with .22 AG pitch from center to corner and both supposedly very sharp with 2048X1536 resolution. Anyone have either of these 2 monitors? Please respond ASAP.

I'd have to agree with Audioholic and add Gladiator to my list. A couple years ago an A/V magazine reviewer was discussing the DTS/Widescreen version of Saving Private Ryan and concluded his review by saying that it was indeed a reference standard disc, especially for its audio. His last words in the review were: "Pray for your subwoofer!" No kidding! Anyone who has that DVD would agree. However, I'm not sure I would choose that DVD to demo an HT system with. At least not in a store. Anyone shopping there who was planning on going out to eat soon afterwards would lose their appetite after experiencing the Omaha Beach invasion scene. Maybe the last battle scene would be more tolerable. A bit less blood and gore, but still lots of explosions that may leave the viewer, especially a Saving Private Ryan newbie with a case of shell shock. Still, its a movie everyone should see. A movie we owe it to our parent's generation, or for some of you, your grandparent's generation to see. It's not 100% factual like Band of Brothers, but, like Schindler's List(which was factual), it's important enough to see. Speaking of BoB, I hope that also comes out on DVD.

I've been hoping that PF's Pulse from their Division Bell tour would finally come out on DVD. I've got The Wall on DVD and it's awesome, but the Pulse concert video has all their classics, including a concert performance of the entire DSOTM album, plus the last two albums including the Division Bell and awesome video on the big screen behind the stage. Overall, Pulse on DVD would be so awesome.

Does anyone have the Fujitsu PDS-5002. It's way out of my budget, but hey, I can dream can't I? ;-) It's part of my dream HT system, which would also include the Sony DVP-NS900V DVD/SACD player, maybe the Denon AVR4802 receiver, my current VCR, and eventually a DVD Recordable at some point. Oh yeah, the speakers-either the Klipsch reference series or the Martin Logan Prodigies. That's why it's called a dream system. I've also heard good things about the Pioneer 502MX PD and the newer ones coming out now to replace the 502 & 505HD. Marantz has a good one too that's a 60". Anyone here rich enough to own of those?

The RCA you're referring to looks great with HDTV demos I've seen. I saw a clip of Charlotte Church singing Bali Hi or whatever it's called from South Pacific from one of her concerts. Comparing all the TVs there in the showroom, the RCA 38" widescreen, Sony 36" Wega and Sony 51" RP widescreen had the best picture quality. As far as dimensions, the width of the RCA is not a problem, but the depth is. Ditto for the Sony 51" which is also too wide for my small TV room. The Wega 36" barely comes in under the wire for depth(front to back), the 32" might be a better choice; not quite as deep. It's really a tradeoff when you consider the advantages of 4:3 sets and 16:9. One is better suited to MOST TV broadcasts NOW and some DVDs which are not widescreen. The other represents the future when most TV will be widescreen and in HD along with most DVDs. At least the best DVDs. To make a long story short, the widescreens are more obsolete proof. That 51" Sony widescreen costs about the same as their 40XBR700 which is the standard 4:3. It's not direct view like the 40XBR, but it still has an excellent picture and would be a better buy(more bang for the buck)than the 40XBR in the long term when most TV eventually becomes widescreen. If you're gonna cough up 2.8K, actually 3K+ after taxes, you want something that you will want to keep a good long time. 7-8 years anyway. But again, why am I rambling about that 51" when it's too big for my apartment. Maybe that Panasonic 34" would be a good buy. The advantage of the Wegas and maybe that Pan is that there's enough depth at the top of the TV to put speakers, at least a center channel. Not so for some or most of the shallow depth widescreens like the Tosh unit I've been looking at. As for overall quality and reliability, it's real tough to beat Sony. My '94 model 32XBR still has a great picture over 7 years later. The problem is that it has S-video connections at best and not Component, and is not HD 1080i ready. The best it could do with a digital converter box would be 480i. It's been a great TV, but with all due respect to it is not worthy of the NS900V DVD player I'm dreaming about and would really like to buy. My neighbor btw has a 45" Sony from the mid 80s that he says has only been serviced once in the last 15-16 years and still has a pretty good picture for an 80s era TV. The last RCA TV I had didn't hold up to aging nearly as well. I don't have the confidence in RCA that I have in Sony, Tosh, Mitsu & Pioneer, especially Sony.