* The iPod nano rules, at least if you don't want FM or a built in recorder. PCMag's review is most excellent. * BRIAN FROM TROY, New York saw our review of the $99 Dell 1100 laser printer last week and aks "Do you have to order replacement toner from Dell for the 1100, or can you get it from major retailers?" From what the propaganda inside the 1100 printer drivers says, Dell is the only source for the toner cartridges. * Nahid from Brampton, Ontario tipped us off to the Samsung ML-2010. No restrictions on where you buy toner. Available for under $100 if you shop carefully (and don't mind rebates), 22 ppm engine. Rumor has it the printing isn't as good as the Dell 1100. * Jeremy Atkinson from ExtremeTech.com gave us the scoop on the ButtKicker Gamer, a $150 gadget to help you .... feel .... the frags. * We love Firefox. Firefox 1.5 BETA is out. Patrick's running it, Robert doesn't trust browser betas. * The current Firefox browser has a security issue with how it handles IDN (International Domain Names) that can allow a naughty site to execute a buffer overflow. You can learn more here, or go straight to the Mozilla page with the patch that disables IDN for now. * The beta of OpenOffice 2.0 is out. The latest version of the free office suite is heaps faster, considerably sleeker looking, and chock full of good stuff for folks that don't need to drop the cash on Microsoft Office. For a more technical intro that covers the finer points of compatibility with MS Office, check out PCMag's review. * A combo DVD/projector? Robert Heron gave Optoma's MovieTime DV10 front-projector an Editor's Choice! * Garnett Lee from 1UP.com gave us the scoop on three great (free!) game demos for your PC. You can download AGE OF EMPIRES 3 and F.E.A.R. now. The SERIOUS SAM II demo will go out next week!!! * Thinking about Windows Vista? MS just dropped a new beta. In other Vista news this week, Microsoft revealed its plans to offer 7 diffe
* 1080p HDTV: hype or must have? * Robert Heron reviews the Westinghouse LVM-37w1 $2,299 * Patrick Norton reviews the Klipsch iFi iPod speakers. * HijackThis is a great tool for stomping spyware. Want to take the sting out of HijackThis? Cut and paste your log files onto this page. * Looking for hi performance antennas for your 802.11 network (or your wardriving truck? Check out HyperLink Technologies and WarDrivingWorld (And if you want to learn tons about 802.11b networking, pigtails, cabling, antennas and more, spend some time curled up with NoCat.net and WarDriving.com.) * Oh yeah: Rob Flickenger designed the Yuban coffe cantenna that Patrick built. * Want more from the Auto Show? Read Jim's writeup: High Tech Meets High Concepts At The Auto Show. * Finally, if you want more from Mark McDonald on the Nintendo Revolution.
* If you were watching live and we disappeared (see the comments below), FYI the Tricaster hung on us. Twice. * We're reporting our new Tricaster bug... and avoiding the action that triggered it till it's fixed. * What makes HDTV and other digital monitors look fuzzy? * Serenity (the Firefly movie!) * The first 'consumer' HD camcorder? 1080i for under two grand: Sony's HDR-HC1 HDV 1080i * Cheap graphics for gamers? NVIDIA's 6600GT and ATI's Radeon X800GT are both under $160. * Jason Cross compares ATI's CrossFire and NVIDA's SLI. * Louderback vs. the sub-$50 DVD players. * Some excellent options if you want better DVD player for your HDTV. * Dan Hsu from EGM debated portable gaming: the Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP. * And, as always, your viewer questions.
* How's the video on Apple's new iPod? We loaded up some video on our iPod and tested it on the show! * Want to see how the new iPod compares to other portable video players? Check out Portable Video for Everyone. * Quake 4: "She may be dumb, but she's pretty and fun." Che Chou of 1up.com joined us for a review. * ATI's Radeon X1300 Pro: awesome architecture, crippled pipelines. Jason Cross of ExtremeTech explains why it's the bargain card that isn't. * Robyn Peterson, the Executive Editor of Gearlog.com, makes it his mission to discover what happens when you dump your notebook for an OQO Model 01+. * Is your printer spying on you? Danny O'Brien, Activism Co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF), lets us know what they're doing to protect our privacy. * It takes huge resources to compete with Google Earth: World Wind 1.3 is NASA's free, open source alternative.
* We've torn into the Xbox 360& is it too early to care? * Xbox 360 launch titles: the good, the bad, and the ugly. * DriveRight's carchip E/X with Alarm: check the engine light and spy on the kids when they drive! * Hollywood and BitTorrent make a deal. So, when did hell freeze over? * Patrick's back from Baja, did he really use a digital compass? * MP3 players and harsh environments& and why duct tape is helpful. * And, as always, we answer your questions and dish out the latest news.
* Wondering what HDTV is? Robert Heron says it's two things: an HDTV screen and HDTV content. * Big glass tubes, front projectors, rear projectors, plasmas, LCD, OLED... they all have their strong points. * Plasma vs. LCD: why there's no such thing as the 'perfect' thin HDTV. * Going HDTV shopping this holiday? Loyd Case tells Patrick how to find his ideal HDTV. * Your HDTV checklist: Loyd's got a list you should check twice before dropping the big bucks on your. * Get the hook-up on HDTV connectors, and what you'll need to get your PC, DVD, cable or sat TV hooked up! * Wondering where to find the best HDTV content? Jim Louderback walks us thru his favorite sources, from TiVo to over the air * Trust us, that old UHF antenna is far from dead! * Looking for some of our favorite TVs? Check out the ultimate 'bang for the buck' guide to big HDTVs. * As always, we tackle your tough viewer questions. * And much more... this is a big one, folks, around an hour!
* Our favorite Firefox extensions. As promised, we're giving you the whole list, including SessionSave .2, Adblock, and Filterset.G. * Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Che Chou, managing editor of 1up.com, takes us on a swashbuckling, gravity defying, acrobatic tour of the new multi-platform game, and tells us why it won't play on your new Xbox 360. * And, be sure to check out The 1UP Show for a behind the scenes look at the world of gaming. * What's the best 'dugg' story of the year? We reveal digg.com's most popular article, and let you know how digg users weaked havoc on a mail order store. Caveat emptor! Can ya digg it? * Music lovers: check out Pandora.com. Developed by The Music Genome Project, Pandora analyzes the unique musical identity--or 'genes'--of a song, and uses it to find other songs that you'll love. They hope. * It's hip to be a square (pixel). We'd like to thank FourEyedMonsters.com, and their awesome tutorials, for helping us get our video iPod pixels in line. * Viewer questions are answered...correctly.
* Hybrids: they're not just cars, but the future of hard disk drives. We explain why magnetic disks and flash memory chips are a winning combination, and what technologies are most likely to make it to your local Fry's or CompUSA. * Addictive games: these free time-wasters are so hard to quit they should be illegal. * December is wrapping up, and the 2005 Google Zeitgeist is finally here. The top gainers of 2005 inlcude (not suprisingly) Myspace and Wikipedia, with 'Janet Jackson' as the top Google News search--clearly the public is focused on the hard news. * No free antivirus program is perfect, but we like AVG, Avast 4 , and AntiVir better than some more expensive programs. We recommend you only install one antivirus program, so choose wisely. * Do you really need Hi-Def DVDs for Hi-Def playback? Robert checks out the NeuNeo HVD2085 DVD player, to see if the upconverting player lives up to the hype. * Plus, everything on Hi-Def DVD players: upsampling vs. upscaling vs. upconverting, 3:2 pulldown, resolutions, low cost solutions, and more from our expert/co-host Robert Heron. * Viewer Question: Travis asks "What's your take on the 'HDTV' torrent downloads of TV shows?" Not the legality issue, of course, but the quality issue. * Answer: HD is always compressed to get the file size down, and resolution reduction is usually part of that process--but they can still look pretty good. As far as the legality issue... * We analyze the latest technology news, from our tech-centric San Francisco studio. * And, as always, we take a swing at more of your viewer questions.
* It's official: analog TV will be put to death in 2009. And it's good news for geeks--reusing the analog spectrum will ultimately lead to faster wireless internet! * France makes P2P file sharing legal, and may add an ISP royalty tax to compensate artists. We don't expect the US to follow their lead, so trial lawyers here can all relax. * The Japanese case mod: art meets GHz. Creator Nicholas Falzone comes on the show to explain the design, and philosphy behind 'Sangaku', the hand-built wooden PC case. * The year in games, with John Davison of 1up.com. We reminisce over the great titles of this year, including Guitar Hero, Civilization 4, and World of Warcraft. So, what's coming up for 2006? * Is HBO producing 'true' high definition programming? Robert picks out the full-HD shows, and exposes the upconverted fakes. * Viewer Question: Shayne asks "Can you please point me in the right direction for the best sub-$200 camera?" * Answer: The HP photosmart M517 isn't super sleek or sexy, but you'll get good pictures for around $200. And while you're at it, take a picture and upload it to our Frappr map! * Plenty of your entertaining viewer questions, plus more fun news stories on the show. * Happy holidays!
* Google's video store is live. The pay-per-show ($0.99 and up) service isn't quite finished, but it'll get there (this is Google, remember). Be sure to check out their episodes of Charlie Rose! * Nikon UK drops film cameras from their product lineup. Does this signal the end for film? Patrick knows... * Macworld hits San Franciso--and it's literally four blocks from our studio! We explored the show floor and found the very cool MacControl iPod connector/remote, which brings iPod controls to regular Macs. * We eye a few more Macworld products: XtremMac's Tango iPod dock ($199), Elgato Systems EyeTV 2 ($49), and the Intego VirusBarrier X4 ($69.95). * David Pogue knows something about Macs. Patrick caught up with him at Macworld to get his opinion on Mac antivirus software. * Nintendo's Electroplankton is more of a musical instrument than a Nintendo DS game. 10 'breeds' of plankton respond to the DS touch screen and microphone by generating sounds. 1up guys Garnett Lee and Andrew Pfister get us in the groove. * You asked us about free CD/DVD burners on Tuesday's Show, and we answered...eventually. Check out DeepBurner and CDBurnerXP Pro. * Viewer question: Brady asks "I noticed you keep changing the set TV on your show. Why?" * Answer: We change TVs for a couple of reasons: we can't afford our own so we have to borrow Robert's review sets, and because the confusion keeps our interns on their toes. * Plenty of fresh viewer questions to entertain and inform you, and more cool stuff.
* The U.S. government wants Google to hand over their search results for use in finding pornography on the web. We know several ways to protect your family from explicit content--and they don't require government intervention. * A 2006 version of 3DMark, the industry-standard gaming benchmark, is out. And, Robert's hefty new PC scored over 5000 points. Beat that gamers! * Salvaging old monitors: a weird connector (like Apple ADC) doesn't mean you should trash a good display. Dr. Bott's SGI Saver and DVIator may be all you need to convert outdated signals into fresh signals. * DOS games are not dead--but DOS compatible video cards may be. We'll help you set up a DOS box just for playing those classic titles. * Full Auto (for XBox 360) is what happens when you combine fast cars, machine guns, and a bad pun. Matt Leone, Preview Editor of 1up.com, takes us through the visually stunning game. * Backing-up DVDs is easy with the right tools. We found apps for Windows and OS X that can burn a disc faster than Patrick's oxy-acetylene torch! * Getting the best mp3 encoding--DL.TV Audiophiles Patrick and Robert discuss the fact and fiction of joint-stereo and lossless compression. * Our favorite cheap headphones pump out clear sound for around 50 bucks (or less). Grado's SR 60s made our list, along with some others. * News, and plenty of conversation-starting viewer questions to come.
* Don't be evil--unless there's a whole lot of money to be made. Apparently, that's the logic behind Google's decision to self-censor its Chinese search system. * We play with the new video-capable, 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M ($330). Does it deserve the title of "iPod killer?" * Andrew Pfister of 1up.com hates 25 to Life ($40, PS2). Is it really the worst game of the year, or do "gansta" themes salvage this tactical 3d shooter? * A whole bunch of you guys wrote-in about nLite, the free tool for slipstreaming Windows XP. We love it 'cause it lets us create an XP Install disk with all our Windows updates pre-loaded. * Viewer Question: Patrick asks "Hello from Jakarta, Indonesia, guys! Why do US cellphone providers have such limited phones to choose from when there are cool and better phones available in Europe and Asia?!" * Answer: We agree, and we're all for bringing back phones from overseas. Just make sure ya know what you're doing, or you might end up with an expensive paperweight. * Viewer Question: Brendon asks "Is it possible to take iPod videos and make them viewable in a standard DVD player? * Answer: Sure it is. But you're gonna to have to work for them, son. * We can only squeeze-in so many viewer questions, but we had time for a couple more on the show. Keep 'em coming!
ATI beats Nvidia on Video accelleration, tho you might never notice. Fire up the rumor mill: Google in talks to buy Napster? Been sharing software? UK ISPs ordered to turn over user info. We asked if you want video game coverage... and boy, did you answer. Microsoft releases IE 7.0 Beta 2: read PCMag's review. The short version? Lots of interface mods, some new security features, and it brings IE up to par with Firefox. It's really for developers and folks that love testing beta software, but you can download the beta.. Thanks to everyone that emailed us with information on the Maxthon browser. (Underneat, it's IE 6!) What is 'Fair Use' anyway? Danny O'Brien, Activism Co-ordinator, drops by from the EFF to discuss. Want some help influencing your local representative on tech policy? Go to the EFF Action Center. What were those camcorders we talked about? Looking to spend under $500? Hitachi's DZMV780A records to a DVD-R or DVD-RAM Just about any Sony or Canon is workable in that price range. Thinking sub $1000? We showed off Canon's Elura 90 and Panasonic's PV-GS250 We also mentioned Canon's Optura 400. (It picked up PCMag's Editor's Choice award.) Sony's changing over their camcorder models. You might score a deal on a, Sony DCR-HC90. Heads up: chances are that company offering a video camera camera for hundreds less than everybody else.... ...wants you to pay top dollar for an 'accessories package' or isn't going to ship you the camera at that price.. Ask us how we know. StarForce Technologies threatens BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow. The company seems rather upset that he called it "anti-copying malware." We had time for a few viewer questions, too. Keep 'em coming!
* Patrick broke the Vista Beta box. it wasn't Microsoft's fault. Blame the RAID 5 array. * So we'll have our walkthu of the Windows Vista Beta on next Tuesday's show. For now, you can peruse PCMag's mad collection of Windows Vista coverage. * Worried about the Blackworm/Kama Sutra worm that's attacking systems February 3rd? You're probably safe. Update your antivirus and run a scan. For more info click on Security Watch: Blackworm Blows Up On Friday. * Game coverage? Jane Pinckard brought by Curious George. One for the kiddies. Robert picked it. Really. * We also reviewed Apple's iPod Radio Remote... great FM, but Robert says fifty bucks for an FM radio is a ripoff. We also gave our opinion on the very nifty TrafficGauge. * Patrick used it to dodge holiday traffic, his wife thinks it's great entertainment since she doesn't drive the nightmare that is Highway 101 every morning. * And, as always, plenty of hot news and more viewer questions later in the show.
* Jim Louderback shows us how to share HD content around the house with Gefen's ex*tend*it HDMI 1:2 Splitter and the Intelix Active DVI Balun system * Darren Gladstone, Senior Editor of Computer Gaming World, is all kinds of excited about CRYTEK's upcoming game CRYSIS. * Patrick finds out at the end of the show that his Vista install is working (A bad install disk was the problem.) The Vista tour is on for Tuesday! * And, as always, we tackle a heap of viewer questions.
Patrick was too sick to tape a show on Friday, so we officially cancelled Episode 36... think of it as the lost episode.
* We're talking about fiber to the home. (A lot of you love your fiber!) * We show off the new CTP of Windows Vista, PCMag.com has a great tour of Build 5308. * A lot of ya love curling, too... thanks for the email! * DL.TV download speeds: 100Kbps to multiple MB per second. * We give you a tease of the Democracy Player (We'll go in depth with it next Tuesday). * Google debuts Page Creator. * Game review o' the week: Black * X Prize Foundation drafts rules for Luner Lander Challenge. * Apple sells it's 1 billionth song.
* Tools for your IPTV addiction: FireAnt and the Democracy Player * Sony's got a release date for Blu-Ray * Apple's Announcement = Two new minis and a portable * Cheap power supplies... No problem, or no computer? * Orb.com update: it works with cell phones! * ExtremeTechs' best mouse under $20) * Doorknobs, gerbils and lamers... * And, as always, a heapin' helping of your viewer questions!
* A $3500 USB thumdrive?!? Robert is not impressed. * DL.TV downloading slow? Help our network provider Limelight trace the problem by [[Limelight has a ton of data now, and asked us to pull the link. Thanks for all the responses!]] downloading TracePut.exe, and running it on your system. Wow... it was after 1AM when we posted that TracePut link. We get cc'd on every one. There are a lot of you up late! * Computerworld reports that Google won't store search records in China. * Senator Ron Wyden is our new hero& he's battling the telcos with the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006. Patrick goes nuts. * We gave Ray from Portland, OR some help with his SATA ports, and talked about some sick new hard drives that ExtremeTech.com has benchmarked. * Would you like 10,000 RPM, and a clear glass window? Check out Western Digital's Raptor X 150GB . Perhaps 400 or 500 GB for quite a bit less cash? Check out ET's review of Seagate's Barracuda 7200.9 500GB and the Western Digital Caviar RE2 400GB. Heads up: the Seatgate sells for lots less than it did when the testing was done! * The Drizzle (Auburn Hills, Mi) asks if "Bluetooth headphones are worth listening thu?" Our man at PCMag says these three headsets get 4 stars each& Logitech's, Wireless Headphones for MP3, Logitech's, Wireless Headphones for iPod, AirLogic's icombi AH10, but with a BIG caveat. * The rotating sockets of 360electrical.com are all over the geek email threads this week& the rest of the world noticed them last summer, we think. No ship date yet.. * The PowerSquid may be the coolest power cord ever. * Has anybody but us noticed that wall warts are a lot better designed these days? * We drop a little taste of ZD's next show: CrankyGeeks, hosted by PCMag's John C. Dvorak. * We also kick around on viewer questions about ALLOFMP3.com& and give you the inside scoop on tools you can carry on the plane: 7 inches in the magic number, and no knives!
Connecting your MP3 player to your car stereo. Port Forwarding Apple Sauce for polishing plastic (and more on Brasso). A heap of your viewer questions!
We've got a special treat. Assuming he hasn't come to his senses, Jeff Bates, aka Hemos, aka the co-founder of Slashdot will be on the show, talking about what's up with /. (I still had all my hair when I started reading Slashdot!) We've also got ExtremeTech's fearless leader, Loyd Case., who's all kinds of amazed by Intel's next processor, code named Conroe. He's gonna tell us why it doesn't suck (not even a little), along with the scoop on this week's Intel Developer Forum. You want more? Sure! Microsoft keeps gunning for Google: Windows Live Search just hit beta. Should google be looking over its shoulder? The mapping was pretty good... The Yellow Machine: Anthology Solutions offers up a high end 1TB NAS for the home. Is it worth the hefty $999 pricetag? The Intel Mac mini: will we gut it like a fish, or just review it? Unlocking phones....
* The Warner Bros. HD-DVD launch slipped The hardware launch is still on track for late March. * Sony PS3 shipdate: November. Unless it slips too. * Is anybody shipping on time? still Bilu-ray is still on track for late May. * Cingular, T-Mobile have suspended RAZR sales until a glitch is fixed, says Infoworld. * WinXP runing on Intel Macs... maybe. Check out the story ArsTechnica. * Read the review of the Sirius S50. A great way to record Sirius/an OK MP3 player. * Live.com Part Three: we like Live.com . Really. Especially Windows Live Local (beta), aka, the maps. And the customization. The search on Live.com? Not so great. Yet. It is in beta. The macros and toolbar have some serious potential. To Live.com's credit, our cruddy IP connection made for the on air demo rougher than it shoulda been. * It's not in beta, and Google's personalized home page ran a bit better. * Scotchbrite mods... part one: Adam Podnar's website shows how to get that brushed aluminum look on your iPod. (We shoulda given Adam props on air!) What's even cooler is what Nathan Otis did with his iPod: a flame design! Check Wired's summary of how Nathan made iRule. (And check the original thread on iLounge.) * Viewer questions: * Holographic storage: Will it be shipping this year? We're learning a lot about this. We thought "no" but we might be dead wrong. More on Thursday. How good is VWB's MediaReady 500 Home Theater PC? Not so good: Robert reviewed it for PCMag, and suffered. What's the best place in San Francisco to get a beer on St. Patrick's Day? Um... ask us where to get the best price on processors. * Connecting an MP3 player to your car stereo was in Episode 41.
* Wireless Beats Wires? Well, as long as you keep Gigabit Ethernet out of the mix. * The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 and Netgear RangeMax 240 WPNT834 wireless router are seriously fast. Over 100Mbps at close range! * Free iPod? Wired says your personal info got sold! * Bill Gates Mocks MIT's $100 Laptop. * Classic TV for Free: In2TV (Pinky and the Brain, Chico and the Man, and quite a bit more.) * Crack the Mac mini? The folks at Mac Mini Hacks do it with wires. No scrapes, but it takes a long time and a bit of patience. We're going back to the paint scraper method! * Otterbox for the iPod for the iPod: Waterproof? Very. You'll need to find your own headphones, tho. * Keeping gadgets dry on the cheap. (Hint: freezer bags.) Bigger hint: make sure the baggie is sealed! * Turn a photo into a 3D Model: Alex Lindsay from PixelCorps.com shows us how. * Want to learn more? Go to the Pixel Corps site and join up! * Viewer question: Why don't home theater systems use SDI jacks? * Viewer question: Is my cell phone making my speakers buzz? * More on the Scotchbrite pad mods from Episode 43. * Got a tech question? A product you'd like to see reviewed? Send us an email at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com * We forgot to mention: The first official episode of CrankyGeeks hits the streets today! Go check out Dvorak and a cast o' pundits work over CeBIT, the latest RFID infection, the space elevator, and, rumor has it, Web 2.0... or maybe 3.0.
* DOJ gets 50,000 search queries from Google * What a bummer: the team that made Katamari ... Dissolves. * Warner Bros HD-DVD titles will ship in Late April * The Kell factor means you might want that HDTV sitting closer to you than your old NTSC TV. * Need to share an external hard drive between OS X and Windows machines? If the files are under 4GB, a drive partitioned in FAT32 will do. * Our capture files typically run bigger than 10GB, so we format the external drive with OS X's HFS+ and run Mediafour's MacDrive 6 on the PCs. OS X will read NTFS formatted drives. It won't write to them! * Want to slow down your 802.11G network? Let 802.11B cards in! * Viewer Question: can you use an HDTV as a desktop monitor? * Viewer Question: How can you get Windows Audio to encode over 192Kbps? * Viewer Tip: AOL's In2TV only runs on Windows XP or Windows 2000. We should have tested it on Linux or OS X: * We promise to look at web services on other platforms as often as we can. * The RSS feed for DivX is up... we're experimenting with new deinterlacing tools for our H.264 and iPod feeds. A few minutes after we got locked into our studio, Microsoft announced that Windows Windows Vista will ship in January 2007. At least for consumers. The business version will ship in November 2006. Mary Jo over at Microsoft-Watch is all over this one!
* Microsoft: Vista to Launch in January 2007 * Microsoft Confirms 'Highly Critical' IE Hole * Security Watch: Adobe, Apple, Microsoft All Issue Fixes * Samsung Execs Plead Guilt in US DRAM Probe * VOiP and 911: Less than perfect? * The physics rule, the AI doesn't, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on the Xbox 360 begs for an HDTV * Dan Hsu tells us how hard the game rocked... and his secret weapon for spousal approval of a 56 inch HDTV * Electronic calendars are popping up all over: we demo 30Boxes.com... * ... and wonder about tying up your friends, family, Flickr, MySpace and 5 days worth of weather inside today's date. * The show was spiced, as always, with your questions, and at least one plea for Linux segment * Our demo o' free software for analyzing file sizes/finding fat files on your hard drive will be next Tuesday... * ...ya'll sent in some great software for us to check out! * Oh yeah...Patrick embarrasses himself and Robert has another rant. Was a fun night!
* Bluetooth Hops on Intel's Ultrawideband * Toshiba Trades Notebooks for Thumdrives (In Canada.) * Robert's shocking admission about recycling... really, Robert, you should recycle electronics. And cans. And plastic. * AllofMP3 (and 40 other overseas bargain priced MP3 sites) = random credit card fraud claims UK's Side-Line.com. * And the international partner of the RIAA claims AllofMP3.com is illegal, even tho the Russian legal system hasn't taken the site out. * Blogger Uses Packet Sniffer to Catch Cheating Girlfriend. * Our condolances to Len on the breakup, and on not making Digg's home page until he blogged this... normally he writes more technical posts. * Reminder: use a spyware tool that can sniff out keyloggers on your system... * and remember: chat and email is almost always terribly easy to read on your local network! * A portable media player that plugs into a TV. Does Iomega's ScreenPlay measure up? * Robert's fave 50 inch plasma HDTV: Vizio's P50 HDM. It's a bargain for the size, too! * Viewer Question: Is the Westinghouse LTV-27W2 any good? * Low cost HDTV buying help! * Viewer Question: Some sites offer a bewildering variety of video codecs. Divx? Xivid? Theora? Is there one format that's the best choice? * Viewer Question: I've installed my new hard drive, why doesn't it show up in Windows XP? * Partition and format it!
* Robert starts his journey with OpenSUSE Linux * Patrick shows off the new look (Think "Ribbon") in Office 2007 * We get info on the best tools for fighting spyware * Toshiba releases first HD-DVD player in Japan * Samsung postpones release of first Blu-Ray player (to June) * Movielink and CinemaNow! * Bulk microfiber cloths for screen cleaning on the cheap... * Apple vs. Apple: it's trademark, not copyright, dummies!
* Boot Camp: Apple brings XP installs to the Intel macs. You asked, we're showing it off. * Yup, gaming on the MacBook Pro notebook and a mo' basic mini kind o' XP experience. * Pioneer's Inno XM2GO: a quick preview of the new portable XM satellite/MP3 player. * Dang, is that thing small! * What's a $6000 PC look like? * One more disk tool: JGOODIES JDiskReport. It's Java, so it runs runs on darn near anything... * Movielink: Download to Own, the same day the DVD gets released. (That's a new twist.)
* HD-DVD Decks Hit Stores, Sell Out Toshiba has 10,000 units total for this run. * Microsoft Vista: Expect a Premium Push (with Premium Prices) * In other Vista news: Microsoft Set to Deliver a New Build * Apple Gets Sued, Again. This time it's over possible patent violations in iTunes... * ...the company suing, Burst, settled with Microsoft for $60 million in a similar suit. * Feedburner says, Podcasts Outnumber Radio Stations... but what about actual radio programs? * Rasterbator: it's all about the mural size posters. And your printer. And lots and lots of ink. * Use it online, or download the standalone version. (Yes, it does color, too!) * Props to ReadyMade Magazine for turning us on to, uh, Rasterbating (Great DIY magazine if you've never seen it: been reading it since issue one!) * Speaking of great DIY magazines: we'll be at the Maker Faire Saturday, April 22nd * Light, low cost gaming notebook? Tough call. Try HP Pavilion dv5000z or HP Pavilion dv5000t if you're on a college budget. * If you don't mind melting your plastic, Dell's XPS M1710 is the fastest gaming notebook four grand can buy! * Loyd Case goes deep on that Dell's graphics in GeForce Go 7900 GTX: For Hardcore Gamers on the Go * Viewer Question: Tools for making and burning ISOs? * Check out ISO Recoder ( Free). Robert reccos Alcohol 120%. * There are tools in Nero and Easy CD Creator, too... I've burned tons of disks from ISOs in either one of these... never had a reason to create one tho. Any other applications y'all like?) * Wondering what an ISO image is? * Viewer Reponse: Joey's really upset with Robert (Deathmatch!!!) and he got a sponsor to pay for a $3000 gaming machine! Joey... what's the deal on the sponsorship??? Lots of folks want to know! * Viewer Question: 720p vs. 1080i, or "Does 1080i suck?" * Viewer Queston: What's our source on the Dell Axim news we dropped last week? (Dell!)
Is Apple Still A Computer Company? * Porn Leads in Download-To-DVD Movies * Horizontal Cooler Showdown * A quick chat about what to back up. * HD-DVD... we've got disks! * Viewer Question: Why buy HD-DVD or Blu-ray movies if they alreayd have DVDs? * Viewer Question: Gaming PC Sponsors: Part Deux * Viewer Question: HD Radio
News: * Reverse Hyper Threading? * 750 GB Hard Drives * The World's Largest Rasterbation Products: * Sony Ericcson W810i. Robert's dream phone is now in his hands. Does he still like it? And a whole bunch of viewer questions: * HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Why buy now? * What do you guys know about FreeRIP? * Looking for a MP3 player with lots of memory around $300? * Someone found something better than Alcohol. * Is a 2.15 GB Hard Drive worth anything? * Details on how Joey got his $3000 gaming PC. * Hint: we didn't have a thing to do with it!
News: * Wii: Nintendo Names the Revolution What??? * Samsung Replaces Portal Player in the iPod Reviews: * Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2: Wow, that's a new look. Interesting tab handling. Phishing philter, too. * You can download it now. Warning: beta means "It's not finished and might crash on ya." * It definately breaks some web pages. * Patrick's not giving up FireFox yet. Guestage: * Jesse James Garrett from Adaptive Path joins us in the studio to talk about user experience, Ajax and the future o' Web design Viewer Questions and Contributions: * Rob aks "What's the best Windows OS? * Mike asks "Can using my DLP HDTV as a computer monitor hurt it? * Grant says "Informer is the best Yahoo Widget I've ever seen!" * Stephen suggests a site for CSS web design.
News: * Intel to spend $1 Billion to push net to poor nations * DARPA Challenge Goes To The City! * Beware of Phony American Express Log-in Screens Viewer Questions: * Will the Toshiba V803T work with my SIM card from T-Mobile? * What antivirus protection would you recommend to a Mac user? * How will the quality of an up converted standard DVD would measure up to the new Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats? * Is the W810 CDMA compatible? * Should I wait for the next gen Mac? * Is my computer "Vista Compatible"? * What you do guys think of Dell TVs? Their 32" LCD is only $1,399 right now. * The DL.TV H.264 file looks like a slide show on my Cingular 8125. Shouldn't it have better processing power than the iPod Video? * I deleted some system fonts. How do I get the basic Windows Fonts back? How to add fonts to Windows XP Free fonts? Try GetFreeFonts.com And the JVC DVD player Robert mentioned: * The SRDVD-100U
News: * Blu-ray Discs Delayed * FTC Sues Companies for Selling Phone Records * Silicon Valley Boasts Best Tech Pay * Open Document Format Gets ISO Approval Product Demos: * Samsung Q1 The first Origami/UMPC we've gotten our hands on. Think baby Windows XP Tablet PC. * We know at least one viewer it's perfect for. What do we think? Watch the video! * Fortune Fountain's DialKeys brings the thumb keyboard to the Q1... thought you should know. * Pure Digital Point & Shoot Camcorder * Costs $130, grabs 640x480 MPEG4 video, available at Target, and it works pretty darn well. Viewer Questions and Feedback: * Can I get in trouble for dropping Cain and Able on a school computer? (Yes!) * What can I use to convert the Coax signal from my Dish reciever into something my monitor can use? * I've got a Mac Antivirus tip for you! * Are used CD/DVD/console game stores in touble? * Lots of T9 suggestions... thanks Tom, Jeffrey, Nic, Geuis, JDub, Adam, Owen, Jesse, Tyler and Dave!
News: * Sony Announces PS3 Pricing * Nintendo @ E3: A Whole Bunch of games for Wii! * Microsoft Announcements @ E3 * Warner Bros. To Sell Movies Via BitTorrent Product Review: * Toshiba's HD-A1: our first HD-DVD player * Gorgeous HD-DVD video. * Slow controls. No 1080P. $500 price tag. * If you're not an early adopter type... wait. Viewer Questions: * Jim's looking for advice on playing back MPEG4 video: set top DVD player, or PC? * Alex from Ohio: "Does the PS3 pricing seem high?" * Ryan asks about normal DVDs and HD-DVD players.
News: * Google Google Press Day: Google Google Desktop 4 (beta), Trends and more * Hirai Defends Playstation Launch Price * Iowa State First in Virtual Reality Rooms * ICANN Rejects .XXX * We'll give you more on E3 on next Tuesday's show: in the meantime, check out the E3 coverage at PCMag.com , ExtremeTech and 1UP.com. Picture Tour of NAB 2006: * A tour of National Association of Broadcasters show floor: from holographic storage (Maxell and InPhase) to HD cameras, AM antennas, 'the world's first' surround sound mic, helicopters, The Red Digital Cinema Camera, ARRI's new 16mm film cameras, big honking cables and quite a bit more! Product Review: * Cingular's Cingular 8125: Windows Mobile 5.0 with a keyboard. * Doesn't offer the phone performance of hte Cingular 2125, but if you're in need of a bigger screen and a keyboard, it's an option. How To Tip: * Transcoding Video 101, or "How do I get better looking video on my portable?" * Step one: RTM and learn the specs for your device! Viewer Questions: * Pedro wants an HD-DVD checkup * Jeff's looking for a judgement call: Dell or Apple for a notebook?
News: * Skype Offers Free Phone Calls! * Apple Introduces the New MacBook (So much for the iBook) * DARPA's Building A Man-cannon * Creative Sues Apple, seeks iPod import ban * US cities sue travel sites Demos: * Windows Media Player 11 (and MTV's new audio shop: Urge) * Real video without the RealPlayer: It's Real Alternative E3 2006 Wrapup: * The event of the year for folks that love video games! * John Davison, the chief kahuna of ZDM's Game Group talked us through the announcements at the show. * John's picks from the show floor? Mass Effect, Warhawk for the PS3 and Halo 3 * The editors from ExtremeTech, 1UP, EGM and the rest of the crew gave us their fave picks from the show floor * Wii, good??? Dan Hsu of Electronic Gaming Monthly got his hands on a on the next generation Nintendo console. * Did he like it? What about the 'Wiimote?' Field Trip: * A taste of the Maker Faire, an amazing full of DIY (do it yourself) folks. * Patrick joined Dan Huard and the crew from Systm to put together a video covering the fair. * Sponsored by Make Magazine, it was quite the gathering of folks that build things for fun. * Flamethrowers? Welding? Toyoa Prius hacking? Folks that embed RFID chips in their hands? * You can see all that and much more of the Maker Faire at Revision3 or Systm.org Viewer questions: * No love for the Aussies? (Yes, yes, it is a continent.) * Celeron D or Pentium 4 for gaming? * Can we help with DVD ripping?
News: * Supreme Court Sets Aside Patent Ruling. * Microsoft Announces Vista Hardware Requirements (More on this Tuesday!) * Pioneer Sells Blu-Ray Drive For $1,000 * Intle Fanboy Offers Complete Processor Collection on eBay: 4004 to Pentium4 * Intel To End 386/486 Production * Wired posts AT&T Whistlerblowers Evidence. (What WAS the NSA looking at?) Products: * A Feast of flash players... watch out iPod nano! * mobiBLU B153 (2GB) Amazing battery life (153 hours???), but the interface and bass could use help * SanDisk Sansa e260 It's hard to tell if the Sansa or the * iRiver clix is the best iPod nano alternative out there. Patrick's vote is for the clix! * mobiBLU's DAH-1500i Cube doesn't have the battery life of the 153, but we like the audio better. Viewer Questions: * Dodging sketchy stock spam... what's up with those PDF attachments. * Urge rocks: but what happens to the tunes I download during the free 14 day trial? Um, you loose access to them... it's a DRM thing. * Windows Vista and the new MacBooks: Will it run? What about Aero/Glass? * H.263 vs. H.264 * Choosing LCD panels for use in bright sunshine. Additional Weirdness: * Robert Heron warns us all about canned air, projector bulbs and accidental flamethrowers. * Apple's new store in NYC will be open 24/7/365 (Will there be bouncers to protect the staff?) * The Ultimate Big Red Button from MIT's dorms will be in Tuesday's show next week. * PS - Robert's a bit miffed for mentioing the NeuNeo/Helios HVD2085 upscaling DVD player. Apparently it has some issues with film-based DVD movies. In the mean time, stick with a name brand upscaling DVD player (Panasonic, Samsung and Sony come to mind). * BTW, the Oppo OPDV971H has caught his eye and he's looking at getting it into the lab ASAP.
In the News today: * US Veterans' Data Exposed * EMI Profits On iPod Sales * Judges Approves Sony Rootkit Settlement * Samsung Will Sell PCs with Flash Drives * Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 Released Products to play with: * Windows Vista Hardware Requirements: No, Virginia, Vista doesn't need DX10 to do Glass. * Vista Beta 2 (Did NOT like our 6600GT graphics card, at least not with lots of windows open.) HowTo: * Defrag happiness! Robert says defragging won't help system performance. * Patrick says it's a nice way to boost performance a bit on machines where you're constantly moving files on/off and around. (Especially if you've into double digit fragmentation.) Your viewer questions: * Carlos asks "Why do none of these tech shows that have risen from the ashes of TechTV mention this potential breakthrough and explore it for its validity and real world applications? * Max says "I was searching Google Video and found quite a bit of copyrighted material: Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force... Trigun and Gundam Wing... Doctor Who... South Park. Will anyone crack down on this?" (You know, a lot of those videos look like they've been submitted by the copyright holders, which means they'd be all kinds of legal!) * Cameron asks "Can you make a ultra-deluxe version of DL.TV, say a gig for each episode or at least twice the current size? I want my quality dang it!" * Joel from Pittsburgh, PA asks "Do SpywareBlaster and SpyBot Search and Destroy's immunize feature really work? I use both and seem to detect the same amount of spyware that I did prior to using them." (Props to Neil Rubenking over at PCMag for some great info to help Joel!) * Steven from Union, NJ asks "Can a PCI Express graphics card be used in a regular PCI expansion slot?"
In the News: * Student Faces Expulsion For Web Post * Nintendo Indicates Wii Pricing * FCC Won't Investigate NSA Phone Logs * Teen Suspects Charged Over MySpace Extortion * Free Nationwide Broadband? * Microsoft Reveals Rival for JPG Format Gaming Goodness: * SiN: Episodes, Emergence: Awful or Awesome... Thanks to 1UP's Garnett Lee for dropping by w/ the review! * Wii Pricing: Did Nintendo pick $250 so they'd sound serious? Why not $199??? * Email us your opinion on that. Put "Wii Pricing" in the subject! Product Round-Up: * NAS Mini-Roundup: ExtremeTech's Victor Loh on Network Attached Storage Viewer Questions: * Lukes says: Dudes, Adult Swim is not a live stream, those are the times for the broadcasts! * Matt asks for low cost in ear headphones options. We give him two, plus an over the ear choice. * Cameron asks "How good is that ATI $50 trade in?" * Bryan wants to know if 802.11b will take full advantage of his cable modem. * Brian asks about video editing: MacBook Pro, or wait for the Intel PowerMacs? Dude, go mobile if you're not doing scads of rendering. And check out the MacBook, too... it's got serious performance once you get over the graphics.
WinHEC: * ExtremeTech's Editor, Loyd Case gives us the deets from Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference Products: * The best sites online for managing photos. * Digital camera recco: superzoom and image stabilization! Viewer Questions: * John from Columbia, PA asks "Will Boot Camp run Vista Beta 2 on a Mac?" * DL.TV downloads speeds: 2MB per second, or 20Kbps? * What's up with Windows suddenly askign to reactivate? * Your responses to the Wii pricing question!
In the news: * The PirateBay Shutdown * AMD Announces Dual-Core '4x4' Platform * Dell To Offer Barebones Systems, Standard Components * Rambus: We Were The Target of Price-Fixing * Job's Glass Elevator Locks In Group of Apple Customers Other stuff: * Nintendo DS Lite VS. Nintendo DS * Fuel Cells Vs. Klein HHO Gas * Recommendations for a Tablet PC * Bluetooth Headsets
News: * FBI/AG Wants ISPs to Keep Your Web Usage Records for Two Years! (AOL, Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Comcast and more!) * Viewer Question: Is BellSouth blocking MySpace and YouTube? HowTo/Product Help: * Thinking about buying a new PC? You might want to wait till July. * Intel's new Core2Duo and Core2Extreme chips promise to wipe the floor with anything you can buy today. * ExtremeTech's Loyd Case has done the benchmarking and has some buying advice! Viewer Questions: * Tim from San Jose, CA asks "What happend to the pictures, or better yet, videos of Robert Heron's infamous HD lab? What kind of PLASMA, DLP, LCD, or SED (yes SED) displays, is Robert playing 5th Element on? * Brian says "My dad is asking me for advice on a good 50" plasma for a new home we are building. I'd like 1008P support. What's best deal out there in the $2k to $4k range? * Bill asks "When I plug my new HDTV into the computer, I only get 800x600 or 1024x768. Are there drivers I can download to get a 16:9 resolution? I hate the stretched video I'm getting now!" * Jon from Oceanside, CA says "I saw your recent episode where a user posed a question about the life of span of CD's. We use archive grade CD's with a gold reflective layer that have an estimated life expectancy of 300 years. Check out MAM Archive Grade CD-R and DVD-R media. * Paul from Toronto, Canada wonders if we "know of any good bluetooth gamepads that will work with my PowerBook? I'm looking for something that looks nice and is comfortable." This is the only one we've seen, it'd designed to wrap around a cell phone. Anybody have a better option? * Michael was "wondering why Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose on Diggnation talk openly about software piracy and hacking, and while you guys seem almost scared to talk about it. Both of you have sponsors, what/s the deal?" Truth is, neither DL.TV or Diggnation is gonna tell you how to crack copy protected material!
News * ESA Sues Minnesota Over Video-Game Bill * Apple Files Second Suit Against Creative * Another Windows Vista Feature Bites the Dust * Intel Aims Core 2 Chips At Sub-$1000 PCs Product: * Apple, MacBook, $1099-$1499 * Sony Reader * Future TV Tech. Picture tour of SID. Society for Information Displays Windows Vista Beta 2 Download: * PCMag has a good hands on guide * Remember folks: You WON"T be able to undo the install! * Click here to go to the Windows Vista Beta 2 Download Plus your Viewer Questions:
News: * Court Says US Gov Can Keep on Snooping on VOIP Calls * Deal On Net Neutrality Remains Elusive * Google Readies PayPal-Killer * JavaScript Worm Targets Yahoo! * Toyota To Double Number of Hybrid Models Jim Louderback is on today to show off some notebooks: * Gateway E-100M * Dell XPS M1210 * HP NC2400 Viewer Questions and more today on DL.TV It's time for another edition of DL.TV. Hosted by Patrick Norton and Robert Heron. In the show today... News: * Court Says US Gov Can Keep on Snooping on VOIP Calls * Deal On Net Neutrality Remains Elusive * Google Readies PayPal-Killer * JavaScript Worm Targets Yahoo! * Toyota To Double Number of Hybrid Models Jim Louderback is on today to show off some notebooks: * Gateway E-100M * Dell XPS M1210 * HP NC2400 Viewer Questions and more today on DL.TV
DIY Cell Phones! * Matt Hamrick joined us from the Silicon Valley Homebrew Mobile Phone Club * Yup, he did dial my phone up with the box full o' wires he brought on set. * This is so cool! Build Your Own Mobile Parts 1&2 are at Telefono Products: * Cars the Videogame... rocks. And not just for the 6-12 year olds it's aimed at. Thanks to 1UP's John Davison for the review. * The first of the notebook backpacks, Skullcandy's LINK Pack. Nice backpack, but, man, those speakers need more oomph and less hiss! We've got notebook backpacks from Spire, Jansport, Oakley, Targus and Booq on the show Tuesday, June 20th. Our testing has been ... interesting. Viewer Questions... er... Answers: * Eli from Chicago says we should take laptop heat seriously, 'cause "hot laptops can be a cause of male infertility." * Robert says Patrick's midwestern roots are showing: Brazillian Ethanol doesn't come from corn! * Or maybe they weren't: Brad says we shouldn't forget domestic hyrbid and flex fuel vehicles. * Ethanol: Domestic fuel? Check. Lower MPG than gasoline? BIG check. Hard Drive vs. 20 Ton Hydraulic Press * Guess what? A 20 ton press can do serious damage to a HD. * We hate it when hard drives die and take data with them. * Back up today... and wear eye protection when you crush a hard drive. * Anybody know where we can get a good deal on a plasma cutter? News: * Bill Gates to 'retire' in 2008! Not exactly... * AOL/Netscape Copies Digg Kevin Rose says "I feel bad that AOL cloned us right now.. when they see digg v3 they'll have to redesign their site" * RIAA: Illegal Song-Sharing Is 'Contained' * BigChampaigne: Really? P2P Users Up 15% Over Last Year... 10 million on average! * NASA Videotapes Metorite Impact On Moon * iPods Built By Abused Workforce? Apple responds...
Products: * Shuttle's SN27P2: The best small form factor PC yet? * Festival of Backpacks: Can a notebook backpack be worth $300? * Backpacks from Lexie Barnes, Ripley; JanSport, Alt Pack LiveWire BT; Booq, Python XM; Targus,15" Getta Backpack; Targus 15.4" Drifter Backpack; Spire, Volt XL News: * Sony Pictures Delivers First Blu-ray Titles * Samsung Blu-ray Players Ship to Retailers * Sen Stevens and his Deal On Net Neutrality * MS Halts Vista Torrents * Apple Negotiating for iTunes Movie Downloads Viewer Questions: * Maximize the life of your notebok battery * DDR vs. DDR2 Memory
* 42" Plasma HDTV Reccomendations * Is Linux prettier than Vista? Check out Xgl on OpenSUSE * Help finding WiFi on vacation: Netstumbler and WiFi Antenna tips * AT&T Owns Your Data * Nokia: No More CDMA Phones * Samsung Blu-ray players are in the stores! * Fun with Robert and Picasa Web Albums Our Tricaster, the box that streams the show, is having server technical difficulties. We're going to have to pull the live stream. Our apologies to our live viewers, but the show will be available as usual for download Friday, June 23rd. Hmmm... we've got the Tricaster up and running again... looks like the Tricaster VM (a specialized control panel) died. Watch out Tom Green!
News: * Vista: No WinFS. Again.. Ever. Not even as an add-on. NTFS will never die. * Pay Your Parking Meter With Your Cell Phone:Vancouver is So Cool Volume 235 * Fon = $5 WiFi Router (If you're willing to share your bandwidth.) Our Blu-ray Festival: * One burner and a player, either costs a grand. As in $1000. * Samsung's BD-P1000 standalone Blu-ray disc player: * Pioneer's BDR-101A Blu-ray Burner: Got 42 minutes? You can back up 25GB The Other Free Browser * Opera 9, 'the other free browser.' You asked us to look at it. We did. Opera 9 does not suck! Viewer Questions and Answers: * Forget about Box.net: you can get 25GB of FREE online storage: check out StreamLoad, say Justin, Will, another Justin, Dean, Greg, David, Zak, Kirat, Teemu and 'Anyone Anyone.' There's a catch on the free version, tho! * Nate says "Just bought a Toshiba Qosimo G35-AV650 with an HD-DVD drive. Seems that being on the bleeding edge with HD drives has it's problems regardless of which HiDef camp you choose." * "After watching the section about XGL on suse on Thursday, I thought I would recommend you suggesting an XGL live CD ." You can try out Xgl witout breaking your system. Thanks to Chris and Luke for the heads up on Kororaa.org. Zak from Portland, OR says "The ten-window interface you showed in Xgl is not called a dodecahedron as you stated, but a dodecagonal prism." Our bad!
Viewer Questions and Answers: * Smartphones: Treo vs. Blackberry: Which is the best for Prager's brother? * Remember the VA data theft? Annette's the wife of a vet, and says the VA "is taking this very seriously."Hey... The story broke post-show that the stolen laptop was recovered, and the FBI doesn't think the data was accessed. * Free Disk Partitioning Tools for Maria: Destructive vs. Non-Destructive, and why folks love PartitionMagic 8 One free destructive tool:, Ranish Partition Manager One free non-destructive tool, Ntfsresize, is built into quite a few distros. Got a better idea for Maria? Email us! (Wow, you've already come up with two we've never heard of!) * JT asks"Are the new Blu-ray disks region coded like thier predecessors?" * Is there a new dress code for DL.TV? Allison, from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, says it's time for Patrick to step the wardrobe up a notch. For all the geeks. Please. (Which is why this is The Suit Jacket Episode.) Backup Awareness Month T-shirt Giveaway: * Ya'll have some horror stories! And some of you just want a blue T-shit. (Wow... we didn't expect this kind of response.) * We've only got one shirt, but we'll see if we can get a few more. * We've got stories from DL.TV viewers with some insane backup, rescue and data loss stories. Is AT&T Feeding The NSA Your Packets? * The crew at 27B Stroke 6 have a theory. * Their "Newbie's Guide to Detecting the NSA"let's you it out on your PC in seconds. * Or just get your paranoia watching us on the show! Blu-ray Wrapup: * Robert's thrilled with Samsungs BD-P1000 ... but not so thrilled with the first Blu-ray movie transfers. * Watch the show to find out why. Guitar Hero 2 And a Game Pricing Survey: * Guitar Hero 2 is coming for you. * 1UP's Garnett Lee looks like a rock star with the plastic guitar in his hands. Patrick just looks goofy. * Garnett would love to hear wha
New Set: * Say 'G-bye' to the big blue wall. We're finally redecorating the set. Don't ya just love our plastic tarp sheet thingy? Viewer Q&A Is In Full Force: * "Getting sick of the bloatware that is Adobe Reader on Windows. Any ideas on an (hopefully) free alternative?" We got 'cha covered, Mike. You want Foxit reader!!! It's a simple, small, and reads Adobe PDF files no problem. It's free for personal use * There's no install for Foxit Reader. We walk you thru how to place it (or any other .EXE file) into your Programs Folder on the show. * Spherical Desktop? Duncan and Chris want Robert to check out SphereSite's Spherical Desktop in his search for a ... spherical desktop. * Jamie asks "Will the folks that came up with AGP come up with an alternative to PCI Express?" They already did. Kind of. * Brandon says he wished he had our PayPal advice a little earlier: he was ripped off for $1000! * "Can windows read the Mac HFS+ system or OS X read and write NTFS?" Billy from Gurnee, IL just bought a Macbook and wants to share an external hard drive. He needs MacDrive 6 and an HFS+ formatted drive. We showed how it works in Episode 45. Better Free Partitioning: * The best free partitioning tool? Non-destructive? Create, resize or destroy FAT, NTFS, HFS and HFS+? * Bradley, Brett, Ian Stewart, Wesley, Johan, Nicolas and two Jasons all swear by the "GParted LiveCD!" * Brad, Nicholas and Johan (from Helsingborg, Sweden!) added in deets and suggestions for safer use. * All in response to the software we showed in 74. Thanks for the tip! GParted is awesome. How To Burn an ISO disk: * BTW, the bootable GParted disk comes in ISO format. Don't just burn the ISO to a data CD. It won't work. * If you don't have CD burning software (or can't figure out how to open the ISO file in what 'cha got) try downloading ISOBurn 1.6. It's fast and easy. LOTR Fans Get Your Gaming On: * Lord Of The
Robert Gets Nuked By a Virus: * Welllllll... maybe not nuked, but he had a Trojan try to sneak a keylogger onto his system... * Trend Micro's free online virus scan sorted him out.... he still won't run an antivirus on his gaming system. * BTW: be careful where you download files! Viewer Questions: * "If I own a VHS tape of "The Matrix," is it legal to rent and copy a DVD of the Matrix, to ensure my investment is in more permanent format?" asks Ryan, from South Dakota. (Morality vs. the DMCA... guess which one holds up in court... and guess which side disgruntled parents with DVD thrashing toddlers falls on?) * "Is there a cellphone that can replace my digital camera?" Chad from Grand Rapids, MI wants "3 megapixels at least!" We know of one such phone in the US, Nokia's N80, demoed it a bit, and talked about a similar phone heading towards Verizon users. * HDTV or monitor shopping? Doug from San Marcos, CA wants to know "about the Contrast Ratio specification. Is a higher number better or a lower number?" The answer might surprise you. * DL.TV on his PSP: David should check out PSP Video 9 * iPod Video vs. MPEG4 vs. H.264... William's wondering if they're all the same thing. (Nope!) HowTo: * Robert shows everybody how to turn on file exertions (and some other nifty things) in the Windows XP Folder Options. Man, y'all love file extensions, Robert's got the email to prove it, and it's a nice way to figure out when something is a nasty 'ol .exe file instead of a nice safe .txt file! * If you've seen this message: "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below." you need to open that link with an RSS reader instead of your browser. Unless you've got, say, Sage loaded in Firefox, or use IE7's new built in RSS reader. Or the RSS reader built into Google or My Yahoo. You get the idea. News: * Microsoft Patch Tuesday: 7 Critical Flaws Pa
Howdy Folks, It's been a real interesting day. We're re-rendering most of the video for EP 77 due to a major audio glitch. A vile high pitched hiss was sitting on top of most of the compressed video, so re-captured it and started over again. In the mean time, I'm rebuilding the EP 77 site entry. For reasons I'm sure I'll never know, Telligent's Community Server decided to publish the admin tools for the site in this space earlier when I posted an update as to when the video would be available for download. That's a new one... I'm kinda hoping the error was between my keyboard and chair, tho, frankly, I'm not sure how I could publish the admin tools.
* A bit deeper on the Core 2. Will the power in Intel's latest make it your next processor Or will AMD drop prices so much, there's still a good reason to go Athlon? ExtremeTech's Jason Cross joins us on this one! * Help quieting your (my) PC Part One: the SPL meter and hope for noxiously loud fans in your computer. * A Festival of Viewer Questions! * 4GB SD Cards, Microsoft's suing somebody, IM Attacks Climbing, YouTube serves up 100 million viddys a day?
* What happened to the live show on Thursday, or "just because the Internet means redundency doesn't mean connection won't choke." * Terabyte hard drives, increasing areal density with heat, and a whole lot more: Patrick sat down w/ Brian Dexheimer, an Executive VP from Seagate * The Quiet PC Part II: the graphics card cooler gave us a huge drop in noise! * Curtis from Calgary, Alberta, CA reminds us: dB is a relative measurement * DNSSTUFF.com: Domain Name Tests, IP Tests, Hostname Tests... one seriously useful website * A very nice treat for the first person to correctly answer our obscure movie reference! (And some other great movies that have a black case that glows.) * The power died on his external HD: Bartholomew wants to know what to do next. * Buy a notebook now, or wait? Gary needs help on buying a notebook, and Mermo's around the corner. (And would a desktop be a smarter choice?) * Colin from Ames, IA has the scoop on who will win the Blu-ray/HD-DVD battle... the answer may surprise you.. * NCAA FOOTBALL 2007: Thumbs up or down? * Judge rejects US request to drop on AT&T eavesdropping lawsuit: the battle between privacy and national security scuffles on. * Guba.com gives MPAA new tool to fight piracy. Wonder if it'll show up on YouTube soon... * A kinder gentler Microsoft: 12 steps, and Google as a search option.
5 Tips for Better VoIP Calls: * Hardware reccos, Process Priority tweaks and the secret to hosting voice conferences that don't suck. * Is it your VoIP client or the network? Check out TestYourVoip for free help sorting that out. Vista Update: * Build 5472: finally... performance tuning has begun * Robert's got the word gaming on Vista, the speed of the install and more. * Driver support: Creative... it's time to pony up a decent XFi driver! * We need to find out when the public beta folks get these updates! Viewer Spiel: * The first HD movie on a disk didn't come on Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Jason asks "how T2 Judgment Day Extreme Edition compares to Blue-ray and HD-DVD?" * Jeffrey Klassen says "Thought you guys might like these. I was working on some water drop photos, and decided to make you something special!" Thanks for offering up the high res images to everybody, Jeffrey, and tell us how you shot these! * "What exactly will ReadyBoost do to improve Vista performance?!?!" Info for Bob from Cincinnati. on ReadyBoost, Vista, USB drives, data caching and why his 1GB Attaché ain't cutting it. * We really need to do some thumd/USB drive speed tests! * Thanks to our audience tippers for the heads up on GParted LiveCD back in EP 75 . Maria from Puerto Rico, says "it was the best. I resized my windows partition, installed Linux and to my amazement, the windows installation was untouched." * The new background sucks? Josh says "it should be retired." We hated the blue wall. What do you think of the new one? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com. We forgot to mention on air that Josh is going into the hospital for surgery soon. Throw some mojo his way (in the best Wil Wheaton sense!) News: * AMD buys ATI. Does NVIDA care? Should you? Loyd Case has some interesting thoughts on the merger on ExtremeTech.com * ICANN control, the US Gov and the September deadline... Will the US give up control over
Great MP3 Encoder: * JD's on the hunt for a better MP3 encoder than WMP or iTunes, hears that the LAME MP3 encoder is great, but doesn't want to roll with its command line utility. * No worries: there are tons of easy to use GUIs that sit on top of LAME so you don't have to go near a command line: * Exact Audio Copy is an awesome tool for making high quality audio. * Razerlame is Robert's fave front end for LAME. * dBpowerAMP is pretty slick, and offers tons of codec support (tho' you have to pay for MP3 support these days. Stuff: * Reviewing Sony's Sony HDR-HC3. PCMag's Terry Sullivan gave it an Editors' Choice. Great video... but be forewarned: there's no mic jack, and the manual controls are a bit... odd. * A good 'real vs. CG" test? George says he's got one for Robert, Autodesks's Fake or Foto? It's pretty disturbing. Anybody seen a test like this for Photoshop hacked photos? Let us know! * The Return Of Sam and Max!!! Darren Gladstone stopped by from CGW to give us the scoop on our favorite freelance police duo. This time... this publisher... it's really gonna ship. Interview: * You asked, so the full Seagate interview is available for viewing. And, yup, y'all were right, Dexheimer said 1TB drives by Xmas 2007, not 2006. Wishful thinking on my part! Viewer Questions: * Bluetooth headsets and VoIP clients like Skype: we've got info for Chad. * You had a ton of questions about the Whitehourse video processor/scalar Robert uses in the lab! We'll have those questions and links (from HTPCs to dScaler to cheap alternates to the Whitehorse) up shortly. News: * Digg Fans Hack Netscape * US Broadband Subscribers Up 33% in 2005 * Intel Slashes Prices 40- 60%, on Pentium D and Pentium 4 CPUs Comments being censored? * Wha? We started moderating comments (which means they don't post to the site until we approve them) yesterday on this page after a spate of folks post
Stuff: * Ageia's PhysX physics accelerator for gaming. Worth the $300, or spend you gaming dollar elsewhere? * Belkin's Wireless G Travel Router: a palm full o' 802.11g routery goodness (The Linksys WTR54GS Wireless-G Travel Router with SpeedBooster is pretty sweet, too. * Yes, Adam, the US gets a lot of the cool cell phones well after they've hit the streets in the UK or Japan... and 550 (US $1040) sounds steep to us for a PS3 pre-order. * And for everybody that's emailing... yup, November 17th is the US release date for the PS3. We forgot. 802.11n: * "Should I buy a wireless router now or wait for the real 802.11n?" asks Hal from Sioux Falls, SD. * The answer depends on whether it's for a business that needs industry standards, or if it's for use just in your home... and, yes, there is a performance difference between Pre-n and Draft-n& and both smoke 802.11g. Questions for the DL.TV Crew: * No HyperTerminal in Vista? Mark's looking for a "good open source terminal emulator" to replace it when connecting to the console ports on routers and switches. * Know a good open source/ad-free utility for printing PDF files? email Robert! News: * E3 Downsizing: The biggest party in gaming is going small. * Dell Investigates Second Laptop Fire * Hi-Def Add-On Coming for iPod: why? * Animaniacs Vol 1 on DV.... woot! Iceland: * Baldwin from Iceland was miffed, but we're cool now He thought we were mocking Iceland's broadband penetration in episode 81. * No way. We love Iceland! We were mocking US broadband penetration!(Tho wiring a country of 300,000 is easier than wiring a country of 300,000,000!) * Iceland's EVE isn't quite #2 behind WoW in popularity: check out MMOGCHART to find out just how many folks are playing your favorite massively multiplayer online game
Techno-Oddness: * Availabots, Nabaztag the WiFi Technobunny... er, "lapin communicant,", and the future of odd gadgets that 'speak' to you without your monitor or speakers. Free Tools From The DL.TV Crew: * Wow, you guys had some pretty solid ideas about how to print to PDFs for free! * Never printed to a PDF? It's like printing to a document on your desktop, instead of a physical printer. * Most of you recommended: CutePDF Some folks prefer PDFCreator. PrimoPDF was also popular. * Other ideas? Use something with it build in, such OS X, OpenOffice, or Office 12! (Well, when it ships.) Viewer Questions: * Intentsly wants to know when the new Merom notebooks will arrive&We've got a rough date, and NoteBookreview has a good preliminary list. * What's making video playback shake on my monitor? What kind of tech would we buy if $2000 fell out of the sky? More! News: * NBC and YouTube Form Partnership * House Wants Ban on MySpace * MacBook Wireless Hacked... this driver vulnerability works on PCs, too All you need is the right, er, wrong WiFi setup. And all you need to do is turn on your system. (The details of the crack have not been made public, yet, so hopefully vendors will patch the holes quickly!) * AOL Says Workforce to Shrink by a Quarter& ouch
What's on the show? Viewer questions! Big honking piles of them: * Extended warranties: good or bad, asks Brett? * Allister asks "What hardware do I need to connect a Cable TV box to a Media Center PC? What type of interface will I have? " * Can I get an adapter for my old ATA drives if my new motherboard has SATA ports, asks Jason? * CRT to LCD... will I notice a difference, especially if I use a DVI connection to my computer? We're on it, Ben. * dot19408: is looking for help setting up an email server over his home DSL line... we say let an ISP handle that... but email us with your suggestins for whether dot should try to run Sendmail from home. * Rich wants to know the proper way to pronounce Linux. (We've got the word from Linus thanks to Paul Sladen. * Allister asks "What hardware do I need to connect a Cable TV box to a Media Center PC? What type of interface will I have? " * Jason asks "If I get a motherboard that has SATA connections, can I get adaptors for my old ATA drives?" * We had a stack of URGE questions to follow up on... Ty adn Jeff were especially curious about what happens to the tunes you download after the 14 day free trial ends! * John from Iowa wants reccos on a long distance WiFi setup... it depends on how far = long distance! * Converting CDs to Vinyl? Kelly's on a mission! Companies like CustomRecords can make short runs of records for you, but they aren't cheap. * Nate's more geek than you... he tried dropping a Core 2 Duo (Merom) procesor into his Core Duo notebook... and gave us the heads up on what happened. Thanks Nate! * What about live phone calls on DL.TV???
NEWS • Were Apple's announcements at the WWDC kinda boring? • Microsoft Says No Virtual PC for Intel Macs • Update Windows XP!!! Microsoft Fixes a Dozen Security Flaws, Nine Critical • MS to Pay Reparations for Vista and Office Delays • Microsoft To Expand Genuine Advantage Program says "We expect to do more to make Windows more differentiated when it's genuine, and so Genuine customers get a truly different experience than non-Genuine customers."
NEWS • Dell Announces Massive Laptop Battery Recall • Is your notebook affected? Follow the instructions at Dell's Battery Recall Page • Three solid MP3 players that aren't iPod nanos: Creative's Zen V Plus, the SanDisk Sansa e260 and iriver's clix • Are the new Intel powered Mac Pro desktops fast? Greg thought "we mind find MacInTouch's H.264 benchmarks of interest." Damn right we do; we're looking to get our hands on one ASAP. • Garrett reminds us that the WiFi at most truckstops isn't free... but lots of motels have free WiFi when you're on the road. Just... park...near... them. • Is it DLTV, DL.TV or DigitalLife TV? We've got answers for William. Kind of. • What to do with that old iBook 366? We've got a laundry list of idea for Kings5 (from Germany) and all of 'em are much more interesting that using it as a paperweight! • MP3 cell phone? We showed off LG's Chocolate for a minute... the controls take some getting used to. • Derek wants to stream MP3s from his hard drive. • Pacemakers and 2.4 GHz wireless: Ryan from NY chimes in. • US Offers RFID Passports to Public. • Microsoft XNA $99 Kit For User Created Xbox 360 Games.
NEWS • Federal Court Finds NSA Wiretaps Unconstitutional • Anti-Caps Lock Key Campaign, or weak publicity stunt. (Robert: Kill the Caps Lock... Patrick: Don't touch it!) • $100 Laptops Debut in Thailand • Police Use MySpace to ID Rape Suspects Law Enforcement really should love MySpace.
• Google Opens Up Writely • SanDisk offers 8GB Sansa for the Price of a 4GB iPod nano • Black-Boxes Will Not Be Required in Cars • Sony says PS3 isn't in production yet... • Ahhh... Sony's already made some clarifications... Props to our buddies at 1UP for the heads up on that.
NEWS • Apple Recalls 1.8 Million Laptop Batteries BTW, Apple has a corrected list recalled batteries. • Apple Announces $100,000,000 Settlement with Creative... Apple gets to end the lawsuit, Creative promises to make iPod accessories. • Microsoft: No HD Playback in 32bit Vista? That's the rumor, tho it looks like it will ultimately depend on the HD playback software makers and the studios. PRODUCTS • ATI Radeon X1950 XTX... the latest in the graphics wars. if you're looking for a detailed review and tests of ATI's Radeon X1950 XTX ExtremeTech's Jason Cross did a great job. • We can't wait to get our dirty little hands on the new Shuttle X100... it's tiny! • Solid State Notebook Drives... very robust. Very pricey. Thanks to DV Nation for lending us a notebook to check out, they've got quite an array of flash drives for sale... A 32GB model will run you $1799!
NEWS • Vista Update... what is the story w/ Blu-ray HD-DVD playback (it ain't a 64bit/32bit thing, it's a third party thing), 30 minute installs, UAC tweaks, and RC-1 is on the way... • Microsoft To Plug FairUse4WM WMV Crack. • Software Pirate Earns Jail and Fine And, yes, "Federal pound me in the [[something]] prison is an Office Space reference... now go file those TPS forms. • Ouch: AOL 9.0 LABELED "BADWARE"
THE DEETS • Antispyware roundup! Our top two reccomendations... and why a firewall won't help much. • Saint's Row: GTA clone, or decent game? • DL.TV on your PSP: We like the 2.8 firmware upgrade! It can play the DL.TV iPod video.... and load from RSS feeds! • Intel Quad Core Coming Q4 • Hackers hit AT&T • Purple Dinosaur Gets Sued... • Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 = XBOX 360 media sharing without Media Center Edition • Will the bird breakfast video finally make an appearance? • Also on the animal front: anybody got a humane way to save Robert's car from The Evil Cats? • We've got a launch date for our new website!
HANDS ON • Little Tiny Portable Machines that can browse the web: Sony's VAIO VGN-UX180P Micro PC, Nokia 770, and the PSP • OK, Sony's VAIO VGN-UX180P Micro PCis a lot more than a browsing tool... it's like a slightly more usable (and not pocket sized) OQO. Need to edit audio files down? A free utility for that can handle MP3s? No problem, Luke. Check out Audacity. It's free, it works great, and there's versions for Mac OS X and Linux, too! VIEWER QUESTIONS • More on why Meatwolf might not want to substitute a pricey PC monitor for his television. (It can work... just be ready to work around the problems and the price!) • Sholom wants to know if we're going to be at the DigitalLife Event. Yup, we'll be there, but we won't be taping a live show. Want us to have a meetup while we're in NYC? Email us! • The worst Geek 101 ever: Bits, bytes, and the annoying difference between the Gigabytes your OS uses vs. the Gigabytes used by the folks that build hard drives. BitCalc rules if you hate dividing by 1024! • Huh... the FAA lets carriers decide whether or not passengers can use GPS devices when the plan is at cruising altitude. Passive devices or no, don't cross the flight attendants if they tell you to shut it off! NEWS • More Battery Recalls This time, it's Mastsushita • Vista Pricing Confirmed Upgrades will cost $100 to $259 • MySpace To Sell Music but only from bands that haven't signed • Microsoft Experimenting With Automatic Code Zapping: More tools to protect IE... • Heads up: we've got spam problems in the comments section o' DL.TV, so until the new site launces September 21st, we're going to moderate all comments to keep the spam off the page.
THE DEETS • Networked HD DVD Media Player? That's the short description for Zensonic's Z500... lots of potential here, along with a few rough spots. • Loco Roco = Perky Crack for the PSP • Should you defrag your Pod? • Geek 101: what was Patrick on... and why Google Calculator beats BitCalc! • PS3 Delayed in Europe • Movie Downloads Expected at Apple Event
THE DEETS • Apple's Busting Out All Over: Sebastian Rupley, West Coast Editor for PC Mag, reports from the San Francisco event and gives up the scoop on iTunes 7 and the new iPods. • Jim Louderback is in Paris, France bringing you the Apple info from abroad. • Robert finally got his hands on the new Tivo Series3 HD DVR. Is he a happy videophile? • A whole bunch of viewer questions! • Moderation of Commments: Whatever the spammers use to spray the comments isn't stopped by moderating the comments... the spam publishes dispite that. Rather than pull our dev dude off of prepping the new site, we're just gonna turn the moderation back off, and keep manually deleting the spam.
THE DEETS • Robert's at the CEDIA show in Denver. This time it's Patrick flying solo. • LCD HDTV buying guide... what Robert's looking for! • 32" LCD Reccos for Akshay in NYC: Robert rates Sharp's LC-32D40U Aquos as tops, followed by the Westinghouse LTV-32w3 HD. • Vizio's L32 isn't the steal the 50 inch Vizio P50 HDM is. • Wii Have A Ship Date! • Anyone Can Download Vista RC1 • Microsoft's Zune Is Official, But So What? • Expensive Audio/Video Cables: Real Deal or Ripoff? We're on it, Gerald.... and you should know, Monster cables aren't that expensive... at least compared to some we've seen. • "Is it OK to use my MP3 player as a USB drive for backups and storage," asks Christopher. • Joe from Tampa wants to know: Should I upgrade my MP3 collection from 28Kbps?
THE DEETS • Robert's report from CEDIA! • iTunes 7: Performance issues? You're not alone. • Universal Backs Out Of Blu-ray. • New Cyber Czar at Homeland Security. • Wii Have A Ship Date! • $800 TiVo Series3 HD DVR (+ $13 a month fee) vs. free Cable Co. HD DVR at $13 a month. • iTunes movies: 16x9 or 4x3? Fun w/ aspect ratios. • Mike's rule for buying audio gear... a nice way to look at the expensive cable question. • External PCI slot expansion? Anish, it's not cheap... • Laptop coolers for Mike? • Reviving a drive with a bad format... we'll walk you thru it, Sporn!
THE DEETS • Welcome to the new site! • 17" notebooks vs. airport security. Dan, it's your toothpaste that's gonna be a problem. • SeatGuru, says Robert = not getting the suxor seat on the airplane. • Traffic Shaping: We talk to Packeteer's Mark Urban to learn more about the way packets get managed on the 'net. • Got somebody you'd like to see us interview? Email us: dl.tv@ziffdavis.com!!! • Facebook = 1 Billion Dollars? • Linux Hackers Get First Dibs on New DVR • Universal and Blu-ray? Rob says we're idiots. • LCD Computer Monitor Shopping? We've got tips on the specs you need • Windows Vista: should Tosh install the 32bit or 64bit version? • Daniel from Portland wants a good video codec for Linux users, and help making the audio sound better. • Aspiring Audio Engineer on MP3 vs. AAC. • Dance Dance... Immolation?
• Internet Explorer Zero-Day VML Exploit: Go to a web page in IE, get infested. Run Firefox or Opera. • Or patch IE with this string: regsvr32 -u "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll" • Or run Microsoft Windows Update. Microsoft just posted a special update just to plug it. • Leo, congrats on the Podcaster of the Year award! • Windows Media Player 11: No DRM license backups... The Inquirer is pissed about this... we get Microsoft's response. • We've got Fall Intel Developer Forum coverage... ExtremeTech's Loyd Case gives us his take • 80 core processors later... Intel Quad-Core Processors in November • Notebook hard drive help • Ron asks about video of the 'real' iPod video • Hands on with the new iPod and iPod nano and • Free MP3 editing software? John, try out mp3DirectCut instead of Audacity... we tell you why on the show. • Perpendicular recording and notebook hard drive uprades. We've got info for ya, Carl. • Mike's looking for his own Geek shirt That shirt came from ThinkGeek, check out Jinx.com, too! • Got a fave free or low cost web host? Emails us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com • A word from our sponsors: Help support DL.TV. For every person that signs up for 50 free songs at the DL.TV emusic page, we get a bounty. Forward the link to your friends!
NEWS • Tokyo Game Show: 1UP's Garnett Lee was there, and he's got the PS3 scoop! 1UP's Best of TGS ... MotorStorm looks epic on the PS3 • Holographic data drives from Maxell and InPhase Technologies not coming to your notebook soon. (BTW, the 1.8 inch drive in the new 80GB iPod uses perpendicular recording. Thanks Danebert!) • Cheap web hosting reccos from the DL.TV Crew: 1and1.com was the most recommended, followed by DreamHost. We list six more in the show. • Rob thinks we hate the PS3, and wants us to talk HDMI 1.3! • John's looking for an HTTP server he can run on his home PC. We mentioned Apache and Microsoft's IIS • Real geeks use wireless mice and keyboards? No way, Andrew, they use vintage 'boards with Alps mechanical switches! • Why don't we encode over multiple boxes when we're live to cut down the time you have to wait before downloading DL.TV? We've got an answer for Bill! • HP Buys Voodoo and Voodoo is stoked! • Lenovo Recalls 526,000 Batteries. Lenovo lists the vulnerable Thinkpad models here. • Peter Jackson To Helm 'Halo' Game Expansion (Robert wants Hobbit Hunting in there!) • MS Announces Zune Pricing, Ship Date • Judge Rules Against StreamCast/Morpheus • Oh... BTW, Jordan in Michigan is selling his car on Craigslist... careful about hitting SEND to ALL! Email us if you're near Grand Rapids and need an 89 Honda Accord. • Help pay for DL.TV: sign up for a free trial at emusic!
Stuff • Thank you to everybody that's been watching for the first 100 episodes!!! • How we make DL.TV: Roger Chang takes you from the ideas in our brains to the video you download. • Why no DL.TV on TiVo? Sam, you should contact TiVo and ask them to add us! • Where's the blue DL.TV wallpaper? Right here, Duane! • Richard's son wants a $100 gaming mouse: will it make him a better gamer? • Corey needs some advice: he needs to email 100MB to CD sized files to friends. Got a recco? Email us! • Rhett says, "Apple actually lets you re-download all of your iTunes music again ONCE!" This is the link on Apple's site that Rhett used. So it's not just Wil Wheaton. • Of course, Apple says you can only download it once Back Up Your Tunes!!! • Can you review PeerGuardian 2? Sure, Jorge. • We've got interviews coming up with folks from Opera and Mozilla (the Firefox folks). Email us with questions you'd like us to ask them!. News • GIFs Are Free! Nice toon at UserFriendly.org • Congress Passes Bill Banning Online Casinos • Free Software Foundation To Protest Apple DRM • Armstrong Did Not Flub Moon Speech! • No HDMI for Xbox 360 HD-DVD. Our man Rob found the info on the AVS Forum ...they vouch that it's MS VP Amir Majidimehr posting. • Got the messiest desk ever? Photographic proof wins a free poofy Sumo lounge thing at UNEASYSilence! The pictures are just... nasty. DL.TV Gathering... emusic Fix! • DL.TV and Gearlog.com Rally! er... Gathering! Party! Meetup-Thingy! it's October 14th, 5PM at the DigitalLife Event, Javits Center, New York City • Our gathering is free, and if you email us, we can get you a code so you can get tickets to the DigitalLife Event free! Put 'free DigitalLife tickets' in the subject line! • Did you sign up for the free emusic trial and only get 25 songs? We can fix that! go to emusic customer service and put the www.emusic.com/dltv URL in your email and you'll get the extra 25 songs. Our apologies fo
STUFF • 9-12dBi of WiFi boost for pennies? Look for the EZ-12 instructions on FreeAntennas.com If you can be trusted with scissors and a glue stick, you can make this. • Test Drive Unlimited Quite the driving game... at first. • Really. No HDMI for the Xbox 360. We've got the word from Microsoft. • Dell sent Chris' battery replacement. Can he keep the "defective" battery and use the new one as a spare? What's the chances of HIS laptop battery exploding? • Neil asks, "Will you put out a DVD set?" • Sorenson Squeeze giving you fits, David? We're not surprised. All the 'low cost' sub-$600 prosumer video compression tools have issues. • DL.TV and Gearlog.com party it's October 14th, 5PM at the DigitalLife Event, Javits Center, New York City Beverages will be served, and you can meet up with the Gearlog folks along with Roger, Robert and Patrick from DL.TV. • BTW, if you email us, we can get you free tickets to DigitalLife! Put 'free DigitalLife tickets' in the subject line! NEWS • No More Contracts for AT&T DSL Cheap broadband with no commitment. Cool. • Google Launches Code Search • More DRM Free Music: Amie.ST The tunes start out free... if they get popular, the cost goes up. Huh. • Wibree: It's a Bluetooth Competitor It's all about power consumption. • Transporter, Step One 18 inches of 'beam me up' gadget goodness. MORE STUFF • We had a hefty respone from the DL.TV Crew when we asked how you email huge files. We'll go over your responses on next Tuesday's show. • We've got an interview coming up with folks from Mozilla (the Firefox folks). Email us with questions you'd like us to ask them!. • Wanna help support DL.TV? Sign up for dl.tv's free 50 song emusic trial. No DRM!
Robert, Roger, Jim and our party at DigitalLife... • Robert's in NYC setting up for the DigitalLife Event... Roger Chang and Jim Louderback are guest hosting. • We're throwing a party in NYC Saturday October 14th... Do us a favor and register on our Upcoming.org page so we can get a head count on who's going, please! (And thank you!) • Yes, adult bevvies will be available (free!), and, yes, we will be checking IDs. • The party is free, and you can get free tickets for the DigitalLife Event if you email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with "Free DigitalLife Tickets" in the subject. Stuff • What cables can carry 1080p video? Robert's got an answer for Rob. • Jim demos the best tools for making tight coax connections (Better signal = better video from your cable or satllite box!) • Jim owns a ridiculous number of TiVo boxes. • More WiFi Booster Goodness (Lukas asks what if your WAP doesn't have an external antenna? Shane wonders if it'll work at both ends? And what's up w/ that glue stick, Patrick?) • Your first two reccos on ways to send huge files! (And a comment from at least one viewer, Matt, that isn't too thrilled with the most popular hosting site the DL.TV crew suggestion...) • Anthony's looking for a cheap way to get Photoshop like tools (Photoshop CS retails for $699.) without stealing 'em off the net. We say try Photoshop Elements, The GIMP and Paint.net. BTW, if you havent seen Bert Monroy's work, check it out! (He's got a new instructional series at Revision3, PixelPerfect, that's pretty cool, too.) • Chad wants us to poll the DL.TV audience on every episode. Let's give it a shot. How about an external hard disk enclosure that sleeps the drive when its inactive? All the OS X users in the studio said "Get a Mac." Got a recco for Chad? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com NEWS • Google Buys YouTube for $1.65 Billion There's some partying going on in San Mateo! • North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon. Scientists debate if it was a rea
Deets from DigitalLife NYC 2006 • Hands on with the Sony PS3, Madden 07 on the Nintendo Wii. • 1080p Projectors • Super Routers and a whole lot more!!!
Stuff • Hack iTunes, turn Podcasts into Netcasts. • Adding Art in iTunes • Map tricks without Google Maps • Backup Before Boot Camp? NEWS • IFPA Declares War on P2P • Google Goes Solar in a Big Way
Stuff • Major DIY hard drive recovery help from Scott Moulton of Forensic Strategy Services and MyHardDriveDied.com, which has great presentation on how to repair drives. Scott recommends Runtime.org's software for recovering data. • Cheap GPS Nav systems? Pat, we've got two great options: Streets & Trips 2007 and Garmin's StreetPilot i3 • Where did the DL.TV Flash video with the individual segments go? Click on the picture, and the big Flash video player will pop right up. • Kim wants to know if flat speaker wire sounds as good as the round stuff. • About that iTunes hack for Netcasting... it didn't work so well on Windows iTunes, some clever viewers have a better way to make it work. • IE 7 released • ALL OF MP3 Goes Free • Family Guy, the video game reviewed. Sam Kennedy joins us from 1UP.com. Mature audiences only.
Today on DL.TV, Patrick was driving back from Colorado, so Jim Louderback joined Robert Heron on DL.TV. And as the "guest host", Jim got tagged with writing the shownotes, so here they are! NEWS • Firefox Launches and it's party time! PC Magazine covered the launch of version 2.0, and also the more than 400 parties that are happening worldwide to celebrate the event. This episode of DL.TV, in fact, was one of those parties. • Want to download Firefox 2.0? It was a bit congested earlier in the day, but you can find 2.0 setup here: • Apple Finally added the Core 2 Duo processor to its Macbook notebook lineup. That means a bit more heat, and a bit more speed to the portable lineup. • New Bittorrent support added to nine routers and NAS boxes. This is a key development,as you can serve and receive torrents without leaving your PC on. • In a stroke of twisted genius, a malware writer adds antivirus software to its Trojan, ensuring that any compromised machine its loaded on will be dedicated solely to its nefarious purposes. But what happens when two or more Trojans adopt the same technology? Stuff • Roger Chang came on and showed how you can add media center streaming capabilities to an older Xbox, breathing new life into the aging platform. The capabilities are very cool, and Roger showed an easy way, step by step, to make it happen. You can find out more at www.xbox-hq.com • It's also a great time to upgrade your system. ExtremeTech editor Loyd Case just wrote a great fall upgrade guide, and we brought him on in our own version of "Ask Martha" You can read all about Loyd's picks here. • Finally, we had time for just one question. Robert, Jim and associate producer Scott Asnault shared their favorite RSS readers. • I prefer Feed Demon,particularly because it lets you store feeds and read them offline : • Robert shows off Sage, a Firefox plugin that works with 2.0; • And Scott is particular to the new Google Reader which is drop dead ea
STUFF • We've got forums! Thanks to Jim over at ExtremeTech.com for setting up forums for us. Just click on the Forums tab on ExtremeTech.com and scroll to the bottom of the page. Please let us know what additional forum sections you'd like! • Chris is looking for older DL.TV episodes: We've got 'em all on the Archive page. (Look in the Navigate section.) Having that and an 'Episodes' section is a tad confusing, isn't it? Urg. • Worried about Bully? Don't. 1UP's Scott Sharkey tells us why this PS2 game scored 10 out of a possible 10, and really is teen friendly. • Jim wants a hard drive recovery recco. How about Forensic Strategy Services, since the founder, Scott Moulton, was kind enough to share some good info on DIY drive recovery in Ep. 105? Another popular option is DriveSavers. • IE7: Why did I do that? Mark, a new Firefox users, chimes in on the woes of 65 vertical pixels lost. • Vidabox: Superior PCs for the home theater? The totally silent Zero is one of the coolest cases we've seen, David, but they're deffo expensive. • $485 stereo knobs for better audio quality? Interesting idea, Edward. NEWS • OEMs Reveal Vista Upgrade Plans Vista come free with -some- systems this fall. • Lik-Sang Closes Doors After Sony Lawsuit One less source for European gamers to buy PSPs. • DoubleTwist Plans To License DVD Jon's iTunes FairPlay Crack to Businesses Could allow other companies to offer iPod compatible downloads...
STUFF • Congrats to Producer Scott: He and the Mrs. just had a healthy baby girl! • Daylight Saving 2007 might just break your clocks, says Nikki • Locking down USB ports, Ken? Superglue will do it. Microsoft has a registry hack you can use to disable USB storage devices. • Is banking at work safe, Richard? Err to the paranoid, and make sure your bank's website is secure. • Going Secure on Gmail?( https://mail.google.com ) • Xbox 360 Enhanced... 85 tweaks, including 1080p output • Stopping Annoying System Tray Popups • Dan says DL.TV forums are good... but what's with asking for personal information to register? • Larry wants to know if the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro should be his first Mac. Jamie gives us a list of why the new C2D MacBook Pro is "the notebook we've wanted since January" • Oh... one last thing: William says "WE SUCK." NEWS • No more Daily Show clips on YouTube... maybe. • More UWB (Ultrawideband) Stupidity: Another format. • Windows Media Player 11 Ships... Old Window Injection Flaw Reappears in IE 7 • Hell.com Sale... It's no Sex.com
NEWS • Intel Quad-Core CPU is out! We've got PCMag's benchmark numbers. • Spy agencices develop a Wiki for intelligence gathering. • Explosion at PayPal offices. • YouTube to go mobile. Do you really want to watch video on a phone? • New drivers from Nvidia support Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback. STUFF • Final Fantasy XII. 1UP's Garnett Lee gives us the lowdown on this long running RPG series. • We take a peek at Gateway's new performance PC. • Mousing performance not up to snuff? Rob and Jim offer up gadgets to soup up your mousing. • Is it good time to buy PC parts or should wait 6 months? • PS3 or Xbox 360. Which should buy this holiday season? • Did I mention we have benchmark numbers for Intel's new Quad-Cores?
STUFF • SEMA 2006: the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas is an amazing show of cars... and a fair amount o' car tech. We've got Patrick's slide show from the show floor! • Secure Gmail: Stephen says "I use the CustomizeGoogle Firefox extension to force GMail to secure (https) mode." Alexander reminds us that HTTPS:// only secures you connection to the server --not-- the contents of your email. Paul has a hot tip on why your connection might not be secure in the office! • JD is curious about the Samsung HL-S5679W we used to demo the Xbox 360's new 1080p update • Martin needs help with 5.25 inch floppies. Anybody know if 5.25 inch floppy drives will connect to the 3.5 inch floppy connector that's still on almost every modern mobo? • JD is curious about the Samsung HL-S5679W we used to demo the Xbox 360's new 1080p update. • Flaming dog game for the PS2? That'd be Okami, Steve! • Got an HDTV question for Robert? Join him in the HDTV Forums on PCMag.com NEWS • Xbox 360 Gets HD Movies, TV Downloads • Google Earth 4 (beta 6) • Google to Broker Print Ads in Newspapers • AMD Offers Graphics Chips for Older Macs • NVIDIA 8800 Recalled? Not True. And, boy, is the 8800 fast! • Bill Gates in Bid for Four Seasons Hotels More Stuff • Go to emusic.com/dltv to sign up for a free 50 song trial! No DRM, the files are yours forever, and we get a bounty for everybody that signs up. Woot!
STUFF • Nvidia's 8800 is FAST, ExtremeTech's Loyd Case gives us the deets. • Vista Hits RTM • PS3 and Wii ready to ship • MacBook Gets Core 2 Duo • More! • Sorry this is arriving so late on Friday, our flash tool blew up on us and we''ve just gotten it rolling again.
STUFF • What to do when you PC is infested with a virus. • How to connect a PCMCIA device to a USB port. • A viewer tip on being anonymous online. • MacBook RAM clarification. • Tabasco in a Dell?! • Thanks for your support.
STUFF • We got a Wii in house and it sure is sweet. See what resident Wii owner, Jim Louderback, has to say about Nintendo's latest product, and whether or not you should stand in line this weekend to get one. • With the battle between Internet Explorer and FireFox heating up it's easy to forget Opera Web Browser. We had the opportunity to talk to Opera Software's CTO about the abilities, direction and future of the Opera Web Browser. • We had a viewer, Rob, ask about the true frame rate nature of 1080p output of the PS3, Xbox 360, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. The answer is a bit more complicated than it appears. For a comprehensive explanation, Robert Heron, suggests checking out Alvy Ray's site on the matter at http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/ • JB wanted to know if he could replace the hard drive in his Inspiron 9100 and then use the included install disc that came with the computer to re-install Windows. The answer depends on a few things. Is there a hidden partition on the current hard drive that is require to re-install the software, is the install disc included just a backup image of what came from factory or an actual install disc. If anyone knows which applies specifically to the Inspirion 9100 please let us know. • Finally a multitude of thoughtful viewers corrected us on a few of the questions we had on tuesday specifically on the locked file that could not be deleted. Many suggested a tool Unlocker available at the authors site here.
Stuff • Our FTP problem is fixed, and the iPod, Mpeg4 and MP3, DivX, WMVand H.264 formats are up. Flash went up 2:00AM November 23. Joy. We can go home now. • Wow... long show, 58 minutes. We almost ran out of tape. Lots of stuff in this one! • Sony's PS3 is sold out. More Nintendo Wii units go on sale this Friday. • Two obvious shopping tips: 1. Prices online can be cheaper, but paying for overnight shipping can kill your savings. Shop early. 2. Do your research --before-- you head to the store. • Kids Stuff: FRS Radios, Radio Shack's Electronics Learning Lab, Lego Mindstorms, more! • Our digital camera picks, from ultra cheap to ultra-swank. • MP3 players: No shock, our top picks come from Apple, but we've got non-iPod options, too. • Robots! PCMag's Lance Ulanoff gives us the holiday scoop on everything from toddler terrifying raptors to DIY robot kits. • Graphics cards: pics at $150, $250 and mortagage payment. • Robert's HDTV reccos, our take on Blu-ray and HD-DVD. (Did you know the new Xbox 360 HD DVD box can be hacked to run on a Mac or PC?) • Cody wants cheap treats for HDTV owners. • Stocking stuffers: thumb drives, Leatherman tools and more. • Unix_Rootsu wants to know if he can build a new system this winter, or if he should wait for PCI-E 2.0 and DDR3 mobos. • Thinking about a new system? Balancing dollars vs. power? Start with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300... or if you don't mind a little performance drop to go w/ AMD, an Athlon 64 X2. • Rob needs a call on a MacBook for his daughter: what's the difference between a black and white model? • Two wireless keyboard with mouse reccos for Nick. • Did we mention satellite radio recievers are downright cheap?
Stuff • Apocalypse must be nigh: Patrick's Mom is buying a computer. • HD DVD playback for $200? The folks at UneasySilence.com have the drivers you need to run an Xbox HD DVD Player on your Windows XP machine. You'll need HD DVD playback software... we're waiting for an add on for WinDVD 8 Know any that's shipping now? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with the deets! • Sending big files? Your top choices are Pando.com, Gigasize.com, and YouSendIt.com. We've got more of your suggestions in the show. • The best looking format for watching DL.TV? We've got an answer for Digital_B • Dell's battery police are after Mike. What should he do... • Larry says it's not FindMeNot.com, it's FindNot.com for the anonymous Internet access at work! • How long should it take to capture digital video from a camcorder? • Austin wants an "ultra compact camera that can use SD cards, is real good in low light and ha a 3x optical zoom." Wow.. tough list! • How long should it take to capture digital video from a camcorder? NEWS • DMCA Exemption for Cellphones • Microsoft Announces Xbox Live Movie Prices • ALLofMP3.COM Targeted For Shutdown • 600,000 Wii's Sold in North America
STUFF • Office 2007 tricks: Louderback shows us some of the nifty, and not so high profile, new features in 0ffice 2007. • Patrick's looking for a legal download site that has downloads from major label bands. We've got an idea for him. • Homer wants to know which bittorrent client we'd run on a mac. That'd be Azureus. It runs on anything w/ Java support.. Mac, PC or Linux. (We're big fans of µTorrent on XP, btw.) • DL.TV = HD DVD propaganda? Silent on decent Blu-ray titles? Hardly, Rob. We've seen some great transfers on Blu-ray. And let's clear the air about which next gen DVD system you should buy. • 500GB external hard drives? Edwin, we'll tell you exactly how we buy external storage. • ColorMall has Robert's favehigh tech screen cleaning roller... but it's $165! Ouch. • Speaking of ouch... DaddyDowse say's it's not Newky Brown, it's Dog. NEWS • Vista Ships To Enterprise Customers • More Wii, PS3 Units Available This Sunday • Adobe Confirms Acrobat Exploit Thru IE • Google Closes Answer Business
STUFF • Want a Silent PC? ExtremeTech's Jason Cross joins us to talk about his latest build. • $300 gaming NIC? Is it a must have or a waste of cash? We've got the word for Intentsly and Merrell • Josiah, Jason, Crhis, Bryan, Donald and co. ask "What happened to the MPeg4 feed?" (We droped it, please try the H.264 video instead!) • Doppler: Mike's recco for subscribing to our video. It's free, and it works. • Democracy, a very cool all in one tool for subscribing, downloading and watching video, can't read our RSS feeds. We're working to fix that ASAP. • Robert says "Hey, finals are coming up for me in college. Do you guys have any advice for me?" Yup. Don't buy a Wii and start playing Zelda until --after-- finals are over! • 20 gauge shotgun + malfunctioning DVD player = fun. Thanks for the pix Chase! • And more! NEWS • AMD, Nvidia Receive Antitrust Subpoenas • Apple Patent Suggests iPhone • Azureus Spinoffs into HD Sharing • Sony Debuts Game Download Service • Seagate CEO: We Help People Watch Porn
STUFF • PC case reccos for Matt. • Video on the Xbox: Roger's back with Team Blackbolt's 360 Blad Skin on top of XBMC on a modded Xbox. A cool way to browse video! (And can anybody code us up a DL.TV script?) • What happened to Patrick's mouse from SmoothCreations? We show it off along with some more shiny paint jobs from ColorWare. • Will Michael's brother notice if he replaces his VGA cable with a DVI cable? • Are there any Bluetooth or wireless joysticks for the PC? We've got answers for Peter. • DIY Notebook Repairs: We've got info for Roger. • Backing up a 750GB hard drive is definately a nightmare Chad, unless you have lots of time or money. NEWS • Microsoft Issues Attack Alert: Zero Day Guns for Word • Cell Phones Don't Raise Cancer Risk: Study • MySpace to Block Sex Offenders
STUFF • Democracy Works: Or at least it should. We've been tweaking our RSS feeds. • Daniel's looking for a tool to automatically generate the XML for an RSS feed. We use a custom tool, so that's out. Got a suggestion for Dan? Email us! • Headphones under $100? We've got two suggestions for Michel! BTW, we love nosing around the Headroom website to check out the mad array of headphones and gear... they've got some pretty solid reviews, too. • "Why are web cams so darn "up and down the ladder" on prices?" Bob, it's all about glass, sensors, processing and build quality.... other than that, not much difference between them! • H.264 rendering? We found the Mac Pro 25% faster than the G5, Curtis... throw more memory at it and it gets even faster. • Matt's looking for an external battery for his notebook. Electrovaya offers models up to 300Wh, they're the Cadillac, but they aren't cheap. APC has a low cost 80Wh Universal Notebook Battery that sells for under $200. • Joe says "Blu-ray burners have dropped under $599!" • Lego flamethrower? Very cool. Thanks for the heads up, Matthew! NEWS • Dutch Kill Analog TV Nationwide: Robert Weeps With Joy • NBC Puts Heroes Online For Free: Robert Weeps With Joy • Fujitsu Announces 300GB Laptop Drive • Wikipedia Founder Goes For Profit With Wikia • Fox Announces Firefly MMORPG • Microsoft Ships XNA Game Studio Express
STUFF • We've got Intervideo's $26 Win DVD HD Upgrade pack running HD DVD. Next we'll get Blu-ray fired up with it! • VoIP = Lower your phone bill? SkypeOut is $14.95 a year until January 31st, $29.95 after.... that's unlimited use! • We've got Belkin's WiFi Phone for Skype in house. • Wireless guitars for Guitar Hero? 1UPs Garnett Lee gives us the deets on the The Guitar Hero Wireless Controller and the Ant Commados' Freedom V Wireless Guitar Controller • Your reccos for sub-$100 headphones. • Aaaaand, the DL.TV Crew has some great ideas for generating RSS feeds.... but FeedForAll was the one suggested by the most folks. • BTW, DJ DevNull, aka Myron, is right: You should always power down and unplug your PC or laptop before working on it! NEWS • Patch Tuesday = 3 Critical Microsoft Bulletins • UCLA Database Hacked • Seagate Founder Dies • eMusic Crosses 100 Million Downloads... (100,000,000th Downlaoder gets song written about him by Barenaked Ladies)
NEWS • Nintendo recalls DS adapters and issues new Wii straps. • Who really owns the iPhone? • New redesign for Digg. • New site to bag on Vista. • Sorry this is arriving so late on Friday, our flash tool blew up on us and we''ve just gotten it rolling again. STUFF • Getting EVDO on a Laptop. • Which drives are best for a RAID array. • One last camera round-up before 2007! • Getting video from an HD camcoders to an HDTV.
Stuff • Patrick's Out For the Holidays • GP2X: An open source portable gaming device...Is it any good? • We have a quick look at OpenOffice. Can't afford the Office Suite from the other company, go to openoffice.org • Roger received an email from Finland. Something about Finland and Russia are not one in the same. Oops. • Ready for the Wii Weather? Robert has a first look at a cool update for the Wii.
Stuff • In honor of the season we decided to crack the whip, literally, to get this stuff up tonight. No rest for the weary but hopefully you'll enjoy this small token of our gratitude for supporting us. • Rob and Rog make amends and show the correct current version of OpenOffice.org. • Free CPU load testing software. CPU-Z • Sharing your media library over the Internet. orb.com • Online Anti-Virus Scan (Too bad doctor visits can be done the same way). Housecall • Producer Scott Asnault offers up some choice Internet Radio Sites for folks who won't give up on radio.radio.aol.com, Yahoo's LaunchCast, live365.com, and Scott's fav Pandora.com. Robert has one, too. Shoutcast.com. If you have other suggestions, kick us an email at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com • And of course your email questions!
On Today's Show • Rob goes solo. • Surfing the web on your Nintendo Wii. • Home Theater sound options. • Ultra-lite notebook round-up. • Simple Steps to calibrating your HDTV. • See y'all next year!
Stuff • A Better Site for Weather... and help finding road closures • Google Uses Algorithm to Fill Jobs • Sizing a Power Inverter or Generator: Volts x Amps = Watts • Digital cameras shutter lag: Is it gone yet? • Our wallpaper is back! • MS Security Repsone Center Activated for new Windows Exploit (er.... proof of concept.) • AACS Hacked on HD DVD • And a heaping helping of viewer questions!
STUFF • Scanning film? David Stone, PCMag's scanner mavin reccomends Canon CanoScan 8400F (or it's new follow up, the 8600). Six color scanning? Check out HP's Scanjet G4050 Photo Scanner. BTW, OCR software doesn't suck anymore: OmniPage Professional 15 is the best OCR software out there. • 1366x768: This is not an HD resolution. OK, it is, but it's really annoying. • Power supplies... is there an advantage to putting 'em at the bottom of the case? • Camcorders: SD vs. HD for Marcos in Brazil • iTablet: Myth or Macworld? From Apple? Myth, tho Other World Computing will debut Axiotron's ModBook, a MacBook turned into a tablet before Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld next week! • Thanks Lee, for the heads up on Weatherbonk.com. Weather meets the Google map API! • We're going to CES in Las Vegas next week, you can come see us! We're taping Sunday at 1PM, Monday, Tuesday and Wedneday at 4PM. Our stage will be in the Sands Expo Center lobby, outside of Hall C. (The shows will be available for download Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning!) NEWS • Dual format HD DVD/Blu-ray discs and dual format players? Are HD DVD and Blu-ray coming together? • Adobe Reader 6 and 7 have Javascript security hole... time to upgrade to Reader 8! Or better yet, Foxit Reader! (Has anybody checked Foxit for the same flaw?) • Brazilian Court Orders YouTube to Shutdown
STUFF • CES = The Consumer Electronics Show, the annual gathering of the CE industry... and quite the parade of new products. It's huge: 1.7 million square feet of floor space covered with 2,700 exhibitors, and thousands of new product announcements, from 2000 Watt PC Power supplies to 108 inch HDTVs. We'll be bringing you a serious taste of what's going on this week. • UWB, Ultra Wide Band hits the street. First up, Toshiba's Portege R400. We're talking about a wireless port replicator... connected everything to your notebook but power without wires. • A slick Vista interface customized for the family, a giant touch screen and a clean design = HP's TouchSmart PC. • Next generation phones? Louderback brings us the Linksys iPhone, Netgear's Dual-Mode Cordless Phone with Skype on the WiFi/VoIP front, and D-Link's V-Click, which offers up GSM cell phone connectivy and SIP VoIP support for a WiFi connection. • You can only buy it in Japan? Maybe not. Dynamism's CEO Douglas Krone brings some of the slickest products you never thought you'd see for sale in the US... Thanko's video wrist watch, Panasonic's HDC-SD1 (90 minutes of HD video on a 4GB SD card!), notebooks from Sony, Panasonic and Kohjinsha... and... yes, the new Nabaztag/tag (The next gen TechnoLustBunny can smell!) • More products? Sure. How about Nokia's new Internet Tablet, the N800, Dash Navigation's Dash Express (in car GPS meets some serious wireless networking savvy) • Ruggedized video camera? Sean, you're probably going to have to go with a case for that camera... and the best defense vivisection by your precocious 4 year old? We've got the only way prevent that. • Got a Question? A tip? A product you're curious about Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com NEWS • It's true: Microsoft is adding an HDMI port, 120GB HD and what looks like a pretty slick interface for IPTV to the Xbox 360. Sorry if you just picked up one, Jake, we don't have the ship date or price yet, but this looks li
STUFF • Blu-ray and HD DVD in one box? It's LG Electronics BH100... in stores February. • Cell phones! Sascha Segan gives us the scoop on new phones from Samsung and Palm. (Motorola's got a new phone too... and yes, we just saw Apple's iPhone this morning!) • Notebooks? HP's stylish TX1000 is a home entertainment table (w/ a pop out remote control!). Alienware dropped by two serious gaming notebooks... Robert couldn't stop petting the Area-51 m9750. • GPS? We've got handhelds with onboard topo maps: Magellan's CrossoverGPS and DeLorme's Earthmate GPS PN-20, Garmin's new StreetPilot and Nuvi, and my personal favorite: the Astro GPS Dog Tracking System. • iPod accessories? Try projectors, wirless speaker systems, Shure's latest hifi earplugs, two iPod centric alarm clocks, and ... pool floaties? • One last product: a fold up UMPC with a bit of style! NEWS • Microsoft Home Server • Sony's 2nd gen Blu-ray players? When was the first gen player??? • Intel goes V8 • 108 inches... that's a big HDTV
On Today's Show • PC Mag's Sascha Segan explains Apple's iPhone announcement. • A look at the world's smallest projector. • A million dollar PC. • Digital camcorder round-up with Terry Sullivan. • Digital Experience with Robert Heron.
STUFF • Day three of CES: We've got mad products. Like 40 of 'em. We'll give you the full list, from WildCharge's wire-free power delivery system, to an R2D2 projector, and a WiFi box that brings Widgets to your desktop... but we'd rather tell ya to watch the video! • Thanks to everybody that brought us the product we showed you at CES! • Roger and Patrick are waiting to load out from the show and drive back to San Francisco... anybody got an in w/ the Teamsters? NEWS • Blu-ray crews says "The war is practically over. HD-DVD can go home. Uh... ok. • CBS Keynote: "The symbiotic relationship (between online and television content) will only tighten." Gues they love the torrents!
STUFF • Grow your own Packet Garden • Netflix Brings Online Streams • SED Displays: Canon Will Buy Out Toshiba • Apple Miffed at iPhone Skin Makers and Bloggers • OS X for Any PC? • AVG Free No More? • Help Keeping the Cats from Chewing on the Electrical Cords • Video Converters for the iPod. Try isquint • Ninjas Own Pirates • HD-DVD Rips Online?
Having trouble? Click here to view video player. Episode 132: Videolan.org Gone? ATI 600 Rumors, Cat Problem Solved, Wallpaper! Video iPod: 115MB Quicktime H.264: 159MB Windows Media Player: 152MB DivX: 201MB MP3 (Audio Only): 16MB Right click and choose "save target as" or "save as" to download videos. What's new in Episode 132 STUFF • Hafizan wants a heads up on the rumored ATI R600 cards at CES. • About that cat problem... Tobasco, chili pepper and Grannick's Bitter Apple spray are your suggestions for saving Kitty from cord chewing itself to electrocution... • BTW, Ian says this link has everything you ever wanted to know about Destructive Chewing by Cats. • Neal sent in his review of Netflix's new streaming movie service, thanks Neal! • Sara says it's a filament, guys, not an element! Darn skippy! • Thanks to Chad for the new wallpaper... we'll have that posted for download in the Wallpaper section shortly. • Is Videolan.org gone? Nope, Charlie, our favorite free video player is still out there, playing DVDs, streaming video, and doing it's thing. Maybe your ISP is blocking it? NEWS • WoW Level 70 in 28 hours? • iSuppli says Half of iPhone Price = Profit? • Apple Post Record Q1 Earnings 21 million iPods sold... did somebody say profit? • Engadget's got an iPhone killer from Google? • San Francisco Expands Public Survelliance • Man Faces 101 Years in Prison for Phishing New Time For The Live Show • Hey folks... starting w/ next Tuesday's show (January 23rd) we're going to start streaming the live show at Noon PST on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Not 1PM like we said on the show.) Why? So we can turn the downloads the same night we shoot. You'll Find More DL.TV on MEVIO. Check out our extensive video network. Tags: Digg this | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Slashdot Got a Question? A Comment? A product you want reviewed or something you want us to check out? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com Posted By:
STUFF • Ooops: Posted this to the old server, which the DNS for www.dl.tv doesn't point to anymore. Otherwise, it'd have been up last night when the RSS feeds went out. BTW, subscribing to the RSS feeds is the fastest way to get the show after watching it live! • Do FM Tranmitters still suck? We look at the Griffin Technology iTrip Auto and Griffin Technology RoadTrip for the iPod... No ipod? Consider the Griffin Technology iTrip Auto Universal for any device with a headphone jack. • We love OtterBox's waterproof cases for portable devices... we've gotten hands on with H20 Audio Waterproof Headphones they're offering to pair up with their extensive line of cases. • Songbird = a very cool media player built on Firefox. • Task Manager, Processes, and figuring out why your system is running so slow... we've got answers for Dean! NEWS • - Man Plays Wii, Loses Weight • Storm Worm Sweeps into US • - US Relays a TON of Spam, Hosts 1/3 of Websites Containing Malicious Code • Skype Offers Per Call Pricing • Blu-ray Cracked? Yup, but don't get too excited. • XM Loses Fight to Have Copyright Lawsuit Dismissed • - High Definition too Real for Porn?
STUFF • Vista (for consumers) launches next week. Can't wait? Take a Windows Vista Test Drive... right over the web. • Or buy Vista now. 50% off. OEM versions are on sale online from shops like Newegg and Mwave (Thanks for the heads up, Ryan!) More info on those OEM versions here. • Our fave free firewall? Matt we gotta go with Comodo's Personal Firewall 2.0. Our go to guy for security software Neil's review says Comodo works as well as all but the best pay-for programs. • PS - If you like Neil's free security software tips, do him a favor and read his stuff over at AppScout • Rank basic iPod adapter options? You got it, Seth! we love headunits with auxiliary inputs best for the car 'cause they work with -any- audio device with a headphone jack. • Videolan plays DVDs right out of the box, 'er, download. Thanks for the heads up Jonathan, and thanks for the link to learn more about Videolan and libdvdcss • Are there any advantages to a 64-bit version of Vista? Well, Duncan, if you need huge amounts of main system memory... • 802.11n for $1.99? Absosmurfly, if you own a MacBook. Thanks for the heads up everybody... Patrick's gonna go 802.11n soon at home! NEWS • Big shock: Vista Compatibility Concerns IT Pros • Fujitsu Hard Drives With 1Tb/square Inch Density? That's 7x Today's Capacity... And it's all about the Nano-Holes. Really. • Culture shock: Norway Joins Fight Against iTunes DRM • OWC Seeks Dealers For the ModBook MacBook Tablet You can get your pre-order now at MacSales.com
• Microsoft Vista, the replacement for Windows XP, is here. • We've got a grab bag o' info to help you decide if you should upgrade or wait... or go with OS X. • PCMag gives Vista a 3.5 out of 5 • Most folks should buy it pre-installed on your next PC. You probably don't have a choice if you're buying from a big system maker. • It does have some shiny new features... Patrick's fave is the intergrated search. Robert loves the eye candy. • Vista Home Basic sucks... don't pay to upgrade to it. • OEM Vista can only work with one motherboard? Let's slash a few Vista OEM edition lies. (And, yup, Robert's right: retail copy of Vista come w/ both 32 bit and 64 bit versions.) • Vista's install is awesome. Pretty much painless. (Unless you've got the rare bits of hardware w/ no driver support... Or the not so rare: Creative XFi 5.1 support and Intel 5.1 audio drivers come to mind... darn those redesigned audio bits in Vista!) • Run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor before you buy a copy of Vista! • And, darn it, make sure you back up everything you need on your system whether your do a clean install or 'upgrade in place.' • ExtremeTech's chief Loyd case took some time to talk to us about hardware issues in Vista... DX 10 gaming and choosing between 32 and 64 bit editions. • Tons of good info if you're running Vista now, or just thinking about it over at PCMag.com
• Google Senior Engineer Matt Cutts brings us the inside on Search Engine Optimization and how Google Works. (He'll be bringing us made Google Search Tips next week!) • Don't Re-Use The Hard Drive! Not after you save your data with the freezer trick! Or, like OP, you just might lose everything. OP... how could you??? • Notebook Upgrade: Memory or Hard Drive? Martin, we've got a split decision, but some good ideas why you might choose one or the other. • TKTKTKTK • Please Don't Say Ubuntu? Unix Rootsu wants to know our favorite Linux distros, and what certifications, degrees and licenses we hold in the computer/IT fields. • Would OpenSUSE be more acceptable? Why no love for Ubuntu? Rootsu, email us and let us know why! • Virgilio asks "Will Skype be free if a family member in Italy downloads/installs the latest version of Skype and then calls me on my computer in Canada?" Niente, bambino, rende quelli le chiamate di Skype! • Thanks for the Joost Invites! No need send any more unless you want us to share 'em with other viewers. (The forums might be better for that...) • If you've having any trouble getting the DLTV code to work with GoDaddy, please email us: dl.tv@ziffdavis.com NEWS • Intel Takes Wraps Off 45NM Penryn, nifty new gates for 2008 • Vista Speech Security Hole Is it us, or is this not much of an exploit? • Cartoon Ad Campaign Shuts Down Boston LED signs for Aqua Teen Hunger Force mistaken for IEDs in Boston... nobody noticed the signs in New York, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Philadelphia, and our very own San Francisco. Or they're all decorating dorm rooms and eBay ads! • MySpace Donates Sex Offender Database • One last set of Microsoft Answers about Vista OEM Really. We're done w/ this now. • PDF to Become Open Standard
Unlike the N770, Nokia's N800 Internet Tablet doesn't suck! That's not to say that it's perfect, but it is a nifty way to browse the web if you've got $400 lying about. (Paul writes in to say the software upgrade for the N770 made a huge difference in performance. Thanks for the heads up!) • Google Senior Engineer Matt Cutts brings us a giant pile of Google Search Tools and Tips! (And he's got even -more- coming!) • What browser is Patrick using, Justin? He dotes on Firefox, but it's been sucking up CPU cycles, so he's been playing with Opera and still uses Internet Explorer for one thing or another almost every day. • Colins got pix of one tech's efforts to save data with the lunch room fridge. And, yes, the data was saved. • Google doesn't see your web site, Brad? Add your URL to Google. • A DX10 GPU with HDMI and HDCP for an HTPC? Rob, you've got one option today... • Why no Ubuntu? UnixRootsu writes us back with a list of the Linux distros in his quiver, along with the reason he disdains Ubuntu! • Did we mention Bill Gates and some pretty pictures of Leonardo da Vinci's work? You can check out Leo's notebooks (and a lot more) at the British Library in Shockwave or a special 'Turning the Pages 2.0' version for Vista and XP. NEWS • Apple Settles With Apple Corp. Forever. Agreement should allow Apple to offer The Beatles catalog on iTunes. (BTW, have you seen Steve Jobs response to the DRM lawsuits in Europe? Thoughts on Music? It's a great read. • World's Oldest Newspaper Drops Print for Internet • Zero-Day Threat Increasing: Excel users beware. MS adds that "other Office applications are potentially vulnerable" Don't click on strange Excel files out on the web, folks! • Princeton University Joins Google Project • Mark (who called in a bomb threat) and Ian (who's got some good points) email in with their side of the Boston Mooninite Bomb Scare. (Robert and Patrick remain divided on calling in advertising threats...)
Our team has been working hard to bring you this new version of the video player. We're hoping you can help us out by kicking the tires and letting us know what you think. Please leave comments on this post or send them to us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com. Thanks!
Dual boot XP and Windows Vista? It's not that hard! • Non-destructive partitioning? GParted LiveCD is a great free tool, but Norton's PartitionMagic 8 is the gold standard. • Free antivirus recommendation for Totally Infected's parents? Our man Neil at PCMag.com says check out avast! 4 Home Edition and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition • Antivirus for the Mac boxes in your office? Randy, your IT man is a belt and suspenders kind o' guy. • Server based antivirus scan? Feel like getting your beta on? Check out Panda's Nanoscan. More deets on the show... and Appscout's review! • Gabriel wants to know when we'll go HD. (We'll need an HD Tricaster first!) • That headphones/crossing the street summons? One NYPD member responds. • Is it your web connection, or your browser? We show you how to use IPCONFIG and PING in a command line window to see if you're connected to the network and to the internet! • Viewer pics: Patrick sends us pix of his "Geeky Room" and Barry simple says "Spike It." We want more pictures from you! Ya might score a t-shirt... NEWS • Sony May Stop Cell Development • Mexican drug gangs bring war to YouTube. It's only inappropriate if it's been flagged. • Ever lost a notebook? Don't feel bad. Even the FBI misplaces hardware. MORE STUFF • It's not strictly P2P, and there's an interesting element of local caching at your ISP. Why do you care? It might be a faster, cheaper way to deliver big files (Like DL.TV!) • Help us test it out by downloading our H.264 version via Itiva's QStream. (You'll need to download a small executable file to use their system.) • Having trouble watching our new Flash player over your Wii or PS3? We're working on it!
Mozilla is the nonprofit software company behind Firefox... and Mozilla's Mike Shaver is taking Firefox add-ons where no extentions have gone before. We throw every question we can think of at him! • Microsoft Windows Home Server: Beta 2 looks pretty good. • You can volunteer for the Windows Home Server beta by filling out a survey. • The Itiva folks called us and say if you leave the Qmesh client running, a P2P element will kick in and could make downloads even faster. Keep emailing us your feedback, and please put Itivia in the subject line! (PS, they're working on the Firefox right click problem.) • Jason says "Tuvalu is the country specific address behind .TV Patrick." • Get rid of Norton? Rey says SYMClean can help. • There's something even more potent: The Norton Removal Tool... thanks for emailing that tip, Andrew! • Where did Patrick's clear trackball come from? The bargain basement box in some local computer store... about five years ago. Logitech still makes some good ones. (Dang, check out Kensington's Expert Mouse!) NEWS • HD DVD backup for $49.95? Rob says it'll soon be free for Blu-ray and HD DVD. • John Edwards' campaign first in Second Life • D-Wave Demos Quantum Computing... it's all about niobium, qubits and modeling! • Hitatchi builds Worlds Smallest RFID Tag
Fave Firefox extentions: yours and ours... we're putting 'em all on their own page. Thanks for submitting so many great ideas! • Robert does a spiffy job showing how to create your own custom buttons on the Firefox toolbar! • Fast Bittorrent clients for OS X? You might not like our answer, Jason... but Roger and Patrick have found Azureus delivers the best performance on their Mac systems. • Content for testing HDTVs? Robert's got an answer for ya, Augustine! • Where do we shop for the best prices on hard drives and DVD burners? On it, Suzie! If we need it now, we call around our local shops (Patrick loves his paper phone books!), Froogle (even tho it can be a bit too comprehensive, Pricewatch, Rob swears by PriceGrabber, and, hey, our very own Shop.PCMag.com found prices as good as Froogle w/ a lot less surfing about! • Crackdown: A bit of gaming for the 'Law and Order' types. (And there's a Halo 3 demo in with Crackdown !) • X-Cannon Rules begs "Could you make the iPod version smaller?" Urg... It's a pretty small download now, Cannon, compared to what it was! (Or, why you might not want to use Apple's QuickTime presets for the iPod.) • DL.TV goes NASCAR? Thanks for the pix, Ricky! And thanks for the heads up on rFactor. Looks like a sick driving sim. NEWS • Firefox: Cookie Flaw in 1.5... could theoretically allow bad sites appear good. • IE 7: Flaw could allow access to files... if the intruder knows the location. • Viacom Licenses Content to Joost from MTV, Comedy Central, Spike, along with movies from Paramount. • XM and Sirius to Merge?!? Woot!
The best video card around $100 to $150? Josh, we've got an answer for ya... for benchmarking details, check out Lower Price, Faster Speed--GeForce 7900 GS and Radeon X1900 XT 256MB • Rob's got a couple more tips for using IE Tab (It's all about the click options!)... and he shows off Colorful Tabs • Our viewer pic of the week comes form JammerB... he's documented a friend that's an "Extreme Audiophile." This is one serious stereo setup... think electron microscope stabilizers meet enough copper shielding . Cool! • Patrick demos Firefox 2.0's Session Restore features... which can load separate tabbed pages on loading, but not quite the way Morris wants them to! • Mozilla's Mike Shaver is back, this time he's all over the future of the Mozilla web browser. • A game that begs to be bought? Robert's ready for Supreme Commander... Games for Windows Magazine's Sean Malloy dropped by to give him the deets on the latest release from Gas Powered Games. • MP3 players that resume where you left that long podcast: Bob, it's a feature that 'most' MP3 players already have... at least if you press 'pause' before you shut 'em down! • "What's the timeframe between something being shown at CES and a realistic ship date?" Good question, Wayne. • Oh... we also showed off a festival of the "weird little wipes the Tricaster does" for Mike. The Blowing Leaves... the Angel Fish... The Wiper Wipe... Walking Away, and, ouch... many more. NEWS • Google Patches Desktop... Time to update! • YouTube/CBS Deal Off... mostly. • Apple and Cisco to Share iPhone • Wi-Fi + Olympics = Terror in Vancouver??? • Australia to Ban the Bulb... a continent without incandescents.
DIY NAS Part 1: The easiest way to build your own 'network attached storage is all about all about sharing folders! • This Old Dell PowerEdge: Your ideas for recycling an older server. • System Information for Windows: One nifty tool for inventorying -everything- on your Windows box. • "Which is best and which is going to win out. HD or Blu-ray?" Tough question, Harold. • "You mentioned compact florescent light bulbs in a recent episode you can check out places to recycle them at Lamprecycle.org. Thanks Alex! • "You can catch curling on TSN.ca broadband" says Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, Bryan, Gilles, Kaitin, Paul, Scott, Sean... now all we have to do is figure out how to spoof a Canadian IP address so TSN won't refuse to roll the video for us. Stupid licensing agreements... we can watch the Hockey stuff, why not Curling! • DIRECTV vs. BestBuy... or how Patrick wasted a couple hours this week. • FlightAware = a spiffy visual way to track one flight... or all of them. NEWS • BitTorrent Launches "Entertainment Network" • Virgin Galactic to Share NASA Plans • Microsoft Archive Up on BitTorrent • Vonage Reassures Customers • Japanese to Pay McDonalds By Phone
HDTV Roundup: Robert's reviews some of the latest high-def TVs he's thrashed in his Lab • DIY NAS Part 2: FreeNAS... very cool BSD distro optimized for network storage. It's kinda complicated for a newbie (like Patrick) to set up without a helping hand: you'll definitely want to download the Setup and User Guide, before you start installing! • EGM drops buy to give Scott the deets on Motorstorm... dirt... trucks... racing... mmmmmm. • Viewer Pix O' The Week: Terry... nice tech space! • Not allowed to view that (curling) video from your home country? Try viewing it via a proxy server. Anybody got one in .CA they'll share with us? • Daniel's got one last use for an old Dell PowerEdge Server. NEWS • CompUSA Closing More Than 50% of Stores (Circuit City's announced earlier this month that it's closing 70 stores.) • Storm Worm Infecting Blogs, Too • Blockbuster Plans to Buy MovieLink • Daylight-Saving Time Change: Bigger than Y2K? (If nothing else, it's more annoying.)
• Sony's HDR-SR1: Roger's got the review of this 30GB hard drive HD camcorder. Just beware of AVCHD! • User your POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) With Skype or Vonage... Asterisk is pretty nifty, too! • WonderCon: Roger's got video! (And toys!) The next big comics/sci-fi show is Comi-Con in July. • Upconverting DVD players with HDMI output? We've got reccos for Marc and Kevin. • Quite the coffee table book for geeks: Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers NEWS • Alcatel-Lucent Suit Against Microsoft Dismissed: This is one for speech to text software, not the 1.52 million dollar MP3s suit... • Battery Recalls: This time it's Lenovo! • Webcasters to Pay More for Music... at least if they don't have an AM or FM station behind them.
Great photo printing for under $200? We can help ya with that, Scott! • Epson's PictureMate Pal (PM200) is our fave 4x6 (only) photo printer! If you're looking for more onboard editing and the ability to read CD/DVD media and burn CDs, check out the PictureMate Flash, (PM280) • If you need a more general purpose printer that can do print 8.5x11 inch sheets, like homework, check out Canon's PIXMA iP4300 and PIXMA iP6700D • "MY PS3 DOESN'T SUCK ANYMORE." Mark emails to tell us why. • Vista's been released, and I feel like it's gone unnoticed. Any news? How are sales? Anything? OK, Rob... let's talk about application compatibility. • "Robert, we just wanted to support your Anti- Antivirus standing. We don't use it, either!" writes Scott, Riley, Braiden, Ryan, Nick... • Viewer photos o' the week: Seth smashes a computer monitor (nice retirement gift!), and Rod, using your notebook outdoors at FOB Liberty definitely counts! Send us pictures of you getting your tech on dl.tv@ziffdavis.com, put 'tech pictures' in the subject. • Patrick's in Austin, TX this weekend, at SXSW on a panel called "TV: The Next Generation" Saturday. Stop by if you're at the conference. NEWS • Sony Unveils Online Service... it's like Second Life for the PS3. • Microsoft's OneCare Might Eat Your Email. Our security mavin Neil Rubenkinghas uncoverered some not so good news. • Samsung Shipping Hybrid Drives, to OEMs, anyhow.
A SXSW report from Patrick Norton. • How much $$$ you could save by swapping light bulbs. • Loyd Case at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. • Why your never too old to learn about technology. • How to set your tabs as your homepage in Firefox. • Guerrilla mail for those times you don't want to use your real email address. • R2D2 mailboxes for the USPS. Homage to Star Wars or high visibility theft item? • Why Roger without pants is a ratings hit! At least, according to one viewer. • The truth about the LASIK needle in the eye from a real ophthalmologist News • Google for $1 billion • EU Targets Apple's iTunes • US to subsidize analog TV owners
Roger Chang's still in for Robert Heron, who promises he's coming back to work someday. When his eyeball no longer makes the Doctor go "Oh... my... that's... uh... improving nicely!" (Just kidding, Rob!) • The viewer pic o' the week comes from John, who is -extremely- tall, and has quite the aesthetically pleasing computer room. Threre's mood lighting! Not to mention a -lot- of monitors! Thanks for sharing, John! • Blu-ray and HD DVD playback in one box: LG's BH100 ($800-$1200), aka the "Super Multi Blue Player" is the only act in town. Full review next week, today we show off the menus you get on the HD DVD side of things. They're not quite right. • Come May, LG should release the GGW-H10N, a combination Blu-ray disc burner/reader, and HD DVD read-only drive that will cost about the same price as the BH100, $1200. • Speaking of next gen DVD content, Toshiba is releasing a $400 external HD DVD drive, and DL.TV viewers have spotted Toshiba's HD-D1 HD DVD players at Walmart for less than that. (Matter of fact, HP's external HD DVD drive is already for sale at Walmart for $420.) • Oh.... And the Blu-ray disc association says Blu-ray will replace DVD (and bury HD DVD in three years! • Will HighDef change the way we see news? Can emerging media be exploited for evil? Dan Rather takes a few minutes to talk to us on how new tech impacts mass media, and how the rules of good reporting shouldn't change much if you're a blogger, or on a big network. • It's a different kind of video game: Cooking Mama: Cook Off! for the Nintendo Wii. 1UP's Jeremy Parish • John's got something to say that involves Dan Rather and, uh, fracking... not to worry, John, there's still lots of tech in the show. • NJ law says you can't toss CF lightbulbs in the trash. Good thing: they contain mercury. Don't want to drive? Glenn, time to fire up your inner activist and get somebody in your town to collect 'em so you don't have waste gas yourself. • Regarding Roger's lac
Robert's back! He says "I had the vitrectomy/membranectomy/fluid-gas exchange/endolaser(w/side of fries) done on my left eye." Don't click on the link if you're squeamish. • Sorry, Chad, DVD playback on the Xbox 360 sucks... and, no, buying the HD DVD add on won't help. (Tho it does a find joby playing HD DVDs.) Extremetech's Jason Cross wrote an outstanding 360 DVD playback quality article that mad Xbox fanboy teeth gnash on at least six continents • X-Cannon wants to track his bandwidth usage so he doesn't go over a 10GB quote and run up an $8 per GB vig... You could try something like AnalogX's NetStat Live... or check your router to see if you can log the bits. Got any suggestions, a favorite app? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'count my bits' in the subject line! • Oh... here's a link to the ExtremeTech podcast with the Vista Performance & reliability tool discussion If you've got ideas on how to use those tools, build up custom tools to monitor things like your total internet useage, let us know! • Emilio asked for help stopping P2P bandwidth abuse in the office. You've gave us some good answers! • DLTV on Twitter? Yup. We want you to help us test this strange little application that answers "one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM" or on the web. Perfect flash mob/Friday night party tool/sweet way to update the Spouse... or is it just, as Roger calls it, "a massive ego stroke." Help us test it out. • Can any four drives make a RAID? Sure, Brian, but you might not like what you end up with. And you can definately DIY a RAID out of an old PC case.
Show details will be up soon!!!
Your favorite net metering and bandwidth monitoring tools? You suggested DU Meter, $19.95 and NetMeter. They're mucho similar, and either one will give you an alarm before you exceed your monthly bandwidth allocation! • Robert's in love with the latest update for the PS3, which includes Folding@Home... it's not just a gaming console and a fine Blu-ray player, it's a tool to better humanity's lot by fighting disease. Seriously. It's all about protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases. And some other improvements to the PS3 we'll talk about later. (Those deets are on the PS3 v1.6 update page • DL.TV Folding@Home Team ID #: 57391. Care to join Robert in his our futile effort to catch up to HardOCP's incredible Folding@Home effort? You can track us on the DL.TV Folding@Home Stats Page... better yet, use that ID, 57391 and join us! • Is a Core 2 Duo e6600 based PC enough to play back Blu-ray and HD DVD disks? We think so, Quincy. Just remember that you'll need Blu-ray and HD DVD drives. They're a tad pricey right now. (You'll need playback software, too!) • Finding Robert's Geiger Counter Ringtone... Jose has a great site, FindSounds.com, for finding any kind 'o sound. • "My child's been downloading a lot of movies... on P2P 'n torrent sites..." how much trouble is "Sleepless in the US" really in if the MPAA comes a knocking? Well, it depends SITUS, on how many movies he's left uploading for days on your home PC. NEWS • FCC Launches Inquiry into ISPs to see if they're "restricting access to websites, favoring some sites over others, and if consumers are being affected. • Sprint Exec Announces WiMAX is "the mobile Internet" promises 19 cities by April, 2008. • AT&T and Napster Ink Music Deal. Deal starts April 1st... guess that rumored $9.95 per month price point doesn't exist. • The Onion Launches Online Video Project: The Onion News Network Should the Daily Show be worried? It's two clips a week on iTunes... for now. • YouTube A
Deets will be up soon!!!
We couldn't bribe the folks at Tesla Motors to let Roger take a spin at the wheel of the Tesla Roadster... but they did let him shoot video of the electric powered supercar that Cade 'test drove' for PCMag.. Hint: he wants one if somebody else will pick up the tab. • High end CRT monitors for Graphics Pros? Most of 'em we know use LCD panels, Cjay. CRT's bigger than 21 inches with computer resolutions are hard to find. If you want the top o' the line, think $2000-$6000 10-16 bit perfectly back lit monsters such as Eizo's ColorEdge series, Sony's Luma, NEC's Professional MultiSync. Heck, Apple's Cinema Displays are common, but kind of low end for this crowd. (They look pretty good to us, tho.) • Truth be told, we're still pretty happy with Dell's 22 inch widescreen for under $300! We're also not doing mad Photoshop work for Vogue or Vanity Fair. • Wow... ShinyHappyPonies.com sold fast! March 30th, in fact. (Thanks for using GoDaddy... hope you used the DLTV code!) • Notebooks, camcorders and other consumer electronics vs. luggage handlers: Jonnie wants to know if he should carry his Pelican 1520 on the plane, or if it'll be safe in the hold. Patrick would put biohazard stickers on it if it goes in the hold (and pull the expensive camera out first). • After 10 years of loyal use, Joey's giving up on Winamp and wants to know what the best MP3 player software available is. Email your faves dl.tv@ziffdavis.com and let us know why you like 'em. • Thanks to Eric for the in-show heads up that today is not Patch Tuesday. Microsoft dropped a special release to kill off a GDI vulnerability (aka the Cursor Exploit Fix.) • "Where can I get a copy of the Firefox poster you showed on episode 147? What I really is just a jpeg to use for wallpaper." Gotcha covered, Greg. Here's the link where you candownload the world's cutest Firefox poster aka "Please don't break the Web" already sized up for your monitor. • Yeah, Robert and Patrick are obsessed with Deskt
DL.TV viewers can help cure disease? Sure! Our Folding@Home team is growing fast, and just cracked the top 1000 . 57391 is the team number if download a copy and join in! • Leo Laporte o' TWiT and The Screen Savers fame stops by to show off Parallels Desktop for Mac... running Windows inside of OS X. He also left us a list of his fave OS X applications... keep scrolling for it! • Dump Winamp to avoid the AOL crud? No way, say Jake, Darren and Ryan! They've got ideas to keep Joey on his (formerly) favorite MP3 player: try Winamp Lite, download older versions from OlderVersion.com (This site rules!). Or go bandit, Reynolds' style, and try Portable Winamp 5.1 with iPod Support... not an approved distro, but designed to run from a USB key. • Next week we'll cover the laundry list of non-Winamp audio players. It's a good list you sent in! • Airport luggage hack: Nathaniel, Mark and Paul say pack a gun (actually, a starters pistol) to protect your expensive equipment if you have to check it on a flight! Why? The TSA rquires firearms be transported in a locked container... and they keep a close eye on it. • You register a domain and get a bill from listingcorp.com? for, uh, listing services and domain submissions? Yup, JP, this is a scam. Well, it's actually a really sleazy piece of junk mail, er, 'solicitation' designed to look like a bill. All to get $65 out of you. In any case, it stinks. Any time you get a weird bill related to a domain name you've registered, google the name of the company, plus the word scam, and chances are you'll find if other folks were hit before you. BTW, scams like this are one of the reasons Robert keeps his personal information out of Domain Name listings... so scammers can't find it. • Thanks to everybody that forwarded links on how to revive a Linksys WRT54G that's had a bad flash! Here's one, and here's another. • Viewer tech pic of the week? Props to Paul's PC mod from 2004, he built a fridge into his gaming PC. •
• Capturing video off your Comcast/Motorola DCT64xx DVR over the FireWire port and into your XP box? Robert promised a link on the show, and here it is! • Vonage ain't dead yet, Craig. They still have over 2 million customers, and it should take years for the Verizon suit to finish winding its way thru the courts. • Cell phones are our first alternative to POTS/landlines. If you're that nervous about Vonage, we cover Skype, CallVantage and other VoIP replacements for POTS lines. Check for 911 support before you go with any VoIP provider if it's your only line! • PCMag's Davis Janowski has a good writeup worth checking out if you're considering dropping your telephone service and going with VoIP: Voipin' With Your Eyes Wide Open • DLTV's Folding@Home team rocks: We've broken 600 on the Folding@Home rankings! • Did Robert say "FLAC?" Yup, he did. It's the Free Lossless Audio Codec, and it's considered pretty spiffy by folks that love pure audio goodness. • Winamp Alternatives Part One, aka Audio Players That Aren't iTunes, or Windows Media Player: Greg, John, Dyna and JKL say Foobar2000 looks simple, but has a powerful set of backend features, supports tons of audio formats and it's very customizable (thanks Infecto for the very shiny link!). musikCube is clean, simple, open source, and very not resource intensive... thanks Erik and Jean-Richard for the heads up. One more, say Ruhaan, Patrick and Jag, Songbird! Built on the same code base as Firefox, it supports local audio playback though it doesn't really shines until you point it at web sources, such as music blogs. • PS: folks are still writing in to say that Winamp is better. Period. • Oldversion.com: Håkan reminds us that many older versions of programs have been phased out/updated for security reasons... so be careful what you download and run! • 500GB hard drive recco? No problem, Billy, but FireWire only enclosures aren't very common. You'll probably have to go with a USB/FireWir
Allergies suck. Beyond that... happy Spring! • HD Update: HDTV inputs and cables: Composite (RCA), S-Video, Component, DVI, HDMI... the pros, cons, and a little bit 'o info on how each one works. And, of course, which one works best when. • The best deals on cables for your HDTV? Rob likes MonoPrice.com for rock bottom prices on video interconnects (like a 15 foot HDMI to DVI cable for $4.69!) and Blue Jeans Cable for quality cables at super-reasonable prices. • Security Bits... open things they don't want you to open with a set of weird little screwdriver tips. • ROCKbox: open source firmware for audio players, including the iPod, and dozens more from Archos, iriver, iAudio, Toshiba and SanDisk. Play FLAC on your iPod! • Post show I found the source of the picture we showed of the nifty customized ROCKbox interface running on the iPod. It's alwaysBETA's awesome How To Dual-Boot Your iPod with Rockbox. The trick is downloading installing customWPS config files! Shiny! • And, yes, Robert, you can uninstall the ROCKbox firmware. • Viewer pic o' the week? Bryan and the Mrs. are IT folks at Caterpillar. The picture? A Caterpillar tractor running over a Dell 600. Hot notebook safety tip: don't leave it sitting on the treads of a giant yellow piece of earthmoving equipment! • We want to see you and your technology in action: email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'tech pics' in the subject line! • Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii: EGM's Shane Bettenhausen drops by with a reviewe. • How far can Ehternet run? Around 329 feet, Trey if you're running twisted pair 100 Base T... 600 Feet if you're running fiber. Trey can't go wireless, too much interference at his facility. • Will Canon be offering deals on the new HV20 1080p HD camera at NAB? Nah, beast, the National Association of Broadcasters show isn't much for offering cash 'n carry deals on new camcorders. Battery packs for professional betacams, hot deals on jibs and peds, $5000 ligh
Grindhouse. It's an excellent movie. If you're a fan of 70's era exploitation, B-grade scifi/horror, and car flicks you'll definitely get a kick out this double bill feature. Warning do not buy drinks for the movie it lasts over 3hrs with no real break in between. • Antec's Solo. The new case I bought over the weekend to accommodate my quest for a quiet PC. The same model as the P150 the Solo is black instead of white and does not include a power supply. A great choice for anyone interested in building a new yet quiet PC. • • Intel releases more details about Penryn Intel's upcoming 45nm processor based on the Core 2 Duo architecture was given more light as Intel brief media on the supposed performance increase Penryn will offer over current technology processors. • Folding@Home: DL.TV is moving up the Folding@Home rankings to number 366, maybe even higher as this is published. Thanks guys!! • Wii Browser Update: There's a new update to the Opera Browser for the Wii that unbreaks the flash playback so you can finally catch DL.TV on the big screen again! • HDTV for gaming: Brian wanted to know what HDTV technology was best for gaming. He specifically mentioned two things, ghosting and latency. The ghosting should no longer be an issue with today's HDTVs but plasma offers the best speed while LCD offers simple and roboust panel. As for latency that's a function of processing done by the TV which could add as much as a second from the time you move the controller to something happening on the screen. Most newer HDTVs should offer some sort of game mode that turns off most but not all the processing. Robert also forgot to mention that his favorite DVD-based calibration tool includes a TV latency check -GetGray • Web 2.0 is just a marketing term right? Well Roger found out that its that and a whole lot more. Like a whole lot more marketing, corporatese and weird discussions about poker buddies and who went to who's party. And of course the best way
Comparison shopping online? That price looks good? You can pick it up in the store right now? Then you should buy it online for pickup in the store, or print out those prices before you head to the store! Especially if you're shopping at Kragen or BestBuy. Why? 'Cause sometimes the online price and the in store price are different, even if you're picking it up in the store. These are the two we've ran into lately. (sigh) • Networking two buildings? Use fiber, not copper Ethernet!!! Otherwise you can create all kinds of electrical headaches... or kill two buildings worth of networks if one get hits by lightning. Or, if the ground potential is different enough between the two buildings... well, watch the show. We'll talk about it there. Thanks to Ken, Scott, John, Tim, Wayne, Mark and Tim for sounding the "Don't use copper Ethernet between two buildings!" alarm, and giving us lots of good info to answer Trey's question from Episode 156. • DivX movies look better off your $100 DVD player than your $1500 Macbook? Chances are you do need to tweak your settings in VLC, the Video Lan Client, David! (Deinterlacing is generally -not- on by default, makes DVDs or any non-deinterlaced video look ugly. Robert reccos the X setting! • PCI-X vs. PCIe... you've got PCI-X (PCI Extended) on that motherboard, David. You want PCIe (PCI Express) for the latest and greatest in graphics cards. • GoogleFight: Yes, Scott, we're stupid. We didn't put quotes around the names we searched! • Mimobots aren't evil. They're limited edition USB thumbrives designed by artists. Oh... they've got Star Wars characters in 1GB to 4GB versions. Can you say 'collectible?' Roger says "never take it out of the box!" NEWS • Google Beats Microsoft as Most Valuable brand in the world. Must be the 'do no evil' motto. • Virtual BlackBerry for Windows Mobile means you'll be able to run crackberry apps on your Windows Mobile 6 device. • Intel Cuts Prices on Dual and Quad-Core Processors to
Our apologies on the delayed posting, we're having problems with Flash video and our CDN. We'll have it up for your as quick as we can. • HD Update: Color Temperature Is Your Friend. Robert shows you how to set color temperature correctly so video on your HDTV won't look so cold, or cool or blue. Chances are you can set it with a few clicks on your remote control. Want to learn more about what Color Temperature is? Here are examples of a warm (more yellow) and a cool (more blue) images. Chances are you'll notice it the most on skin tones. • Viewer Tech Pic of the Week: Craig's been recycling old Pentium 3 PCs, dropping in a $20 graphics card and turning 'em into video playback boxes (DVDs and Netflix Watch Now streaming movies) for just about every room in his house. Craig, we need the model of that graphics card! • Wireless Print Servers are really annoying when they don't work. We're going to keep hammering on the model we have in house till it works. (We got a surprising number of emails on this... thanks to Mike for emailing that it took three wireless print servers across two brands to get one that worked with his setup at home! We'll be trying some additional models. • Can Sony's PS3 replace John's Denon 1920 upscaling DVD player? Robert says keep that upscaling DVD player! He's less than impressed with the job the PS3 does with standard DVDs. In fact, the Xbox Xbox 360's DVD playback stinks. • Alan wants to know if the Xbox 360 Elite be any quieter than the Xbox 360. As of Noon, show time, we said 'wait till Monday... the Elite ships this weekend.' As of 9PM, we'd say, No, according to the folks at Engadget, who already have an Elite. • Should I buy the $15 recovery disk with my new PC? It's better than nothing, Jeff, but we'd pay the extra for full install disks for your OS and other major applications. Especially since you plan do a clean re-install on your PC as soon as it arrives. More often than not, a recovery disk will do one thing:
A Little Bit Linux: We've got Ubuntu on the desktop. One of our friends at ExtremeTech.com says Ubuntu Feisty Fawn should be called Crappy Cow! • Rob's secret ninja tool for the best possible rips and conversion from his cd collection? It's free, it's called dBpoweramp and he's got some tips for getting the best results, whether you want MP3s, FLAC, Apple Lossles... all that good stuff! • "Sending 10+MB attachments to someone's email without asking them first is PAINFULLY rude. So Rob and Patrick have put together a guide to Polite Video Sharing optoins. Emailing services? Check. Downloads to link to? Check. YouTube? Check. • Posting a 354 character URL is an email is silly when tinyURL.com is free. • If you haven't seen InterfaceLIFT.com yet, you haen't seen some gorgeous hi-res wallpaper for your monitor. Not to mention some spiffy icons. Check it out! • More!
The Return Of The $500, er, $644 PC! • Net Radio Gets 60 Day Reprieve • Monitor Shopping Help: Our Reccos For 21-24 Inch LCD Monitors. • 820 downloads later... The Wallpaper Slideshow • Distilled Water vs. Your HDTV. Much safer than alcohol, in Robert's estimation. • Terms of Service: Watch out on your EVDO contract. • Bargain Ram vs. Branded RAM... is it worth spending more for 'the good stuff?' • Toshiba's TDF-FF1AU Mini Projector: Battery Powered LED DLP (It's so tiny)
• Backing up your DVDs? We gave you a fast server of the tools we use on Windows (RipIt4Me, DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink 3.2) and OS X (HandBrake and MacTheRipper) to back up DVDs we own. • Why? So we can protect them from theft, loss, rampaging toddlers, travel damage, or simply watch movies on an iPod or HTPC or media extender or AppleTV. Yes, circumventing copy protection is illegal in the US of A under the DMCA. Don't back up DVDs you don't own! • Want us to explain how exactly to get a DVD into your iPod or on a home server so you can browse it from your home theater? Kick an email to dl.tv@ziffdavis.com and if there's enough interest, we'll get all step by step. • HD Update: HDTV Overscan stinks. Robert explains why overscan wastes good HD content, can make your desktop toolbars disappear, and why he wants HDTV makers to stop using overscan. (They're learning!) • Viewer Pic Of The Week: the dashboard on Raymond's big rig, a Freightliner Century Class, sports XM Radio, a 30GB iPod and an ICOM-706MKIIG so he can get his ham radio on... he's also got a Macbook running Parallels stashed in the cab of his truck. Sweet! Got a picture of you getting your geek on? Email it to us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com and put Tech Picture in the subject. • Is my DVD drive dying? It might be dying, Richard, but it's worth trying a firmware upgrade before you replace it. Four years isn't -that- old for a DVD drive. Fortunately, an easy (and cheap) upgrade. Just unplug your machine, open the case, unplug the cables from your old drive, undo the screws or clips holding it in, slide the old drive out the front of the machine, slide in the new drive... you get the idea. • If you're buying a new DVD drive, you should make it a DVD burner. For less than $40, you can pick up a LiteOn DVD burner in most shops. For a little bit more, say, $10, a Pioneer DVD burner will make less noise. As far as we're concerned, Plextor is the Cadillac of DVD drives, but they cost a bit more.
Ever want to see the inside of an AppleTV? You will on this episode. • Sanitize your hard drive? It's a good idea whether you'd donating old work machines for recycling, or giving your home PC to a charity. In fact, we'd say wiping your drive clean is critical before that old PC leaves your home or office. Doing it at work can keep you out of jail, or at least lawsuits. Think Sarbanes-Oxley, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), and who knows how many state laws. Wiping a hard drive before it leaves your home means now sharing your private information with strangers, whether it's banking info or those naughty pictures from Miami. • Is there a better free tool for wiping/sanitizing a hard drive than Darik's Boot 'n Nuke??? It's free, it can do a DOD 7 pass or Gutmann 35 pass wipe, will boot from the CD or floppy drive on just about anything... the only downside is waiting for it to run on large drives. If you're, say, disposing of dozen or hundreds of drives, degaussing or professional destruction is probably a more practical way to go. • Want to try a new tool for wiping a drive? Robert's curious about the Disc Drive Secure Erase tool from the Center For Magnetic Recording Research. The tool is all about the ATA "drive internal secure erase command." And a DOS boot disk. No, you can't run it from a command window in Vista!. • DOS isn't dead. It's at BootDisk.com • PS: Physical destruction of drives is still good, too! • Will Corsair's Flash Survivor GT survive Patrick's coffee, and a laundry machine and the city bus test torture test? Tune in on Thursday's show to find out if the premium USB thumb drive is worth the premium price. • The Mouse Jiggler: constant cursor movement to keep your PC from falling asleep. You could, of course, turn off the screen saver and sleep (if they aren't locked down on your mach
Google Searchology: Universal Search, Google Experimental and Interface Enhancements to the biggest search engine on the web. Jim Louderback spent the day with Google and has the deets! The Radeon 9800 Pro 256 in Jonas' 3 year old system isn't cutting it anymore. He's wondering if it's even worth my time looking for a better AGP 8x video card. You've got a tough decision to make, Jonas, but there are lots of AGP cards for now... just none with DX10 support. The Real Purpose Of The Mouse Jiggler: it's all about computer forensics at crime scenes. In case we didn't make it clear: formatting a drive is not a very good way to wipe it. Another computer forenensic expert wrote in about that. TubeTV: a little something for getting your favorite YouTube and Google videos onto your OS X desktop. Is there a special 'server quality' drive I should be using when I upgrade the drives in my office server, or should I just grab something off the shelf from Western Digital or Seagate? We've got some HD info for Daniel. "I like the show its self but two host is annoying. I would enjoy the show a lot more if they were changed." We're on it, Ryuho.
• We had mad fun at Maker Faire 2007. Hosted at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, the two day event featured everything from DIY electronics to a life size (and mostly working) recreation of the game Mouse Trap. Wooden bicycles roamed about (along with the delightfully odd creations of Cyclecide, at least one steam powered car, and a lot of remote control ... stuff.) • Throw in the crafts section (sewing, knitting and prints... oh my!), hands on activities with everything from button repair to home sized computer controlled plywood cutters, and, well, you've got some serious fun. • We'll try to give you a taste of the Faire, and get a little DIY in the show today. • Speaking of Do It Yourself, we've got Roger's favorite apps for your cell phone. • Patrick's going to (try and) build the MintyBoost USB Charger Kit this week. • Do it yourself canned air? Matthew says it works, and it won't catch on fire! • Xbox Soft Mod: Eamon wants to know if he can upgrade his hard drive, too. • Looking into doing a live stream online, Cameron? We've got some ideas on how you can pull that off without going a) mad or b) broke if it gets super popular.
• Zonbu $99 PC: Broadband, Monthly Fee Required... Our beta machine was a little erratic, but the concept has a lot of potential. • The PS3's new firmware update makes it a decent DVD player. Finally... now only if Microsoft would step up on the Xbox 360. • Ford Sync: Brad wants an update what might be the automotive voice command system for your phone and music player coming to Ford vehicles this fall. (We can't wait to test it ourselves, Brad.) • Do I need perfectly matched model numbers when I upgrade the RAM on my PC? No, Josh, you should just fine if you meet the specs for your PC or Mac. • Upscaling DVD player or Home Theater PC? Good question, James. • Will Folding@Home kill Maria's PC? We hope not, but SETI@Home did melt down a pair of Maria's machines two years ago. • Speaking of F@H: Team DLTV has cracked the top 100! Way to go!
You -can- remove permanent marker from your HDTV/monitor with a dry erase pen. This may be the coolest viewer tip ever! • Keyboard shortcuts: if you don't know 'em, you're wasting time reaching for the mouse when you could user clicks on the keyboard instead! At least learn the basic two key combinations for Undo, Redo, Cut, Paste, Copy, End Program and Print! Microsoft has an excellent List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP, our friends at PCMag have a list of Key XP shortcuts. OS X users, start with Apple's list OS X keyboard shortcuts, then spend some time with the Rixstep "repository for every keyboard secret in OS X. Bonus: here are links to keyboard shortcuts for Internet Explorer and Firefox! • BTW: DL.TV users are 50/50 split between IE and Firefox. 20% of the DLTV Crew runs OS X. Who knew? • Got a CD that skips? We've got two ways to fix it: Toothpaste, a soft cloth and elbow grease, or drop $40 on a skipDR. AUTOMAX and motorize the process of abrading those scratches out of the surface of the disk. • Why can't Dean copy files any faster than 5Mpbs? We've got some ideas for him to think about. Like a slow router with a 10Mbps Ethernet connection, whether or not you have WEP on your Router, and the traffic from other devices on your network. • The EPA changed the way it estimates MPG for cars/trucks: most cars drop around 10%, hybrid estimates are hit the heaviest. Starting for 2008 models there's a new schedule of testing for City/Highway MPG estimates. The fueleconomy.gov site has revised estimates for vehicles based on the new formula. As always, how you drive impacts your gas mileage immensely. • Free 1080p content to show off your new HDTV? That's gonna be tough, Thomas! Actually, duh, it's not: WMV HD Content Showcase and Quicktime Movie Trailers in HD • Nick needs help keeping his computer safe from thunderstorms... not lightning, mind you, but rain! Nick, you might buy a nifty rain sensor alarm, but we'd
Yup, CTRL + V is paste, not CTRL + X. Thanks for the reminder, Patrick! • 'Microsoft Surface': The Coffee-Table PC formerly known code named 'Milan' offers a pretty nifty looking way to work with photos, videos... and who knows what all else. Multiple folks can work with the 30 inch tabletop display at once, and it really is a big step beyond the touchscreen. Expect it to start showing up at the mall later this year. • We mentioned a similar project, Jeff Han's 'multi-touch sensing' at Perceptive Pixel. Han demoed the system publicly for the first time at the 2006 TED conference. Thanks to Robert for the link to that. (Like the whole surface computing concept? Check out Merrick's desk in The Island, you'll just have to wade thru a bit of Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson footage to see it!) • Viewer Tech Pic of the Week: Check out the computer cluster Phil built while he was working on his master's degree at MIT! Phil says to thank his sponsors at the FAA: his project is done, now the cluster chews on Folding@Home work! • Want to see your tech picture on DL.TV? Email dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with "Tech Pic" in the subject line! • Dust free PC case? Robert's current fave, Jerod, is the Coolermaster Centurion 5, thanks to the foam filter behind the faceplate. The low street price doesn't hurt. • Need a jeweler's/precision screwdriver for those tiny screws that hold together your electronics? Tough to beat Home Depot's Husky 8-in-1 Precision Screwdriver for $6. (They offer a Torx version, too..) • Yes, Patrick gutted his MacBook so he could repair the dented corner and make the big shiny white Apple logo in the top lid go away. We'll be talking about painting notebooks on next Tuesday's show. • $20 wireless Ethernet bridge? Logitech's Play Link offers modest speed (1.5Mbps) and stone simple installation that connects any pair of Ethernet ports in your home. Why so cheap? Logitech doesn't make 'em any more. • More Free 1080p Content online? Not
• Data Robotics Drobo: if you can slide a drive into a slot and occasionally glance at great big green, yellow and red LED lights, this USB storage device offers simpler data protection than any RAID device we've ever used. Seriously. No need to mind HD sizes, you can mix and match; you do lose some drive capacity in exchange for the protection. We've been running it for a week, yanking drives out randomly, and so far, we haven't lost anything. It can take a while to rebuild your data after a drive loss, but that's a heck of a lot better than losing it altogether. Drobo is available now, $499 without drives. • Intel's Extreme and Bearlake Chipsets, $199 EeePC, walls of Motherboards, more cases than you could fit in a containership and the world's tallest building? Must be the massive annual hardware gathering that is Computex Taiwan. PCMag's Mark Hachman is on site and has the news, along w/ a growing slideshow from the show floor. • Update: Paint That Notebook/Remove That Logo. The apple is gone. Patrick used J-B Weld Kwik to fill in the hole where the logo used to be, sanded it down with 220 grit emery paper, filled in any remaining (tiny) holes with Bondo Glazing & Spot Putty, and started sanding with 400 grit paper. Next up: 600 grit paper, then the spray cans. Woot! • iPhone ships June 29: Do you care? Team DL.TV is divided. • The MCSE Question: Back in Episode 169 MusicGenius asked the DL.TV crew if an MCSE certification would be a good idea. (He wants to move from audio production to repairing computers.) You emailed us with a ton of ideas; we share 'em on the show. • Opening a laptop can be expensive, writes Maurice! He cracked open his fiancé's iBook last week to replace a broken hard drive and ended up with "a shiny white paperweight" along with a bill for a new notebook! • SETI@Home fried Maria's Motherboard? Christopher says it's obvious what happened! • That movie Rob was thinking about last week? With the prisoners and the escap
• Microsoft Photosynth is Microsoft technology that lets you manipulate extremely large amounts of visual data. Our buddy Marc writes, "If you've ever seen or played around with Jef Raskin's Humane interface, this is pretty much the older brother, on steroids. The demo showed a high resolution newspaper, a book where each chapter was a column, and an extremely large image of the US where you could zoom and out on every street. There's also an online Photosynth demo where they took every image they could find on the Notre Dame (on Flickr) and stitched them together to recreate it. Really sweet." Robert's hooked... check it out. • We got a little excited about online maps after that Photosynth demo... Google Maps Street View, and Add destination, which lets you add multiple stops when you 'Get directions.' (Look at the bottom of the Search Results on the left hand side of this link. • Did we mention excited? We forgot to run the Viewer Tech Pics in this show. We'll catch up on Tuesday... • Map24.com was the first site we saw that offered multiple destinations on one trip. • Maps.Live.com has the best traffic conditions, tho, right down to little yellow triangular accident/road condition markers, and has some outstanding satellite imagery. • Can an LCD burn in? Don't worry, Rune. Rob says playing some video (in full screen mode), or just turning it off for a couple hours will usually clear that ghosting you see if you leave a window open for hours on your monitor. • Instant Charging Station For Your Gadgets: callpod's Chargepod can charge up to six devices at once. Looks nifty, costs $49.95 with a single adapter. (Additional adapters are $9.95 each.) • "The palm rest on my notebook is discolored from use. Can I repaint the laptop myself? Is it a difficult process? Can you point me to a tutorial or have some tips?" Guillermo, this is your lucky day. (Tho you should try cleaning that palm rest, first.) • Painting Your Notebook Lid, or just about
• $149 for a 6 foot HDMI cable? Don't get caught up in the hype while you're buying that new HDTV. (My $18 HDMI cable works just fine.) • The return of the missing viewer pix! • Don't leave your iPod in your car: good reminder, Daniel! (Not so good ideas about DL.TV on the dashboard, tho.) • Think your workstation is cool? Check out the endstation Karen uses at the synchrotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. She says, "basically, I use highly focused x-rays to probe the structure of deformed metals. I use a white-beam, or polychromatic, x-ray technique and capture Laue diffraction patterns on the large-area CCD in the picture." Cool! • Safari Browser for Windows: Mark, Stephen, Chad, and everyone else... we're on it. • How to make Opera (IE or Firefox) your default browser. This one's for Andrew. • Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"Anybody want to loan us an install disk from the WWDC to check out? In the meantime, here's Jobs favorite 10 features from the 300 or so promised. • Broadbandreports.com is where Patrick finds his speed tests. • You're right, Rudy, tape backup isn't dead, but we're still more into hard drives.
• Recycling your old electronics: monitors, pcs, cd players, all that good stuff? Rich has 15 years worth of old gear to make go away. We've got the info for you. • Rich also directed us to one pimped out laptop. If you're into Sanrio's popular 2D feline mascot then this laptop is a must have. • Viewer Pic 'O the Week. How many PCs is too many? Judging by David's dorm room not less than 15 we suppose. • Remember Daniel's ransacked BMW? Car insurance generally doesn't cover gear that's stolen from your car... homeowners or renters insurance should. Just work out how to prove you owned it -before- anything gets stolen! • "Is it safe to rest a plasma HDTV on it's side?" It's not a good idea, Chris, but not for the reason your were told. • "Is there a better plasma TV than Pioneer's Elite Pro-1540HD for 6k?" No, Bill, but Rob says you might want to wait for a month: new models are on the way from Pioneer! • HDMI premium cables follow up. Worthwhile purchase or just slick marketing? The answer may surprise you... or maybe not. In any case it seems Gizmodo agrees with Rob's assessment. Funny that. ;-) • You can use your cell phone as a modem, Chris... it's called DUN: dial up networking. www.howardforums.com is a huge help! • Oops! We forgot something...Here is the link where Patrick is walking across the street in SF close to the studio from Google Maps Street View.
$100-ish Camcorders, WiMAX and Cell Phones, Streetviewer, Bulk CD Ripping, More!
Portable speakers suck, right? We listen to Saitek's A-100 and A-200 and come away impressed with the oomph behind these battery powered portable speakers. TechnoLustBunnyDeux, our Nabaztag/Tag is connected to the network. Joy. Send us a message thru the rabbit at this page (the name of our lapin is TechnoLustBunnyDeux)... we're working to get a netcam and mic pointed at the little guy. The Viewer Pic of The Week comes from Kevin Lewis, who's decorated his home with monkeys much like the one that lives on our set. XP Tip: Remove Extra Components from Windows XP (And for the dude that wrote in, Brooks is using a Dell, not a Mac Book Pro!) Make Your New Ubuntu Linux Install Better: Automatix2 is a nifty graphical interface for installing applications and codecs onto Ubuntu, Mepis and Debian 4. Thanks to Bruce, Andrew and Phil for writing in about this. Chad built his own notebook PC by installing a processor, graphics chip, RAM, HD and wireless card into a barebones system for. (Total cost for the 2.14 GHz Core 2 Duo system? $2200.) He says "the trick is finding the barebones retailers" and to start by checking out the offerings at rjtech.com, avadirect.com and directron.com. Chad adds "the downside to all this - zero warranty options other than for the individual components. Connect your PS3 to a computer monitor with a DVI input? It should work just fine, Scott. An alternative Open DNS Internet? You're looking for OpenDNS, Stephen. Some folks find it helps speed up their net access, some don't. It does a pretty good job directing you to the right page when you type in a URL, and it can protect you from phishing sites (and adult sites) if you set it up that way. It's safe to experiment with. Want to learn how to do something? Digital photography, video editing, Windows XP tips... a product you're curious about? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com
Today is the Day of Silence for Internet radio. In response to the recently increased royalty fees in the copyright court Internet radio operators are turning off programming to draw attention to the matter and hopefully create a movement to overturn the ruling. To learn more check out Kurt Hanson's site. Thomas had a question about DL.TV and Cranky Geek episodes and TiVo Video-on-demand. He wanted to know why the episodes seem a bit behind what is currently online. The short answer is that we need to reformat the video for TiVo's service which requires another lengthy re-render of the show. This is done after the other encoding is done for the downloads. Hopefully we should be able to generate this on a more regular basis as we work up a regular schedule. Folding@Home update as we continue to work towards the top ranks Robert gives the lowdown on where the DL.TV Folding@Home effort is at and where we're headed. Anti-iPhone. The iPhone is hot and it's not even out yet!! But if you don't buy into the Apple PR machine or just want a non-white but still chic mobile there are alternatives. With some help from PC Mag's Sasha Segan Anti-iPhone story we give some great reasons not to stand in line at 6pm Friday night. Robert and Roger present their highlights from the NASCAR race this past Sunday Infineon Raceway. Special thanks to the Dan Patin at NASCAR Images, and Chucke. Viewer, Stephen, has recommended a couple of free encoding options for those wanting to take saved FLVs and turn them into something more media center friendly. So give Media Encoder and Super a try, and let us know how they work for you. Happy B-day to the man, the myth, the on vacation, Patrick Norton. Hope he and his family are enjoying the drive to Colorado.
Robert takes a second stab at Justin's question about why Blu-Ray movies don't look any better on his CRT WEGA HDTV than regular DVD movies. Turns out that 1080p isn't supported over a non-HDCP connection like component. The same kind that Justin is using to connect his PS3 to his TV. We help out Gerald multiply the number of HDMI inputs he has in his HDTV with the use of a HDMI switcher. Robert suggests skipping past the expensive IOGEAR and other retail options and check out Amazon and monoprice.com for HDMI switchers. Cubapete 15 wants to know if resizing his partition to accommodate another OS damage or delete his data? The short answer is no provided you use a re-partitioner that allows for non-destructive changes. Two popular freeware choices are Gparted and Ranish Partition Manager. David wanted to know what the best video editor for creating/producing b-movies with was. If you want the true essence of b-movie production you'll probably stick with the included video editor in Windows, Windows Movie Maker or iMovie if you've a Mac. Honestly though if you're serious about film or video editing you'll want to check out Adobe's Premiere Pro or Apple's Final Cut Studio 2. You can get by with the lite versions of both, Premiere Elements and Final Cut Express, if you just want to learn to edit and don't want to spend a lot of $$, but if you plan on making a career in editing I recommend trying to obtain either Pro or Studio. Both are used widely in post production industry and working knowledge is a plus. Chris wants to know how to go about putting together a "green" PC. According the resident PC whiz, Loyd Case, check for the RoHS label. It stipulates a reduction in toxicity and hazardous materials in the production of and construction of electronics. You might also consider getting a power supply with a 80 PLUS rating, which indicates a power supply with at least an 80% efficiency rating or higher. Many popular makers feature 80 PLUS models in their li
Today's show is all about the freeware. Whether you're cheap or just enjoy using superior software that doesn't cost a dime we've laid out current faves from Patrick, Robert and Roger. Need a good free anti-virus? Then one of these titles should fill the bill; AntiVir Personal Edition Classic Avast! Home Edition or AVG Free Edition But remember always keep the virus definitions up to date! Need a bombproof PC FTP program? Then definitely give FileZilla a try. For Mac OS X users out there try outCyberduck. Adobe Reader can be a beast, especially in its most recent incarnation. Luckily there's a great replacement. Foxit Reader is both fast and free, and skip having to use Adobe Reader ever again. Reach out and nag someone with Skype. Free VOIP app for PC to PC calling. Want an office suite that won't cost you a pretty penny? Then give Open Office a spin. Available for every major OS including Windows, OS X, and Linux. Need more power than Windows Paint can provide but don't need the all features of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? Then you need to check out Paint.Net. A free windows only photo editing software, supports layers, unlimited undo, and special effects. IrfanView a small, fast, capable graphics viewer that runs great on slow machines (or if your machine is running 32 other apps). Plus does a bang-up job of cutting and resizing photos when you're in a rush. For Audiophiles that require only the most pristine rip of their audio CDs into a digital format you need to get dBpoweramp. Supports multiple codecs including FLAC, OggVorbis and of course MP3. VLC Media Player is a great media player that plays DVDs that expensive dvd playback software doesn't normally handle. Of course it also plays back MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 over a network. Pat's all-time favorite MP3 plater, Winamp is still a pretty c
Roger didn't hate The Transformers. Some of you immediately emailed in to say you did. Others loved it. We shall not speak of it again. • The Viewer Tech Pic Of The Week is actually a video from Rod in Baghdad, who was advised he had to "destroy" his hard drive by the "System Administrator" types. They "...were unspecific as to the means." So Rod got his marksmanship on with a variety of weapons and totaled the drive. Very cathartic, Rod, thanks for sending it in! • Got a tech picture you want to share? Email us! dl.tv@ziffdavis.com • Weather.gov is still our fave source of weather info. The graphical maps are especially good to find out how your travel destination is going to get. Clean interface, good info. (Thanks for the emails about Weather.com getting a fresh design, we'll check it out.) • Speeding up browsing: Brooks drops us a tip for Firefox. • EV-DO modems rock, when you can get a full speed connection (a shared 3Mbps!), but out of top urban population centers, aka "out in the sticks," Patrick found 50Kbps dial up modem speeds and horrible latency. Not so impressive. Tons of hotels and motels have pretty good Internet access, just make sure you ask before you check in! • Franco is upgrading his PC's memory and has to remove the heat sink from his processor to pull one of the sticks. Should he clean off the old paste and add more thermal paste? Definitely. That's the right way to do it. Or you can be lazy and just smooth the cooler right back down when you've got the new memory in place. (Not the right way to do it, but it's worked in the past.) • Kevin wants a free backpack! (Remember Robert's backpack roundup way back in Episode 71? • A subnet calculator that doesn't need web access that you can run from a USB flash drive? No problem, Paul. Check out SolarWind's Advanced Subnet Caclculator. It's free! • A mile is about 1.6 kilometers, a kilogram has 2.2 pounds, and there's roughly 4.5 liters in a gallon. Thanks for the reminder,
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STUFF • Debating who's ship is bigger? Check out Jeff Russell's Starship Dimensions to compare the size of everything from TIE Fighters to Klendathu Plasma Bugs, Base Ships to Firefly class freighters. • There's been quite the debate on our feedback over our fuse spiel on Tuesday. We like what Mike posted best: • NEVER replace a fuse with one of a higher current rating - it might kill the equipment, cause a fire etc. • NEVER replace a fuse with one of a lower voltage rating - it might kill you because the fuse may blow but could set up an arc that will allow current to still flow. • NEVER replace a quick blow fuse with a slow blow fuse. You can do it the other way but expect the fuse to blow. • And for recursion, NEVER take advice from an internet forum without doing your own research. -Mike • This week's viewer pic comes from Chris in Wellington, New Zealand... a nicely setup lan party, 5 on 5 Battlefield 2142, if you're curious, complete with a tub full of beverages for all. • Sanyo's Xacti VPC-HD2, $700, captures 720p video to MPEG-4 files on SD (or SDHC) memory cards. Quality is a big step up from the VPC-HD1, with good colors. We wish the auto focus was a tad more precise, and the if the image stabilization was more robust the 10X zoom would be more useful (at least without having a tripod.) Pocket sized, it's certainly the smallest HD camcorder of any quality. • Panasonic's HDC-SD1, $900, also captures video to SD or SDHC cards, but won't tuck so nicely into a pocket, with it's big lens (which feeds 3CCDs, not one). The HDC-SD1 has a better image stabilization system than the Xacti, but a major caveat: make sure your favorite video editing program has support for AVCHD video, otherwise you'll be re-rendering viddy captured on the HDC-SD1 before you can edit it! • Search directories thru Google for file extensions instead of sites for links? Very useful when your'e looking for specific file types! Roger found the tip on Jimmy Ruska
STUFF • Alex had a question about the Intel Q6600 and E6850 processors. Specifically he wanted to know which would be a better choice for a multi-tasking/gaming PC since both processors would be priced equivalently in the coming week. The Q6600 is a quad-core part running with a 1066MHz FSB and clocking in at 2.4GHz. The E6850 runs at an even 3.0GHz on the new 1333Mhz FSB. The question ultimately depends on software really. More heavily multi-threaded apps will be better taken advantage of using a quad-core processor like video encoding. The E6850 has a faster clock speed and front side bus than the Q6600 so it will be faster with CURRENT crop of games. Down the line however as games become more multi-threaded that could change and the Q6600 could be better. On over clocking front there's much more head room on the Q6600 than the E6850 which is already near the limit. Go with the E6850 if you want faster performance with current games and non-multi threaded apps or pick the Q6600 if you want potentially better performance down the road and chip more flexible when it comes to overclocking. • Dell power supplies from machines built between 1996 and 2000 can kill non-Dell motherboards. Thanks to Mark, Joe and "The Amigo" for giving us the specifics on this. It's a pin out issue on the 20 pin connector... it looks like standard ATX, but it isn't! • Oh... "The Verticle Thingy On The Keyboard" ... it's called a Pipe. Thanks to David, Michael, Kirby, Bill, Brian and Greg for writing to inform Roger and Patrick • E3 was downsized this year so the expectations weren't big as the 1UP crew made their way through this year's event. While Sony made some big announcements regarding a revised PSP that's slimmer, lighter, color and coordinated along with a $100 drop in PS3 pricing all turned out to be non-news stories as attention focused on the upcoming games his fall and early next year including up and coming PC shooter Crysis in all of its DirectX 10 glory. • Rya
STUFF • Viewer Pics: Raj shows off a server farm built almost entirely of recycled Mac desktop machine down under in Australia. • Brian has an HDTV with no HDMI inputs. Can he send upscaled video from a DVD over his component inputs? Short version: Robert says, "no." • Now, if your current DVD player is SD (no HDMI or progressive output via component), he suggests you use an S-Video cable and enable the processing features on the TV (most every progressive scan TV has a film-mode setting, and some provide advanced picture enhancement features that may be worth trying). • If your current DVD player has component video output (and the TV has the input), use that connection. If it is a progressive scan player (480p), it *may* do a better job at deinterlacing the video than the TV will (***that is where the HQV DVD Benchmark Disks are really handy***). Regardless if it is 480i or 480p output, the TV will then scale the video to fill the screen. • Upconverting DVD video to HD resolutions via component video output is not permitted with legit players (those that properly process Macrovision protection schemes). If the DVD video is *not* macrovision protected, I believe most upconverting players allow HD output of this content via component - but how many people watch "home movies" they have burned to DVD. • Mike's 52 inch Sony rear projection LCD? Has DVI inputs, but no HDMI inputs. Can he use a HDMI to DVI adapter to connect an HDMI DVD player or a PS3 to his HDTV? Will it look worse for the conversion? Robert says, "No, the quality should be exactly the same. DVI is a subset of the HDMI spec so no actual conversion takes place." Mike, you will miss the audio signal carried over HDMI. You'll have to make use of the DVD player's SPDIF or Coax connector to a A/V receiver or use a pair of stereo RCA plugs to connect to his TV. One caveat, if you want to play HDCP protected viddy over your DVI (like an HD DVD, Blu-ray or PS3 game), you'd beetter hope you ha
STUFF • YouTube and CNN teamed up to present the Democratic Presidential Candidate debates. By including YouTube organizers hoped to tap into the popularity of the video sharing site to generate questions for the candidates. Was it a watershed moment or a cheap gimmick? Depends on who you ask but in my opinion it came off like any other televised debate. While the video respondents were nice addition in truth they added little to an already tightly controlled affair. • Sites reflected Intel's new lowered prices on older CPU stock over the weekend. Chief among these was the highly coveted Q6600 Quad-Core processor. A formerly $500+ item before and $400 item on NewEgg.com last week it was going for $300 on Saturday morning. Although up to $375 today more bargains are sure to be had, so keep your eyes peeled. • FUD, FUD, from the folks at Independent Security Evaluators on potential security flaws on the iPhone's WiFi access allowing miscreants to potentially fool iPhone users going to a page loaded with malicious code. Apple, however, already noted the issue earlier and was releasing a patch. Talk about premature press release. • While waiting for FCC approval of the merger between XM and Sirius the respective powers that be decided to push forward with their "a la carte" plan allowing users to choose 50 to 100 channels from both XM and Sirius for $7 to $15 a month. The companies hope to have the plan running within a year for the merger¹s completion. Oh, you'll need to buy new hardware for it to work. • Rich and few other viewers about calibrating the gas mileage on the Scan Gauge II device. Rich writes "The first one is in the MORE > SETUP > SPEED area, and you can adjust The reported speed up or down. The second setting is when you fill your gas tank MORE > FILLUP, when you fill your gas tank, you can tell the Scan Gauge how much gas you actually put in the tank compared to what it thinks you've used." One Child Laptop OS. • Want to see what the
STUFF • Robert Heron's down in SoCal doing THX Training (ooooh, should be some Home Theater Audio Tips coming soon to DL.TV) • Roger Chang's at Comic-Con San Diego, taking pictures and hanging out with the sci fi glitterati. • So we asked really really nicely and 1Up's Managing Mavin Garnett Lee came by to co-host the show... • Kind of generous of him, given that 1Up was one of the sites that got knocked out this week when 365 Main lost power... It's all about having multiple colos... and, uh, generators.) • The article Garnett mentioned that details what happened is from Data Center Knowledge: Generator Failures Cause 365 Main Outage • Viewer Pic o' the Week? DL.TV in a firetruck... Curt, a firefighter from Asheville, NC says "I have to get my DL.TV on even when I have to watch it in the fire truck! I might be the first guy with an "iFire engine." Thanks for the pix, Curt, and thanks for sending a Gigasize link instead of a 27MB email attachment! • CCleaner is definitely a great way to clear your tracks from your browsers, OS and other applications (not to mention clear out tons of wasted space on your hard drive)... thanks for a great addition to ep 185's how to on clearing the recent items list in Vista, Eliminat! • Garnett demoed some nifty online applications: first, RememberTheMilk.com is the "ONLINE TODO LIST AND TASK MANAGEMENT" site he says has the whole Franklin-Covey lifestyle beat... • ... but remember, he wants you to take advantage of the nifty RememberTheMilk interface built into his Netvibes.com, which you'll just have to watch the video to see... Garnett says it's heaps better than iGoogle, the Google custom home page, or Live.com's personalized home page. Check out the video: he's got Netvibes pretty tricked out. • Pownce Deux: speaking of tricked out, we forgot to show sharing files on Pownce, so we showed that off today. • Game reviews? How about the scoop on 3 games in less than four minutes... Our very own Scott
STUFF • Robert returned from his THX training in Southern California. He learned among many other things the importance of sound in a home theater. Specifically: - It's all about the room - isolation, size, speaker placement - Sub placement (standing waves/modal problems) - The Center Channel is the most important speaker - ~40 degree field of view (screen width per given distance) is optimal - The remote (if done correctly) is often the favorite item in an HT setup - Listen, listen, listen - getting intimate with speakers • Vista Performance and Reliability Pack: Vista Performance and Reliability Pack released. NeoWin is reporting a new Vista update that resolves some performance and reliability issues users have been having with the OS. So don't forget to "update" Vista next Tuesday. • AutoRuns for Windows: Grant has informed us of a probably the last Windows start-up utility you'll ever need and paradoxically enough it comes from Microsoft?. • We're Coming Out On Joost and TiVo: Catch us and Cranky Geeks now on TiVoCast. It's easy to do and oh so convenient. • Sonos Music System: If you're a fan of online radio stations like Pandora then the Sonos Digital Music System might be for you. Find out if streaming web or digital music to all points in your home is a worthwhile investment for you. • Optical Mice: Sure optical rodents are dime a dozen, but when it comes to packing one of those rats with you when you travel are you better off with the desktop variety or one of those smaller pricer models? • San Digeo Comic-Con 2007 The nerd-fest that is the San Diego Comic-Con is over. While the wild days of celebrity packed panels, signings, cosplayers and video games might be over you can still catch some of the fun by checking out the following: - Super awesome looking Tux toys from October Toys. They have wonderful selection of Tux both big and small that will assuredly have any true Linux fan tickled pink. - The Devil's Pan
STUFF • Xbox 360 on a 44 foot wide screen? This week's Viewer Tech Pic comes from Robert Hand in Atlanta, GA. • Brian gives us a critical heads up on AimEncrypt: he says they issue the same key for every user, and to check out Thawte for a personal key. "Securing Your Digital Communcation" explains how to use the free Thawte key to lock down AIM. • iPhone + AT&T + International Roaming = $3000 Bill? Ouch... check out the story (and AT&T's answer) on boingboing. • Lossless Bluetooth Audio Coming Soon... Robert won't believe it until products ship, but Open Interface North America's spec for a lossless Bluetooth audio codec could make stereo audio much more enjoyable than the crunchy sound delivered by today's Bluetooth A2DP technology. • Matt needs a "reliable and safe" waterproof case for his iPod... the best we've seen comes from OtterBox ... they also make a decent pair of underwater earphones. • Speaking of iPod Accessories... SCOTTEVEST calls it the "Ultimate Hoodie" ... this black hooded fleece packs SEV's "Personal Area Network" system for managing your gadgets and the cables that connect them to you (think holes to pass cables and Velcro-type closers to keep your wires tucked in), 11 pockets, at least three of which we haven't found... tho the MP3 player, cell phone and sunglass pockets were obvious, a key chain clip, a bottle holder, and a reasonably generous hood. At $99.99 it's not cheap (tho it's on sale for $69.99 on sale right now), but there's not really anything else like this out there... if you normally have more than three things clipped to you belt, you know this is looking good. • And the thing to shorten your headphone cord that doesn't suck? HandStand's The Core. • 3 Games in 3 Minutes: Scott's back with Games for Window's Darren Gladstone! • Can a PDA substitute for a notebook for college? Possibly, Cassandra, but it takes some effort to write a report on a PDA screen, and you can't type very fast even if you have a
STUFF • Steve Jobs announced Apple's new revamped iMac. According to reports the three models will come in 20" and 24" models and range in price from $1199, $1499, and $1799. • Robert discussed his trip to DEFCON 15. We also made mention of the Dateline NBC producer who was undercover at the event in an attempt to record an individual admitting to a crime and uncover law enforcement officials attending the event. • Showed how to turn a Blackberry Pearl into a Bluetooth modem for OS X. The actual steps while involved aren't really that hard. The key is to get script which thankfully easy thanks to Fibble.org and the author of the script, Ross Barkman. Be sure to checkout his pintware concept. Once you get the modem link going you'll be surfing wirelessly at slightly faster than dial-up speeds. I mean EDGE networks aren't known for their speed, but hey sometimes you got use what ya got. The best part is if you don't have a Blackberry Ross Barkman has written plenty of other OS X scripts for other cellphones and providers. • Robert updates the Folding@Home effort with some helpful tips for dual-core or hyper-threading owners who want to join. Plus don¹t forget to check the updates on the DL.TV Folding@Home page. • Viewers Vince and Scott wanted to know about any potential pitfalls about moving from a purely PC computing lifestyle to including a Mac OS X one as well. The biggest is the interface. While some things might seem similar others might come across as alien especially OS X's security habit of asking for passwords on everything that might effect the machine in a crucial way (ie. Program installation, security changes, user permissions) you know like Windows suppose to do but doesn't quite manage as simply. Other things to remember is that file structure is BSD based so a folder tree will look more familiar to Linux/Unix users than a Windows only user. Finally getting applications will be the big one. Unless you run Parallels or Boot Camp you'll n
STUFF • Shacknews posted a story about Microsoft announcing a price drop for the premium edition of the Xbox 360 to $350 from its original price of $400. Also mentioned was the inclusion of an HDMI port on the newly re-priced premium models going forward. So if you¹re hunting for an HDMI Xbox 360 this weekend check the box before you buy it and double check the inclusion of HDMI. • Leander from North Carolina sent some great pictures of LAN event hosted by the Appalachian State University Gaming Club. Lots of people, PCs and pizza. • A bunch of you send emails about last week's question on using PDAs in lieu of a laptop to take notes in college classes. Many were, surprisingly, in favor of using them and a few recommending SmartPhones as another alternative. • ExtremeTech's, Jason Cross, came on to dispel the FUD surround the recent SIGGRAPH announcement by Microsoft about DirectX 10.1 and its incompatibility with current DirectX 10 hardware. • San Jose is known for many things including inspiring a Dionne Warwick song and Silicon Valley but car racing!? That's right the San Jose Gran Prix was in town and we sent a crew down to cover the event. • Another installment of Scott's 3 games in 3 minutes, with titles that you'll either love, hate or like in a purely plutonic sense: First is PicrossDS, second is Threadspace Hyperbol and last is Alien Syndrome for the Wii. Which do you think was the one that sucked?! • Make use of your DV camera as a data storage device. That's right thanks the coding work found in Firestreamer and DV Backup you can backup data to a DV, DVCAM or MiniDV tape. • Anthony liked the THX certification that Robert discussed in last week's show that it was wondering what other HDTV technical certifications he should consider getting. Robert gave several options including Home Acoustics Alliance, Imaging Science and of course the THX Training course. • Bart and Walter were the first to point out that the latest version of
STUFF • Looks like YouTube wants to drag Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert of Comedy Central fame into court. Viacom it seems is still not happy with YouTube's performance on removing Viacom content from the YouTube site. YouTube hopes the comedic duo will make a favorable impression in court on their behalf. • Microsoft released nine security patches for Vista this week. Get em while they're hot! • Robert went over True Crypt the Open Source solution to encrypting your sensitive data from prying the eyes of " The Man", x-spouse, jilted lover or nosey co-workers. • More 3 Games in 3 Minutes. This week the 3 games are Madden NFL 08, Glory Days 2 and Boogie. • Linux on a stick? Or rather USB stick. That's right thanks to the helpful folks over at Pen Drive Linux have dozens of helpful stories on getting Linux to boot off the ubiquitous USB flash drive. Things to note: you'll need a mobo that supports booting from USB devices not just USB floppy drives or hard drives, and that not all USB flash drives work. In my experience is that it can be toss up even within the same manufacturers lineup. • Paint a penguin or rather a Gwin. The folks over at October Toys are running a contest on who does the best work on dolling up a MegaGwin. You can enter it in contest they're having this October 13th down in Long Beach at a toy store and gallery called Alpha Cult. They're asking that the finished Gwins to be sent back by September 28th, but as long as they're there before the show it should be good. • Paul had a question about external hard drives for his mac mini HDTV. He wanted to run media off it and wanted to know if there were any issues in doing so? The short answer is no. Having done something similar, unless you're using super large uncompressed files or super high bandwidth files most files including HD quicktimes (except the 1080p version on lowered clocked processors) should run fine. Ideally Paul should stick to FireWire drives. If wants to pick up a
STUFF • DL.TV viewer, Nick, sent in some great shots of his former hard drive being melted and then set ablaze. Awesome stuff, Nick, but we heartily suggest that anyone doing something similar take the necessary precautions to avoid burning the surrounding area to a cinder. • Robert had a couple of great online monitor calibration sites he wanted to share, Online Monitor Test and DisplayCalibration.com. Both offer quick and easy ways for users to adjust their PC displays or attached HDTVs for the best picture possible. • We had responses from last weeks show from sharp eyed viewers. Murray wanted us to remember that USB flash drives had a limited read/write lifespan, and that the constantly reading and writing to the drives will eventually cause them to fail. So he suggests avoid using flash USB devices that you want to keep working like some models of the iPod. Dori says that booting and running Linux off a USB drive will not keep the data safe from hardware loggers attached to the machine its running from. So keep an eye out for small cylindrical attachments between the keyboard and PS/2 or USB port. Maxell sends these additional tips about TrueCrypt: "TrueCrypt runs from an EXE file that can be keep unencrypted on your USB flash drive. No installation required on guest machines. TrueCrypt will auto dismount during a power outage, upon reboot, or in the event someone yanks your USB flash drive out of your laptop at the library." Esbjorn includes more details on securing data with TrueCrypt: "First off, TrueCrypt means nothing if you don't make sure that you first make a completely secure format of your hard drive. Most folks simply move their data to a TrueCrypt volume by copying from their existing C: or D: drive without first formatting. Hence, if someone steals the laptop you're not really safe as they easily can grab the data from the HD anyways. I used Darik's Boot and Nuke program to first cleanup the drive.
 
Now, every time my
STUFF • Some of you have emailed about the MP3 cutting out at 8:50-ish. We have re-encoded the MP3 and posted the file. Sorry for the inconvenience and enjoy the show. • Build a PC with Loyd. Still scratching your head on the mysteries of assembling your very own PC? Fear not ExtremeTech's Loyd Case is here kicking off a series of "Build a PC" tutorials. • WikiScanner is an awesome tool to finding out who has been editing what on Wikipedia. Find out who's been tinkering with what on Wikipedia • Paranoid about the The Man tracking your web surfing habits? Then learn how Tor can help you surf anonymously. • DoesMetroid Prime 3: Corruption have what it takes to be AAA FPS on Nintendo's Wii? • Ty wrote in to ask about OpenDNS. He wanted to know what it is and what you do with it. In a nutshell OpenDNS replaces the standard DNS server address you normally receive from your ISP. The advantage is that OpenDNS often times works faster and filters malicious and harmful sites. • Dan wanted to know if multi-tasking increased the probability of errors when burning DVDs or overly fragmented the hard drive. In both cases the worries are overstated. With advent of burn proofing technologies and more capable CPU's the issue of burning a disc while browsing the web is no longer an issue it once was. In terms of file fragmentation that is more of a function of file shuffling on your hard drive due to repeated deletes and writes leaving gaps and fragmented files across your drive than to your PC running more than one app at a time.
STUFF • Robert's out at CEDIA checking out all the latest HDTV displays and developments. So we asked Veronica Belmont from Mahalo to fill in as co-host for the show. • The big tech news this week was of course Apple's revamp of its iPod line. The biggest head turner, though, had to be the release of the iPod touch. • DL.TV viewer Jim gave us a heads up on a hidden flight simulator function within Google Earth. According to Jim a simple Ctrl+Alt+A (In OS X it's Command+Option+A), while you're in the program, is all you need to start it up. You can choose from either a F-16 or SR22. Instructions are available if you're having problems getting off the ground. • Veronica shared some great OS X Terminal hacks she found at Mac OS X Tips. The tips are great ways to tweak the UI so you get the most out of OS X. • Open up a terminal window in OS X and type the commands in italics. Stick Widgets on your desktop. defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES Transparent items in Dock. defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES Turn a screensaver into a wallpaper /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background • More 3 Games in 3 Minutes. Garnett Lee, Managing Editor for 1UP.com takes Darren's place to talk about Lair, Medal of Honor: Airborne and Warhawk. Which do you think is the better of the 3? • Extreme Tech's Loyd Case continues his "Build a PC" series with selecting motherboard, CPU and CPU cooling components. • Silas had a question about building his own laptop. He wanted to know if doing so was possible and if so what kind of savings could one expect? The short answer is yes and the savings you would receive would be moderate. Although you cannot build a laptop in the same sense as a desktop with a different case, power supply, mobo, monitor, and video, you can build up from a barebones laptop chassis. In some respects it's more akin to ass
STUFF • Robert is back from his trip to CEDIA with a full report including pics. From giant blue bears to a new HD disc format it's all sorts of craziness as Robert spills the beans on this year's event. • Photoshop wizard, Alex Lindsay, is back. This time he's here to show us the right way to make black and white photos from colored ones. It might seem simple but with a few extra settings and tools you can make a black and white photo that is truly a work of art. • Sound and video are crucial components in any DIY PC. So, let the wisdom of Loyd Case guide you as he continues with his "Build a PC" series with his guide to picking the right video and sound cards • Sam Kennedy from 1UP.com stops by to cover the 3 RPGs you'll want to try, buy or simply pass on buy. If you're a RPG nut you owe to yourself to watch what Sam has to say. • Blue Dragon • Heroes of Mana • Jeanne D'Arc • Aner wanted an update to our Folding@Home efforts. Happily the DL.TV Folding@Home efforts have been paying off as team DL.TV moves up in the ranks.
STUFF • We got a stack of viewer responses to our original query on the nature of the Big Blue Bear located outside the Denver convention center. Denver resident, Michael, summed it up best with his email: • "I live in Denver and the Big Blue Bear is actually always there. The bear was actually created for the convention center by Denver sculptor Lawrence Argent and it's entitled "I See What You Mean." He is 40-foot-tall and is made of mostly cast polymer concrete and fiberglass triangles. " • You can learn more about this fascinating sculpture here. • If you're a fan of personal computers from years past check out Old-Computers.com. From classic machines like the Apple II and Commodore 64 to less well known (at least in NA) models from Amstrad and Timex Sinclair Old-Computers.com has it all. • Robert gives us a look at a beta of Valve's latest creation Team Fortress 2. • Whether you're a gaming enthusiast or just looking for new PC parts you'll definitely be excited by several key technologies Intel unveiled during this year's Intel's Developer Forum. • Loyd continues his "Build a PC" with a short discussion on hard drive and optical drive selection. • Learn how to Slipstream Windows updates into a new install disc and save yourself the hassle of lengthy update procedures after you reinstall Windows XP. • Nicolas wanted to know if spending $200-$300 on earbuds was a worthwhile pursuit if all he was listening to was digital music. The answer is yes. Unless you're using bargain basement bit rates of 128kbps or less for stereo MP3's you'll definitely hear an improvement. Robert likes his Shures and Roger is partial to Etymotic's line. • It's been a long time coming but we're finally giving away our HDTV from our set in a month long random drawing. The rules are simple: 1. • Create a video of 15 seconds or less. 2. • The video must be a tech question and feature the actual face of the person asking the question
STUFF • Rob's at Digital Life in NY so we asked tech writer and Cranky Geek pundit Annalee Newitz to fill in as co-host and keep Roger company. • Halo 3: It's here and we got ourselves a review from Dan Hsu at EGM. • Loyd begins the assembly process on his latest Build a PC spot by installing the drives and system power supply. • Turn all your old photos into an awesome Photo Mosaic with a couple of free and simple tools; Patchworkr and AndreaMosaic. • Have a collection of old VHS tapes just gathering dust? Why not convert them over to DVD and share them with friends and family? We'll show you some easy and not so easy ways to do it. • Don't forget to email us (dl.tv@ziffdavis.com) your Wii console number. We Want Your Miis!!! Our number is 3866-4961-3764-6024 • It's been a long time coming but we're finally giving away our HDTV from our set in a month long random drawing. The rules are simple: 1. • Create a video of 15 seconds or less. 2. • The video must be a tech question and feature the actual face of the person asking the question. 3. • You must be a resident of the US and at least 18 years of age. For the full legalese download the rules. 4. • Upload it to your YouTube page. 5. • If you haven't already, add DL.TV as a friend! 6. • Share your video with us! 7. • Even if you don't win we might still use your video question on a future episode of DL.TV 8. • And don't forget to send us an email with your full name, URL and name of the YouTube account you used, mailing address and your phone number. Put "DL.TV HDTV Giveaway" in the subject line.
STUFF • This webcast is sponsored by Hitachi • Digital Life 2007 in NYC was a blast. There were lots of things to see and a much fun to be had. We'd like to thank all the fans and viewers that we met at the show. Whether you stopped by to say high, or hung out to chat for awhile it was great to meet the folks that make DL.TV such a great show. We hope to see all of you again at Digital Life 2008. • Besides the highlight clips we also featured our first video emails courtesy of Tim and Rodney. • Tim had a question about saving over the air HDTV broadcasts. Robert's suggestions included the easiest, although a somewhat expensive option of a TiVo Series 3 or TiVo HD DVR plus a subscription to the TiVo service. If you want to go the PC route, there are a variety of USB/PCI/PCIe digital tuner options to choose from such as this USB-based tuner from Pinnacle Systems , and DIY'ers should definitely check out ExtremeTech's Media PC Build It article. PCAlchemy is also a great resource for HD tuner hardware and software options, and AVS Forum's HDTV section has categories related to HDTV recording and reception. Robert also thinks that SnapStream Media's Beyond TV is a worthy alternative to Windows Media Center, and Dave from Woodbury, MN feels that SageTV's PVR software deserved an honorable mention as well. • Rodney wanted to know how to burn an image to multiple burners. Short of picking up a CD/DVD duplicator the best option is using Nero with its burn to multiple burners function, however you will only be able to burn to drives at speed of the slowest drive. If you have 3 burners and 2 of them can burn at 40x while the other maxes out at 12x you'll be stuck burning 12x for all three with this option enabled. • Don't forget to email us (dl.tv@ziffdavis.com) your Wii console number. We Want Your Miis!!! Our number is 3866-4961-3764-6024. We have given you our number...now give us your! • Finally thanks to all of our dedicated folders. With your hel
STUFF • This webcast is sponsored by Hitachi • Lucky us our dear friend and host of G4's X-Play, Morgan Webb, stopped by our studios early this week, and generously agreed to co-host this episode of DL.TV. • If you're interested in starting a video podcast or just curious about how is produced Morgan shares her insights on the production process she uses to create her Webb Alert video podcast. • In this week's installment of "3 Games in 3 Minutes"; Scott and Games For Window's Darren Gladstone take focus on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, World in Conflict and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. • Robert Heron gives us an in-depth look at Orb 2.0. It's the amazing free tool that allows you serve media on your home PC to anyone with a web browser. • Loyd case enlightens us on the finer points of installing a motherboard, CPU and RAM in his latest Build a PC segment. • DL.TV viewer James had a question about retrieving text files from some old 5.25" floppies. With the 5.25" floppy pretty much all but dead, locating new 5.25" drives will be an exercise in futility. Luckily Ebay can provide a ready source of used 5.25" PC drives. Once received all you need to do is attach the drive to the floppy header on your motherboard using a standard floppy cable. Most Windows OS from XP on down should see and access the drive like it would a 3.5" drive. If you don't have the inclination to locate, salvage and install a 5.25" drive consider using a floppy drive service. • And we want to congratulate team DL.TV's hard earned entry into 20th place on the Folding@Home team rankings! Our journey toward the top 10 will be a long and difficult one, and we encourage everyone to spread the word, donate some idle computing power, and join team #57391. For more information about how you can help, please click on our Folding@Home page link. • Don't for get to email us (dl.tv@ziffdavis.com) your Wii console number. We Want Your Miis!!! Our number is 3866-4961-3764-6
STUFF • This webcast is sponsored by Hitachi • W00t, DL.TV has hit episode 200! We'd like to thank all you for watching and supporting our efforts. Plus a special thanks to all our guests and guest hosts for lending us a hand and offering their time. So here's to 200 great shows and with your continued support another 200 more. • If you want to the latest in science news and information check out this week's "Web Sites We Can't Get Enough Of" PhysOrg.com. From earth and space science to the latest in technology and physics it's a website worth stopping at for any true geek. • Tim Westergren from Pandora was here to give us an update on the ongoing battle against the recent fee increases that radio webcasters pay to play licensed music. • Robert trekked on down to Stanford University in Palo Alto to talk to the man who made Folding@Home a reality. • Orange Box is out and Games For Windows' Darren Gladstone has the details on Valve's latest FPS compilation. Orange Box • Joost is now in public beta so give it spin. From cooking and fashion shows to specialty programming like DL.TV and Cranky Geeks Joost has something for everyone. You never know it could become the future of TV distribution. • Zork and Sweetie wanted to know how to configure their Wii to access the Internet using a Mac. Well if they're running OS X Tiger you can share you connection using the share setting in the System Preferences. Just select the Internet Tab and click what connection you want to share (ie wired, wireless) and how you want to share (ie through Airport wireless connection or the RJ-45 ethernet jack). On the Wii side setup the network as you normally would for any network router. • Alex wanted to know if purchasing a 1080p HDTV was worthwhile if the only content he would be viewing was in 720p. Robert said that a sub-1080p resolution HDTV is fine if the price is right and you are on a budget. However, the extra pixels that a screen with 1080p resolution offer
• This webcast is sponsored by Hitachi • Veronica Belmont drops in for a surprise guest hosting session, and shares a few tips on securing privacy when using social networking sites. • Robert shows off the latest release of Ubuntu OS. Robert recommends to folks running ATI graphics hardware they're better off using the default video drivers, but Nvidia graphics users should install the restricted driver package for improved font rendering and if you wish to enable the enhanced desktop features - AKA "Wobbly Windows". • Robert also gains deeper insight into what exactly Folding@Home is folding in an interview with Professor Pande. • Loyd continues the building that crazy PC with a focus on testing the system before it's completed to ensure things are working like they should before the final peripherals are installed. • Sascha Segan gives us a report from this year's CTIA event. • Finally Lola had a question about replacement for iTunes that still sync's with an iPod. There's a huge selection of alternatives on the Windows side, but in my experience Songbird Mediaplayer with the iPod plug-in installed is the best free alternative especially in overall functionality. Another alternative is Floola. Although none of these solutions are as "robust" as iTunes they work relatively well and less crash prone than some other alternatives. Of course in both cases you'll still need to have iTunes installed in order to format or update the iPod.
This webcast is sponsored by Hitachi • Congratulations to Tierre for winning the HDTV Giveaway contest! We'd like to thank everyone that participated , and if you're sad that you didn't win, don't worry we have plans for more giveaways in the future. • OS X Leopard: If you've been curious about all the hoopla surrounding its release find out as we highlight some of the more interesting features in Apple's latest OS X release. • Hellgate London: Darren Gladstone from Games For Windows is here with his take on this long awaited RPG. Is good, bad or just plain okay? Find out! • Ubuntu Eye Candy: Just because Ubuntu is Linux based doesn't mean it doesn't know how to have fun. Robert shows off some the cool visual effects built into Ubuntu and how to activate them. • Rob set it up this way: Our Ubuntu 7.10 system has all of the software repositories selected. He then searched the Synaptic Package Manager for "compizconfig" and installed "compizconfig-settings-manager" - as well as all related items. After completing the install, a new options appears under System > Preferences called "Advanced Desktop Effects Settings" - this is also accessible from the Visual Effects tab of the Appearance Preferences (right-click on the desktop). There are dozens of options to try out - enjoy! • The PS3 and Folding@Home. Like peanut butter and chocolate find out how the PS3 and the Folding@Home project are made for each other. • Finally, Kriten had a question about syncing files between his two PCs. A good free solution is Microsoft's SyncToy. It's a simple easy to use utility that should cover most people's need. If you need something a bit more feature rich and don't mind paying for it check out Laplink's PCsync. While it is $40 it does have a trial download so you can test drive it before you spend money on it.
A couple of helpful viewers suggested some alternatives to the PC syncing software options we recommended in Show 202. Michael suggested FolderShare a free online folder syncing service available for both Windows and OS X. Another viewer, Garn, recommended Allway Sync a freeware that he uses and quite likes. • Gjermund from Norway sent us pics from The Gathering 08 a computer Demo/LAN party started in 1992. • Kristina De Nike from JWire was here with 3 great options for extending a wireless connection across a neighborhood. Using services like FON and Meraki or free software like Whisher you can share your broadband or setup a wireless co-op. Which is the best option for you? Watch and find out! • While PC gamers have enjoyed map editing and modding for years with the release of Halo 3 console owners can now taste the sweetness that is map editing. 1.up's Mark MacDonald takes us through the highlights of this Halo 3 editing tool simply known as Forge. • If you've got an old PC sitting around gathering dust why not give a new lease on life as a network Firewall? All it takes is the open source SmoothWall Express software, a spare PC with a couple of Linux compatible NICs, a couple of hours and a web browser. • PixelCorps's Alex Lindsay is back with another great Photoshop tip. Take an attractive looking girl and turn her into a hideous zombie worthy of any Hollywood horror flick. So if you've been itching to turn your boss, spouse, or annoying neighbor into some unspeakable hellspawn, well here's your chance. Also works on boys. • Finally, Peter wanted a NAS but was unsure whether he should purchase or build one. In our collective experience the choice comes down to features, money, and what ya got laying around. If you have a stack of left over drives and external USB drive cases to put them in you might be interested in something like Belkin's Network USB Hub. It allows users to connect plain jane USB drives to a router and access them over
Anders, a viewer from the far north, Sweden to be exact, suggested that his nation hosts the largest LAN party in the form of Dreamhack. So check it out if you interested in seeing what the world's largest computer gathering looks like. • DIY Network Attached Storage. If you got roll your own hardware/software solution for your network storage needs check out FreeNAS, an open source FreeBSD based NAS software. All you need to do is burn out the image and install (use the embedded option). All access is via a web browser and SMB as well as AFP sharing is included along with traditional services like FTP. • If you need to buy a video gaming enthusiast a title this year watch EGM's Shane Bettenhausen cover all the must have titles coming out this holiday season. • Loyd Case finishes his Build a PC segment with the final bits plugged in, screwed on and closed up. • If you're planning to road trip this holiday season you'll definitely need to have an iPod with you. But without a serious upgrade to your cars stereo system how do you get tunes from the iPod to your car's speakers? If you've got a cassette deck in your car stereo pick up a cassette to stereo headphone jack adapter. If you're uber sophisticated sound system lacks a cassette deck your 2nd option is an iPod FM transmitter from a number of companies including but not limited to Griffin Technology, Kensington, and Newer Technologies. • Tim sent us a video question asking for a TV tuner recommendation for his HD monitor that lacks a built-in tuner. Robert pointed out this interesting digital tuner from LG that incorporates a DVD recorder as well as a QAM tuner for compatibility with unscrambled cable channels the DR787T ($230 street). If you don't need an integrated DVD recorder and want to save some cash, the Samsung DTB-H260F ($160 street), is a compact tuner that has also received high marks . And the good folks at AVS Forum have a section dedicated to HDTV Reception Hardware .
Since Thanksgiving in the US takes place on Thursday there will be no live streamed show this week. To make up for the schedule change we're offering this week's show -we taped early this week- today. Thanks for your continued support and happy holidays! • We had a few comments about last week's show. • Roger - a different Roger - suggested an alternative to FreeNAS. He suggested Openfiler, another Open Source Storage OS. Although we haven't tried it ourselves Roger thinks it beats FreeNAS. • Alexander takes us to task for recommending an inefficient firewall solution like Smoothwall. The extra energy an older PC expends while running idle is both wasteful and polluting. His solution? A Linksys WRT54GL router running open source firmware. • Chris also takes us to task on setting up a firewall. He recommends the converse of what Roger did, plugging up all the network ports and opening only the ones you need. • Chris - another Chris - suggests Sirius Frequency Finder page and Radio-Locator when using an iPod FM Transmitter to figure out what open frequencies will available in your area. • Well Loyd's PC is finally put together and running. But before you insert that OS install disc in the drive there's one last thing you need to do, tweak the BIOS. Follow along as Loyd points out the various options and toggles in the typical BIOS setup. • Robert followed up on Loyd's BIOS tip with a suggestion to check out Tech ARP's BIOS Optimization Guide. Tech ARP's BIOS guide has been around for years and continues to be the best source for learning more about even the most obscure BIOS related terms and features. • If you plan on going pro with Photoshop you'll need to ditch the mouse for something a bit more precise. Pixel Corps's, Alex Lindsay, is here to explain the benefits of ditching your mouse and picking up a tablet when using Photoshop. • If you own a 1996 or later automobile chances are you have an OBDII port installed under the dash. This ha
Viewer Comments for Show 205: • Chris wrote in to inform us about OpenECU page. A wikisite dedicated to providing information on turning, tweaking and reflashing automobile engine computers. • Requiemnoise gave us a heads up on the Linksys NSLU2 network storage device. Using it with reflashed Debian Linux firmware, Requiemnoise says it should pay itself within 1.5 years on power savings alone over a repurposed PC running FreeNAS or similar application. • Crysis: If you've been itching to play a game that shows off your multi-core DirectX 10 gaming monster look no further than Crysis. Games for Windows' Darren Gladstone is here to detail the finer points of this hardware stressing FPS. • Robert provided his picks for HDTVs that are worth considering this holiday season. If you want the best HDTV period, look no further than the 60 inch Pioneer KURO PRO-150FD ($7,500 list) . Pioneer's flagship TV offers superior image contrast for excellent detail and color, and its 1080p resolution is a perfect match for today's best HD video sources. For a terrific 1080p plasma TV at a good price look no further than the Panasonic TH-42PZ700U. The 42PZ700U's 42 inch screen delivered good picture quality with standard and high definition video sources, and it has an SD card slot for easy viewing of digital images. For a big screen HDTV value, the 55 inch Sony KDS-55A2020 features a three chip light engine that delivers exceptional color and motion performance. The Toshiba REGZA 37HL67 is a compact LCD that handles HD video with ease, and it provides a trio of HDMI inputs for connecting your digital video devices. Robert also mentioned companies that specialize in good HDTVs at value prices - in particular, Vizio, ViewSonic, and Westinghouse have delivered consistently good performance in his challenging lab tests. • GPS Picks: • -Garmin Nuvi 760 is a great choice for those who need more features than a swiss army knife and don't mind paying for it. • -Magellan Ma
This podcast is brought to you by Hitachi • DL.TV viewer, Ralf, recommends we checkout the free cellphone navigation software at Nav4All. It's free until 2010. The only thing you'll need is a GPS antenna/receiver you can link to you phone. • DL.TV viewer Steve suggested we take a look at the Garmin's Nuvi 660 before picking up the similar but pricier Nuvi 760 we recommended last show. • Budget Notebooks: Taking your computing mobile is not as expensive as it use to be. We looked at 2 very affordable and full featured PC notebooks; the Acer Aspire 4710 and the Sony VAIO VGN-NR160. For those looking for something even more portable and open source based check out ASUS's Eee PC 4G. • Power Inverters are a great way to power household appliances when you're on the road but there are some things to keep mind before you tote all your kitchen gear with. Check out Whistler's FAQ on the matter. • David Calkins from the Robotics Society of America gives us a report from this year's Wirefly X Prize Cup. If you're spaceflight buff, robot fanatic or just like cool aerospace technology you won't want to miss this. • Finally we had a question from Reverend Mark about the differences between the original TiVo Series3 HD DVR (digital video recorder) and the newer TiVo HD DVR - a recent TiVo software update has added TiVoToGo to the HD DVRs. Robert agreed with Mark's observation about the price difference between the two DVRs - online pricing for the Series3 is about $550 and the standard HD DVR costs about $250. Compared to the TiVo HD DVR, the Series3 provides slightly more hard drive storage space for recording shows, an OLED front display, and a fully backlit remote control. The Series3 is also the first (and only) DVR to be THX certified that helps insure optimal sound and video quality. Both HD DVRs provide HDMI and component video output, two CableCARD slots for dual-tuning functionality, and integrated over-the-air (OTA) digital tuners. Robert also mentioned
This podcast brought you by Audible.com. • Veronica Belmont stopped by for one last visit before the the year's end. • CompUSA is closing its doors at the end of the year. So if you're looking for a sweet deal on some computer technology checkout your local CompUSA stores. • Viewer Comments: Stephen chimed in about car alternators stating that he had his S-10's alternator rebuilt to output twice the amps as the stock one to accommodate his stereo upgrade. • Viewer Comments: James emailed with an important correction about the Sony VAIO VGN-NR160 we mentioned on the last show. We erroneously referred to its clock speed as being 2GHz when it's actually 1.5GHz. • HD Sources: With HDTV's making up one of the most sought after gifts this season plenty of folks will be staring at a shiny new HD set this holiday. But what are you going to be watching on this fabulous new set; the same old boring SD content? Fear not! Robert is here with the top sources for HD content that will make happy you upgraded your TV. • Cigarette Lighter Gadgets: Last week we looked at power inverters that enable you to run household appliances and gadgets inside a car. However, devices designed from the outset to run off a car's electrical system are a bit more efficient. So we had Scott run out and buy a select group of cigarette lighter enabled devices that should add a dollop of convenience to any road trip. • Game Review: Garnett Lee from 1up.com is here to gives us the lowdown on Unreal Tournament III. Can a hit PC FPS franchise succeed in the videogame console environment? • Finally Greg has a question about why his system, although outfitted with 4GB of RAM, shows a little under 3GB in Vista Ultimate. The short answer is that the way the PC was designed portions of system memory address space are used to access other hardware in the system. Partially because of the need to retain backward compatibility the issue crops up every so often as systems with 4GB or more of
We received a stack of responses from viewers about 32-bit Vista SP1 allowing users to see the full 4GB of System RAM instead of the truncated 2.8GB/3.25GB normally shown. Here are some of emails we received. • Fabio wrote: "With SP1, Windows Vista will report the amount of system memory installed rather than report the amount of system memory available to the OS. Therefore 32-bit systems equipped with 4GB of RAM will report all 4BG in many places throughout the OS, such as the System Control Panel. However, this behavior is dependent on having a compatible BIOS, so not all users may notice this change." • Sam added: "It was stated in the latest show that upgrading to Windows Vista 32bit SP1 would allow a machine with 4GB of memory to address its full capacity. However, although the OS may now display the full 4GB it is still only capable of addressing approximately 3.2GB." • Larry commented: "Roger, you are right to question the new 4 GIG reporting in Vista SP1. It only reports the amount of RAM in the computer, not the amount of RAM available to the operating system. This update is apparently for people who are not advanced users. No more questions from them since the operating system reports 4 GIG now even though the operating system still has apx. 3 GIG available for use." • Thanks to all of you who wrote in about this topic. • KVM or Keyboard, Video, and Mouse Switches are great ways to run multiple machines without the hassle or expense of extra monitors, video, or mice. We showed off a couple of examples including Belkin's Flip and IOGEAR's GCS1764. • Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps is back with a helpful tip on how to make use of the "depth of field" when shooting digital cameras. • Darren Gladstone from GFW is back with a last look at the top games for 2007. • Finally we had a question about why Firefox is better than Internet Explorer. The explanation is 2 fold. First IE has much larger installed base making it a more attractive targ
John wanted to know if his CompUSA extended warranty that he purchase for his laptop will still be valid in light of the companies decision to close all its stores. From what we understand CompUSA through TAP will honor all of its extended warranties. For more information checkout CompUSA's Consumer Help Questions. • Gordon and a half dozen other viewers took us to task over Synergy's ability to share multiple screens. While Synergy does allows sharing of keyboard and mouse it will not share a screen. Many Mea Culpa's on my behalf. I was thinking incorrectly of the way I use VNC over a local area network and conflated the two. • Belkin's Network USB Hub is a great way to share USB devices like printers, scanners and storage devices across multiple machines. Although not compatible with more unique USB devices all my storage devices, printer and scanner at home work well. The biggest strikes against it are its current Windows only support and 10/100 network interface. • Larry commented: "Roger, you are right to question the new 4 GIG reporting in Vista SP1. It only reports the amount of RAM in the computer, not the amount of RAM available to the operating system. This update is apparently for people who are not advanced users. No more questions from them since the operating system reports 4 GIG now even though the operating system still has apx. 3 GIG available for use." • If you're a video editor or just thinking about entering the wonderful world of non-linear editing then check out Alex Lindsay's video editing tip. Learn about Color, the bundled application that makes up part of Final Cut Studio 2 ,and why you would want to use it on your next video project. • Jason Cross from Extreme Tech drops by for an end of year look at video card highlights of 2007 and what you should expect to see in 2008. • Although John Dvorak spilled the beans last week, I'm gonna make it official. As of the Dec 28th, 2007 I'll no longer be an employee of Ziff-Davis Med
Robert is hosting solo today. • We are getting packed and ready to go to Las Vegas. Tons of coverage on the horizon for CES 2008. Go to PCMag.com for a preview. • PCMag's Mobile Guru Sascha Segan has the new T-Mobile Sidekick in hand and it's huge. • Have too much TV to watch and your DVR can't handle the load? Product Coordinator PJ Jacobowitz takes a look at My DVR Expander. • Keep your browser on PCMag.com and DL.TV for all the latest from the 2008 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
Today is Day One of the 2009 International CES Expo in Vegas. Robert is in Las Vegas, checking out all the hot new tech and we'll have his take on this year's show when he returns. Until then, check out what happened at last year's show and see if our predictions came true in 2008. • PC Magazine's Product Review Coordinator, PJ Jacobowitz, talks to Kate Brinks from Logitech about its new Universal remote. • Brian Bennett, Reviews Editor for PC Magazine, gets Paul Murdock from Iqua, Ltd. to give us the lowdown on the new Iqua SUN, the first solar-powered Bluetooth headset in the world. • DL.TV's Brooks Rowlett gets Ken Bell from Texas Instruments to show off its new DLP DualView technology and one of the dopest 3D glasses out there for you video game junkies. • Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, meets up with Jay Leboff at CES Unveiled to chat about its new centralized charging station for all of your personal communication devices. • DL.TV's Brooks Rowlett checks out three hot new products: the Sling Mobile Player, the Slingbox Pro HD, and the Sling Player 2.0, from Sling Media. • PJ Jacobowitz, PC Magazine's Product Review Coordinator, gets the lowdown on ZAGG's Invisible Shield, a transparent flexible film that protects all of your favorite gadgets. • Brooks Rowlett, Associate Producer for DL.TV, snags a demo of the Looj and Roomba from Nancy Smith of iRobot.
TiVo's got a great new way to get your favorite podcasts directly into your living room! Brooks checks out the all-new TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6. • Why would anyone want to feel like they're being stabbed and shot while playing their favorite video games? Brian Heater finds out. • We let Robert loose on the floor at CES and he's got the latest in HDTV goodness from LG, Panasonic, Pioneer, and Hitachi. • Brooks snags an in-depth interview with Manuela Papadopol, from Microsoft Auto, on the new partnership and car tech from Microsoft and Ford. • Dr. Bharath from Dolby Laboratories explains the new LED Backlight technology they've created and why it will soon be the sharpest, most colorful looking picture coming to your next LCD TV. • Oh, and did we mention Transformers??
We let Brooks loose on the show floor for the final days of CES! He's grabbed interviews from Kodak, Skype, Alienware, and more! • Erica Messing tells us all about the latest in beer technology! • We've got the coolest new gaming display at the show, the Curve prototype, from Alienware. • Kodak shows off their latest technology with touch-screen enabled cameras and the new Facial Retouch software. It's easier than Photoshopping! • Tony Saigh from Skype lets us in on their 2008 plans for freeing up more than your phone calls! • We'll be back in the studio next week with a CES wrap-up and a look at this year's Macworld Conference. Until then, we're signing off and leaving Las Vegas!
Garnett Lee, Managing Editor for 1UP.com, joins Robert on the set. • Robert and Garnett talk a bunch about what impressed them at CES 2008. • Scott went over to the Moscone Center to check out some of the products on the show floor of this years MacWorld. First, is the Axiotron Modbook. Next is the Lo/Jack for Laptops. And last, is the Zapacopter from ZAP. For info on the Keynote Speech from MacWorld and the MacBook Air go to PCMag.com • We have a Vista tip for you today. Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com shows you have to find the elusive Cookies Folder. • Brian from Yakima, WA asks: I have the original Xbox 360. When they first came out, I know the best at the time was Component Video. I would like to use HDMI with it. Are there any cables or converters for Xbox 360 so I can use HDMI? • Garnett mentioned that the original Xbox 360 had analog output only, and it appears that the MadCatz HDMI conversion kit converts a VGA signal to HDMI (analog to digital conversion). Considering that an HDTV's component video input performs a similar task (analog video input that's converted to digital prior to display), chances are that you would see no improvement in video quality. For home theater devices that offer HDMI output, we do suggest using that port when possible (with a TV that offers HDMI input) as it will provide the best image quality. Otherwise, don't waste your cash on (usually) expensive analog-to-digital video converter products - component video (and VGA) remains the best analog video connection. • And a final note, We will be moving to a 15 minute or so show. But we want you to be sure that we will continue to bring you the best information on the latest technologies, and the best how-to's and best reviews from our analysts in NYC and here in SF. We will also, as always, answer your questions. Know that DL.TV is alive and well and we hope you will continue to watch.
Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from Frank. He is showing off his home theater that he and his wife designed and built in their basment. • Our own East Coast Video Producer and avid photographer, Veanne Cao, has some great tips on what you should look for in a digital camera before you buy. • Our East Coast Video Producer Veanne Cao had a brain fart after going through about a dozen digital cameras. She meant to say, Casio Exilim S880, not EX-Z1080. Thanks Brett Otte for catching that! • 3 Games in 3 Minutes is back with its 2008 editions. Brian Intihar, Previews editor for Electronic Gaming Monthly, joins Scott to talk about Burnout: Paradise, Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law and NFLTour. • We have a viewer question from Robert and he is from Kalamazoo, MI: • I used to have a Pentium 4 CPU that ran at 3.4GHz. Recently, I finally bought a new laptop that has a Core 2 with a speed of 1.67GHz. What is it that makes the Core 2 better? Is it just the two cores that make up for the loss in speed? Robert from Kalamazoo, MI • Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com mentioned that the 2 cores are in part the reason that the Core 2 is faster. However, the main reason is the architecture of the Core 2 that allows more work to be done in a lesser amount of CPU cycles. • Folding@Home Update: We are holding steady at 13. Once we overtake the 12 spot, it looks like we can shoot up a couple more spots. Just a reminder, if you click on our Folding@Home link we have our interview with Prof. Vijay Pande and instructions on how to configure the Folding@Home client on your machine of choice. • Next week we have a tip from Garnett Lee. He will be Showing off Google Reader's Share functionality. We also test the toughness of Blu-Ray Discs. • We missed something in our show notes from last week. Gregg in Michigan, wrote in to let us know that we forgot to add in Garnett's $900 PC recco that will handle Crysis: The Crysis PC for $900 as mentioned by Garnett Lee wasn't
Veronica Belmont of Mahalo.com and Mahalo Daily joins Robert on today's DL.TV. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from David in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Showing off his dual LCDs that are hooked up to his PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Not pictured are the Rock Band peripherals and the tangle of ethernet, A/V, and power cables behind the monitors. • Want to work on your vocabulary and help fight world hunger? Check out Freerice.com • Garnett Lee, Managing Editor for 1UP.com, loves his RSS feeds. He loves them so much that he makes his own feeds using Google Reader. Garnett was good enough to share that knowledge with us and now we share it with you. • We have a viewer question from Mark: • Blu-Ray has long touted its tough resistant hard coating but I've been wondering exactly how tough is it really how much of a pounding can it really take? • Well, Mark, we ran into the HD Lab and put a Blu-Ray disc to the test. • Folding@Home Update: We are holding steady at 13 at over 166,000,000 point. We figure out how to read numbers. Just a reminder, if you click on our Folding@Home link we have our interview with Prof. Vijay Pande and instructions on how to configure the Folding@Home client on your machine of choice. • Finally, we have an interview with John Davison of What They Like, Inc. He stopped by the studio to talk about What They Play, a parental resource site help parents understand the ESRB ratings as well as inform of what type of content a video game contains.
Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com is our Co-Host of the week. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from Steven of Parts Unknown. He has a 73" Mitsubishi WD-73827 and the Speakers are 4x JBL E100, Sats are 2x JBL E10, and the Sub is a JBL S120Pii. Driving the audio is a Pioneer VSX-74TXVi Elite. The PC consists of a Asus Motherbord P5AD2-E Premium, Pentium 4 3.4Ghz processor, Samsung SyncMaster 204B 20" LCD Monitor, Video Card: eVGA Nvidia 6800GT and the case is a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream. • Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly joins Scott to talk about Capcom's Latest installment of Devil May Cry. Devil May Cry 4. • Tip Time. Want to send out that Word document, but not the changes or other information that might be attached to the file? Scott Asnault has a quick tip to remove all that data in a flash. • Benchmarking - What is it and how do you do it? It's an awful big question, but the gist of it is this. Benchmarking is when you evaluate and compare the performance of things. Let's say you're benchmarking a hard drive. You'll use software designed for that purpose that measures the read and write speed, access latency, and so on. You might copy a large file to it and time how long it takes. To benchmark a graphics card, you might run a graphics-intensive game and see how many frames per second you get (how smoothly the game runs). Then you do the same thing with another piece of hardware, using the exact same parameters, keeping everything exactly the same except for the one piece of hardware you're testing. The numbers you get can vary widely, depending on what you're testing. The key is to make sure you're running all tests the same way each time, keeping the test setup as similar as possible, and that you present the results in a way that's easy to understand. • We have a viewer question from Jake: • I would like to upgrade my PCs CPU to a Core 2 Duo from a Pentium D can I just pick any Intel CPU off a shelf or is there more to it?
Scott Asnault moves on to the set to be this week's Co-Host. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from Alex of Lansing, MI. • Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly joins Scott to give his take on 3 more games. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Endless Ocean, and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. • Hulu.com. A new video content site that is streaming premium and current on-air content. And we have 100 beta invites for you the DL.TV viewer. • Hulu.com side note...Scott misspoke about the Codec used by Hulu.com, but he was close. The FLV codec is the On2 VP6 that is supported by Flash 8 or better. Hulu's SD files are streamed at 480kbps and 700kbps. SD videos have a 288 and 360 vertical resolution while HD videos are encoded to 720p. Wanted to make the clarification. • For This Valentine's Day: PJ Jacobowitz, PC Magazine's Product Review Coordinator, checks out a few gifts that'll win over your sweetheart: Customized M&Ms, iPod Nano in pink, Motorola S9 Bluetooth headset, Vudu, Motorola RAZR2 Luxury Edition and the Nokia Vertu. • Folding@Home Update: The PS3 has had a software update. A little bit of background music for you and more. Click here for the PS3 update information. we are holding steady at 13, but moving up quickly. The DL.TV team has the most active users and in the top 5 for daily points. Go DL.TV! • Next week: A little Game Developers Converence, Firefox Extentions. It's tax season! We will have a Tax Application round up for you and much more.
Brooks Rowlett is no longer a co-host virgin!!! He joins Robert this week on the DL.TV set. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from Nick of West Lafayette, IN at Purdue University. • Tax season is here. PCMag's Michael Muchmore has a round-up of 3 tax applications that might help you save a couple hundred dollars on a CPA. Turbo Tax, Tax Cut and Tax ACT • Brooks Rowlett shows off some Firefox Extensions. URL Fixer, Speed Dial, Firefox Showcase, Zotero BugMeNot and PicLens. We would like to thank Grant G. and rest of the crew from the Nerds List for pointing out some of those cool Firefox extensions. • The Game Developers Conference is in full swing in San Francisco. Scott heads over to take a look. • Our viewer question is from Paul W.: • Would you guys do a segment showing how to properly use a codec pack without messing up your computer and give recommendations on which codec packs are the best? • Hulu.com has been ever so kind to give us more beta invites. Go to the Hulu/DL.TV page for more invites. Looks as if you guys wanted to check out the site. They added an extra 1000 over the long weekend and then added another 500 yesterday (Wednesday). • One final thing, on our March 6th show, Loyd Case -Editor of Extremetech.com- will be joining us. He will be answering as many of your questions as he can. So if you have a question for Loyd...ie. Graphics Cards, Motherboards, Processors, How to set up your lan party...Send us an email with "Ask Loyd" in the subject line. • Next week: A whole lot of Game Developers Converence, Garnett Lee of 1UP.com will be here to give us the gaming announcements while Scott hits the show floor for more cool gadgets.
Garnett Lee, Senior Editor-Reviews of the 1UP Network joins Robert this week on the DL.TV set. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from George of Bartlett, IL. • Gadgets from GDC: EyeTech, Guitar Rising, the Zalman Trimon and the Zalman FPS GUN FG1000. • Garnett shows off a couple of inventive independent games: Crayon Physics Deluxe and Fez as well as the Unreal Engine 3 tech demo. • Robert's favorite web game Desktop Tower Defense. And PS3 owners, Garnett suggests you keep and eye out for Pixel Junk Monsters. • Our viewer question is from Tom in Fremont, CA: OK, so the HD media wars are now over. Since Blu-ray is the winner, I went and bought a PS3. It's the best deal out there for a good Blu-ray 1.1 player. So, now I would like to know what is a good Blu-ray disc to buy that will really show off the capabilities of the PS3? What movie out there on Blu-ray is the best for this? For info about BD's (Blu-ray disc's) Profiles, you can checkout Blu-Ray Profiles on Wikipedia. • Hulu.com has been ever so kind to give us more beta invites. Go to the Hulu/DL.TV page for more invites. Looks as if you guys wanted to check out the site. They gave us a total of 3100 invites. Get yours before they are all gone. • On our March 6th show, next week, Loyd Case -Editor of Extremetech.com- will be joining us. He will be answering as many of your questions as he can. So if you have a question for Loyd...ie. Graphics Cards, Motherboards, Processors, How to set up your lan party...Send us an email with "Ask Loyd" in the subject line. • Folding@Home Update: We are still holding at Number 13. However, Jason from Cincinnati is hooking us up with some serious fire power. He is a IT Director for a private school and has about 950 machines at the school. He will be deploying the F@H client to as many of the machines as he can. He said that from the hours of 4pm to 7am, 400 computers are in idle. I think we, and Stanford, can use an extra 400 CPUs folding away. D
Robert is sunning himself in the FLA. No hurricanes until June. Scott Asnault and Loyd Case are hosting. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from Benjimin of Vulcan, Alberta, Canada. • Brooks was so excited about Smash Bros. Brawl coming out that Scott let him do the interview with Shane Bettenhausen, Executive Editor for the 1UP Network. • Brian Bennett, Reviews Editor for PC Magazine reviews the Pharos Drive GPS 250 and the Cobra Nav ONE 5000. • Our questions for Loyd: I am looking to build a mid to high end PC with gaming and rendering ability, but do not fully understand the difference between consumer and business video cards (i.e. Geforce vs Quadro). I like FPS gaming, but I also heavily use Photoshop and AutoCAD for my field of landscape architecture, what best suits my needs? Thanks in advance,Trevor-Pittsburgh, PA I'm running a home-built Intel Pentium 4 550; the dreaded Prescott house warmer. I seem to be having a problem where once a year or so, my CPU overheats and causes thermal shutdowns several times a week. In the past, I would reapply the thermal compound. Is it normal that I need to this every year or is something else going on here? Thanks so much,Todd-Bellport, NY I am building my first pc with a focus on gaming and media playback. I am weighing the merits of two motherboard series: the 680i with full x16 sli and the 750i with x16/x8 but having the extra bandwidth of PCI-E 2.0 available. Which of these setups would be better for gaming? Thanks, Eric-Cape Coral, Florida Just got a new phenom quad with dual 3870 crossfire but at systemrequirementslab.com I fail the video card test is there something on my m3a32 bios I should change or is crossfire activated only by catalyst software? Thank you. Steve from Texas • We have a new giveaway. Enter to receive a Zalman FPS GUN FG 1000 Gaming Mouse. Giveaway ends March. 27th. YOU HAVE 3 WEEK LEFT. The drawing will be April 3rd. The rules are simple: • Create a vide
Robert is back in the saddle again. • Our Viewer Tech Pic of the Week is from Ric in Ohio. • Hulu.com Goes Live! We take a look at the added content and Scott talks about subscribing to a show and an annoying aspect of the playlist functionality. But he still loves the site. • Cisco Cheng, Lead Analyst of Laptops for PC Magazine reviews the Lenovo ThinkPad X300. • Want to speed up your web surfing or have more control over what sites can be accessed from your computers? We show you the what/why/how of OpenDNS. • Our Viewer Question is from Kim in Georgia: What is a HDMI converter? I just brought a 1080p HDTV and a HD DVD player but my cable box is not a HD box. Will a HDMI converter help my cable box? I don't recommend the use of any "HDMI converter" products as they can be costly and will provide no picture quality improvements over using the satellite receiver's analog video ports directly. And whenever possible, avoid using a device's composite video port if an S-Video port (or component video) can be used instead. Of course, if the source device and HDTV have HDMI ports, then always use them for the best possible image quality. I recommend going to www.monoprice.com and www.bluejeanscable.com. You should be able to find the cables you need at a better price than brick and mortor stores. • Loyd Case will be back on the show in the near future. So, if you have a question for the Editor of ExtremeTech.com, Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'Ask Loyd' in the subject line.
March Madness is in full swing. CBS.com is streaming all the games on their site for free. However, if you are watching at work, look for the BOSS BUTTON. It will turn the basketball game you are watching into a spread sheet. • This week's Tech Pic is from Garrett of Battle Creek, MI • Robert goes over what you need to keep your HDTV clean, power protected, the best A/V cable to use and more. • Joel Santo Domingo, Lead Analyst of Desltops for PC Magazine, takes a quick look at the Sony VAIO Home Theater PC. The Sony Vaio VGX-TP25E. • Our Viewer Question is from John L. in Ocean City, MD: I need to get a camcorder for work. We are a restaurant/bar/nightclub/hotel complex in Ocean City, MD. I'm looking for something hard drive based that does ok in low light situations like night time in the bars. I was looking at the Panasonic SDR-H18, its get a lot of great reviews for ease of use and low light, but it seems it's out of production already. Do you have any suggestions? We had David Gussman, Lead Analyst-Digital Cameras and Camcorders, to take a view moments and answer this question for John. • Loyd Case will be back on the show April 10th. So, if you have a question for the Editor of ExtremeTech.com, Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'Ask Loyd' in the subject line.
Garnett Lee of the 1UP Network joins Robert today despite not knowing where his real voice is. • This week's Tech Pic is from David of Sherwood, Alberta, Canada. • Loyd Case, Editor of Extremetech.com, starts a 3 part series on 'How to Overclock Your PC.' In Part 1, Loyd talks about why you might want to overclock your system, what motherboard and what RAM you might want to use. • Firefox 3 Beta 4 vs. Internet Explorer 8 Beta. Lance Ulanoff, Editor in Chief of PC Magazine looks at the first beta release for Microsoft's internet browser and Michael Muchmore, Software Analyst for PC Magazine, shows off the latest features that Firefox 3 has to offer. • Not digging the plain white Nintendo DS that you just bought from the store? Want to spice up the look of that new Macbook Air? We have a couple suggestions for you. First is Colorwarepc.com. You can ship your DS to them or buy from Colorwarepc.com and have a custom paint job of your choosing. Second is Decalgirl.com. Starting at around $10, you can order a cool vinyl decal. Easy to put on and you can remove it without the worry of adhesive left behind. Last on the list is GelaSkins.com. Starting about $15 per, the artwork is amazing with many of your favorite gadgets on their list. Laptops, iPods, iPhones and much more. • We have a Folding@Home update...We are #12 in the world. Thank you all for your efforts. • DL.TV T-Shirts will be going out for their submissions to the Gaming Mouse Giveaway. Pavil, David and Walt. Thank you. Please remember to get your submission in to be eligible. If we use your video on the show
Veronica Belmont is here a day after a very cranky CrankyGeeks. • This week's Tech Pic is from Brick of Murray, TX. • We have a 3 Games in 3 Minutes this week. The games are Opoona for the Wii, Dark Sector for the 360 and PS3, and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core for the PSP. • Loyd Case, Editor of ExtremeTech.com, continues his series on Overclocking Your PC. Today, it is all about the cooling. • Veronica Belmont blogs. Well, she does. She was gracious enough to share her knowledge of some blogging software. WordPress 2.5, Movable Type and Blogger are her recommendations. • P.J. Jacobowitz, Product Review Coordinator for PC Magazine, has a neat little gadget to help you get standard and high def on your Mac. The Elgato HDHomeRun HDTV Tuner. For a full review go to PCMag.com. • Our Viewer Question is from Gus of Oswego, OR: Hey DLTV, I was wondering who you recommend for inexpensive hard drives for my computer? I need at least 500 gigs a piece PATA. We have 3 recommendations. Pricegrabber.com Pricewatch.com and Shop.PCMag.com. We had to add the home office. • We have a winner of the Zalman FPS GUN FG 1000 Gaming Mouse. Cassandra of Jamaica, NY. She is the proud recipient of the gaming mouse. Congrats to Cassandra. And thank you all for participating in the giveaway. We will be having another giveaway contest very, so please stay tuned for that. BTW, here is Cassandra's favorite time waster, Twittering in her N800. • Loyd Case will be back on the show May 1st. So, if you have a question for the Editor of ExtremeTech.com, Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'Ask Loyd' in the subject line. • Next week: Scott Asnault will be on the show! They will have some utilites for supercharging your Windows. Plus, your Tech Pics, Viewer Questions and More!
DL.TV Series Producer Scott Asnault joins Robert on the set. Is he wearing a Dungeons & Dragons T-shirt? • Scott suggests everyone be careful about what you throw away. He has been seeing dumpster divers in his apartment complex. Make sure your documents are shredded. • This week's Tech Pic is from Roger of Passaic, NJ. • Loyd finishes up his Overclocking 101 series by actually overclocking a PC in his lab. • Scott shows off a couple utilities that will make the Windows PC life a bit easier. Scott lives in Irfanview. Uses it mainly to resize images for DL.TV and to be able to send digital pictures that he has taken to friends. But Irfanview is much more than that. He also had the chance to get a demo of BeInSync.com. Adi Ruppin, VP of BeInSync, came in and demoed the software. Finally, Scott quickly showed off WindowBlinds 6. Reskin your XP or Vista Machine. • We also want to know about what utilities you like. Go to the 91 Utilities to Supercharge Windows article and let us know which utility is your fav. And let us know if we missed something. We will put all the information together for a future show. Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'Utility' in the subject line. • Our Viewer Question is from Mark of City of Industry, CA: I just built a HTPC with a core 2 duo 2.66 GHz, PQI 2 GB of RAM and a Nvidia EVGA 8800gts. I have a Sony Bravia KDL32M3000. Anyhow, I would love to hook up my HTPC to the T.V. What kinda cable would I need to do this? I am also getting a Blu-Ray dvd drive for my pc. Will my specs play high def dvds at full frame without any lag? Mark, Jason Cross has got you covered. Your specs are good to handle Blu-Ray. As for the cable, get a DVI to HDMI cable or a DVI to HDMI adapter. However, you will need seperate cables for audio. • Loyd Case will be back on the show May 1st. So, if you have a question for the Editor of ExtremeTech.com, Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com with 'Ask Loyd' in the subject line. • Next week: We go G
Earth Day is April 22nd, 2008 and we wanted to do something special in honor of said day. So, We bring you our first annual Green Episode. An entire DL.TV episode dedicated to being Green. And no, we are not talking about Kermit the Frog or the Hulk. • Do you live in a metro area and don't own a car, but might need the use of one on occasion? Check out Zipcar. Zipcar is in several major cities in the U.S. and Canada. We had a chance to with Genevieve Jopanda, General Manager for Zipcar, and she talks about the origin of Zipcar, the benefits of car sharing, car choices and more. • Robert Heron talks about the best way to lower the power consumption of your home electronics. • Scott Asnault gives a quick reminder on why you might want to swtich from incandescent bulbs to CFLs. Disposal of those CFLs has always been an issue. Well, if you live by an IKEA store, they will take the CFLs off your hands. Also, take a look at lamprecycle.org for more information on programs to recycle your CLFs.. Also, he has a quick word about recycling those old electronics. Check out Alameda County Computer Resource Center for info on how to have your old electronics repurposed. Check out Ep 147 for the full skinny on switching to CFLs and Ep 174 for all the info you need to properly recycle your old electronics. • Joel Santo Domingo, Desktop Analyst for PC Magazine, talks about how they certify a green PC and names a couple that have met the criteria. Apple Mac Mini, Zonbu Desktop Mini, Lenovo ThinkCentre a61e and the HP Compaq 2710p. • And finally, Sam Arbizo showcases some bad electric motor scooters. Justin Gray is the Designer and Sales person as well as rider of these bad electric motor scooters from Electric Motorsport. To see more of their electric vehicle selection go to www.electricmotorsport.com. Justin also mentions his sister store www.thunderstruck-ev.com. The other motor scooter on the show is from Vectrix. Daniel Myggen of the Vectrix sales force was good e
Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com joins Robert on set. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Gregg of Cold Spring Harbor, NY. He has some serious download speed. • Crispin Boyer, Senior Executive Editor for the 1UP Network, reviews Grand Theft Auto 4. • Assistant Producer Sam Arbizo had some quality time with the Neuros OSD. • We have 2 viewer questions today. First question is from Chris of Winter Springs, FL: Here in Florida, the frequent summer rainstorms are so large that they easily block satellite TV reception. Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome this "line of site" problem? I've heard that if you ask really nicely, you can get a 24" dish for slightly better reception. Second question is from J of Cameron, NC: My parents have a rear projection TV with a little screen burn-in from watching too much QVC. Have you heard of the PixelProtector DVD? What do you recommend for a DIY repair kit, if one exists? • We have a Folding@Home update. Team DL.TV has reach the #10 spot. Thank you all for your efforts. There is a new GPU Folding client. Jason Cross was able to take a long look at the client as well as talk to Prof. Vijay Pande about how the client works. Click HERE to read Jason's article and HERE to read the GPU FAQ. • Robert forgot to mention that the latest incarnation of the Ubuntu operating system, v8.04 aka "The Hardy Heron", has been officially released. Desktop and server editions are available in 32 bit and 64 bit flavors. Ubuntu News link The Ubuntu website is being hammered pretty hard with requests for the new OS so here is a page of BitTorrent links for most every version of Ubuntu including Hardy Heron (v8.04). Tip: scroll down to the "hardy-desktop-xxx" or "hardy-dvd-xxx" sections and get your Ubuntu torrent on. • Robert received his DTV converter box coupons in the mail, and its doubtful that he'll even use them (they do expire after a period of time). For more info about the 2009 DTV transition and the U.S. gove
Finally, we have Loyd Case, Editor of ExtemeTech.com, back on the set to answer your questions. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Ramon of Marina Del Ray, CA. Linux on a PS3. Want to try it on your PS3? Go to psubuntu.com. • Question 1: Leo of 'Downeast', Maine wants to know about he upgrade ability or Blu-Ray drives for HTPCs...Loyd says to check out PowerDVD 8, which adds Profile 1.1 support. • Question 2: Chris of Adelaide, South Australia wants to know what the minimum specs are of a MCPC that will record 2 HD channels at the same time...You'll need a faster CPU -- preferably a dual core processor. It wouldn't hurt to have a faster hard drive and more memory, either. I don't think the issue lies with your HD capture cards. • Question 3: Virgilio of Vancouver, BC, Canada would like to know how to go about choosing a LCD monitor...You should be good with a 22-inch monitor at 1680x1050 and should comfortably drive a 24-inch at 1920x1200. Another great resource is the Theater Computers section of the AVS Forums. • Question 4: Alex of Brooklyn, NY is wondering if there were micro ATX motherboards that support PCI-e 2.0...If you want to use an AMD processor. The AMD 780G chipset is built into boards made by Asus, Gigabyte and others. But then you have to think: what do you want PCIe Gen2 for? If you're talking home theater PC, you'll never approach the bandwidth of PCIe 1.1, much less Gen2. • Question 5: Ryan of Anchorage, Alaska has an old rig and is wondering if he should wait for Nehalem to upgrade or upgrade now...If you're still running an old single core CPU, upgrade now, for pity's sake! Nehalem is likely to be very expensive at launch. You can get an E8400, 3GHz dual core for under $200. • Question 6: Julian of Phoenix, AZ needs to set up a rig to support up to 8 displays...The Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 allows you to connect up to four displays, as does the AMD FireMV. You can also use the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital, an external box
Senior Video Producer Brooks Rowlett joins Robert on set. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Warren of Tulsa, OK. Warren shows of his tech via QTRV. Want to know what QTRV is? Click HERE. • This past weekend Assistant Producer Sam Arbizo and Robert hit the Maker Faire. A quick list of who Robert talked to: Orbswarm,Semi-autonomous robot performance art. Team Jefferson, Competitors in the Darpa Grand Challenge events. Perrone Robotics, Provides robotics technology and software for use in consumer, professional, and military robotics applications. Tech Shop, TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. Western Warship Combat Club, Robotic RC model warship combat in San Jose, California. The Guitar Zeros, Band that uses Guitar Hero Controllers to rock on, for real. Flaming Lotus Girls, Creators of large scale fire art. • Scott is a fight fan and because he is a fight fan he has been in need of some PPV action. Problem is he does not have cable or satellite services. Solution? Yahoo Sports and the UFC join forces to bring MMA to the world. Click HERE to go to the website for the next Ultimate Fighting Championship PPV. • Assistant Producer Sam Arbizo checks out the Green Office. • Senior Video Producer Brooks Rowlett shows off 4 cool websites.MakeUseOf.com, Natuba.com, Twistori and Wigix. • We have 2 viewer questions today. First question is from Jack of Colorado: I was wondering if there is a Linux distro you could recommend for my non-technical parents? Second question is from Devin of Michigan, USA: Why do 720p HDTVs have a screen resolution of 1366x768?
Hello DL.TV Viewers. As some of you may have noticed, the RSS feeds have yet to update. We are aware of the problem and trying to get it solved as soon as possible. We here at DL.TV would like to apologize for the inconvenience. • Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com joins Robert on set. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Jason of Parkville, MD. Fios is headed to his neighborhood. • We have a 3 Games in 3 Minutes Segment for you this week. Shane Bettenhausen fo the 1UP Network talks up Boom Blox, Iron Man and Target: Terror. • Jason Cross, Senior Tech Analyst for ExtremeTech.com, shows off and talks about the redesign of ExtremeTech.com. • Back in Episode 227 we took a look at PCMag.com's list of 91 Utilities to Supercharge Windows. We asked you, the viewer, to take a look and let us know what you liked and what we missed. Scott went through the email and here is what we missed: JkDeFrag, NetStumbler, Fineprint, Foxit, Port Forwarder, CCleaner, CutePDF, Log Monitor, Blat, Password Safe, Active Ports, Darik's Boot and Nuke, PortableApps, Stephen Gould's Cleanupand Shrink Pic. Now a couple of you suggested some file sharing/back-up utilites as an alternative to BeInSync. Here they are: Jungle Disk and Microsoft's FolderShare. • Robert has 3 more for you to look at: DropBox, Carbonite andMozy. Check out Jason's article on DropBox. • We have 2 viewer questions today. First question is from Lance of Lafayette, LA: I don't understand why so many PC Users hate VISTA. I love VISTA it the OS XP should have been like XP was the OS ME should have been. In fact, this is how I feel about the downgraders "Tonight you're going to go down in flames Just like Jesse James." Second question is from Donald of Buffalo, NY: I am considering buying a custom gaming laptop from a site advertised in EGM. This will be my first computer that I've personally bought and all my gaming experience has been console and handheld, What games could you can recommend above & beyo
Garnett Lee of the 1UP Network joins Robert on set. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Matt of Randolph, NJ. Last week we should you a FiOS distro box on a telephone pole. This week Matt sent us the heart and soul of the Verizon Central Office. • PCMag's Tim Gideon shows off the long awaited Netflix Player by Roku. • Microsoft has a new way to integrate the internet with you TV. It is the Microsoft Media Room. • Garnett is a Twittering fool, but does not use the Twitter site much any more. He prefers using Twhirl. Twhirl runs in Adobe Air and looks much like you favorite instant messenger. In regard to Adobe Air, we will be showing you that application in a future show. • viewer question: First question is from Brian of Dublin, Ireland: Do you have any advice/information on upcoming LCD technologies which may be important in considering whether to purchase a particular LCD now or hold off for the next gen in 6-12 months? • Haven't done a Folding@Home update in awhile, but wanted to let you know where we stood in the standings. We are holding steady at #10. About 20 million points or so behind Team Rage 3D. If you haven't joined our team yet, go to our Folding@Home page for all the info you need and links to the Stanford Folding@Home website to download the application. Remember, our team number is 57391. Another reason we wanted to mention Folding@Home is that one of our viewers, Gary, found a folding protein game that also helps in the research. The game is called Fold It. Scott has been playing with it a bit. He says it can be a time killer. Scott also contacted Prof. Vijay Pande, the head of the Folding@Home Project at Stanford University. Prof. Pande said that he is very familiar with the project, but not part of it. He says it is a very interesting teaching tool, however, the research aspect is less clear. • We have our first video entry on DL.TV. The entry comes from Chris and Whitney of Washington, IN.
STUFF • Loyd Case of ExtremeTech.com joins Robert on set. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Loyd. He shows off his new Solar Panel Array. If you the full story on all the ins and outs of Loyd's solar installation experience, click HERE for Loyd's article on ExtremeTech.com. • PC Magazine's Nicole Price Fasig takes a look at the SP8PRT Digital Picture Frame and Printer from Smartparts. • And now the questions for Loyd: Questions 1 is from John of Reno, NV: I'm building a new system and looking for a processor recco. I'm will be doing some light gaming, video transcoding, and regular computer stuff. The CPUs I'm considering are the E8400 and the Q9300. Both are in my price range and I like that they're 45nm. Which should I go with? Questions 2 is from Harry of New Jersey: I am beginning to spec out a PC to run MS Flight Simulator. I am planning to build the system around a quad core processor, however I am a bit confused about what to do for the video boards. What would be his recommendation for a 4+ monitor solution for a flight sim? Questions 3 is from Yosuan of Miami, FL: I'm planning on building a ATI/AMD Spider Platform based system and thinking of running 4 graphics card, I was wondering what power supply do you recommend and how many watts? Questions 4 is from Rick of Dallas, TX: What do you think the future of discrete graphics really looks like? With ATI's 480 on the horizon and Nvidia salvo's most likely to follow soon after. Do you see discrete graphics becoming more and more powerful maybe with multi core chips or do you see CPU's with build in graphics like AMD's Fusion or Larrabee becoming the true future? Questions 5 is from Anthony of Chicago, IL: Lately I've noticed the temp of my graphics card (ATI Radeon X1900 XT) is running about 80C idle. I've been getting the warning message while gaming where it tells me that it's getting to hot and it's lowering the clock speed to keep it from melting. Everything in the PC i
STUFF • 1UP's Garnett Lee joins Robert on set. • Another Fanboy Follow up. Last one, we promise. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Justin. He is showing off his data center where they have some really BIG computers. IBM Blue Genes. • Garnett Lee got a chance to sit with Mike Downey, Chief Evangelist for Adobe, to talk about the functionality of Adobe Air. Click HERE to get the Linux distro of Adobe Air. • Garnett has been a busy boy this last week. He was in Los Angeles for E3 and he is here to give us the rundown of what happened and who announced what. • A question from Steven of Nashville, MI: With the folding at home, what is the difference between the graphical version and the text version? Is the text version faster because it is not using graphics? I run this off a P4 3gig processor with 2 gigs of memory on a NVIDIA 8400 GS.
STUFF • The new full episode FLV file has been rendered and posted. Enjoy! • ExtremeTech's Loyd Case joins Robert on set. • Loyd talks a bit about his first month with solar panels. You can read the article he wrote by clicking HERE • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Loyd and Robert. They recently went to the Dolby Studios here in the SF Bay Area. To see all the pics from the tour, click HERE for the full article on Gearlog.com. • Loyd recently built an Atom PC System. Click HERE for the full article on how Loyd built the Atom PC and what the specs of the machine are. • And now for a host of questions for Loyd: Question 1 is from Umar of Al-Khobat, Saudi Arabia: I was about to build a system with two nVidia 8800GT 512MB cards in SLI mode, but recently nVidia has released the GTX 260 and GTX 280. Now that has me thinking what will be a better value for money two 8800GTs or one GTX 260. What is your take on this? Question 2 is from Justin of Ohio: Hey, I've got a Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked to 2.7GHz. With the summer heat, I notice that my CPU temps are rising and I am wondering what the processor can safely handle? It has stock cooling and is running about 45-55C on idle and about 55-65 on load. What are the limits, can I safely overclock more? Check these articles: 3DMark Vantage Review, Supreme Commander Benchmarks and Joel's article, Benchmark Your System the ExtremeTech Way. Also mentioned were the Arctic Cooling's Freezer 7 Pro and the Scythe Ninja Mini. Question 3 is from Jamie of Dyersburg, TN: I bought a Compaq Presario SR1917 MCPC running an AMD 3500 64 bit CPU. 2.5 gigs of RAM, 200G HDD with 256 integraded Nvidia 6150 graphics with Vista premium OS. My problem is when I run a performance check it says I only have 64MB of video graphics can you explain why this is and what I can do to resolve this problem? Question 4 is from Richard: I have a two year old Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop that I would like to know the micr
Inventor Dave Mathews joins Robert on set. • Dave has a bunch of patents and he talks about how he goes about getting a patent as well as what inspires his projects. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from StarvinMarvin and DocCharli. They took an old dell workstation and turned it in to a dedicated folding@home machine. • PCMag's Kyle Monson shares his love of music and the best sites to use on the net for free. Kyle mentions skreemr.com, www.seeqpod.com, songza.com, finetune.com, imeem.com, Pandora.com, last.fm, jango.com, www.slacker.com and thesixtyone.com • Before going into Boxee, Robert has a round-up of HDMI switches. Click HERE to watch Robert's full review of the HDMI Switches. • Dave Mathews goes deep into his latest endeavor, Boxee. Boxee is a new way to share media with your friends and family. To get the Alpha version of the software which is available for Mac or Linux, click HERE. Boxee will send out emails with your Alpha invites within 24 hours and the rest of you that do not get in on the 50 invites available will be put into Boxee's Alpha drawing pool and invited in within a couple weeks. • Today is the day that we pick the winners for the DLTV Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Graphics Card Giveaway. And the winners are: Heath of Cedar Rapids, IA Shane of Branson, MO Mark of Louisville, KY Manuel of Camp Lejeune, NC and Frank of Tulsa, OK. There are you winners of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Graphics Card Giveaway. We would like to thank you all for participating and also for helping Team DLTV help the Stanford researchers with the Folding@Home Project. We would also like to thank Sapphire for providing us with the cards to give to our winners. • Next Week is out back to school special. We also have a crazy month ahead of us. IDF and NVISION 08 coverage. See Ya Then.
• This Back To School Episode of DL.TV is brought to you by Microsoft Office. • We are here to help you get ready for the upcoming school year. • PCMag's Joel Santo Domingo and Cisco Cheng give you tips and suggestions on what PCs and Notebooks would be best for school. Desktop suggestions on are the Apple iMac and the Velocity Micro Vector Campus Edition. The notebook suggestions are HP Pavilion dv2800t, Apple MacBook 13-inch, Dell Studio 15 and Acer Aspire 6920G-6071 and Gateway T-6828. • Sam Arbizo has a bunch of back packs to carry all your scholastic gear. Meshsafe M100, Meshsafe B100, SecurePack, Alienware Orion Back Pack, Audio Pack, Velocity SPYDER PRO, Ballistix PTAC Stealth Laptop Sleeve. Young Naturalist's Backpack Kit and Rock Hound's Backpack Kit. • PCMag's Nicole Price Fasig reviews the Planon PrintStik PS910. Weighs just over a pound and could be a life saver if you forgot to print out that midterm. • Robert has 4 small screen HDTVs that will be great for the dorm room. For more on your HDTV choices...Click HERE. • Special guest Neha Tiwari shares a bunch of online and software resources to help get that homework done. Check out SparkNotes.com, BookRenter.com, Notely, Microsoft Office/Student 2007, Yahoo! Education, Google Scholar, Google Notebook and Google Earth. • Scott grabbed Shane Bettenhausen of the 1UP Network to talk about what would be the best party games for you and your friends. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Madden NFL 09, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, De Blob, Wario Land: Shake It! and Rock Band 2 • Next Week is IDF. We will have news, gadgets and demos from the Intel Developers Forum.
• Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com joins Robert on set. • Today's show is all about the Intel Developer Forum. • Jason talks about the latest Nehalem info, Intel's Flash Drives and much more. • Jason also hits the show floor and talks to Fujitsu about their new DVR drives, Lucid Logix about their Hydra Chips, Clarion about their Mobile Internet Navagation Device and Intel about the Urban Maxx Prototype. • We also get a look at the new USB 3.0 spec as well as the USB wireless capability. • For all the Intel Developer Forum news, head over to ExtremeTech.com. • We do have one viewer question for today. Maurice of NYC asks: I have a Dell XPS 420 with 4GB of RAM, a Q6600 processer, one optical drive and three hard drives. It only has a 375 watt power supply. I would love to upgrade the graphics card to an ATI 4850 to do some gaming. Does my machine have enough juice to handle it? Will removing some of the hard drives help? If not, is the power supply a standard one that I can switch out? Jason tells Maurice that he might be out of luck. • We would like to remind you to continue to fold for Team DL.TV (57391) and help the researches at Stanford University find cures for various diseases. • Next Week we will be in San Jose, CA to attend NVISION 08. See Ya Then.
• Assistant Producer Sam Arbizo joins Robert on set. • Today's show is all about the NVISION 2008. • Today's tech pic was found on the web by Brooks. Click HERE to see all the pics of the The Large Hadron Collider. • NVISION gave us a record setting LAN PARTY, DIY Notebooks, insane overclocking, 3d animation software, a look at Battlefield Heroes by EA and DICE, and a look at stereovision and object tracking. • This week's Viewer Question is from Mike of Northwest Ohio: I finally broke down and bought a PS3 and want to connect it to my ethernet network. I already have a dish network box next to the PS3 connected via ethernet cable. What's the cheapest way to expand the one cable to serve two ethernet devices? Mike, check out the Netgear Prosafe 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch • For more NVISION news, head over to ExtremeTech.com. • We would like to remind you to continue to fold for Team DL.TV (57391) and help the researches at Stanford University find cures for various diseases. If you can, switch over to the new GPU Folding Client. Click HERE to check it out. • Next Week a bunch of tips for you. Tips for the PS3, iPhone, Mac and more. Loyd Case will be on the show again very soon. If you have a question for the Sage of Tech, please send an email to us with 'Ask Loyd' in the subject line. See Ya Then.
• Robert is at CEDIA, so Scott is at the helm today. • We have assembled an assortment of tips for you today, ranging from iPhone, PS3, Linux, Mac and more. • Brooks shows off some of the coolest iPhone tips you may have never heard of. Check out iSmashPhone.com for even more! • Crank up the boot time in XP. • Adjust the virtual memory for more RAM in Vista! • Find Vista's hidden Cookies folder...and DELETE THEM finally!. • Robert shows you the easiest way to install programs in Ubuntu. • Scott brings you three great ways to test your broadband speed. www.speedtest.net, www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and myspeed.visualware.com. • Assistant Producer Sam Arbizo guts a PS3--well, the hard drive at least!--and replaces it with a bigger, faster one! Then, he turns around and gives you three quick Mac OS X tips to get you through the day. • Next week: Details on the new iPod announcement, Robert will be back, and the lovely Neha Tiwari will be guest hosting! Also, don't forget... Loyd Case will be on the show again very soon. If you have a question for the Sage of Tech, please send an email to us with 'Ask Loyd' in the subject line. See Ya Then.
• We have a Special Guest Co-Host today. Neha Tiwari joins Robert on set. • We have pics of the Spore devastation. • PCMag.com's Tim Gideon has all the info on the new iPods. For Tim's full reviews, click on the links: Apple iPod nano (4th generation), Apple iPod touch (2nd generation) and Apple iTunes 8. • Today's tech pic is from Robert. Click HERE to see all the pics Robert took at CEDIA. • Neha spent some quality time with Google's Chrome Browser. • This week's Viewer Question is from Kenny, Elria, OH: Dear Robert, I notice on the Philips HDTV's (include the Philips HDTV I have) they have a setting called dynamic contrast. What is that? • We would like to remind you to continue to fold for Team DL.TV (57391) and help the researches at Stanford University find cures for various diseases. If you can, switch over to the new GPU Folding Client. Click HERE to check it out. • Next Week: Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com will be on the show. We will have part 2 of the DIY Quiet PC series, Spy Gadgets and more. See Ya Then.
• ExtremeTech's Jason Cross joins Robert on set. • We had a couple emails and comments helping us out with Google Chrome tabs. If you want to download and try Chrome click HERE. • Jen 'the Weird Hunter' DeLeo has a few cool Spy Gadgets for you to check out. For Jen's full list of Spy Gadgets click HERE. • This week's tech pic is from Chalene of Lathem, NY. Her pics are of her K-9 case mod for a convention in Baltimore, MD called Otakon. • Jason takes a look at the Sidewinder X6 Keyboard by Microsoft. Check back next week at ExtremeTech.com to read Jason's full review. • Loyd finishes up his 2-part series on how to build a Quiet PC. Click HEREto read his full article. • This week's Viewer Question is from Cory of Clive, Iowa: What are your thoughts of having a Blu-Ray drive in a media center pc as oppose to getting a PS3 or a stand-alone Blu-Ray player? • This week's Viewer Question is from Sam of Rancho Cucamonga, CA: Is there an LCD or Plasma TV that has a USB input to play directly off the hard drive? Any you can recommend? Most files are DIVX or AVI. Does one have to convert the files to another format so it can play on such a TV? Check Robert's reviews of the 2 HDTVs that Robert mentioned in his answer: Samsung LN52A750 and Pioneer KURO PDP-5020FD. • We would like to remind you to continue to fold for Team DL.TV (57391) and help the researches at Stanford University find cures for various diseases. We have good news. Team DLTV (57391) has moved to 8th place. If you can, switch over to the new GPU Folding Client. Click HERE to check it out. • Next Week: Loyd Case will be here. Our Sage of Tech will answer as many of your questions as poosible and will be showing off something way tech cool. See Ya Then.
• ExtremeTech's Loyd Case joins Robert on set. • We have a first look the HTC G1. To read Sascha Segan's preview on PCMag.com, click HERE. • This week's tech pic is from Adam. He is about to put some servers on his network, but needed to test the systems. So, Adam set up the Folding@Home SMP Client on the server. Go Adam! • Our Sage of Tech, Loyd Case, shows off the Sage TV HD Media Extender. For his full review, click HERE. • Before we get into the questions, ExtremeTech's Jason Cross has the latest info for Microsoft's Zune. To read more about the Zune release, click HERE. • And now for the 'Ask Loyd' questions: Question 1 is from Charles of Bronx, NY: I purchased a Western Digital Caviar SE 16 640GB drive (7200 rpm) to be my primary (and only drive). After some research, I got the idea that I could use my old drive out of my HP (224 GB, also 7200 rpm) as the drive for my OS (Vista Home Premium 32 bit), and use the larger hard drive for files, etc. So here are my questions: 1) Is there any real value in doing this? 2) Since I will have to reformat for the new Vista install, what is the best way to get all of my apps, files and settings over to the new computer? I have current back-ups made with Acronis TrueImage-- will that do the trick? Question 2 is from John: Could you explain the difference between Intel's FSB vs. AMD's HT (hypertransport)? And which of them is better? Question 3 is from Steve of Sam Pedro, CA: I have a home network with a midrange firewall. My DSL service includes 4 IP addresses and I have my PS3 and XBOX360 each on a public IP address open to the internet. I had found that playing Internet based games from behind the firewall was filled with problems. I read the forums on the ports you need to open, but it doesn't work as well as putting them right on the Internet. So, here's my question: Do we know of any history of security issues / hackers causing problems on an unprotected console? Question 4 is from John of Fr
• Neha Tiwari joins Robert on set. • We have a first look the Sony XEL-1 OLED Digital TV, click HERE for more details. • This week's tech pic is from Sami of Finland. Sami has pics from the Assembly 2008 Lan Party in Helsinki. That is just a large amount of gamers. For more info on Assembly Lan Party, click HERE. • We have 3 Games in 3 Minutes for you. Baja: Edge of Control, LEGO Batman and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. • Neha has brought in 5 3G iPhone cases you might want to consider. OtterBox Apple iPhone 3G Defender, Ivyskin Xylo-T3, Speck ToughSkin, Griffin Clarifi and the SwitchEasy Capsule Rebel. For more on these cases, click HERE. • And now for the viewer questions: First is from Mark: I was thinking about making the investment into getting certified to calibrate HDTVs as a sideline business. Looking forward, do you think this would be something that there will continue to be a need for. Any other advice you could offer me? Hey Mark and anyone else who wants the info on HDTV calibration, try Imaging Science Foundation and THX. Today's second question is from Archie of Aspen, CO: Do you know of any way to "screw down" an HDMI cable? My cables seem to come loose at the worst time. I noticed a small Phillips screw above or below most HDMI ports. Is there any kind of hood or attachment that can "lock down" this connections? For more on Cable Management products, click HERE. • We would like to thank Neha for joining us today. She will be back very soon. • Next Week: Scott Asnault will be back on the show. He will be showing you a couple of tricks to speed up Firefox 3. See Ya Then.
• Scott Asnault joins Robert on set. • Scott and Robert discuss how Scott's last name is pronounced. • This week's tech pic is from Anand of Seattle, WA. Pics are of some serious cable management. • Scott found some Firefox hacks to really speed up Firefox 3. To read more about how to speed up Firefox 3, click HERE. Thank you to the people at TechRadar for these hacks. • And now to turn Firefox 3 into a Google Chrome Clone. For the Chrome Clone article, click HERE. Thank you LifeHacker.com • And now for the viewer questions: First is from Brian of Belvidere, IL: What would the best/most cost-effective option be for streaming from the Internet connection in one room to an HDTV in the other? One app you guys might want to check out is PlayOn. Today's second question is from Chris: What is the best storage medium for long term storage of data? USB Keys / Hard Drives, DVD's, Magnetic tapes, etc? Second, of those storage media, which would stand up best to heat or water that may occur even inside a fire safe in case of a house fire? For the safes that Robert mentioned in his answer, click HERE. Also, check out some of the testimonials of people that have purchased some of the safes. • Loyd will be on the show again real soon. Please remember to send you questions to our Sage of Tech. • To top things off, we have finally gone 16:9. What do you think? • Next Week: Jason Cross will be back on the show. Does a SSD drive produce faster load times in a PS3? See Ya Then.
• The FLV Player is finally working. Sorry for the delay. All the download files should be happy as well. Thank you. • Jason Cross of ExtremeTech.com joins Robert on set. • We have a first look at the 13 inch Macbook and the 15 inch Macbook Pro. • We got some mixed reviews on our new 16:9 format. • The Speeding UP Firefox 3 Hacks got mixed reviews as well. • This week's tech pic is from Aaron of Edinboro, PA. Aaron has hooked us up with a serious amount of Folding power. • Jason Cross has a look at the new Antec Skeleton Case. • Jason has been a busy boy. He replaced the normal PS3 hard drive with a Solid State Drive and found out that he didn't have to wait so long for his games to load. • And now for the viewer questions: We receive a bunch of email asking for specific recommendations on what hardware they can get that will be compatable with their current system. For example, this question from Lawrence in Australia: I have a question about the Radeon 3870X2 and the 8800 Ultra video cards. I wanted to see which one would be a better choice for my current gaming system which is: ASUS P5KC motherboard 4GB DDR2 800mhz ram Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (Video card not selected yet) I am not intending to set up a crossfire or SLI system anytime soon and just basically wanted your opinion on those two cards. We thought it would be good to talk about what you might want to consider when making this kind of decision. One site you might want to check out for help is 80 PLUS Program. • We also mentioned the latest PS3 update. Click HERE for more details. • Loyd will be on the show again real soon, like Nov 6th. Please remember to send you questions to our Sage of Tech. • We are getting all the bugs worked out with our 16:9 format downloads. The iPod/PSP MP4 download is back as a 4:3 for the time being. • Next Week: Garnett will be back on the show. He finally brings us a report on the Tokyo Game Show. We will also have the ExtremeTec
• This week we have a special PSP version of the show. Short term solution till we are able to test other file formats and settle on one that will work for both the iPod and PSP • Garnett Lee of the 1UP Network joins Robert on set. • This week's tech pic is from Philip of San Antonio, TX. Philip is our Newtek contact. He helps us keep our TriCaster happy. Not a tech pic per say, but we wanted to show that DL.TV gets love out on the range. • Scott Asnault interviews Tim Westergren of Pandora.com and the Music Genome Project on the State of Internet Radio. • Speaking of Pandora.com. Check out this update to a Samsung Blu-ray Disc Player. Also keep an eye out for World of Goo. • Every year, ExtremeTech builds a PC that will give you the best Bang for your Buck. Jason Cross, Senior Tech Analyst of ExtremeTech.com, shows off this years build. • Garnett Lee finally gives us the lowdown on the Tokyo Game Show. • And now for the viewer questions: First question is from Kimberly of Milwaukee, WI: Do you think with Playstation and Wii having free online play that Xbox live will at some point allow us to also play for free online? Second questions is from Mike of Brooklyn, NY: I have a Linksys Wireless G Router and my Internet speed reads 100.0 mbps on my desktop network connection. I know Robert comments on how he has to upgrade to a GB router to get a faster speed on his own connection. My question is does it matter what router you have in order to get a higher speed on your own network or do you also have to have a fast ISP connection to even consider a GB Router? • DL.TV, along CrankyGeeks, is now in a licensing partnership with Mevio, which operates a popular online digital entertainment network. You won't see the format of the show change much, but Mevio will add valuable production resources and ideas to our mix. Look for more news on this partnership coming up, and we're happy to be working with the talented people at Mevio.com. • Loyd
• Brooks Rowlett joins Robert on set. • Robert's Sony XEL-1 review is in the hands of the capable PC Magazine copy editors and will be posted online very soon - keep an eye on PC Magazine's HDTV section for the latest updates. • This week's tech pic is from Justin V. from Seattle, WA. Justin is showing off some serious Lego Art that he did himself with a little help from some Java code. • Scott Asnault talks to 1UP's Shane Bettenhausen about this years scariest games. • Hey iPhone owners...need some apps for Halloween? Brooks has 4 that will be perfect. Check out Seance, Hangman, Carve3D, and Halloween. Brooks has another app that is not for Halloween, but will be good to have on your phone. Check out Google Earth. • Not to long ago our Sage of Tech Loyd Case wrote an article entitled, Stupid Tech Glitches that Drive Me Crazy. In his segement, Loyd shares 2 tech problems that he has had and how to deal with them. This does not end well for the tech. • And now for the viewer question: First question is from Gary of Prescott, AZ: Is it safe to mail order a large LCD HDTV? Looking at a 52" Samsung 550 or 560 series at Newegg. Also, how important is initial calibration and does it need to be done annually as suggested by a salesperson at Best Buy? • Next Week: Our Sage of Tech Loyd Case will be on the show to answer your questions and also to show off Windows 7. See Ya Then.
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • The Sage of Tech, Loyd Case, answers your questions! • Team DL.TV is poised to take over the 7th spot on Stanford University's worldwide Folding@home (FAH) teams stats page! One of the most effective ways to boost your/our score is to use a GPU client, and the good folks at [H]ard|OCP have some terrific guides to getting the most out of your FAH participation. • [H]ard|OCP's latest GPU folding guide is Vista-specific, but it provides a good starting point for getting the most out of your Folding@home GPU client efforts - don't forget to use team #57391 (that's Team DL.TV) when configuring the client. • This week's tech pic is from Ricky from the Aloha State, Hawaii. Ricky modded a sweet old desk into a powerful photog station, complete with a hideaway LCD screen. Plus, he's a avid folder! Go Ricky! • Loyd Case shows off an early developer's build of Windows 7. • And, of course, Loyd is back once again to take on some of your best Viewer Questions! This week, he tackles everything from hard drives, to Intel chipsets, and memory performance! Check out both of Joel Durham's articles on memory and performance at ExtremeTech.com. • Next Week: Boxee inventor and patent holder extraordinaire Dave Mathews joins Robert on set and we take a look at the Popcorn Hour Web Media device! See Ya Then.
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • Inventor and VP of Product Dave Mathews is back and he's bringing us all the latest Boxee details! • We're proud to announce that you've chosen DL.TV as this year's Podcast Awards winner for Best Mobile Phone Formatted Podcast! We're getting all the details in and we'll have information about the live Awards Ceremony as it gets closer to the date. Thanks to everyone who voted! • This week's tech pic is from Andrew from Ft. Stewart, GA. The Luray Caverns in Virginia are both technological and musical. Check them out if you're ever in the area! • Dave Mathews shows us all the latest in Boxee news, PLUS he demos the unreleased Windows Boxee client here on DL.TV first! Be sure to also check out the Boxee forums and share thoughts and ideas with other Boxee users. • Dave also recommends using LIRC (Linux Infrared Remote Control) as a solution for adding remote control support to Linux-based systems. • Sam checks out the Popcorn Hour Media Device, which is also a great complement to Boxee! • The holiday season is approaching rapidly and Robert's got a few websites that will help you with all your HDTV and video-related questions before you make those big purchases. Check out AVS Forum, TVBlink, Online Monitor Testing, and the THX Calibration website. • Next Week: "Black Friday" is right around the corner... Have you done your gift purchasing research yet? Fear not! DL.TV is here to help! Next week, we will have Part One of our 2008 Holiday Buying Guide Extravaganza! Stay tuned and, with luck, you might not even have to purchase that HDTV after all! • Episode Sponsors: DL.TV encourages you to take advantage of our 1 FREE month eHarmony coupon when you register for a 3 month subscription to eHarmony.com. Find cool tech gifts and gadgets for a fraction of the price with Brookstone coupons for use on Brookstone.com. Travel in style with Budget R
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • Today we're bringing you the first of a two-part special Holiday Buying Guide! Better late than never, right? • ExtremeTech.com's Jeremy Atkinson has a comprehensive list of keyboards and mice to suit all your PC needs. For his full reviews, check out ExtremeTech.com Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard Logitech Wave Enermax Caesar Kb005 Logitech G5 Laser Mouse Microsoft Explorer Mouse with Blue Track Technology Microsoft Arc Mouse • Robert shows off the best Blu-Ray players of the season! For his full reviews, head to PCMag.com! Sony PlayStation 3 Insignia NS-BRDVD Samsung BD-P1500 Sony BDP-S350 • Also, Robert recently did a roundup that includes some of these players and more useful information to help with your shopping. • Here are links to Robert's full reviews of all the HDTVs shown in this episode: Pioneer Kuro PDP-5020FD Samsung LN52A750 Insignia NS-LCD26-09 LG 42 LGX Sony XEL-1 • Brooks takes a look at one of the hottest gift ideas of the year: Digital Photo Frames! D-Link DSM 210 PanDigital Pan111-B Samsung SPF-85V LG 42 LGX Sony Vaio VGF-CP1 • DL.TV Producer Sam Arbizo has some Geek Gifts that are available online at ThinkGeek.com. Check out their site for these items and a plethora of other cool geeky goodness! Black Stealth 3-Channel R/C Helicopter Scrolling LED Belt Buckle II X-mini Capsule Speaker External USB SATA Drive Dock Titanium Spork Aero Press Coffee Maker 3D Caffeine Molecule LED Keychain USB Memory Watch Keychain Solar Flashlight • We hope you enjoy part one of our Holiday Buying Guide. Come back next week when we'll take a look at the hottest phones, laptops, video games, and more!
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • Today, the conclusion to our two-part special Holiday Buying Guide! • PCMag's P.J. Jacobowitz shows off his favorite digital cameras this season. For his full reviews, check out the PC Mag Digital Network Nikon Cool Pix Logitech Wave Sony Cybershot DSC T-500 Canon Powershot A1000 • Lead Audio Analyst Tim Gideon turns up the volume with some MP3 players and audio accessories! For his full reviews, head to PCMag.com! Sennheiser MX W1 iPod Touch iPod Nano 4th Generation Radius Atomic Bass Earphones Hercules XPS 2.1 Lounge Speakers • Nicole Price-Fasig has a laptop for your every need. Here are links to her full reviews of all the notebooks shown in this episode: Acer Aspire One HP Pavilion HDX-16T Apple MacBook 13" • Joel Santo Domingo takes a look at some sweet desktops! Acer Predator Gaming PC Sony Vaio JS130 Falcon Northwest Mach V with Core i7 • Mobile Analyst Extraordinaire Sascha Segan has the hottest three cell phones this year. T Mobile G1 iPhone 3G Blackberry Storm
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • The boys are back with some hot new cars and some cool new gear! • DL.TV Producer Sam Arbizo got to check out this year's San Francisco International Auto Show and he's got some great footage of eco-friendly hybrids and gas-guzzling speed demons! • PCMag's Sascha Segan has his choice picks for cell phones of the year. T Mobile G1 iPhone 3G Blackberry Storm • 1UP's Shane Bettenhausen talks about which games would make for perfect stocking stuffers this holiday season. Chrono Trigger DS Left 4 Dead Little Big Planet Gears of War 2 • And finally, we've made it! Team DL.TV has jumped into 6th place! A sincere and special thanks to all of our Folding team members and supporters for helping us with this awesome cause. We've got a long way to go to Number 5, so make sure you check out our Folding@Home page to see if you're using your Folding power to its fullest! • That's it for this week! Next week, we're taking a look at several great ways to get your media content onto the devices you have around your house. See you next week!
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • Robert and Brooks take a look at some awesome new ways to watch online video from places other than your computer! • Sam and Brooks joined a cadre of fellow podcasters for this year's Podcast Awards where they accepted the award for Best Mobile Formatted Video Podcast! Thanks to everyone who voted and to Todd Cochrane for hosting the ceremony! • This week's Tech Pic is actually a video! It was sent in by Jon at Clemson University. Their newly reconstructed Network Operations Center is quite impressive! Check out the photos here and take the video tour! • Brooks checks out Joost's new iPhone app which lets you watch any Joost video on the go over a wi-fi connection. Pretty sweet! • Robert shows off the PlayOn! Media Server. Easy to setup and easily usable on the PS3, XBox 360 and other media devices you might have around the house! • Brooks checks out Sam's top picks for some hot (and we do mean "hot"!) streaming TV and full-length movie sites, including TVshack.net, Veoh, and watch-movies.net. • Rob's got some updates everyone should look into this week: the new Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, Picasa 3, and some new Gmail features! • This week's viewer questions include a response and correction to the multi-GPU Folding client question we had last week. Turns out you actually CAN use multiple GPUs while folding! Here's a link to the page telling you exactly how! • Remember, get 10% off at Brookstone through our exclusive code offer. Time for new kicks? Finish Line coupons offer 15% off any order over $60. They have all the major brands of sneakers and athletic apparel. • That's all for today! Next week, Garnett's back and he'll have all the details on the new XBox Experience and we'll have a preview of the brand new Street Fighter game. See you then!
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • A special message to all of our loyal viewers and friends... Thanks for tuning in this year. It's been rough, but we hope you'll stick with us into 2009 when we'll be back with a fresh new format and some great new content, including the final Macworld (?!) and complete CES coverage! Until then, have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season! • Still shopping? Check out Part Two of our Holiday Buying Guide for some last minute ideas! • PCMag's P.J. Jacobowitz shows off his favorite digital cameras this season. For his full reviews, check out the PC Mag Digital Network Nikon Cool Pix Logitech Wave Sony Cybershot DSC T-500 Canon Powershot A1000 • Lead Audio Analyst Tim Gideon turns up the volume with some MP3 players and audio accessories! For his full reviews, head to PCMag.com! Sennheiser MX W1 iPod Touch iPod Nano 4th Generation Radius Atomic Bass Earphones Hercules XPS 2.1 Lounge Speakers • Nicole Price-Fasig has a laptop for your every need. Here are links to her full reviews of all the notebooks shown in this episode: Acer Aspire One HP Pavilion HDX-16T Apple MacBook 13" • Joel Santo Domingo takes a look at some sweet desktops! Acer Predator Gaming PC Sony Vaio JS130 Falcon Northwest Mach V with Core i7 • Mobile Analyst Extraordinaire Sascha Segan has the hottest three cell phones this year. T Mobile G1 iPhone 3G Blackberry Storm • Holiday promotions! Get your eHarmony promotional code for 1 free month when you subscribe to a 3 month membership. Make sure you save big with PETCO coupons good for 10% off plus free shipping at PETCO.com.
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • We're back! It's been a while, but we still wanted to wish you a Belated Happy New Year! • ExtremeTech.com's Jason Cross is on the show with Robert today and they are going to talk all about what went down at this year's International CES. • This week's Viewer Question comes with perfect timing from Carlos who asks Robert all about the new HDTVs he saw at CES: Hey Guys, I'm looking to purchase a new TV this year and I've been trying to sift through CES coverage and I'm only able to find limited information about some of the HDTV's. So my question is, out of all the HDTV's you saw at CES which ones coming out this year do you think is worth waiting for? • Robert caught an eyeful of new HDTVs as well as some prototypes that were on display. Check out PCMag.com for complete CES 2009 coverage. • Jason picks out a few of the most talked about items on the show floor this year, including a watch phone and the new Palm Pre. Read the whole review of the "Top 15 Hottest Products" at CES on PCMag.com. • That's it for this week! Next week, Garnett Lee will be back and we're taking a look at a hot new wireless HDMI box as well as a new free and easy-to-use online image editor. See you next week! • Be sure to take advantage of these great offers from DL.TV's sponsors. 10% off your rental car with car rental coupons from Budget.com. Enjoy an exclusive 10% off at Brookstone.com with our coupon codes
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • This week's show is a primer for the upcoming digital television transitioning happening, tentatively, in February. Analog television may get a reprieve until later in the year, but that has yet to be determined. • In the meantime, Robert's going to get you up to speed on everything you'll need to know for the change. • Be sure to check out Antenna Web for more info and get your free converter box coupons here! • Want more coupons? Get Brookstone coupon codes for 10% off at Brookstone.com. Have a pet? Save 10% on pet medicine with DL.TV's petmeds coupon codes!
• This episode was sponsored by GoDaddy. Use our code DLTV for 10% any new domain registration order! • Garnett's back and he and Robert are going all out on Game Day 2009. • Robert's got a follow-up to the whole DTV transition debacle going on right now and the myths you should know about, as well as the best HDTV setups for Super Bowl Sunday. He's also got a sweet new wireless HDMI extender from Gefen. Check it out! • And if you're not a football fan, Garnett's got an alternative game plan just for you... He demos F.E.A.R. 2 and Resident Evil 5 on the 360. • Want more coupons? Get eHarmony.com promotional code for 1 FREE month at eHarmony. Have a pet? Save 10% plus free shipping on pet supplies with DL.TV's PETCO coupons!
• DTV Transition Confusion, Retrevo Those Coupons, Guerrilla Mail, pyTivo, Your Tech Pics and More! • Show notes forthcoming. • Holiday promotions! Get your eHarmony promotional code for 1 free month when you subscribe to a 3 month membership. Make sure you save big with PETCO coupons good for 10% off plus free shipping at PETCO.com.