"The Lord of the Rings: Conquest" Trailer Revealed
Just after the New Year EA and Pandemic will be launching The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. An interactive overview of the major battles/conflicts shown in the three movies, the real hook of the game will be that players will be able to fight for either "good or evil." Hopefully it won’t be quite as black and white as that, but we shall see.
Personally I’m a total Tolkien freak, so I’m down regardless. But what I am hoping for is a little evolution though, if not through this game and others like LOTR Online, then through the others that will follow. What I mean is that as fantastic as the movies and all the games based on them are, they are far from the end all of what I hope to see emerge out of Middle-Earth. The movies are fine for the mainstream, but as Tolkien–as opposed to LOTR–fans will tell you, the time period during which the events of LOTR happen are really the lesser, or at least much later, days of Middle-Earth. A LOT of really cool stuff happens in the first, second and earlier parts of the Third Age of Middle-Earth. If you don’t believe me simply open up a copy of "The Return of the King." You’ll notice that a full third of the book is dedicated to appendices. Even better, read through the Silmarillion, basically a mythology/history of the peoples and civilizations that are referenced in Tolkien’s books and stories. Anyway, enough with the dork-fest. Conquest will be available on Xbox 360, PS34, PC and DS in January ‘09. I just hope that we Orc-a-philes are allowed to pick the specifics of our kind. We Uruks hate being stuck playing as that Morgul slime that’s been on offer for years.
–Hobson’s Choice Read more
FS Blu Rays, HD DVDs, etc. for sale!
- 2001 A Space Odyssey $15
- A Bridge Too Far (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Beowulf & Grendel $13
- Blazing Saddles $15
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Broken Arrow $17
- Bulletproof Monk $18
- Camp Rock: Extended Rock Star Edition $10
- Chain Reaction $10
- Courage Under Fire (Brand New, Still Sealed) $17
- Die Hard (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- End Of Days (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Enemy Of The State $18
- Evil Dead II (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- First Sunday (Brand New, Still Sealed) $9
- Get Smart’s Bruce & Lloyd: Out Of Control (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Good Luck Chuck: Unrated Chucked Up! Edition (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Good Luck Chuck: Unrated Chucked Up! Edition $15
- Heart: Alive In Seattle (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Hollow Man: Director’s Cut $16
- House Of 1000 Corpses (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- House Of Flying Daggers (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Ice Age: The Meltdown (Brand New, Still Sealed) $20
- Into The Blue $17
- Jailhouse Rock (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Life Of Brian (Monty Python’s): The Immaculate Edition (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Masters Of Horror Season 1: Volume III (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Masters Of Horror Season 1: Volume IV (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Miami Vice (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Michael Clayton $12
- Nim’s Island $15
- Ocean’s Thirteen (Brand New, Still Sealed) $12
- Out For Justice (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Pathfinder: Unrated (Brand New, Still Sealed) $14
- Perfect Stranger $12
- Phonebooth $19
- Planet Of The Apes (Brand New, Still Sealed) $15
- Rescue Dawn (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Resident Evil (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Rising Sun (Brand New, Still Sealed) $18
- Robocop (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Rocky $15
- Rush Hour 3 $11
- Sahara $15
- Saw (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Saw II: Unrated Edition (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Stargate: Extended Cut (Brand New, Still Sealed) $12
- Sublime: Uncut (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- Swordfish $12
- Talladega Nights - The Ballard Of Ricky Bobby: Unrated And Uncut $12
- The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford $16
- The Bank Job: 2-Disc Special Edition (Brand New, Still Sealed) $18
- The Brave One $12
- The Condemned w/Slipcover $13
- The Day After Tomorrow $16
- The Day After Tomorrow (Brand New, Still Sealed) $18
- The Great Raid: Exclusive Unrated Director’s Cut (Brand New, Still Sealed) $15
- The Messengers (Brand New, Still Sealed) $13
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector’s Edition $20
- The Scorpion King (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- The Shining $14
- The Spiderwick Chronicles (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- The Terminator (Brand New, Still Sealed) $18
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Ultimate Edition (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
- The Usual Suspects (Brand New, Still Sealed) $18
- Trading Places (Brand New, Still Sealed) $17
- Underworld: Unrated (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- Wall Street (Brand New, Still Sealed) $20
- War (Brand New, Still Sealed) $17
- When We Left Earth: The Nasa Missions (Brand New, Still Sealed) $37
- Windtalkers (Brand New, Still Sealed) $19
- XXX (Brand New, Still Sealed) $16
I have 5 Brand New Blu Ray cases with logo for $8 shipped. 10 cases for $14 shipped. UPDATE: These have the imprinted logo and the foldaway latch. Pics are available upon request…
I have the following Blu Ray Players for sale:
- Samsung BD-P1500 (Brand new, still sealed) $200 shipped.
- Panasonic DMP-BD10 (Excellent condition, comes with AV cable, remote control, AC power supply cord, and box if I can find it). It has the latest firmware. $225 shipped.
I have the following HD DVD movies (all are in excellent condition unless noted below):
- 2001 A Space Odyssey $15
- 300 (non-Combo)$8
- Blade Runner: 5-Disc Complete Collector’s Edition (Discs has some scratches but plays fine) $16
- Blazing Saddles $8
- Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Brand New, Still Sealed) $9
- Firewall (Combo Format) (Brand New, Still Sealed) $8
- Goodfellas $9
- Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Combo Format) $7
- Planet Earth: The Complete Series (BBC Video 4 Disc Set w/Slipcover) $25
- Shrek The Third $11
- Superman: The Movie $11
- The Chronicles Of Riddick - Pitch Black: Unrated Director’s Cut (Brand New, Still Sealed) $15
- The Departed (non-Combo) $10
- The Italian Job $6
- Transformers: Two-Disc Special Edition w/Slipcover $9
I have the following HD DVD Players for sale:
- Toshiba HD-XA2 (The best up-converter!) (Excellent condition, comes with, remote, AV cable, and AC power supply cord). It has the latest firmware. $350 shipped.
- Toshiba HD-D3 (Excellent condition, comes with AV cable, remote, instructions, AC power supply cord, and HD DVD movie of Bourne Identity). $80 shipped.
I have 10 Brand New DVD cases for $9 shipped. Pics are available upon request…
I have an Escort Passport 9500i Radar Detector. It is in mint condition and complete. Only used for 2 months. Asking for $300 shipped.
I have a Brand New Valentine One Concealed Display With Band Identification module. I brought it for the Valentine One but never used it. Asking for $25 shipped.
I have a Jet Chip #90702 Stage 1 for the following vehicles: 2007 Dodge Aspen 4.7L Automatic or Manual, 2006-2007 Jeep Commander 4.7L & 4.7L FFV Automatic or Manual, 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7L & 4.7L FFV Automatic or Manual. It was used for maybe 2 weeks and decided to sell, had a little boost in power. Will need to run 89 or better fuel. Comes with the module (simple plug and play), instructions, and box. Paid $250, asking for $165 shipped.
I have a Pioneer AVIC-Z2 hard drive that was barely used. Original OEM hard drive that came with the unit. Cheaper to use this than buy the upgrade CD. Asking for $55 shipped.
I accept cash, check, money order, paypal or revolution money exchange. I have perfect feedback on ebay and heat under bur1196. Thanks!
‘Left 4 Dead’ Intro Movie Runs Like Hell
Valve would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween this evening by sending us a video treat. The following is the intro movie for the highly-anticipated (and heavily pre-ordered) zombie, co-op FPS Left 4 Dead. Join the 4 survivors as they make their way through the infested city 2 weeks after the first infection.
Left 4 Dead infects the Xbox 360 and PC November 18th.
Left 4 Dead Intro Movie
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‘The Sims 3′ Provides Machinima Election Coverage
Not to be outdone by the blistering media storm covering this upcoming election, the folks over at The Sims 3 have provided us some intense election coverage. Utilizing the latest in machinima, witness the gripping fight between the Vice Presidential candidates and a dance between Palin and McCain after the cut.
EA’s The Sims 3 ships in Februrary 2009 for the PC.
The Sims 3 Biden-Palin Fight
The Sims 3 McCain-Palin Dance
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Once-Hip MTV Proves it’s Out of Touch
The service has turned prudish, bleeping out lyrics–some of them inexplicably.
Mastercard Goes Mobile
A new service turns your cell phone into a mobile wallet, but will American consumers buy into it?
Gmail Gets SMS Chat
Google is expected to introduce a Gmail feature that lets you use Gmail Chat to swap instant messages with any cellphone users. Google isn’t charging for the service, but standard TXT messaging rates apply.
One possible solution for green lines when using hdmi cable
Ok, here’s the deal with monster cables. Sometimes i regret paying as much as i do for the cables, but the new line (1000 hd) are future proof by monster with a replacement guarantee, so i bought the 1000 hd cable at 35′ to run from my hdmi swtich (i have four sources, a ps3 (1808p), an xbox 360 (1080p), an htpc (1080p), and an hd dvr (1080i)) to my 1080p projector. When i installed the first cable as indicated in the instructions by mc, with the arrow pointing toward the destination (my projector), there were the green lines you spoke about on all three of my 1080p sources. The 1080i picture from my hd dvr looked fine. I called mc and they said it was possibly a defective cable, so they sent me a replacement. I installed the replacement, same way, same thing, green lines on my 1080p sources, perfect picture from my 1080i hd dvr. I had a brain fart and turned the cable around, to where the arrow was pointing toward the source (the hdmi switch), and all four sources had perfect pictures. I called mc support and asked them why that would be, and they said that they’ve run into instances with some of their cables from a particular production run were shielded backwards, and thus the arrow goes in the wrong direction. Apparently the shielding is directional to help avoid interference. I told the rep that i thought that didn’t speak highly of mc’s quality control, and he claims it was an isolated instance. You may have also received a cable from a "bad" production run. And since a 1080i signal is less "complicated" and less prone to interference versus a 1080p signal, that explains why your ps3 (1080p) signal had a problem and not your wii (1080i) signal. Hope this helps somebody.
Newbie HT upgrade question - Start with the speakers?
the receiver supports Dolby Digital EX, Prologic II, DTS/DTS ES, Neo 6. It’s a 6.1 system - near as I can tell it is a 5.1 system that adds a rear center.
For the immediate future, BluRay is not a top priority as most of the movies I watch are DVDs ripped to an h.264 AC3 format. Unfortunately, for compatability purposes with an Xbox 360 that I have upstairs, they are ripped with Stereo rather than 5.1, but that may change in the near future, so let’s assume I’ll want 5.1 support.
My question then is, where to start? Should everything pretty much be junked? We are talking 10-12 year old speakers here and the technology has improved considerably I would think, yes?
Cash flow wise - I can’t afford to replace everything at once, so I need to do things in some sort of logical order. My mindset in the old days used to be to look to spend a comparable amount of money on speakers and receiver. Does this logic still hold today?
Budget wise, I’m thinking a receiver in the $1200 range or so - I can pick up a new Denon 2809 or a refurbushed 3808 in that price range. For speakers, I have been looking at the Home Theater Direct (HTD) speakers as they seem to get reasonably good reviews and the price is not outrageous.
I’m looking for suggestions here. Should I plan to keep any of my existing gear, replace all of it? Where should I start? Get a new AVR? Speakers?
HDMI switching is not a priority as my Samsung 46 inch LCD has three HDMI inputs and right now, I only have two devices that need HDMI. The addition of a Blueray player would be the third and final. My existing two are a Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center with an NVidia 8600 GT card that outputs via a DVI to HDMI cable to the TV and an Xbox 360 that is used for gaming.
thoughts?
Help with forthcoming living room/computer room/HT placement and setup?
I’ve read this forum for some time and read lots of threads regarding screens and home theater setups. There seems to be a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people on these forums, so I decided to register and hope to get some input regarding my future setup.
First off, earlier on I wanted an Epson TW-2000 (I think the same as UB1080) for the projector. But long story short, I’m now unemployed (and for the unforeseeable future) and that put a serious dent on my budget. For the price of Epson, I’m now planning to buy Sanyo PLV-Z700 for pretty much half the price of Epson (so about 1200e/1500$). I thought I could get the rest of the stuff I need for 800e/1000$, give or take a couple hundred.
I currently have:
32" CRT TV (needs a repair)
Digital TV receiver (using RGB SCART, optical audio.)
Pioneer DVD-player (currently using SCART and coaxial digital audio. Available S-video or composite out, possibly component)
Xbox (using RGB SCART, optical audio)
Xbox 360 (Connected to older monitor through VGA. Older model, no HDMI)
Onkyo TX-SR303-E 5.1 amplifier (2 digital audio inputs, 1 coaxial & 1 optical)
5.1 speaker system
3 to 1 optical switcher
(Pioneer 6-disc CD-player)
For the rest of the money, I’m thinking of buying PS3 for Blu-ray playback and some games, approx 100" pre-made DIY screen using BOC, HDMI-switcher if I have to and the needed cables. If I still have enough money remaining, I’d like to buy a media streamer because I’m a little suspicious of being able to connect my Xbox to the PJ while still using optical audio. Does this seem reasonable so far?
So, here are some details about the room:
11′ 8" x 13′ 9" (8′ 6" high) with 2 concrete walls (long sides), balcony door/window wall, and very thin coated brick wall. The walls have wallpapers (light but not white with some striping and figures). I’m renting the apartment, so no holes to the walls or ceiling are preferred (maybe some small ones). Other rooms are stuffed, and this room is getting pretty cramped, so I’d like to keep all the stuff seen on pictures in the room.
My current setup (without the screens, obviously):
Top
Perspective
What I’m planning:
Top
Side (from sofa)
This was a quick and dirty drawing, so most things are boxes 
I tried to put thought on the placement side. The objects are very close to the actual size proportionally. The red box and table are computer table and chair, must be a little space from the wall due to CRTs. The blue shelf is for DVDs. I’ve split up the now broken TV and it’s original stand, so I could get really cheap on the center speaker stand, just need a board to cover the top, only 2 places for equipment. TV is in the corner, a little bit up so I’ll get a very low stand for it, and the top is pretty much the height of the speaker without a stand (I’ve not separated them, the other is still fully seen. I might get away with the chair being just a litlle bit in front of the screen due to the fact it’s not box shaped, and if it’s a problem, I can temporarily move it. The brown box is my stereo equipment rack.
I left a small space (not by any means accurate) to build a projector stand or a shelf with more equipment room, because I don’t have any now even for the Xbox360 so it’s on the sofa table. I’d be able to not drill holes to walls if I’ll get someone to build a stand for the screen, possibly with height adjustment. It would be great for moving the screen if it’s not exactly in the right position. But if it was my own apartment, it would be another story. I have some ideas for it, but can’t really build anything myself. Then if the wall reflections bother me, I could later on put up some curtains hanging from the hollow top compartment of the screen wall.
I’ve pretty much given up on the original design, due to lot smaller space because of the windows/sill, the balcony door and the radiator under the sill. I probably could hang something light of the curtain rails cover or the rail itself, but it would have to be movable anyway if it’s larger.Oh, and I wouldn’t want any lowered screen if it isn’t clear by now 
I just hate the wrinkles.
It’s possible to upgrade the speakers and the amplifier in the future, so I’ll probably be content with any possible "kludges" relating to connecting my equipment. But it’s far away, next upgrade will be to build a NAS for all of my CDs and DVDs, so I’ll get to keep the originals nice and tidy
Sorry for the long winded post, but I thought to give as much information as possible, but I’ll surely answer if there was anything needing elaborating.
I’d be very happy to hear any comments/suggestions for my setup. I’ve attached the Google SketchUp file in the .zip attachment if anyone would like to give a shot at reorganizing a very cramped room. I’ve pretty effectively managed to block the entrance to the balcony 
Regards,
Mikie
P.S. I can do online shopping in EU area, customs and tax will be quite a big expense if ordering outside.
