Blu-ray vs. HD DVD

I'm going to start with a slight digression as background to this article.

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a trade-only show and is not open to the general public. At the show, many previews of products are introduced, or new products are announced.

The 2008 CES started today, and a battle of the current format war (Blu-ray vs. HD DVD) is being waged in this year's show. One Studio, Warner Bros. currently produces their movies in both formats. Warner Bros said on Friday that it would abandon the competing HD DVD format in May and distribute all film and television discs in standard DVD or Blu-ray.

Now, only two major U.S. studios support HD DVD: Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, which also owns DreamWorks SKG, and Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co.

Intel, Lenovo and Toshiba are in the HD DVD camp. Microsoft also has a bit invested in the HD DVD format, selling an add-on player to its XBox video game system that is HD DVD.

This is a pretty big deal and tips the scales to Blu-ray. Sony, HP, Dell computer and Sun Microsystems and all the other studios are in the Blu-ray camp.

That whoosing sound you hear is a Blu-ray disc whizzing past an HD DVD.

Warner Brothers sides with Blu-ray

Standard definition DVD Authoring

I have made many CD's and DVD's using various tools. I haven't created anything in high definition yet. I have used Roxio, Ulead and Nero,

For creating DVD's I have been using the DVD MovieFactory from Ulead. I have used it to store TV shows and home movies. I used it to create a still picture slide show for my parents. I think its pretty easy to use. I know that Nero and Roxio get better ratings, but for the things I use DVD's for, I recommend Ulead's MovieFactory.

Ulead MovieFactory

Wydea

Here is a pretty fun website, full of simple, line drawn cartoon videos. They are all good, you can get your physics lessons without knowing it in "How do Airplanes Fly?"
wydea.com

Compact Digital Camera

We got a digital camera for Christmas. I will walk you through some of the things that we were looking for and what we ended up buying.

We are casual picture-takers - weddings, graduations, birthdays, Christmas, soccer games, not very many every-day pictures unless there is a nice sunset or something. We needed a camera that was small with a good zoom for those shots from far away.

We have a 3 mega pixel Kodak camera. Things that we didn't like about it: no zoom, the loss of quality when enlarging pictures and the long delay between pressing the shutter button and the taking of the picture.

I took a look at Kodak, Sony and Canon cameras. The Sony was a little expensive and had a 3x zoom, the Kodak also had the 3x zoom and had the same slow shutter as our current camera.

When I looked at the Canon SD850 a saw a nice feature rich camera with 4x zoom and quick response, so we bought it!

Canon SD850 at Amazon

Enjoy!

$40 coupon for a digital TV converter

Here is a question I wanted to answer before people started asking. How does the federal "Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program" work?

From the U.S. Department of Commerce:

How can the public obtain a $40 coupon toward purchasing an eligible converter?
All households in the United States and its territories are eligible to request coupons on a first-come-first-served basis. A maximum of two, $40 coupons per household will be allowed to help offset the cost of a converter, which is expected to cost between $50 and $70 when it hits the market in 2008.

Consumers may call 1-888-388-2009 (1-888-DTV-2009) between January 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009, or go to http://www.dtv2009.gov/ to request coupons. Coupons will expire after 90 days.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/DTVarticle1.html

So, if you have cable or satellite TV, you are fine until they change to all digital broadcast. If you have a TV that uses an antenna to get a TV signal, request a coupon. Remember the coupon will expire in 90 days.

I haven't seen any converter box retailer information yet. The link below will help you locate a converter box retailer near you and apply for the coupon.

Coupon website:

http://www.dtv2009.gov/

If you have a question you would like answered, ask it in a comment!

Starter PC Laptop

Happy New Year!!!

My friends and family ask me about many things. But when people ask me, "I need to buy a laptop for my son, which one should I buy? I usually respond with, "Let me take a look around and I will see what I find. " This is what I look for --

- priced around $600
- a dual-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 15.4" 1280x800 widescreen LCD
- 160GB hard drive
- dual layer DVD burner
- 802.11g wireless

Seems like a lot of capability for $600 and it is. It is possible to find this PC. Looking through the systems available today, I find a system I can recommend. Its a Dell Vostro 1500, and its $579 (get 2GB of memory.) We recently got a Dell laptop for our son. This is a sweet deal!

Dell Vostro 1500

Enjoy!