Since the manual for my TV is lame (hardly any tech detail), I was poking around the web looking for more info. Here's a decent page with short, to-the-point info about the native resolution, treatment of HD content, etc.

Agoraquest.com - Great Sony review site, sony forum

Sony 50" LCD Projection TV
KF-50XBR800 (Grand Wega, first generation)
Pixel Resolution: 1366 x 768 for each LCD panel (one for each RGB)
Automatically converts all HD content (via component video) to high-resolution progressive output.

Another review from way back in the days when this was a new tv. home theater mag

decent thread (as long as google caching is working) from avs forum talking about up/down conversion of various tv models. says the same thing as article above that the Sony XBR800 converts everything (720p or 1080i) to it's native 768 resolution.

Posted 9:18 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Title says it all. Ran across this tonight - list of some of the best accessories for iPod.

Some examples: Home audio solution, audio/video dock station, remote control, wireless headphones, portable audio solution (boom box), car solution, case.

Home Theater: The Best of Everything for Your iPod

(this is probably already a well-known fact for serious iPod-ers, but definitely check out Griffin Technology - maker of very cool iPod accessories)

Posted 8:39 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

(this is obsolete - there's a more current list here)

I rebuilt my desktop last week, and am now getting around to reinstalling Firefox. Along with this comes the task of reinstalling the extensions that I can't live without. Here's my current list of favorites. Except where noted, all are available at the normal mozilla addons page.

• All-in-one Gestures
• BlogThis
  
• Copy Plain Text
• Download Manager Tweak
  
• LastTab
• Live HTTP Headers (have to get this from here)
  
• Super DragAndGo (not avail on addons. I saved a version here compatible with FF 1.5 and beyond)
  
• Tabbrowser Preferences
• Unwrap Text (of course, since I wrote it!)

Posted 3:19 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Now that I'm even closer to getting a video iPod, I'm finding these tips all over the place. 3 steps to get your DVD content to the iPod - thanks to Wired mag.

1. Decrypt the disc (the illegal part)
Use DVDDecrypter

2. Combine the video files into one large file.
Use VOBMerge 2.5 to combine the VOBs. Usually look for incrementing filenames to find the main video (or view them with any number of video players to make sure you have the right files)

3. Convert Movie for iPod
Use 3GP_Converter to create mpeg-4 file.
Select "Model: MP4, for iPod" for conversion mode.
Resulting file is ready for iTunes.

Posted 11:20 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

My buddy Paul gave me his ATI All-in-Wonder card for my upgraded machine. I've installed the ATI driver software, and they felt the need to put the ATI Catalyst menu choice in the file explorer File menu, as the first choice. UGH.

Here's how to remove it (and other tweaks).

TweakGuides.com - ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide

Basically, the shell extension is here. Just remove or rename it.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Posted 11:19 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Finally thinking seriously about getting an iPod now. Ran across this site from our local ComputorEdge [yes, that's spelled correctly :) ]

Playlist: iPod and iTunes Product Guide, News, Reviews, How-Tos and More

Posted 7:18 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Pretty cool collection of cover art for CDs and DVDs.

Albumart.org - CD and DVD cover searchengine

Posted 9:59 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I'm working on my Excel based golf handicap a little more tonight, and always have trouble finding any good documentation on the Excel object model. The intellisense seems to get lost after a couple object references in a given statement.

Found the MS KB article below that shows where the help file is on the local installation.

For Office 2000: vbaxl9.chm
For Office 2002 or later: vbaxl10.chm

How to find and use Office object model documentation

Posted 8:13 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Clemens Vasters is another dude that is finally taking the plunge to go work at Microsoft. Here's a project he's been working on before leaving for the mothership.

Newtellivision. Watch TV remotely on a Windows PC via any PC on the internet with Windows Media Player.

Clemens Vasters: Enterprise Development and Alien Abductions - Going out and in with a bang: newtellivision

Posted 9:55 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Thanks to Digg.com for this one. Enter street and zip, and get map with estimated current prices for all the homes. Also shows recent sale data, current property taxes, etc.

SWEET

Zillow.com - Your Edge in Real Estate

Posted 9:30 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Thanks to David for this one. He's apparently sharing his pics straight from one of his home machines, using Net2Go.

Also check out PhotoCast.

Network Magic - Home Networking

Hmm - not free, so already a knock against it... :)

Posted 1:28 PM    |    1 comments    |    Permalink