The more I think about it, the more certain I am that this is the year (or at least the post-Christmas, Vista-enabled launch window period) that I get my HDTV. It will probably be a 32-36 inch LCD (thanks for the advice, Twokota) purchased from Costco, the store with the best return policy around, IMHO.
Why am I thinking HD today? Yesterday at the North America DVD Forum Conference, Microsoft held the official coming-out party for the HD-DVD drive add-on for the 360, which will hit the stores this fall. While the uninformed naysayers will always say nay, I'm thinking that the smart HD-DVD guys at MS (my friend, "#6" among them) will make sure that the signal reaching the TV will be at maximum available resolution and quality for the format.
From News.com: "All the audio and video processing is done inside the Xbox," said [Microsoft senior program manager Kevin] Collins, who noted that research has shown that a majority of Xbox owners already own high-definition displays. An Xbox drive provides them with all the other equipment they need to watch HD DVD movies, he said."
The price? TBD, evidently.
From engadget: "HD Beat has it that during Microsoft's presentation at the North America DVD Forum Conference, the 360's HD DVD drive was said to "be the cheapest HD DVD player on the market for consumers who already own an Xbox 360 console."
My planned tech purchases for the fall keep adding up: A new HD-capable media center PC with wide screen monitor, the HD Xbox 360 add on and the HDTV... Probably all of them will come from Dell in one form or another. Overpriced? Kind of, but the last several home machines in the McBlah house were all bargain-basement homemade jobs that lacked A) a warranty, B) support and C) smooth operation. They did, however, provide plenty of D) aggrivation and E) non-exsistent drivers and banged out hardware.
Anyway.
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