This is like the 999th post beginning with the word “new”.

So, without telling me, dad went ahead and ordered a new TV about two weeks ago, and then on about Wednesday he started to “hint” that there was a package coming, and on Friday he told me to wait inside the house for a delivery, which eventually came (thanks to Citylink…) at 5:45pm. Two boxes - one for the TV, and one for the HDD/DVD Recorder. I know that we already have Sky HD, which can record, but the DVD recorder is actually a good idea - it was only £20 more then getting a normal upscaling DVD player (they had a special offer on with the TV), so it was worth it, basically. Anyway, it arrived, and I set it all up and so on (thank god for HDMI - it’s so much easier then the old three-component-wires-and-an-optical-cable method), and then turned it on. I get greeted by the usual “scan for channels?” message (this time it asked me twice, as there’s a DVB-T tuner in it as well as an analogue tuner), and then finally, some TV. The digital channels look okay, except the quality is quite bad. So, I plugged in the Sky box, turned it on, and that looks better with BBC1 then the TV’s tuner, but still not fantastic (this thing really shows where the bitrate on the channels is crap - BBC Four is especially bad!).

Switch over to BBC HD, and HOLY……..the quality is AMAZING. Seriously. It’s just fantastic. And BBC HD isn’t even the best. I watched Lost tonight and the detail is superb - I thought it looked good on my PC, but Sky’s broadcast is definitly better.

So, without further delays, enjoy the pictures!

I’ve decided to build a Media Centre PC. Mainly because it just makes sense, if I watch a film in my bedroom on my PC, it’s a small 19″ monitor, and an office chair. The only good things are the speakers (Logitech Z-5500). However, if I watch a movie downstairs, I have a (soon to be, when dad buys it) 40″ 1080p LCD TV, proper surround sound system, and a beanbag to lie on. So, like I said, it makes sense.

The machine I’ve chosen to build is as cheap as I can get without compromising too much - it should play 1080p HD without a problem:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+.
Abit AN-M2HD Motherboard.
OCZ 2GB 800MHz DDR2 Special Ops Edition (only 1GB at the moment).
Western Digital WD2500AAKS 250GB Hard Drive.
LiteOn LH-20A1H 20x Lightscribe DVD Burner (Retail).
Antec Fusion V2 MATX Media Center Case.
Windows Media Centre Remote (2005 version).
Windows Media Centre Keyboard (2005 version).

Total price? £400 excluding the keyboard and remote, which I’ve already ordered (remote came today, keyboard is coming tomorrow). It would be less without the case - that alone is £109, which is a lot for a case, however it’s the only case that I truly like the look of.

The motherboard has onboard HDMI, so there’s no need for a graphics card, and the case comes with a decent Antec PSU, so that’s sorted too. The only thing I might do is get a 500GB HDD insead of 250GB, and I might add a dedicated graphics card later. I haven’t chosen a TV tuner card either, as we have Sky HD, so I use that to watch all my TV on.

Update: All ordered. Soon to be built.

I decided to install a new theme. I really like this one, plus it has built in support for FlickrRSS (which is a new plugin installed), and Gravatar (which I also installed). It’s a lot better then the previous theme I was using (Zenlike) - for one thing, the comments thing actually works properly. This one knows that I am logged in, so it automatically gets my user info (name, email, and website) from my account on here, whereas the other one I had to input it manually.

I also upgraded to WordPress 2.2.2 - I was running on 2.1.x for quite a while, which, according to the news, has several security holes that 2.2.2 fixes.

I’ve also been listening to quite a bit of music over the past few days - so much so that my Last.fm account is now at 9,214 tracks played - before the weekend, when I looked, it was at 8,600 or so. Pretty good for a few days.

Anyway, hope you all like the theme.

It was my birthday yesterday.

Anyway, to start off I got sent about 30 emails from the various vB forums I am a member of, saying “Happy Birthday”. Then I got killed off Fr3d’s IRC twice, as a happy birthday (yes Knucks and Kay, I mean you ).

Anyway, for my birthday I got two books - “The World According to Jeremy Clarkson” and a book on all the road signs in the UK (and there are a LOT of them). I also got a 500GB Western Digital hard drive, a new jacket, and as an “extra”, my order from Play arrvied - the complete season 2 of Prison Break, as well as the new Custom PC magazine from my subscription.

And that’s about it.

(My other Play order arrived today too - Jurassic Park 2 on DVD, since I’ve got the other two films I may as well complete my collection. )

Is *THE* best film I have ever seen. I saw it at the cinema last night, and seriously, the film-making itself is good, the soundtrack is good, Matt Daemon is extremely good for the role, and it’s just…amazing. My favourite part by far was when he meets the reporter in Waterloo Station, in London. That scene is very good. It’s about ten minutes long, so it takes up a fair chunk of the film.

Without spoiling it too much, it definitly leaves it open for more Bourne films - I think there are two more books, so it’s definitly possible. There’s a pretty good quality DVD Screener version floating around the net too - The.Bourne.Ultimatum.DVDSCR.XViD-iMBT. *whistles*

Harry Potter = read. I finished it on Saturday, and I must say, it’s a fantastic book. However I do think some of it was indeed written as if it was for the movie - however it’s a fantastic book, my favourite so far, which used to be the Goblet of Fire one before, so I have a bit of a change.

Mouse = I got a new mouse! I was interested in getting either the Logitech G5, G7, or the fancy Revolution one that’s all curvy. However, here in the UK they’re rather pricy - the 2005 model G5 is a whopping £49.95. So…not very cheap. Anyway, Futureshop, in Canada have it for $29.95 CAD which is a tiny £14, add in shipping and it works out to be £27, still a lot cheaper then here. So anyway, I got a friend to get it for me and post it here, and it’s a fantastic mouse, for sure. It’s REALLY nice to hold, no stupid buttons getting in the way (I do like the handy back button on the side of the mouse - great for Firefox!), and it has weights, which I have yet to use because I’m still getting used to this one - my old mouse, a Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical, is about half the weight of this one without weights. LOL.

Weeds and Lost = Weeds season 2 is starting on Sky One HD on Sunday, so I’ll be watching that. Actually, I’ll probably watch it until around the 17th, then watch the rest of the season on the 720p BluRay rips I have, then download the new third season which is showing in the US this month, according to Wikipedia. Sky One aired each Lost episode less then a week after it showed in the US, so I don’t get why they’re showing only season two here….bleh, anyway.

Talking of Lost, that starts too - season three is being re-aired on Saturday at 8pm on Sky One HD, every Saturday thereafter until the season is done, so that will be good to watch again, I haven’t yet re-watched season 3 so bring it on!

Oh, and lastly, while I’m on the topic of television, I found the TV I want dad to get for a mere £985 at a shop called Digitech Eletronics, and even with a DVD/HDD recorder the damn thing is still only £1100! That’s fantastic value, considering that Comet sell it for £1500 in-store (TV only), and the cheapest high-street price that I’ve seen it is £1499 with a free DVD/HDD recorder and 5 year warranty at the Sony Store.

Anyway, that’s all folks.