$1700 Problem Solved!

The other day, only after I'd already well and truly headed down the projector path, I realised that a lot of my planning for the upgrade to a projector had be done around the fact I would have already updated my amp. Obviously this hasn't happened or I would have been crowing about it for weeks here!

The issue with the plan was my cabling ideas hinged around running one HDMI cable to the projector as the loss over long distances is lower then Component and it's a much smaller cable to run. This of course relied on the Amplifier upscaling all of the inputs to HDMI. The amp that I would have upgraded to do this is the Yamaha RX-V1700, the model that replaces my current amp and includes full upscaling of all inputs to HDMI. This is where the $1700 problem came from. My budget for the projector upgrade didn't extend another $1700 to a new amp and without it there was going to be some cabling and switching sacrifices.

Fortunately with a bit of browsing I've discovered the GEFEN HDMI VIDEO SCALER. This unit allows me to feed 2 component and 2 HDMI inputs in and get one HDMI out!

This neat little box will remove the need to go to a new Amp and with the savings in getting the Epson over the Panasonic there is enough room in my budget to get this little $500 problem solver.

An Uninspiring Drive

I really wasn't prepared for the cold weather here in Toowoomba. The top today is due to be 9 degrees MAX!!. Some of the guys i'm working with up here have said there might be some sleet today! I stopped off at Myer on my way back to the hotel and picked some warmer clothes to get through the day.  The trip up yesterday was particularly long, with an accident on the Ipswich motorway, luckily it was quite a bit easier sitting in traffic with the A3 I had for a hire car. I like the look of the A3 and had it on my list of cars of consideration if I ever had to get a sensible car.

Unfortunately I was a bit uninspired by the driving experience. The whole drive was just a bit too refined. Sure the ride was comfortable but I felt like I should be reclining reading the Stock Report whilst listening to ABC Classic FM all at 100km/h. It's closer to a 100km/h arm chair than a car. In stop-start traffic it's a joy to drive, the 6 speed automatic is up and down so smoothly it's barely noticable. The trouble is I still enjoy the feedback that I get from MinX and the A3 feels so disconnected in comparison. So (for the moment at least) it's heading down the end of the list for my sensible car choice. I think a Mazda 3 MPS or Ford XR5 at about the same price as the 1.6 A3 would be a better choice.

The guys at Toowoomba have been great, they're heading out to a preview screening of Transformers tonight and they've invited me to tag along! So I've got my fingers firmly crossed that it's going to be a good transition to live action film as it was one of my favourite childhood series... (I wonder what ever happened to my Optimus Prime toy?)

I've also been working on upgrading the home cinema display. Originally I had planned (and had ordered) a Panasonic AX-100E but after some advice from the supplier I've gone for an Epson TW700. Same resolution as the Panasonic but with a better contrast ratio at the sacrifice of some brightness. The brightness is still pretty high for a HT projector and with our shutters I can knock almost all of the light during the brightest part of the day so it will be more than adaquate. The big draw car was the saving over the Panasonic combined with the ongoing savings with the cost of the replacement bulbs being less than 1/2 that of the Panasonic. Fingers crossed the gear will be here by the end of the week and I'll have a 90" display all ready for the final game of the Origin :) (or Wii Tennis)

In other technology news my poor Motorola RAZR is well on is way through a slow and painful death with random reboots a regular occurance. I've been searching for a new phone and the notion of built in GPS has been a bit of a draw card. The Nokia 6110 Navigator had bobbed to the top of the list against most of the other GPS phones with it's store Maps allowing it to do the GPS map translation without the need to connect to the web. I'll have to make a decision sooner rather than later with the rapid decline of the RAZR in the last few days.

What's old is new again....

In the last couple of days I've picked up some old games that I haven't played in ages and it's been like discovering a couple of new games all over again. First oldy of the rank was Halo 2. I actually traded my copy of it in over a year ago but with Ben staying with us I've assimilated his xbox gear. I was looking for something to test out the new Live headphones I got (and the load times in Half Life 2 were just too annoying). The Ear Force AXT are the headphones  I  picked up from Harvey Normans for $30, aside from a hiss form the amplifier the unit comes with they are great for gaming and the simulated surround does a pretty good job at accurately reproducing the sound stage. So with Half Life 2 being annoying in the loading stakes Halo 2 seemed like a logical choice. So it's managed to keep it's place in the Xbox for a few days now as I'm starting to enjoy it again after it drove me to bordem last time... I'm not sure it won't happen again but in short bursts it's been fun... especially to test the AXTs.

The other game I pulled out for some more FPS time was Red Steel on the Wii. The time crisis combined with a regular style shooter is the most appealing factor. Once you get over the fact it's not a traditional FPS and play it more like a "On Rails" game it really comes into it's own. Running through a hallway picking off enemys as you go is where it shines. Ironically it was the defending Mega Strike goals in Mario Strikers Charged that got me back into wanting to play Red Steel in the first place.

Tonight (and most of the weekend probably) I'll be putting in a concerted effort into God of War II on the PS2, I've got a fairly quiet weekend so I'm sure there'll be some gaming time in there somewhere.

12 Weeks to go!

It's only 12 weeks until we head off on our hoilday! It's starting to get really exciting...

The coolest travel news today is we found a walking tour that transfers your baggage for you! That's my kinda walking tour!

The Diary of a Puzzle Quest Druid... Part 3

My Druid has almost hit the level 30 and it's still slow going in the combat stakes. In multiplayer battles I'm still quite vulnerable to level 22 Warriors. A lack of offensive spells is the main cause of his demise. The most powerful offensive spell in my kit actually comes from the Griffin that I'm riding. Fortunately my spell resistance is starting to build up which is proving a great aid in all my combat as most of the damage comes from my opponents offensive spells.  My current quest is for some higher level runes to allow me to forge some stronger weapons and armour to increase this resistance.

Bus Sunrise...

One of my customers is going live today and as their hours start from 7am I'm here a bit before that just to make sure everything is running smoothly. As a result I saw the Sun rise while I was on the bus. It was a bit of a strange experience heading for the bus when it was still dark. was a little reminiscent of the early morning runs to the airport for a trip to Sydney or Melbourne. There are all sorts of other wonders you discover like: Hungry Jacks with the slogan "We never close" on the door is infact closed at 6:15 in the morning, all my favourite coffee shops are shut, possums roam the streets like highly agile rats.

Hopefully there will be minimal baby sitting required for the customer today and I can pull an early one as yesterday unfortunately didn't turn out that way.

Why is selling a house such a nightmare!

This was supposed to be an easy thing... why does the settlement bit have to be such a nightmare. For leagal reasons there isn't much more I can say... just wish it was all much easier!

The Gaming weekend that was....

With Ness heading to Melbourne for most of the week and weekend I embarked on a gaming weekend. With Mario Strikers and Puzzle Quest hanging around there was little else that was going to get a look in but I did give the Xbox some love with a few hours of Half-Life 2.
Mario Strikers has turned out to be a fantastic multiplayer game. So far I haven't put in any time toward the single player with Ben and Tom here for about 6 hours there was nothing but VS mode with plenty hip and shoulder tactics. The online component seems to work just as well. Very little lag even with my console at the other end of the house from my Wifi Router. The game mechanics are really simple and are well implemented on the Wiimotes. The best of these has to be the Hip and Shoulder move the smashes your opponent when you shake the Wiimote. I think this will be the first title to challenge Wii Sports for multiplayer time on my Wii. All I need now is someone else to buy it so I can challenge a friend online!

There's already been enough said on Puzzle Quest with the Druid's Diary so I'm not going to babel any more about it here.

The Diary of a Puzzle Quest Druid... Part 2

The long fought battles and numerous defeats are finally starting to pay off for my Druid. The has been almost no progress in the main quest as battling something as trivial as an Orc was a bit of a chore. Even at level 10 it was still a 40+ turn game to secure a win in battle. Having struggled on to Level 15 and with the aid of some useful gear along the way it's now starting to fall into place. Most of the time has been used to gathering gold to train in the temple and finding a strong mount to aid some of the skills which are quite low. From now it will be a move into the main quest whilst trying to bolster my bag of spells.

Travel Goods....

There have been a lot of cool travel toys come to light in the last few days. There is a travel bag that I stumbled across called the Dual-Access Rolling Computer Case

It looks like the perfect design for traveling. A easy access space in the back for you laptop plus space for some clothes and docs, all in a rolling case you can carry on. I'm doing a lot more traveling at the moment and one of these is high on my list!

The Diary of a Puzzle Quest Druid... Part 1

Since the new copy of Puzzle Quest turned up I've started a new Character - A Druid. So far so good, I've completed very little of the main quest and I'm at Lvl 5 already. Probably helped by the limited fighting skill and great healing ability. Combat seems to last for every and as a result lost of experience gained. There is some potential for devistating attacks in the higher levels but at this stage looks like it's going to be a long hard slog each battle... to be continued.

And the weekend of Gaming begins....AKA Mario Strikers Day

Last night Ness flew off to here weekend of shopping in Melbourne and as a consequence started the Weekend of Gaming (and Heroes).

Coincidently the second copy of Puzzle Quest and Custom Robo Area, a pre order I'd forgotten about, turned up. I'm not Custom Robo Arena will get much of a look in just yet. I'm finishing off the last level of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, I'm yet to finish the long running battle to complete Spectrobes, I haven't finished the tutorial campaign of Age of Empires and am yet to start Children of Mana. All of this just on my DS! I'm not even going to start on the lists for the other consoles. I was conisdering getting another consle but with all this gaming in what I have I'm going to put my pennies to toward the Blockbuster sale on the weekend.

One DS title that I'll be adding to my must play list will be Brothers in Arms. The trailer looks great with a lot of work on the visuals... It's released today so hopefully there will be a gameplay review out shortly. By the looks of the box art it doesn't look like it will have online muliplayer which is a shame. Hopefully it will support multiplayer on a single cart though.

Another release out today (this time on the Wii) is Mario Strikers! It's the first online title for the Wii so I'm keen to pick up a copy. Hopefully a couple of the other people I know with Wii's will get one so I can actually test it out...

Fish 2.0 is on the mend!

Despite the fact I thougth he was dead when we came back from Sydney he looks to be on the mend. His popeye is going down and he's still as hungry as every.... He's also started swimming around the tank like his old self!

Poor Fish 2.0

Got home from our weekend to Sydney (more on that in a little) to discover poor Fish 2.0 in the bottom of the tank not moving. I though he was dead but he pirked up after I got the lights at home on... He doesn't look so great though.

He seems to be doing ok even though his condition looked terminal. I found some info on the web that says it's treatable so I'll pick something up on the way home tomorrow and hopefully get him on the mend. He's still eating which is a good sign.