David Hingtgen

More OT: Top 10 80's cartoon intros, starting with Visionaries: (Hunt around, and you'll also find the 30 min one, and the 5-part series) Best theme I never knew about before: Mighty Orbots. Best theme not included in any list: Denver the Last Dinosaur. Also, plenty of KITT vs KARR on youtube.

Got mine today from LAF Toys. It's darker and deeper than it photographs. More of a wine red than anything else. Almost a purplish shade of burgundy. The overwing boosters are the very definition of low-vis, they look like almost perfect matches for 36375 grey with 36320 grey accents (F-14/15/18/A-6/10/Harrier/Gripen). The missiles are more of a 36270 grey, the main grey of an F-16.

Most people just leave the TV at the default factory setting (sad, but true). Most of the people reading this thread probably fiddle with tint/contrast/brighness/sharpness for a while until the picture's as good as it can get. If you're really obsessive ::cough:: you go into service mode and start adjusting the geometry, overscan, and might even fiddle with the individual guns (most of that only applies to CRT's, though most decent HDTV's should allow blue/green/red independent level adjustment). A professional calibrator, will go DEEP into the service menu, into the "can permanently screw up the TV" level of stuff, and have actual colored filters, DVD's, etc to truly match the screen colors and sharpness to perfection. Or as close as that TV can get. However, IMHO, since every TV is different, and no pro is going to know exactly what everything in every TV's service options can do (even the service techs often don't), you're paying a lot for someone who knows what they're doing to fiddle with a TV they don't. I've gone into the "low level" service menus on my TV and adjusted overscan and geometry, but have never actually tried to align/compensate the individual colors relative to each other. Might try on my new one though, as people go so indepth on the forums and reviews I could at least get the basic red level right (that's the one usually off, due to the "bright in the store" setting effect)

A boxy Camaro is still sleeker than your standard Mustang. ::goes back to staying up late watching 80's intros on Youtube::

The Thunderhawk in MASK was a 3rd gen Camaro---it was basically a red KITT. Equally wrong for a Mustang. Obligatory link to MASK opening: (still one of the all-time best 80's intros)

The skull's completely wrong though. They just drew up a generic (and IMHO, poor) "skull and bones". It's not THE skull and crossbones, of either Macross nor any real squadron.

I check the Samsung thread at AVS daily, because the 3253H is currently #1 on my list of TV's. It SEEMS that Oct. and later builds have new boards and there are no problems (most problems are trying to fix older boards with new firmware--which helps but doesn't totally eliminate the problems). But I am still waiting for at least one person to say "I have a 3253H built in October, that I play my 360 on using 720p over component and I have no problems at all". There's people with new 3253H's, people with 360's, and people using 720p over component---but none with that exact combo that I've seen. Because a 360 doing 720p over HDMI is a different issue--HDMI is better than component, when it comes to tearing on a Samsung. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....105&page=87 Sony S3000 is probably #2 choice. They have no real issues, just high odds of clouding and/or buzzing.

Yes, Mission 9 with RCL's is super-easy, especially with the A-10 and it's huge load of them. (Su-33 has very few of them, Typhoon has a few more) It's not so much how many it has total, but how many rockets per salvo. I made my "attacker medal" run also my "no damage" run. Not TOO hard, though mission 12 and 13 took a bunch of tries. Tornado's your best bet IMHO, but a Strigon or Typhoon would ALWAYS get just one little bullet in you...

Very true. Mustangs are ricey now, and the new KITT is among the riciest cars I've ever seen. It should be in The Fast and the Furious, not Knight Rider. And going with that--frankly, the original KITT wasn't a muscle car (again, they died in the 70's). It was a Trans Am. A sleek, slick, black Trans Am. Not muscley. The only new cars which could truly be muscle cars are the new Camaro, or the new Challenger. (New Challenger rocks--I'm a huge F-body fan, but that Challenger is the first "retro" car ever that actually looks how a retro car should---it's so "musclecar-esque" that it looks 10x more like a Charger than the new Charger does) The new KITT would be better served as a Vette (or heck, Porsche) so as to be SLEEK. It's Hollywood as always---they tried to latch on to a feature to explain its success, but picked the wrong element and grossly exaggerated it.

But Godzilla's breath can burn through anything in the way, thus creating line of sight. If a building's blocking his view--it won't be for long.

Umm, I was just saying that topic has already been discussed here. What part of my post made you think I was being a jerk?

You have a 64 series Sharp with banding? Hmmn. I thought it was more limited to the 62/92 range. Well, regardless, I personally saw it constantly on the 32in ones. Maybe the bigger ones handle it better.

I personally doubt we'll ever see anything with new polygons. (Which is the only thing I'd pay for). Hmmn, new team battle. But you gotta pay? C'mon, maps should be free.

Yup. Like half of Sixshot's modes. "Cybertronian tank". "Cybertronian car". "Cybertronian flying thing".

Here's the basic issues to look for of all 2007 LCD's: Sharp: horizontal banding Samsung: tearing Sony: clouding (worse on XBR's, 3000's do better)

Most F-14 fans are aware of what they did to the last F-14 ever built. I believe it has been repainted yet again. Black Aces on one side (who didn't even HAVE F-14D's) and I think the Black Lions on the other.

I want a classic Gears. Why? Because no one loves Gears.

I personally really like the Joker poster. Regardless of perspective of the background, it's a cool shot of him.

Oh, yes it can. Lots of neat features are often cut for cost/maintenance reasons in the production version.

I don't have any contacts with anybody.

Twobobs is making decals, once they're out there'll be full painting diagrams. http://twobobs.net/ Almost done: http://twobobs.net/Newsletter/48-158.jpg 32nd, 48th, and 72 scale coming.

Elmendorf already has their planes, they're just not operational yet. 90th FS.

I've looked at the 32in 1080p Sharps side-by-side to several 720p. And the difference, at arm's-length viewing distance, is ONLY noticeable with large, static text. It's less jaggy. Slightly. On angled bits, like M and W and V. Like the logo of a movie at the start. And I stare for minutes on end looking for a difference. Maybe video games (HUD/text) would show it more, but for "general images" there's not the slightest difference. I really, really tried to see a difference but couldn't. Maybe the image is 1% clearer. But it's not worth paying more and having lower quality everything else. The Samsungs just looked to have the best overall picture. "Max resolution potential" is not the end-all be-all of TV's. Same as Megapixels in a camera--it's simply the highest possible resolution, not a direct indicator of quality of the image. However, I do not know what the source was. I would guess 1080i. But if it was 720p, maybe the 1080's were simply upscaling the 720 to fit, and giving them a true 1080p source would really show the difference. Also--the 32in 1080p Sharps have banding. It's subtle, but there and all over the screen. People have commented on it, but it's the only "known flaw" in 2007 sets of all brands that I immediately noticed in stores. (Every brand has some flaw this year, but it's usually subtle and you don't notice until you've owned it a week---but I saw banding on the Sharp's in an instant). That's basically a deal-killer. If I notice it in the store, I'll REALLY notice it and be annoyed at home.

I plan on getting 32 for two very good reasons: 1. Space. 2. Cost. I cannot fit a 37, period, even if I had the money. Actually, based on distance, a 32 might actually be too big--I'm going to have to move it as far back as I can. But 30's are no longer made, and 26 is just not worth it---they cost 90% as much, yet seem to be inherently lower quality. 32 is the smallest LCD you can get that can be as high quality as the 40's/50's etc. Cost is not really THAT much of a concern--a nice 32 costs roughly a grand, or a bit lower. Yes, I could get a cheap or even decent 40 inch for that much. But I want a GOOD TV, not a BIG TV that sucks. (And I don't have room for a cheap 40in)

Mass Effect is rendered by the 360 at 720p, then upscaled by the 360 itself to 1080 if you have it set that way. I don't know of any 360 game that REALLY is 1080. I mean, MS could design the 360 to upscale it to some "superHD" spec of 2440p before it sent it over the cables to your TV, but it wouldn't actually be rendering the polys and textures like that. ME is 1080p just like Halo 3 is 1080p. The 360 will scale it however you want it, but it won't make it any prettier.