David Hingtgen

Ok, just some terminology: The blue part is the nacelle, the red part is the nozzle. As for the 3 moving parts of each nozzle---never found a definitive term AFAIK. I'd suggest petals or paddles, or even "nozzle flap".

You'll most likely get a refurbished one sent back, not yours. The official explanation is that it's quicker, so you can play your games again. It also probably is quicker, who knows how long they have to do diagnostics, repairs, etc. Don't send in your HDD. Or your face plate. Strip it as bare as you can. They actually are quite fast, I had my replacement in like 10 days. Still, I'd rather have waited and gotten my own one back, repaired. The refurb was NOT mint. It's in good shape, better than most used stuff--but it was not as nice or clean as mine. You'd think they could at least wipe off or clean the refurb'd units before sending them out. You'll get a free month of live, that's what I got. Also, see my post one page ago: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?s=&a...st&p=505232

Sumdumgai--you've never had a YF-21 toy or kit? They all move the engine nacelles--it's a required part of the transformation. If they didn't, the engine nozzles would be next to the feet in battroid mode---if not projecting beyond. Anyways---better pic of battroid mode CAD here: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=11...1433&size=o People are welcome to try to and photoshop out the Sv-51 in front of it.

Hey, I'm sure this is what Kawamori says Nora's plane REALLY looks like. It just looks pink and yellow because of the animators. And Yamato has no plans to issue a more anime-accurate version in the future. Probably with a daisy-cutter...

Somewhat related--I have a lot of import/older stuff to get rid of, going back to the Turbo Duo era. Any non-eBay suggestions on how to get rid of it? My local import VG store closed with little notice, I never got around to selling it off to them. (That would have been a lot easier---put in all in the trunk and sell it all as one giant lot to them)

IMHO, set every possible setting to the middle to start with, then work from there. Most TV's will SUCK BIG TIME in the image category, when set to factory default. Factory default isn't "a resonably good picture". It's "super bright to catch your eye in the store". And usually has the color way red or way blue, again to catch your eye. It is purely to "throw out a noticeable light" your way in the store. As for temperature---put something with white on. A basketball game with a team wearing white or something along those lines is great. Depending on if the settings are labled normal or backwards (cooler temp means redder, but a cooler color means bluer---TV makers can't agree what to label as) you'll find either a redder or bluer tint to the white. Basically it sets---"how white is white?" on the TV. Things in life are rarely as pure stark white as many TV's are set. Kind of like how something looks "white"---until you compare it to a piece of paper. Lots of people like a super-bright, super-blue white to things. But that usually leads to extreme loss of detail. The best test for any TV IMHO is sweaters. Try to identify fabric/textures on a pure bright red and a pure bright white sweater. Make them rich and vibrant, but not bleeding out their color, so bright it's blending details together. Get red and white set nicely, and everything else should be pretty good.

I was reading some more: That TV has a game mode to help eliminate lag etc, but it turns off the 120hz----as 120hz interpolation probably takes a good chunk of the TV's processing power/time and could induce lag. However, I wonder just how much difference it makes. If 120hz makes the picture smoother and better anyways, and there's minimal lag to start with, maybe games in "normal" mode with 120 hz look better than most other TV's "game" mode? I'm sure a few people will have tried out 360's with the TV's I'm interested in by the time I'm ready to buy, just have to keep watching the forums.

My only request (which I know won't happen due to Hollywood stupidity) is that an actual redhead play Scarlett. PS--Baroness. She's pale, and ethnically eastern European (specifically Czech I think, based on latest comic canon). That means NOT Jessica Alba.

We could also use it to repaint into a Milia.

Ha, I'm still only at 2 "permanent" games in my 360 collection. DOA 4 and Oblivion. Everything else was merely rented/borrowed, or sold or is to be sold. (anyone want DOA XBV2?) But again--in Oct/Nov, I'm buying quite a few games I plan to keep forever. Ironically, while the Gamecube had quite a few games early. Then a huge drought. Then there was Metroid Prime 2, RE 4, and that was about it for the GC. Never did feel I got my money's worth out of the console. The 360 is getting a slow start, but within a year I'll probably have more games for it than I ever did for the GC. (Though I just bought Zelda: TP for the GC, since I don't plan on finding nor buying a Wii any time soon at this point)

"Normal" stuff on an HDTV looks bad. Not the opposite. So a PS3 on a 30-year-old TV will look great. Also, a PS3 can play CD, DVD, and SACD. As for regions---Japan and the US are now the same region for *Blu-Ray*. So even if it was region-locked---the US and Japan are the same. However, it cannot "retroactively" override DVD/game regions of stuff made in the past, which still have the US and Japan different. So you could watch import Japanese Blu-Ray stuff with no problems, but import DVD's will still be region locked. Same for games---import PS3 games will play fine, but not PSX/PS2 ones. And seconding---if you want to play PSX/PS2 games a lot on it, snag the 60gig version. I don't have the money for a PS3 now even with the price drop, so I'll probably have to leave my PS2 hooked up for all eternity.

Quick question: What does it mean when a TV is advertised with 3 HDMI inputs, but two of them are "without audio input"? Doesn't HDMI inherently have audio built-in? My best guess is that 1 of them has additional separate audio inputs nearby for people using a DVI-to-HDMI converter, while the other 2 are purely HDMI and it'll be a bit more work to get audio if your source is DVI. "1 HDMI, 2 HDMI without audio input" sounds a bit weird/inaccurate. It should be more like "3 HDMI, one with additional audio inputs for DVI sources" or something.

The jaggies are the fault of the Xbox's anti-aliasing limits, not the the photo.

Ok, characters yeah, but still think plot is too generic to really say is a copy. Heck, FF Tactics has that plot too. (But the best version of it)

Was at BB again today. They fixed the Samsung's problem, and I got a good look at the Sony S3000. But I can't make comparison judgments on a TV based on "how the people at BB set them up". I need to go on a day when there's few people there, and I can fiddle with the settings myself for a while and get them looking decent. Contrast=100, Temp=cool, is NOT going to sell me a TV... I love it when I mess with the settings on a "poor-looking" TV at BestBuy (every setting at 100 like usual), then someone stops and goes "wow" when they see what a decently-calibrated screen playing HD looks like. Maybe I should go mess with their BluRay demo set... Annoyingly, my current top two TV's (both Sony), are not available at any store TOGETHER. One or the other. I really want to compare side by side to see if the extra money's worth it. On that note--so, 120hz. Noticeable? Worth it? Not many 32in sets do it, but the latest Sony XBR and Panny do. And Sony wants a nice chunk of change for that feature. But if it makes the image clarity notably better during rapid panning/object movement (like the 90% of the time mine will be on playing video games) it'd be well worth the money.

Which is the exact opposite of what happens in the Midwest. It's WAY too friggin hot and humid to go outside. 30 secs and you're sweating. I stay indoors 24/7 if I can in July and August here--I need games! Spring and Fall are the only times to stay outdoors here.

Well, I was clearing out space in my DVD towers for future purchases, and decided to get rid of a few games. Bought GC Zelda:TP with most of it, and had some credit left and wanted to get rid of it. Saw they had DOA X2 even cheaper than Target, so decided to buy it. I give it a meh. I do think the original was better. Let's just say the physics have gone from "improbable" to "it completely pulls you out of any possibly immersive environment/suspension of disbelief". Plus the character models are flat-out shiny. It's like their skin is flesh-colored chrome. Finally, I liked the suits in the first one better. None of Ayane's are good, and I've only found 1 from someone else to give to here. Plus it's fairly well-known that getting ANY achievement is very long and boring to do. Will probably end up with 0/1000 like everyone else. The last 6 months have been very money-wasting for me, last two 360 games I've bought I've been disappointed in. Sigh--summer always sucks. New games always come out in November, and only November. Aren't the manufacturers aware YET that most gamers are older than 12, and get more than 2 games a year? (B-day and Xmas). Yeesh. Assassin's Creed, Halo 3, Ace Combat 6, Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey---all will come out fairly close together. I'm getting really sick of "time of plenty" followed by "severe drought" for games every year.

Yes, but that was the X-32 vs X-35. It was Nova, and it was really good. But it wasn't about the F-22. (If only, a YF-22 vs YF-23 documentary would have been wonderful).

Could you be more specific? I played Lunar 2 (remake) and Grandia 2 right when they came out, and don't recall noticing anything specific. I mean, most JRPG's tend to have a lot of reused plot elements.

Ironically, even after MP-03---I think they still can't get "shades of grey" right. He's too pale. Personally, I use the movie as my main "G1 animated" color reference, as it is much more consistent and higher quality than any episode. And while I haven't seen an actual G1 SS toy in years, I don't recall it being that pale. He was clearly grey, though lighter than the animated version. The new G1-style repaint is almost white. I do have a G2 SS, don't know if the grey's the same color (I'd suspect not, as G2 Prime blue is quite different from G1 Prime blue)

I don't recall if it was here or TBDX, but the guy even found pencil marks and lines all over it where they marked off where to cut and paint the parts...

I'd probably try NATO black too. The next-darkest black, 36076/Panzer/Engine grey, seems just a bit too "grey" for him. But if Nato black looks too black, go for 36076/Panzer/Engine grey.

You went from sanding it down, to having both main colors applied of pattern that complex, in a couple hours?!?!

Water slide decals are the only thing that can achieve the painted-on look. Aftermarket stickers are thinner and better than Yamato's, but still won't beat decal. The surface the decals are applied on is a huge factor, clearcoating is recommended. Though I'm sort of a renegade and usually apply it to whatever surface it is---unless it's really rough. I depend more on TIME and decal solution, while others go for a glass-smooth surface to apply the decal to. (of course, it's also party a model vs toy thing---models tend to not have moving parts and you can paint/decal/clearcoat in sequence as needed, while toys have parts that can scrape together, are already painted, etc---affects what you can do/how easily you can do it) Here's some work our resident "decaling expert" did: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?show...c=2463&st=0 http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=1582

If the PS3 is the main reason for Blu-Ray "winning the format war" (and assuming it does) it will have been well worth it for Sony.