Tech Talk

May 12th, 2007-
Show number 5 was a blast. I think we're really starting to get comfortable with this "being on the radio" thing and letting loose a bit. I hope we didn't scare anyone away, though. Our main topic today was HD DVD and Blu-ray. We discuss the differences and make some recommendations on whether you should buy either one. Pete and Kevin take jabs at each other again.

- Show Notes -

We share what’s been going on in the last week. Pete doesn’t watch TV, and Jeff’s been watching Heroes. Kevin shares a crazy story about movie quotes popping into his head.

Main Topic:
Last week we talked about HDTV and the technology behind high definition television shows, and in this show we discussed HD DVD and Blu-ray. I said last week that 720p was the lowest resolution that is technically considered High Definition. The maximum resolution of a DVD is 480p. So, while it will look better on an HDTV, it isn’t quite high definition. People want to watch high definition movies on their high definition TVs. The problem is that the higher resolution a video is the more space it needs. There isn’t enough room on a DVD for a motion picture length high definition movie. Two new, competing formats were created: HDDVD and Blu-ray. It’s Betamax Vs VHS all over again. Betamax was Sony’s version of the magnetic tape video cassette, and it would not play in a VHS player. As we all know, VHS won this battle and whoever bought a Betamax player had wasted their money. Well, Sony is involved this time, too. Their format is Blu-ray. In the show we discuss the similarities, differences, and costs of these two formats. We also go over the new copy protection on these discs, and conclude with recommendations.

Support Calls:
Jeff from Scottsdale calls about what to look for in a notebook computer. His options are pretty open: Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Apple, or Sony. Look for 2GB of RAM for running Vista. He also asked about hard drive encryption. He can use TrueCrypt, or buy Windows Vista Ultimate edition and use BitLocker.

Sandra from Phoenix called in looking for advice on a PDA to buy for medical school. She wants to store lots of information on her PDA. It’s hard to find a PDA these days that isn’t also a phone. Something like the Palm Treo would probably suit her best, and she can upgrade the memory fairly cheaply with an SD card from Newegg.com.

Joe in Gilbert wonders why people don’t do their own hardware projects any more. Kevin suggests that he may be interested in Make Magazine. There are still hardware projects, but more people are doing software projects these days. It’s easier and you don’t have to learn to solder…

News Stories:
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Dell's Linux Problem
Jobs chided, answers questions at shareholder meeting
iPods able to crash pacemakers
A Foolproof Way To End Bank Account Phishing?

Weekly Website: Newegg.com
Software Spotlight: 7-Zip
Hardware Highlight: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB Hard Drive