 PVRs
July 17, 2008, 06:59:49 am by
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Don't buy one. At least not a cheap one.
Me and my g/f were a little peeved at the MCPC crashing all the time and I really couldn't be arsed to fix it properly, so we got a Top-up TV PVR from Thompson. No series detection. Unresponsive. Crashed. Returned. Then we got a Sagem on for a little more with no Top up TV. Hurrah! The series detection works.... unless you use it on any Channel 4 or ITV channels, then it crashes. Returned.
So then I decided to rebuild the MCPC, discovering that the offending article causing crashes was the 8600 fan-less we had. I guess it just overheated.
So I got Vista MCE installed and working, then I remembered the other problem. The on board sound is a Realtek HD audio chip. There are no signed drivers for the motherboard for vista (Damn you ASUS!!!). So I installed the drivers from Realtek. Microsoft in thier infinite wisdom decided to uninstall the drivers every time it rebooted, leaving the crippled MS drivers which only support Digital out..... which the freaking card doesn't even have.
So, one X-Fi (raped from my main PC which uses an Audigy 2 now: Ahh sweet 5.1 digital) later, all is working! I also finally got the S-Video output working on her shockingly SDTV. Finally a nice crisp readable picture!.
And just think: If I'd been bothered to spend more time on it in the first place, this never would have happened!
Other things recently: Sony dropped the ball. Badly.
Losing FF 13 to Microsoft is a major blow. Sony has basically lost all the exclusives that made the PS2 so popular. The Xbox is gaining more and more momentum over the PS3. The Ps3 is a fantastic device, let down by the fact it cost Sony so much.
Sony need to- Bring back Backwards compatibility perhaps via a software solution
- Amalgamate the PSN stores
- Fork out some bloody moolah and get those exclusives back. They need Square-Enix, Capcom and Konami to commit to the PS3 otherwise they are just gonna keep haemoraging support to the XBox
- Drop the damned price. The PS3 is too much more expensive than the XBox, even with the Blu-Ray drive
I'm amazed at the decisions made really as Sony made some really good choices last couple of times
The PSX was successful because they got devs on board and made the hardware cheap.
The PS2 was successful because it wasn't the last device that gen, wasn't overpriced, had a DVD drive (for initial support), had momentum from the PSX, and they got some console shifting exclusives (Devil May Cry, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy)
The outlook is a little bleak. Come on Sony! Pull your damned finger out!
At some point I will be updating this site to using a CMS rather than my custom botched together job using Server Side Includes
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ePSXe 1.7.0 released !!
May 24, 2008, 01:38:45 pm by
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Yes, boys and girls, the ePSXe team released the since-long overdue 1.7.0 , with a hefty number of fixes and improvements to an already excellent emulator.
New in version 1.7.0
Short version of the changelog:
* Multiple changes has been done in the Pad support.
* The internal SPU plugin has been updated to the 1.7.0 version.
* The iso support code has been rewritten.
* The MDEC decoder has been rewritten.
* A new version of the Pete's Software Plugin is included.
* The XA/CDDA support has been worked in this new version.
* Many things have been fixed in the cd-rom decoder and the core.
Expect a number of the guides to be updated for 1.7.0
Disc changing is semi-broken in version 1.7.0 , apparently fixed in 1.7.1 (expected soon) - Kane
ePSXe website
http://www.epsxe.com
Download ePSXe 1.7.0 here
http://www.epsxe.com/download.php
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ePSXe 1.7 : status update
April 26, 2008, 10:10:42 am by
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The team behind ePSXe posted a message on their about the current status of the next version. After a hiatus of no less than 4 years, not only the project is not dead, but the following 1.7 version will features a pretty significant number of fixes and improvements.
From the ePSXe website:
"It has been a long time since the previous ePSXe status update. During this time the ePSXe development has been on hold and our lives have changed a lot, probably just like yours. In summer 2007 we decided to continue working in ePSXe encouraged by the users support even after 4 years without updates. ePSXe is currently in final testing and we hope to release a new version very soon. We wanted to thank you for your support and show you some screenshots from games that should work better in the next release."
Click on the picture for a bigger version.
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Crisis Core
April 15, 2008, 08:08:33 am by
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Hi guys, I know I haven't updated in a while. A suggestion for you all: get a PSP if you don't already, and get Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core. Quite possibly the most fantastic game ever created. Great fun, great gameplay mechanics, great graphics, great music and an awesome plot.
I loved every minute of it and I may do a review for you in the near future.
Right so I now have all the consoles I want this gen for now: The Wii, the PS3, the DS and the PSP. Games on all of them rock, but ones the check out are Wario Ware and Resident Evil 4 (I'm not even an RE fan) on the Wii, Heavenly Sword and Uncharted on the PS3, FFIII and some remakes on the DS and Crisis Core and Valkyrie Profile on the PSP.
Thank god for high paying jobs 
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