haniblog

About two years ago I was in LA working on a BMW X5 ad and decided to buy a Mac Mini. That was the start of the AlYousif Household® Media Centre™ Project. Of course I had to upgrade a few items when I got home: a Sony 32″ LCD to replace the tube; a 500GB external drive to hold all my daughters’ DVDs (the justification); and a 2GB RAM upgrade for the Mac Mini which was hooked up to the existing 5.1 surround system.

Now it’s almost 2009 and there’s a feeling in the air that we (I) need to upgrade again. You know, like an upgrade shark I have to keep moving forwards or else. Or else I might stagnate, or something.

So… Blu Ray. That winner of the HiDef format “war”. I’ve watched the 720p version of Iron Man on the Mini and on Blu Ray at 1080. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “Stupid 720p, you’re no match for 1080!” Even though I work a lot at full HD for ads that are 30 to 60 seconds, there’s a world of difference when watching a feature at home in proper progressive 1080 HD res.

Okay then, upgrades. My LCD screen unfortunately is not full 1080 resolution but the lower HD-Ready, ie, 1366×768 instead of 1920×1080. So to buy a new full HD screen, like the Sony 32W4000 is £620 (and I have to mention that I bought my less-then-full-HD-ready screen for £1000 then). Blu Ray players are now as cheap as £170 and add an extra £20 for an HDMI cable. For £810 plus the cost of the BD discs themselves I could have a complete future-proof (yeah, right) home entertainment centre.

But wait. Reading lots of reports on the internet and considering the state of the economy, the costs of all of the items mentioned above will drop and they will drop significantly. I think I’ll hang on and see what happens in January.

To be updated.