Ryan

I don't hate you or your religion.
Also, I live in a democracy, my opinion does matter and it can change things.

Godless Darwinism FTL. ugh. 'night.

@spartacus

If the crusaders had Atomic bombs, gas chambers, machine guns and slave camps - do you really think they wouldn't have used that sh*t? Hell, given current events, the modern day crusaders just might still.

The idea that religious leaders are somehow incapable of mass atrocity is simply laughable. But maybe that's not what you were implying when you said atheists shouldn't point fingers.

You write: "Does scripture support the Crusades or the Inquisition? Absolutely not. So the problem is obviously not with what Christianity teaches, but with how humanity twists it for personal gain. Blame humanity NOT God."

Setting aside your first question, and the gross assumption that follows...

You are right.

It is a pity how these religious leaders are using their antiquated, contradictory, paternalistic texts to justify their own scrupulous, opportunistic and entirely predictable demands.

I'm still unclear on how you feel about the topic at hand. But I will say this: that cathedral is a historic location, well known around the world. Maybe even moreso now that this game has been out for 7 months. :P I think using it in a piece of fiction like this game is 100% OK and it is the church which should apologize to the developer for manufacturing this flap and questioning their right to free expression. Should they have had to ask permission? No. Companies like Rockstar clearly make a calculated judgement when they call NYC "Liberty City". It's because #1 it's a decision they make not to offend the people who would buy their games and #2 an artistic choice. But in the case of this cathedral, I don't think there's any real public outcry against the game and the dev got it right by using a real cathedral as a setting. This is just another example of the church trying to make another superficial connection with its followers, and it's a power play to show they still have influence. They say Sony should donate. What they mean is YOU should donate.

If the public lets the CoE and Jack Thompsons of the world slide, then it unwittingly empowers them to carry on with business as usual, pretending people agree. One more fantasy they can manufacture into real world nightmare. Personally, I welcome a future where the church, it's screwed up policies, it's texts, it's leaders, and it's more excitable, preachy followers stay out of my business 100%...peace.

Now, back to fun and games. Sorry for the rant.

...if it's subscription-free.

I'm into it.

bigFoote: I feel your pain.
Thankfully, I persevered and came back to wrap the game. It was a beautiful moment. Wish I could have replayed it...

Yeah, it's called Vegas 7...updating for free on May 1st will include AVCHD editing.

Truly, 9/10 people won't be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080i on a 32" TV, which is plenty big for 9/10 living rooms, which is where all the content shot on this consumer cam will end up anyway. So who cares. It looks friggin great at 1080i. (Provided you have good light, lol.)

Regarding editing, again, it is a rapidly fading problem, only hanging around because early reviews of the SR1 at the time of release did not have access to editing solutions. And those reviews are still online for people to read, even though they are out of date. There are consumer and professional AVCHD solutions available now that do not have a deleterious effect on the quality of the original footage. Of course, I could be mistaken, but I believe the folks at sonyhdvinfo.com have found this to be the case.

Regarding HDD size: There is a solution. It's called USB 2.0 On-the-Go. Get a battery powered Thecus N1050 enclosure for ~$50 USD, pop in any IDE notebook HDD and when your SR1 gets close to full, back up all your video on the external disk. Easy, even when you're out in the field.

Regarding, AVCHD editing support complaints: This tired canard needs to be dropped now. The newest versions of Nero, Adobe Premiere Elements and others now support AVCHD editing. It's already been adopted by a number of NLE's. AVCHD editing is fine on my 3.2 GHz Prescott XP box. Also I've read there are now a couple of good AVCHD video conversion solutions out there in case you want to edit in a different HD format. Sony's included editing/playback software is terrible, though, and I don't use it.

Now, as a recent SR1 purchaser, and an audio guy, I do have one very big problem with this camera. Here it is: Sony made this thing with an external microhone jack and a headphone jack. Great, I thought. I can shoot in 1080i (looks great) and use an external microphone for interviews, shotgun sound gathering...whatever...and I won't need to bring along my portable DAT machine or a minidisc to get my audio. Boy was I wrong. I've played with two SR1's and found that when recording in HD XP (15 MBp/s) both of them make an awful buzzing/humming background noise as soon as the record button is pressed. I'm not joking. Switch to SD record mode and the sound does not appear when you hit record. It's even there when you use Sony's little condenser mics, or the Beachtek DXA-2S camcorder audio adapter, which I bought to try and get rid of the noise. Just ridiculous. I basically bought the camera because it was the only consumer HD camera that didn't record audio at 12bit (like the HV20 does for example in HD mode). The SR1 supposedly tracks in Linear PCM. Instead, I find a totally noticeable buzzing sound all over everything I record in HD. Note: this does not happen when using the onboard 5.1 microphone (which sounds really good) and it is not there when you are sitting in standby mode. Very crap, hopefully solved in the SR5 and 7. I've just sent a nasty letter to Sony Canada. Oh ya, and the SR1 has been discontinued for anyone who doesn't know already. Can't really say I'm a happy camper right now, but at least I only spent $1300 CAD and I have a DAT for any serious video-with-audio needs.

Funny how you guys are bickering about when xbox1 came out vs. when ps2 did whilst simultaneously criticizing analysts for being backwards-looking. Everything is different now. MS and Sony have invested hugely in both digital content creation and distribution. Both systems will enjoy support beyond 5 years. The leap in terms of quality and features this generation basically ensures that people will be buying these suckers for years to come. All you can do is wait and see anyway. My PS3, to me, was worth every penny. I hope you all feel the same about your X360. Peace.

Absolutely ridiculous comments being thrown around here as usual.

Regarding the post:

As long as there is full transparency about what users are computing for companies, I don't see a problem. Over time this will evolve, potentially bringing down the cost of owning a PS3. Pick and choose which research you want to assist. This actually reminds me of developers moving away from dedicated game testers, instead using beta releases with groups of interested users/fans. Perhaps this service will be used to advance/hasten the development of games for PS3?

As to all the other crap you jokers are writing:

Load times: Oblivion = faster on PS3. I'm happy. Great game, looks awesome, plays well. I don't care how they did it.

Re: HDMI cables. Not sure how this managed to work its way into this thread, but I will direct PS3 users to www.firefold.com where long-ass HDMI cables can be had for extremely cheap. (ie) ~$9 US. Total non-issue, especially since the PS3 is also compatible with the old PS2 component cables, unlike other systems.

PS3 vs 360: Both are competent system. Both have great games lined up for '06, '07 and well beyond '08. Seriously, why do you guys bother commenting on this industry crap. I mean that as a serious question. Why? Why do you come here and misinform people? Do you honestly think the PS3 is going to become the next 3D0? Newsflash! Its feature set WILL NOT allow that to happen. There are several things about both the 360 and the PS3 that basically guarantee games will be made for both for years to come. (Not the least of which, that two of the largest corporations in the world are directly backing them, with both Sony and Microsoft strongly supporting impressive content development and distribution divisions. BOTH systems, this generation, WILL enjoy high quality exclusive content, as well as high quality ports.

Give up this non-debate. Don't be a corporate shill. If you want to support one company over the other, buy a game. If not, don't. Me, I'll be doing my console gaming on Sony's controller because I like it better.

Signed,
Happy PS3 User