Komplett Weekly Offers 03/10/2008

Nothing happened last week.

Really.

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray Player

€ 199.00

-17%

My €0.02
I would rather a PS3 for 299... seriously, who buys a low-end Blu ray player that ISN'T a PS3? Kindly explain the logic of that one.

Sony DCR-SR35E, 30GB HDD recorder

€ 296.00

-13%

My €0.02
Another hard disk camcorder. They all cost around 300 beans and all have 20 - 40 gigs of memory. The only differentiating factor is battery life and this pissed off guy says it drains rapidly in standby mode. Not ideal when the stated charge life is 110 minutes..

Freecom USB Storage XXS 320GB USB-2

€ 89.00

-10%

My €0.02
Terrible value. Next.

Asus P5N32-E SLI, nF-680i SLI, ATX,S-775, 2xGbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex16 demo

€ 99.00

My €0.02
A really strange mobo with some funky heat pipes. If you buy it, make sure the bios is the latest version.

Komplett Weekly Offers 01/09/2008

Monday morning again, eh? Let's do this.

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray Player

€ 244.00

-9%

My €0.02
Personally, I would avoid Blu-Ray players. Pixmania do this one for €209 if you are keen.

Western Digital My Book StudioEdition 500GB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 112.00

-14%

My €0.02
500GB... YAWN!

Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO M9400 14.1" T7300 2.0Hz 2048MB 120GB Vista Bus

€ 759.00

-5%

My €0.02
I couldn't find this exact model. But a lower spec'ed model was selling for ~€900 on elara.

Samsung 32" LCD-TV LE32A552 --Full HD--

€ 757.00
-0%

My €0.02
Err, dunno. Seems to be popular in Belgium. Some nice features I guess but really quite expensive for a 32" TV.

HD-DVD, picking the corpse clean

HD-DVD gets a bad rap. It was unable to beat blu-ray, blu-ray's much maligned copy protection, the PS3, the Xbox didn't want it, Microsoft were closely associated with it... the list goes on. And now it's on the way out, a fate it richly deserves. But hold on, as evidenced by the budget price of the Xbox HD-DVD add-on, there are a few bargains to be had. It is still a HD format with all the fancy bells and whistles that go with it, and now the prices are on a par with regular DVD! So for a modest investment in a player you can pick up HD titles at rock bottom prices from the following:

• Asda Entertainment from GBP £4.93 (free shipping)
• Play.com from GBP £4.99 (free shipping)
• Ezydvd from GBP £4.39
• DVD Crave from GBP £4.39

XE.com Universal Currency Converter

Games Consoles

So you've got a HD TV or projector, now what can you do to make the most of it? Modern consoles are more than just games playing machines. They can play music, videos, HD videos, photo slideshows, browse the internet, organise your life etcetera, etcetera. Games are of course a great way of showing it off, but you might also use it for watching near-cinema quality films with the added bonus of no chewing-gum riddled, spring loaded, popcorn-salt covered, tatty velour seats. Here is what is on offer:

Wii
Nintendo
Typical price: €270, comes with bundled Wii Sports game

The market leader. Does not play High Definition discs, or any other kind of disc. Does not output resolutions higher than 480p. No internal hard drive. Has wifi. Does play video from SD card. Backwards compatible with Gamecube games and controllers. Downloadable games and retro games. Popular with all ages despite non-HD graphics.

Xbox360
Microsoft
Typical price: €200 for Arcade model, €350 for Elite model

The number 2 console. Play High Definition discs, however only in the soon to be defunct HD-DVD format. Plays and upscales DVDs. Output resolutions up to 1080p. No wifi or internal hard drive on Arcade model. Has ethernet networking. Backwards compatible with some Xbox games. Downloadable games and videos from Xbox Live!. HD-DVD discs are being sold very cheaply.

Playstation 3
Sony
Typical price: €400 for 40GB model

Last place. Plays High Definition Blu-ray discs. Plays and upscales DVDs. Outputs resolutions up to 1080p. Has wifi and internal hard drive. Has ethernet networking. Backwards compatible with some PS1 games. Built in web browser. Downloadable games from Sony Store.