I'm also considering (in the long term) developing a full home theater. This will include: Dolby Digital/DTS A/V receiver/amplifier. Component DVD player. (probably wait for a progressive scan model) As I'm currently living with someone with a fully qualified Television, I won't be looking for a Video display for a while. If you have any suggestions about which models I should get for the above (on a student budget, mind you) and where I should go to get the best prices/value for them, send me email at: hohlfeld@cs.ucsd.edu I actually just bought a TV, even though there was already a qualified one in the apartment. Just got a deal I couldn't pass up. It's a Sony KP46-V15. Yes, that means it's an RPTV model. Yes, it's big. (at least, big enough.) And in order to keep from driving my poor office-mates out of their minds with my music... I'm thinking of getting a pair of MDR-RF950RK from Sony (wireless headphones). I haven't tried them yet, but plan on doing so the next time I get to an electronics store. Well, I tried them, and don't like them... they felt like they were going to fall off my head, and constantly re-tuning them for good reception was a pain. This could be due to the large number of computers and other electronic equipment putting out too much interference however, so don't let my experience dissuade you from trying them...

My ability to watch these movies is seriously deterred while I wait for Creative Labs to repair my faulty Encore Dxr2 drive. I guess that is what I get for buying from Creative Labs again. Working on the second week waiting for it to be returned... and still no word.

I finally got the drive back, and immediately began having problems with it. I'll do a full re-install of Windows 95, and see if that helps. Creative Labs, in their infinite wisdom, decided to replace my faulty drive with Firmware 1.7A with an apparently faulty drive with Firmware 1.0A. Nice little downgrade there.

Update(July 28th, 1998): I have been waiting for _months_ for a replacement drive. Creative RMA seems to not care that I have a product that doesn't work. I hereby recommend that no-one who reads this page buy a Creative DVD drive, or, if they can help it, any other Creative Labs product. My computer was going to be the center of a home multi-media system, but it looks now as though I'll need to replace my DVD capabilities with a component player. If I could, at this point, I would return my drive and call it quits with Creative forever.

Update(July 28th, 1998): Well, now isn't this an odd coincidence. I just got a call from Creative RMA (not 20 minutes after the above update) saying that my drive got sent out today. The two week delay for the new drive was due to a lack of stock for drives. I should be getting a "current firmware" drive from UPS on Thursday. Guess we'll see how that goes...

Update(August 3rd, 1998): I got the drive via UPS last Friday (it actually was here on Thursday, but I couldn't get to it.) Installed it, and so far haven't had any problems. I wasn't able to get DAE to work successfully, but I'm not too surprised about that. Movie playback was flawless (except for on-monitor display problems that have nothing to do with the drive).