A couple of upgrades today...

[toprob]

I upgraded to Windows 7 today, no real time to give it a thorough test, but it seems to work as advertised. At least FSX works, but there are some things which I need to solve. My quick start items didn't transfer, which included the customised GMAX gamepack startups, but I'll sort that out.

I did a 32bit upgrade, because I've already had to reinstall everything once this year so gave myself the easy option:)

One reason why I wanted it was the new Media Centre which can now stream Freeview to my TV via the Xbox 360. This works very well, but maybe comes a bit late for a lot of folk now that a lot more TVs are being sold with Freeview built in. Still, it extends the life of my old Trademe TV for the moment... Until how there was really no easy way to watch Freeview shows on TV, I'm stuck with the PC monitor, which is nice quality but not the same if you can't blob-out -- there has to be some up-side to heart failure.

It took a bit of setting up, but now it's done it's a no-brainer. I've dusted off the media remote which came with the TV card, and now it's easy to pause/rewind/record etc. My daughter thinks it's a bit awkward to just watch TV, but she'll come around. Once she gets used to the digital quality show won't go back to analogue TV.

The other upgrade was Xbox Live. Ok, I'm not that enthused by Facebook and Twitter, but it does include Zune, which is Microsoft's answer to I-tunes for movies and TV. I can hire a movie for a few dollars, using my Xbox Live points as payment, those with high def TVs can order the HD version of most. Instant-on streaming, which works very well -- I tested it with a freebie, though. No sign of any TV shows at the moment, which is annoying, but no doubt something will turn up eventually.

I'm determined to support this, because it has really been far too long coming. However the choice of movies would need to be a lot better, including a lot of new releases at the price you pay.

[leow5263]

yeah, i cant do anything of those updates because of the child account issue!
but i did mannage to d/l zune 10GB for a HD movie! thats half my Broadband useage!

[toprob]

Yeah, I'm holding out for an ISP to offer unmetered Xbox Live, ideally Telstra. Not too likely, but I can hope.