Shane Buettner

A common fallacy in the high-end audio world is that if you buy better, higher resolution gear all of your recordings will sound better. The short answers is, they won't. Higher resolution invariably exposes more flaws in recordings you already knew were flawed, but what's more uncomfortable is that you'll also hear "new" flaws in recordings that sounded pretty good previously. Some of these might be your favorite demo cuts, which really sucks. And of course, your best recordings will scale new heights entirely, but which turn out to be which is often unpredictable.

Bond is back, and he's a bad man. Yes, 007 has blond hair and blue eyes for the first time, but it's his character that takes on much darker tones here. His license to kill is his primary occupation, not a smart-ass tagline and Daniel Craig is almost feral under the cool veneer of James Bond. This remarkable and gritty new entry takes the series out of the realm of gadgets (no Q anywhere to be found) and special effects, and back into the realm of hard, breathtaking physical stunts, which is something director Martin Campbell, of <I>Mask of Zorro</I> fame, excels at. Even the theme song is grungy, being sung by former Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell. And it's exhilirating from the opening foot chase to the finale. Not only is Bond back, I can't wait for him to return!

According to Comcast, the SATA port on the back of my Motorola DTC3416 set-top box/DVR isn't yet active and there are no promises on when, or even if it will be activated. I have to admit I'm halfway considering testing this out for myself to make sure the info I got from Comcast is correct. I had a 500GB drive with a sleek case picked out already, and the entire rig would only cost about $170.

• $1,799
• 50" Plasma
• 1366x768
• Key Connections: One HDMI and two component inputs, one PC/DVI input