The Daily Button – Halloween Edition

Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily Bootun. Have fun with your kids trickin’ and treatin’ and the pukin’ and fartin’ the next day. In it’s previous life, The Daily Button was a news roundup but I think I will morph it into a news roundup/blog hybrid type thing. It will give me a chance to highlight what is going on with our website that will help folks with their current HTPC build.

With that said, I thought I would highlight the recent conversations we have been having around adding Blu-ray/HD DVD to your HTPC. The Xbox360 really kicked off the madness with its’ sub-$200 price tag. Finally, an affordable HD DVD player for your HTPC, when most other solutions were above $500 earlier this year. Here are a few guides and forum threads to get you on your way.

Matt’s Guide to adding a Blu-ray or HD DVD player to your HTPC

Forum thread: Current state of combo drives

Forum thread: Finally a reason to get a HD DVD player (build and Blade Runner discussion)

Forum thread: Ripping HD DVDs to your hard drive. (Personal backup only) 

Forum Thread: User review of the new LG combo drive

Forum thread: New HD Audio formats and your HTPC

Hard Drive News: Western Digital ships 320 GB laptop hard drive article at The Tech Report

CPU News: Athlon X2 5000 review at InsideHW

Display Device News: Vizio GV52L 52" review at I4U

Case News: Antec Veris Black Fusion case review at Tweaknews

Deal News: Sony XL1 200 disc changer on for $99 at Chris L.

Memory News: 4GB OCZ PC2-5400 review at Big Bruin