I was in a store not too long ago and saw the Ultimate Matrix collection on blu-ray, but sadly, I have the same set on HD-DVD.  Can’t really justify buying it again even though I’m not going to use my HD-DVD player much longer. 

But, I stumbled on a cool site by Warner Bros that allows you to upgrade many of your HD-DVDs, including some boxed sets like the Ultimate Matrix collection.  It’s not free, but for the most part the costs are reasonable and is done by sending in the album art, not the disc.

Now, I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle, but you could pick up some closeout HD-DVDs and then upgrade them.  For example, buy the Ocean’s 11/12/13 HD-DVD boxed set for under $20, upgrade it for $10.  That’s $30, where the same box set on blu is at least double that.  Good deal!   The site is red2blu.com … check it out!

On a related note, I recently started using the Windows Home Server plug in My Movies.  My Movies basically lets you store your movies on your WHS box, and includes some utilities to download album art, do some auto-ripping, etc.  I’m still in trial mode (some of the utilities aren’t free) but, assuming I purchased the utilities I’d need, it does auto-ripping so you drop the DVD in the machine, and it takes care of business and pops it out when done.  You can then stream it through Windows Media Center … it will work on extenders like the XBOX 360, but it’s a bit more tricky.  Essentially, for extenders like the 360, the format needs to be changed on the fly using a transcoder, since the XBOX 360 can’t natively stream the VOB files.  It’s a fairly seamless process, but takes a bit of time to ramp up on what’s going on. 

I’m not sure it makes sense to do high def movies (though it can be done) given the space requirements, but it is supported.

In case you haven't heard -- we've recently announced that Expression will be included on MSDN subscriptions.   This has long been a source of controversy -- not just externally, but internally, too.  I know that many of us evangelists bubbled up the anger we often experienced from customers; and you know, it was frustrating because, as we talk more and more about WPF, we are often asked about Expression and we needed to point out that it wasn't going to be available for download on MSDN.

I do understand the thinking of those at corporate: the Expression suite is targeting designers, not developers.  Still, I think the right move was including it on MSDN. 

Read more here.

On Thursday, my group (the Windows hippies, err, WinHPE) had a post-WinHEC unwinder at SafeCo Field to watch the Mariners get bitch-slapped by the Oakland A's.

OK I have to be honest -- baseball is kind of a yawner. But, we had a private suite at the field and let me tell you, I give it two thumbs up. Private kitchen, roomy and comfortable seats, TVs, tons of food and beverage -- man, this is how every game should be. There's even a reserved parking space and private entrance.

So damn, if I could only get one of these at a hockey venue, I'd be there every game.

Firefox is awesome.

Recently there have a been a ton of articles in the press about browser vulnerabilities (namely against IE, but some against Mozilla and Firefox, too). The thing is, at least Firefox is still in beta. IE, while I still like it, is at version 6 -- eloquently put in Mike's blog (here).

Why Firefox is the cat's pajamas:

1. Tabbed browsing.
2. Extensions like User Agent Switcher and Web Developer. Check them out, it's amazing. There are hundreds of these extensions.

Why it's not everything:

1. ActiveX (specifically for Yahoo Launch -- gotta have it).
2. Microsoft Windows Update.