Playback is better than the 360, and of course it's quieter.

First time I've every heard someone say that an Xbox 360 is quieter than a PS3.

I've read many times about guys not being able to do some late night gaming because it'll wake the wives up due to the jet engine that they apparently have installed (yet it still didn't work properly)

Actually, it's not even a codec, it's a container format. Though .mp4 files usually are encoded using the H.264 codec which the PS3 supports (Sony supported this in PSP to compliment it's RSS video podcast feature). DivX (and Xvid though not advertised) are also supported.

MP4, MP4... interesting. The PSP supports the MP4 codec so I can't see why the PS3 won't. Sony doesn't force you to use it's proprietary video codec (if it has one). In fact, I'd say Sony is the most open console out there (you just buy standard USB cables to charge the controllers, you can put any 2.5" SATA drive inside the PS3, you can install Linux on it, etc).

When you plug in your hard drive, try pressing Triangle then going to Display All. Then everything will be displayed.

Go to http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/video/filetypes.html to see what file types are supported.

You can also try using Windows Media Player 11 (or Windows Vista as is I believe has DNLA) and enable media sharing. Your PS3 should then pick it up and you can use that! TVersity is another application which I keep hearing good things about, and it will even encode unsupported movie files on the fly so you can play almost any file type.

I've been watching Al Jazeera when I can online since seeing clips of it on YouTube. Looking forward to seeing it on Stratos. I especially like The Listening Post (they post it in full on YouTube), gives a bit of balance to global reporting.

That Daily Show clip was hilarious!

I was quite pleased with how TV One handled the Paris Hilton story in the end (not so beforehand - Bernadine saying "I don't care" about Paris Hilton was where it started shifting further back into the oddspot news). When Paris got out of jail, the story was more "Paris is now out of jail - but what's with the media coverage?" Classic how Simon asked Wendy "Do we care?" and Wendy going "No... well... a little." Tut, tut.

The TVNZ guide has been there forever (or at least since TVNZ.co.nz relaunched into it's current form some time ago).

Unfortunately, it does have it's quirks (like the times don't line up correctly, etc). It is quite good none-the-less.

There is no need to upload on YouTube. TVNZ are putting EML online in full.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/427620
(tvnz.co.nz keyword: eating media lunch)

Great, huh?