Manga
1-8-2010
Hello. To be on track with my recent shopping activities I highly recommend you check page 2 and page 3 first. My best buy so far is undoubtedly the Japanese Xbox 360. However, this is completely new hardware which required a significant upgrade of my picture and audio devices. Of course it took me a lot of time and money to get all the necessary equipment but now I can say that it is quite up-to-date and ready to be enjoyed.
As you might've noticed when checking the front page (yes, it's finally updated!) I got a few important additions to my current electronic equipment. Let's take a look at each devise more closely.
ARTcessories HeadAmp V.
At the moment I'm attached to using headphones because otherwise the sound will wake up all my relatives and I won't be able to play games, watch anime, and listen to the music at night.
Until now I used a switch from line cables to mini-jack and I attached my
headphones right to the cables. It works actually but this way you can't
adjust the volume. In fact, you can adjust it using in-game options but even
if you set maximum volume the sound is still faint.
Now I solved with problem with this device. Of course the amplifier is very
cheap (just over $130) but it works perfectly. Line inputs and a jack for
output is just what one needs.
So, as you can see, an amplifier in this case is a must have because it allows you to adjust volume to any level you please instantly. I'm very happy with this purchase and I find it extremely useful. It highly increased my comfort.
Canon PowerShot A480.
You know that I like to take screenshots. Back in November 2009 when I
was playing Dream Club I accidentally smashed my HP 715, a very old camera
that I've been using till the very last moment. It fell to the floor lens
first. The lens is intact but I broke the zoom mechanism. So instead of
repairing it I bought this dirt-cheap camera. It generally produces nasty
photos but its better that nothing. Unfortunately I can't show you the
photo of the camera itself because I'm taking pictures with it but all the
photos on this page are made with this very camera.
To test it I took a couple of pictures of my laptop display. The wallpaper
should look familiar to you.
NEC MutliSync LCD 2490WUXi2.
This is what I wished for for a long while. To have a display that can produce HD with high quality. Surprisingly but my old Sony CRT does support 1080p but the result is deplorable to say the least. In contrast, this display is superb. The picture quality is outstanding.
First, it's much more comfortable to use a 24 screen instead of the 16 display of my laptop. And then, I can easily attach my xbox 360 with awesome results, I'll talk about xbox in more detail just a little bit later. If you ask me why I chose NEC I'll tell you that this is the only affordable model I could find. To compare local prices with normal ones I checked Sofmap and I found out that Apple Cinema Display costs only 98 thousand yen in Japan while in Moscow it's sold for almost 2k dollars. In such circumstances NEC looked much more appealing. It cost me around $1200.
The only drawback I've found so far is a slight grain effect which is visible on white or any other bright background. My laptop display doesnt have this effect. Other than that, the display is close to perfect.
I've already tested my Xbox 360 with it and I was deeply impressed. For the first 10 minutes I literally sit with jaw open. The same games feel completely different. Its like another dimension. I cant imagine how I lived without this monitor. And I can assuredly say that it's a great display to use with both PC and consoles.
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Keep in mind that it's not the last update on this page. I plan to add a new report with pictures once I get two new packages from Hong Kong. I think it should happen in 3-5 days. Hopefully we'll meet here again soon.
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1-16-2010
Hello again! I finally got my package which was supposed to arrive last year. I tell you now because I immediately started playing and was too busy to come up with the update.
Heres what I got.
What's inside? An extremely useful thing a 60 gb hard disk. It's sold with some old game demos installed on it.
Beside the device itself the contents include a wired headset, a lan cable which I don't need and Live Gold subscription for 3 months (or as Japanese write 3 month). The HDD is the official Japanese version, comes with nice instructions and all. I had pleasantly surprised to know that its very easy to attach it to xbox. You just put it on top of it and the disk is ready to be used.
I downloaded a pack of demos from Xbox Live. My connection turned out to be fast enough to get them quickly. I use ADSL and get 600 mb in 5 minutes. Howevery every now and then I experience problems connecting to Xbox Live. Yesterday it kept telling me that it's impossible to set up the connection for 30 minutes. At some point however, it finally connected and worked perfectly. I don't know how to explain these delays. Beside the hard disk I got
IDOLM@STER Live for You! (アイドルマスター ライブフォーユー!)
and
お姉チャンバラ vorteX 〜忌血を継ぐ者たち〜
I played 'Onee-champon' back when I was actively using my PS2 and I enjoyed the game. So I decided to get another game of this series. But I haven't checked it yet. There's actually Futaba Riho, who appears as guest in Dream Club because you know, the publisher of both games is the same.
Next I got a code for 3500 'maikurosofuto pointo' and downloaded two songs which I like a lot. They are Colorful Days and Kirame Kirari (1200 mp each, that is) right away. I couldnt miss them. The visuals in Live for You! are incredible. Chose Iori first (Hello again! Long time no see since the original im@s).
And don't forget that one more package is yet to arrive.
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And finally, the package with RH Singles &・・・arrived on January, 20.
The story is like that. I like her song, 大スキ!, it's only that I didn't
know it was hers, I found it on one of im@s CDs, and it was Haruka (aka
Nakamura Eriko)'s song. But I didn't have the original and I decided to get
the disc.
Finding it was a bit of a problem though because it's a century old (11
years to be precise). I tried to search amazon.jp but to no avail. So I
checked ebay and hopefully a Chinese person from Hong Kong had it.
The CD is finally here.
Now that I look at it, the CD is from the last century but its quality is outstanding. You can't help but think that people could indeed do nice things even when we didn't have HDTV and high-speed connection. The CD goes with a booklet with photos and lyrics and theres also a separate bonus booklet with photos of awesome quality.
Ah, and you can see Ryoko-san in the movie called "Wasabi" (feat. Jean Reno) where she speaks French! I took the DVD from the shelf for the occasion.
You'll find mp3s, the translation of "daisuki", and a complete set of scans (of horrible quality because my scanner is about the same age as the CD) if you follow this link.
Thank you for your attention.
in 1024X768 Resolution