I recently started gathering ideas for a new version of GamerBar 360 offering greater flexibility in sizes and features. When and if that’ll ever happen is still up in the air. I have a habit of getting a good idea, starting it and then get bored. We’ll see.

I’ve tried almost 10 different converters. DVD Fab and DVDShrink are my main apps to get the DVD to the hard drive, but you still need something to convert it to a format that the Xbox 360 and either the Zune software or Media Center recognize.

I think I found my answer in HandBrake. Fairly simple to use. Has presets for the most common applications – especially Xbox 360. Just select what you’re format your aiming for and let it go. In about an hour or two, you’ll have about a 1.5gb movie file ready to stream to your Xbox. I wish there was something faster. If you know of a free, simple solution that’s fast, let me know.

I tested out one movie last night and it look really good. I don’t think I could have told the difference between the actual DVD and the streamed copy.

I network my 360′s wirelessly over 802.1g, so occasionally I had a few hiccups – but I think that may have been from my system chewing on converting a few other movies. If it becomes problematic I may consider running a cable to go direct – but that involves getting into the attic to drop the line, etc… not sure I want to do that.

Where does the 500gb hard drive come into play? I’ve been patiently waiting for hard drives to come down in price and ideally I would have liked to pick a 500gb external for $50 I don’t think it would have happened, so I managed to pick one up for about $73 through Staples.com. Based on a tip from FatWallet.com I found a Maxtor 500gb external drive for $95. I bought a $25 off $75 coupon code for about $1 and BANG! $75. Not bad.

I currently have a 160gb external that I built for about $20 but that’s starting to run low on space with the amount of music I’ve been scarfing up lately so I need some extra headroom if I’m going to start dumping movies. 500gb should tide me over.

The best part (beside the food)? We got certificates to buy stuff from the MS employee store at employee discounts. Even though we had a one time limit of $200, I only spent about $80 (including shipping). But managed to pick up two 512mb memory units for the 360 ($20/each), Lost Odyssey ($25), and Viva Piñata: Party Animals ($10). There really wasn’t much else that I wanted there.

I’m done spending my $500 gift card. I need to save it for the rest of the year’s games.

Since my local Target had virtual crap for games, I ended up with Thrillville -$20 (kids wanted it), Mortal Combat Ultimate – $10, and 1600 MS Points – $20; all for $15 after $35 worth of coupons. I plan on making a run to Appleton’s Target to see if I can score any more stuff. I’m thinking Timeshift, some more points and maybe Dark Sector. We’ll see.

Best of all… didn’t cost me a dime. I had about $13 on Target gift cards, so I only used about $2 of my $500 gift card. Sweet!

[UPDATE: 6.8]

I hit my Appleton, WI Target last night and managed to pickup Lego’s Indiana Jones ($50) and Timeshift ($20) for $45. It’s like I got Timeshift for free and saved $5 on Indiana. Total bill was $70 – $5 – $10 – $10 = $45.

Can’t wait to get it.

[UPDATE: 6.4.08]

Lucky me. I scored $10 off NG2 at Best Buy because the couldn’t get my product to me in 1min. Pretty sweet. So I since I saved $10 I picked up Lost Planet - Colonies Edition (also had a 10% off coupon). So I made out pretty good.

Next on the list: Unreal Tournament 3.

First major strike will be Ninja Gaiden 2 which comes out June 3. Can’t wait!

Bogus savings. I recently got my bill to find that the $89 package deal wasn't real. I was misquoted on the services. As it turns out, I'm only saving a paltry $7 a month. Hardly anything to shake a stick at. But it doesn't hurt to call up and ask for a better rate.] 

Recently I just came off a year long promotional pricing on my Phone/Internet/Cable from Time Warner. I saved about $15/mo last year. This year… I got a much healthier discount.  Base cost of all three services from Time Warner was about $135 (non-promotional and doesn’t include taxes, fees, and equipment). I knew it was time to call and see what promotion I can get under to reduce my bill. After being placed on hold for a moment or two, the rep came back and said, “… seeing that you have all 3 of our services, we can offer you all three for $89 for the next 2 years”. My jaw nearly hit the floor! Sign me up!!! So I’m saving nearly $50/mo on my Phone/Internet/Cable for the next 2 years – Nearly $1000. Not too shabby.

So, don’t be afraid and call your service providers and ask for a better rate and keep track of when it starts and ends. You may just save a few bucks.

The math: Overlord($19.99) – Google Checkout($10) + free shipping = $9.99

Not to bad of a deal. I had rented this game a while back. The kids and I had a pretty good time with it but didn’t feel the need to blow $40 or whatever on it. But for $10 – it’s a pretty good deal.

Still looking for Blue Dragon. I’m perusing through the CheapAssGamer.com trading boards and putting some offers out there. We’ll see. eBay doesn’t seem very viable since everyone’s raping you on shipping. I hate that.

So I do some digging on the web and although I can find tools and bits, in general they aren’t going to fit down those stupid narrow holes on the controller.

Further searching lead me to DecalGirl.com who had the exact tool needed for the job. The sell skins for just about anything, Xbox 360, Guitar Hero guitars, Nintendo DS, etc… plus controller shells. I was real tempted to order some guitar skins but had to hold off. I’m sure my boys would love to get some DS skins.

So I fired off an order for the tool; $7 with shipping and now I wait.

So if you need to open that controller or skin our iPod, Zune, or Xbox head over to DecalGirl.com. I’m glad I did.

Thinking it was my video card, I ran around trying to find an AGP based video card. Landing at a local PC shop I plopped down $70 and ran home to slap it in.  Nothing. I got the same results. The box turns on, the fans whir up but that’s it. Bubkis. I tried everything; re-seat the CPU, pull the memory, un hook everything… nothing.

My only thought was that it was either the motherboard or CPU. Digging around NewEgg.com, I discover that if I upgrade either one… I’m screwed. I’d need new memory, video card, etc… No point in blowing $300 for a band-aid.

I’ve built my own computer for nearly 15 years. I’ve never purchased a retail system. I’ve sold them and even had a very small custom PC business. It’s not that I didn’t like retail systems… I just liked getting my hands dirty. I like custom building stuff. But this time, I think the state of the industry caught up to me. It’s fine if you just need to swap out a component but when you’re dealing with the motherboard or processor, that’s major.

So I broke down and found a fairly decent Dell. We don’t game on it (that’s why we have 2 Xbox 360′s), but mainly web, email, music, video – pretty standard stuff). I splurged on a 22″ Widescreen Samsung LCD monitor (just like I did for my Mom when she bought her’s recently); something I was going to buy anyways once I got my $2000 in gift cards (whenever that  happens). I compared a few other configurations and this was probably the best of both worlds. I ended up blowing about $760.

So about a week or so I’ll have a band spanking new system. Money that I really didn’t want to spend – but life works like that… here’s hoping my tax return is hefty.