Despite his vast knowledge of video games, Stephen Totilo is, it appears, a television newb. That's right, he owns a (gasp) SDTV.

Valiant in the face of overwhelming odds, Totilo went looking for kindred spirits on the cusp of Microsoft's big HDMI announcement.

He found an unlikely ally in Epic's Mark Rein:

"The amount of crap that can go on in the scene isn't defined by the monitor, it's defined by the graphics capabilities," he said. "I think Microsoft made a mistake when they tied Xbox 360 so much into HD TV. What they should have done — it's complicated jargon, but they should have talked about high-definition visuals and high-definition TVs as separate things. Yes, the high-definition TV will improve the look of the high-definition visuals, but you still get much higher-definition visuals on Xbox 360 than you do on Xbox or PS2. Much higher."

After that Rein started to spiral down into technical jargon and talk of down-sampling, losing both Totilo and my interest.

There's much more involving windows, Gears of War and ancient televisions over on Totilo's site. Me? I'm a big-screen high-def kinda guy. Mostly because I happened to be finishing our basement and needed a big TV to fill the entertainment center.

I do sort of agree. While a standard picture looks like crap on my big-ass TV, I suspect that's because it's so big. High-def looks like normal def to me when seen on a big screen. What do you think? Brian Crecente

Mark Rein says I'm right and Microsoft "made a mistake" [Player Two]

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