The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online Thursday, May 17 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss recent reviews and answer your personal tech questions.

Read today's colum: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602762.html

A transcript follows.

Read Rob's latest tech tips in his new blog, Faster Forward.

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Rob Pegoraro: It's been a busy week--I had a column all set to go about the Treo 755p (as many of you had guessed after seeing my blog post on Tuesday), and then we decided to set that aside so I could write about Amazon's MP3-store announcement--and take stock of the amazing turnabout in the overall digital-music market we're now seeing.

I see we've got plenty of questions on that, and also on things like HDTV, HD Radio, Windows and Mac debugging and all the usual good stuff. Let's get to it...

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Bethesda, Md.: I sent this to you via e-mail, but I may have gotten your address wrong (I used washingtonpost.com instead of washpost.com for the domain), so here it is again: What about all the music files I've already purchased from the iTunes store - will they be unlocked somehow, and playable on other music players, such as cell phones? Thanks a lot, and thanks for the clearly written, informative work you do for all of us.

Rob Pegoraro: Right, I'm at washpost.com, not washingtonpost.com. Apple says that once the DRM-free songs become available on iTunes, you'll be able to pay 30 cents a song to trade in existing purchases to the new, higher-quality, un-"protected" format; it will also provide some sort of one-click upgrade tool, so you don't need to go through your library and find songs from the labels that have chosen to offer the no-DRM option.

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Falls Church, Va.: Sites like Limewire and eDonkey must be dancing with glee over the demise of DRM protection. It would be interesting to see a follow-up story from you as to whether file-sharing traffic spikes after so much more music becomes freely available for copying.

Rob Pegoraro: Right, because every other song sold so far has been so tightly wrapped in DRM. I mean, think about how hard it is to get a digital copy of a song off a CD... WHAT? THERE'S NO DRM ON AUDIO CDS AT ALL?

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Bethesda, Md.: Your chat is up against Chuck Liddell right now. Are you scared? I think you should get a mohawk like him. You would be sooooooo cool.

Rob Pegoraro: And I also have to compete against the Going Out Gurus and a "Lost" chat--not to mention the Nats game. (Ryan Church just hit a ground-rule double to put Ryan Zimmerman on third with nobody out... nope, Austin Kearns struck out. Braves still up 2-0 in the 4th.)

At least I'm not scheduled in the same time slot as Weingarten!

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Takoma Park, Md.: Rob, Have you ever heard of LCD TVs developing screen burn lines? My eight month old Sharp 32" has a thin black vertical line on the right-hand side of the screen, exactly where the 4:3 viewing area turns into black sidebar. The line is visible in widescreen programming (HDTV and DVDs).

I normally watch standard definition TV in the Sidebar viewing mode (4:3) because I think the Stretch mode (16:9) for standard def is ugly and distorting. But why would a TV manufacturer create a Sidebar view mode if it leads to permanent damage on the screen? Am I right to ask for a replacement TV from Sharp? Thanks for your input.

Rob Pegoraro: It's possible, but really hard, to have burn-in develop on an LCD. You need to leave the same image on the screen for a really long time--the only other instance I've heard of was described to me by an engineer at ABC News.

This can, I'm told, be corrected--see this tech-support article from Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88343

(Nats score on a single by Tony Batista. Braves 2, Nats 1. Just in case anybody's curious.)

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Itunes/Ipod issue: When you download songs from itunes, you're only authorized to play those songs on 5 computers. My question is, is there a why to unauthorize a computer for playing your songs? I've recently got a new computer at work and I want to unauthorize the old one.

My second question is, when I go to a website that has a podcast or song, how do I download that podcast to add it to my itunes library? I've tried right clicking on the quicktime file as it plays but it appears that I have to download/buy an application to get this to work. Help! (Love the chat!)

Rob Pegoraro: Yup, it's right under the Store menu in your copy of iTunes.

To download the podcast, right-click the link that leads you to that page with the QuickTime icon, and select the save-link-to-disk command.

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Arlington, Va.: I know you recommend "stand by," rather than "shut down" mode, but how does "hibernate" differ? And, is it a wise move to kill the power completely and disconnect the equipment from the wall outlet when leaving for an extended period (a week or more)?

Rob Pegoraro: Hibernate is a deeper sort of sleep, in which the contents of memory are written to a file on the hard disk and the computer shuts down almost completely. It takes longer to wake up from this mode--it's not worth using most of the time. (In Vista, it's basically been hidden; the computer will only hibernate after being in sleep mode for a long enough time.)

Yes, unplug the computer if you'll be away for a week or more. That way, you're not drawing any power at all--computers use a few watts when plugged in, even when they're shut off--and eliminate the odds of a power surge or lightning strike coming through the wiring to take out the machine.

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falls church, va.: trying to resolve an apparent aol-vista connection problem and getting no effective help so far from severals days of phone calls to microsoft, gateway, vista, verizon and aol

Rob Pegoraro: Focus on AOL--they made the software, and it's their obligation to support you as a paying customer. Also, the odds are really high that the fault is somewhere in the AOL software, one of the older and uglier things you'll find on any PC these days. (My general advice to anybody using AOL's software is "stop"--there are far better options out there that have seem some useful updates over the past couple of years. At the very least, move up to AOL's OpenRide program.)

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Tampa, Fla.: RE maintaining old TiBooks: I use--and love--my 4 1/2 year old Mac G4 TiBook. But the battery is going (it runs down in about 30 minutes). When I replace it (and do you have any recommendations), should I also try to buy an extra one, or an extra AC adapter? My AC adapter works fine, but I'm worried about failing later and not finding any available for sale. Apple Care replaced the hard drive about 1 1/2 years ago, and it seems fine. Any suggestions, short of replacing it?

Rob Pegoraro: Just get the new battery. Considering the number of titanium PowerBooks sold, I'm sure people will be making accessories for them for years.

(This reminds me of a funny story: Years ago, my wife and I saw a show at the Ram's Head Tavern in Annapolis. The opening act was this skinny singer-songwriter who, in between two songs, rhapsodized onstage about his new titanium PowerBook. This guy was John Mayer--who has since gone on to make several appearances at Apple's Macworld trade shows to help Steve Jobs demo things like the Garage Band program.)

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Glen Allen, Va.:"WHAT? THERE'S NO DRM ON AUDIO CDS AT ALL? "

"Real" Red Book CD's no; but let us not forget Sony's little rootkit fiasco. I don't think the music industry is going to stop trying to "lock" CDs.

Rob Pegoraro: Oh, I think they will. None of those DRM-ed CDs actually worked at their assigned task, and they've caused such massive blowback... even by the standards of some Hollywood executives, you'd have to be extraordinarily stupid to keep banging your head against this particular wall.

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Re Takoma: What about a Plasma Tv and burnin? I have a Visio plasma and watching standard tv there are bars on either side of the picture. When I go to HDTV it fills up the full screen but you can kinda see where the bars are. I saw Apple suggest the full white background but it says to leave up for the same about of time the original was up. Does it really take that long?

Rob Pegoraro: This is a much more substantial--but in most cases, not permanent--problem on plasma TVs. It's more accurately called "temporary image retention"; I've seen it happen after hooking a computer up to a plasma TV and leaving one program on the screen--for instance, Windows Media Player or Apple's Front Row--for an hour or so. It usually goes away after another hour or so of watching other programming, but it can be distracting in the meantime.

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Jack, Arlington, Va.: I run VISTA Premium on a DELL dual processor. 1 GB memory. the windows Firewall allows me to use the internet but keeps being turned off by something. Every time I go to the internet I have to reset the firewall. Weird! I also run Microsoft ONE. I like the program, but when I turn the ONE firewall on I cannot use the the internet no mater how I set it. I thin ONE is turning off the Windows Firewall because the ONE is red meaning unprotected. How can a current Microsoft program not be integrated with Vista. I also run Office 2007 pro. That runs fine. could I have a trojan virus. My virus in ONE runs OK, A get no strange messages. I generally just go to a fixed set of sites. with ONE's firewall cannot get outside the computer. Any thoughts?

Rob Pegoraro: I think you're talking about the OneCare Live security service, right? I would try deactivating all of OneCare except for its anti-virus component, then letting the firewall built into Vista take over.

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falls church, va.: here are the specifics of that earlier question re Vista/aol

We purchased a new wireless Gateway MX8734 notebook computer, with a Vista operating system, from a Best Buy store on May 11. Our intention was to use it primarily for email via AOL.

We have been trying repeatedly but unsuccessfully since then to connect it to AOL broadband service. Multiple calls to AOL, Verizon and Gateway have not resolved the problem.

Basic internet connectivity is not an issue: We can connect to the internet via Internet Explorer. In fact, we can sign on to AOL on a guest basis.

Signing on as AOL current members (of 10 years' continued paying status) is another matter. We continue to get a message saying we have too little memory to do so.

The message seems erroneous. A Gateway technician walked us through a memory diagnostics test that revealed no problems with the system and its one gig of RAM. Using the task manager to stop all computer processes except for a handful of vital ones does not make a difference; the low memory message still shows up.

To get around the roadblock, successive AOL technicians have had us uninstall and reinstall the AOL 9.0 Vista Ready that was pre-loaded into the computer. When that didn't work, they tried to replace it with a version from a disc and then with one down loaded from the AOL web site, but with no luck despite several attempts.

One or two other approaches were tried by other AOL technicians. When they also failed, we were told on Saturday that our problem had been reported to another level of tech support which would resolve it within 24-48 hours. (We would not be notified of this but we could keep checking to see if it had happened,)

After that amount of time had passed, we attempted to sign on to AOL on Monday, only to get the same memory error message. Uninstalling and reinstalling AOL led to the same result. Another call to AOL on Monday produced assurances that the problem was under consideration by that other level of tech support and another day or so of waiting might be necessary.

That time, too, has passed but the basic question remains: Can anyone there fix what looks like an AOL or AOL-Vista problem? Tom

Rob Pegoraro: I have to ask--*which* AOL broadband service? That company has had so many different broadband strategies (none successful), it's hard to keep track of them all.

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Raleigh, N.C.: I run Windows XP Serv Pack 2. I often get a warning box that Windows must close(the browser IE 7), sorry for the inconvenience. I clicked the more information button, but the only info I can identify as the reason has to do with ADOBE. Any ideas how to remedy this problem? I have no clue what triggers this?

Rob Pegoraro: I've seen this problem too! IE 7 under Vista is the least reliable version of Internet Explorer that I've seen in years. On the Vista machine I've been testing stuff on, I finally gave up and made Firefox the default browser instead, and I suggest you do the same.

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Clifton, Va.: Have had FIOS internet and TV for about a month now. Now problems at all. FIOS TV provides a slightly better SD and a much better HDTV picture than Cox, Directv and Dish. Sound is much better than the others not as compressed with better highs, deeper bass if its there and a more natural soundstage for both music and sound effect for movies. Close to Blu Ray in picture and sound quality, equal to HDTV disc picture and sound quality in HD. With SD picture is equal to DVD and sound almost as good. Note FIOS offers more digital channels like some the various History and Discovery channels that aren't offered in digital by Directv. Cheaper than all of the above before discounts.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the detailed report, Clifton!

Nats 1, Braves 3, guys on 1st and 3rd with two outs in the bottom of the 6th.

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Camp Springs, Md.: The images on my 3 year old 17 inch Viewsonic lcd tv have begun to appear dark on some stations. Most times after the TV is on for 1-2 hours, the images on all of the stations appear okay. I paid $599 for this TV. What's going on? Is it worth the repair, or should I replace it?

Rob Pegoraro: I'd at least ask somebody to take a look at the screen. (Is it still in warranty?) LCDs in general are reliable; it's a known, tested technology.

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Downingtown, Pa.: Rob,... You do a great job. A question regarding over-the-air digital reception: My analogue signal is fine, but only with an signal amplifier. Will I need a different amplifier for digital? If so, am I right to assume it should have at least the same gain?

Rob Pegoraro: I would think so. You're about 30 miles from Center City, right? (That's what the Gmap Pedometer site says.) You'd probably still need the amplifier... but maybe not. I've heard of people tuning in DTV from this distance without any such help.

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Atlanta, Ga.: How come you won't tell us when the BRAVES score runs? Information wants to be free!

Rob Pegoraro: What, are you nervous about losing another game to the worst team in the NL? :)

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Boonsboro, Md.: My XP PC has Norton Security center that is constantly popping up annoying messages. Do I really need all this 'protection' or can I just let the subscription expire?

Rob Pegoraro: You need anti-virus protection from *somewhere,* but that somewhere doesn't have to be Norton Internet Security (which I, too, find to be overbearing and a drag on the computer in general). You could cut back to just Symantec's Norton AntiVirus or use somebody else's anti-virus tool; I've been partial to the free AVG for a while myself.

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Rockville, Md.: Rob - I'm trying to buy a new laptop, of the thin and light variety, I've been out of the loop for a while and am stuck trying to figure out which processor is better - Intel Dual Core or Intel Core 2 Duo. Any insight? Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: The Core 2 Duo *is* a dual-core processor--"dual core" is just a generic term for any chip that includes two processing units instead of the usual one.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi, Rob. Do you have a recommendation for a digital camera that works well in a low-light environment? Will primarily be used for taking pictures of baby/young child, but house is dark/shadowy. We have an older model Cannon PowerShot that struggles with the light issues. Thanks very much.

Rob Pegoraro: I can't recommend one model, but I can recommend two features you'd want on any new camera. One's an autofocus illumnitator--a little orange lamp that shines to help the camera focus. (Odds are your Canon has that already.) The other is optical image stabilization, which will allow you to take steady shots over longer exposures by moving the lens or the sensor automatically to compensate for any movement of the camera itself.

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Fairfax, Va.: Re: Takoma Park... I have that thin black line too. It has nothing to do with your display. The feed coming into your house places a 4:3 image on your TV flanked on either side by blanks (usually grey). Oftentimes, those blanks do not fill the entire space between the image and the side of your TV, thus the thin lines between the image and the blanks. The only way to get rid of it is to ask your provider to see if they can adjust the size of the blanks (firmware upgrade for your box), but it is unlikely to happen because it's an equipment issue, not a service issue.

The lines don't bother me too much because I usually stretch to 16:9 or just watch the program in HD.

Rob Pegoraro: Good point... could be an over- or underscan issue, where the TV's native resolution exceeds or falls just short of the resolution of the HD picture. Thanks, Fairfax.

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Jack, Arlington, Va.: AOL on VISTA

Try running with firewell off. I have COX internet and I run VISTA Premium on a DELL and have no problems with the vista firewall on low. I run AOL 9. You can get to aol through Internet explorer and that may be a way, your passwords will work.

Rob Pegoraro: You can adjust the firewall settings to make sure parts of AOL aren't getting blocked--but do not turn the whole thing off. You are begging to get hacked if you do that.

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wiredog: Gotta say, I've been very happy with my Mac. But I noticed it has some of the same problems (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2123848,00.asp) Dvorak complains about with Windows. I run FileVault and sometimes it decided it has to reclaim some excess space while shutting down. No problem, except that it asks before doing so. Annoying to come home from work and discover that the Mac has been sitting there, waiting for a response, for 9 or 10 hours.

Why can't they hang a timer on those boxes, with a default answer that kicks in after a timer expires. I'm a programmer and, trust me, timeouts are easy to implement.

Another issue is that, when Mac automounts a CF card it automatically puts a ".Trash" directory on there. Fine, until I put in the CF card I'm taking to the photo lab and put all the files I want printed on to the CF card. The software for the kiosks at the photo printer places hasn't been updated by Kodak in a few years, and it has problems, bad ones, with dot files and dot directories. Fortunately I know the command line, so it's easy to get rid of those files and directories before I remove the CF card.

Ah well, if it was a perfect world we wouldn't need tech columnists, would we?

Rob Pegoraro: The dot-files that OS X leaves behind on Windows disks are a real nuisance--I deal with this whenever I move a USB key from Mac to PC or vice versa. Wish there were some way to stop OS X from creating them... I've seen tips for how to solve this problem on a networked drive, but not a removable drive. Any suggestions?

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Alex, Va.: Hi Rob,

Do you think the DRM-free downloads from iTunes and Amazon will hurt business for emusic? Paying 25 cents per song with no DRM always seemed like a pretty good trade-off for the subscription model and limited selection, but seems less appealing when there are subscription-free alternatives.

Rob Pegoraro: Great question. I'd suspect that eMusic would still be fine, though--it's going to have a huge price advantage relative to iTunes, and probably Amazon as well.

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falls church, va.: not sure how to answer your "which aol broadband service" question.

it's just labeled broadband and we get it via verizon fiber optics lines for our desktops. the new notebook, with which we are having the connection problem, is wireless.

Rob Pegoraro: OK... well, do you actually use any parts of AOL besides e-mail? If not, here's what you have to do: Uninstall the AOL software--all of it. Then check your AOL mail at AOL's Web site, or set up any e-mail program (the Windows Mail that comes with Vista, or the free Mozilla Thunderbird) to get your AOL mail. Here's how to do that: http://www.postmaster.aol.com/imap/index.html

This will get your problem solved faster than any amount of fussing with the AOL program--and you'll also be using some vaguely current software instead of a badly-maintained relic of the 1990s.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob, There was an interesting article in the Real Estate section a week or two ago about how long various items are supposed to last - even though many are replaced earlier because of changing taste.

I wonder if you've ever seen anything similar for electronics. What made me think of this was that I asked you in your last chat about an Airport Extreme that I'm not getting a great signal from (I think its a first generation model) and your suggestion was to get the newest version. Its on my to do list but what burns me is that the version I have is only 9 months old. I know technology is obsolete as soon as its created but I expect it to work for longer than 9 months without having to replace it! Even my cable modem lasted 4 years before biting the dust.

Just a thought - I know things aren't meant to last forever - nor would I ever want them to but this to me seems a bit crazy!

Rob Pegoraro: Two different issues--mechanical reliability versus the progress of technology. Your AirPort should continue to function for years on end; there aren't any moving parts in it to wear out. But if some newer wireless technology comes around, you might want to upgrade anyway and hawk the old model on eBay... I mean, through the Post classifieds!

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Tempe, Ariz.: Hello, Rob! First I wanted to thank you for your tips a month or two ago on buying an LCD TV - I now own a gorgeous 32" Samsung LCD and I'm thrilled with it.

My new question is about my Compaq Presario 2200 laptop, which I've had almost 3 years (ancient, I know). Recently, when I power it on, the keyboard doesn't work, but works fine after I restart. What do you think is going on? Is there any way to know without opening it up whether it's a bad keyboard or just a bad keyboard connection? The fact that it works fine upon restart is puzzling me. I know that it's probably on its last legs, but I'd really like to get another 6 months out of it if I can. Thank you!

Rob Pegoraro: And speaking of reliability...

I'm not sure what to tell you here. This definitely sounds like a physical/mechanical fault, but the only way to know for sure would be to test it under another operating system--pop in a Linux liveCD and boot off that, then see if the keyboard responds. Not the quickest thing to do, but at least you'd know for sure.

A good computer store should at least be able to take a quick look at the keyboard to see if anything appears amiss, also... but I can't recommend any in Tempe.

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Millville, N.J.: I am glad to see the demise of DRM with music downloads. I see Apple as being able to benefit greatly. In your article, you suggest that this could lead customers to demand the same with movies. Yet, I think the two industries are different in their circumstances. The music labels are desperate to staunch bleeding CD sales with digital downloads, while most Wal-Mart shoppers seem to have no problem buying DRM-encrusted DVDs by the boatload. How do you see the studios, in their stronger position, losing their fight to hold on to DRM?

I know Youtube is out there, but it doesn't seem it's legal position is yet clear, as the studios continue to ask it to remove content.

Rob Pegoraro: The encrustation--great word, BTW!--of DRM on DVDs is really, really thin. If you want to copy a DVD to your hard drive, you can (try HandBrake or DVD Decrypter, for instance).

Also, this DRM doesn't prevent you from reselling or giving DVDs to friends, while the DRM on music downloads does prohibit that.

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Someone up there loves me...: I don't care how good FIOS is - you'll have to pry NFL Sunday Ticket and MLB Extra Innings from my cold dead hands before I'd give that up for marginally better HD picture and sound. (Or at least until FIOS or someone else can offer a package that can even touch that for a sports fan from another city).

Rob Pegoraro: DirecTV has done a very good job of signing these exclusive deals--though I'd argue that NFL and MLB hurt themselves by making it harder for fans to watch the games they want. Curt Schilling had a great entry about this on his blog (38pitches.com) a month or so ago.

Nats 3, Braves 3--Dmitri "Meathook" Young singles in Jesus Flores.

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Bethesda, Md.: Great news about iTunes having that "for 30 cents more, unlock your old purchased songs" option. Thanks for answering my earlier post. New question: I think I read that you can in fact place iTunes protected AAC files on other players. Supposedly, all you have to do is burn the songs to a CD, but choose a different format (like .wav or .mp3 or something) for the burned copy. Is this true? Can it really be that easy? Somehow I doubt it....

Rob Pegoraro: It's true and it is almost that easy--you have to burn an audio CD, then re-rip that in the format of your choice. That's why you can find iTunes-exclusive songs on peer-to-peer networks.

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Barboursville, Va.: A few months back I downloaded IE7 upgrade from MS onto a secondary desktop machine, a 2005 HP running XP. Worked fine briefly but now whenever I dial-in on that machine IE7 just runs mad, opening an endless chain of tabs, paralyzing the machine. Any way to tell if this is an IE update issue or if there was some malware that snuck past my Norton Internet suite, (which is not the freshest version)?

Rob Pegoraro: I've heard of many different IE 7 problems but not that one, Barboursville. (Excellent winery there, BTW.) Have you scanned your machine with a newer anti-spyware utility?

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Tempe, Ariz.: Thanks Rob. When I reread my question, I realized that it sounds like the dead keyboard problem happens every time I turn it on. In reality, it only happens maybe 1 out of 10 or 20 times I turn it on, and that makes me think it's probably a bad connection or a short since it's unpredictable. I guess I'll start calling around to computer places, though I hate to sink a couple hundred bucks into a laptop I want to replace soon anyway. Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Yup, that's much more likely to be a mechanical issue. When software breaks, it tends to stay broken instead of mysteriously fixing itself.

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Wireless connections/networks: Rob, Since I live in a townhome community, I notice that I can get lots of people's wireless networks to run the internet. However, I am using my own. I am wondering if all these wireless connections could be slowing down my internet response time? Also most folks do not secure their wireless network so anybody can tap in. They should really secure them. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: They'd only slow down your connection if you all use the same Internet provider and if everybody jumps online at the same time. Correct about the utility of securing these connections--but, hey, at least you've got backup options if your ISP conks out.

... and the Nats now lead 4-3, as a Felipe Lopez triple sends Cristian Guzman home.

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Lake Ridge, Va.: What's your take on Comcast's $99 bundle of cable tv, internet, and phone. They claim the phone service is better sound quality than regular VOIP. Also, will VOIP work with ADT security system?

Rob Pegoraro: That's only $99/month during a promotional period. Make sure you get the price once that offer expires--you might find that it's cheaper over time to keep using separate providers.

I'm not a fan in general of these all-in-one packages, for two different reasons:

1) They all assume that more is better, but I don't actually do any real voice calling on my home phone; paying extra for unlimited calling is meaningless to me.

2) Once you're locked in to one company for all of these services, it's that much harder to change service later on.

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Re: reliability: I want things to work perfectly all the time, every time, and I will not settle for anything less.

That's why the only things I own are a Honda Civic and a medium-sized rock.

Rob Pegoraro: I don't mean to discourage you, but there's this thing called erosion...

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St. Pete, Fla.: Rob - I just wanted to commend you for knowing that downtown Philly is called "Center City." So, do you also know where I can get a decent cheesesteak in the Tampa Bay area?

Rob Pegoraro: My family used to live outside of Philly a while back... I'd help you with your food request, but I still haven't found the best cheesesteak option around D.C.

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Rosslyn, Va.: Just thought I'd offer up this link for people that have questions about what HDTV antenna to buy. It's intended to help with outdoor antenna placement but it's helpful because it will display a map that shows your address and the direction the different stations are broadcasting from: http://www.antennaweb.org/

Rob Pegoraro: The antennaweb site is good, but in my experience it's ridiculously conservative in its estimates. It won't even suggest indoor antennas, although they'll work fine in a lot of places (like Rosslyn, for instance)... take its advice with several large grains of salt.

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Frederick, Md.: Rob, speaking of digital music, I'm borderline obsessed on what an apparent total flop, bust, abject failure, etc. the Zune has been. I have NEVER seen one actually in use by someone, and find this mind-boggling given it's MS, the time they invested in 'doing it right', and the ad budget. Is MS hard at work on a better 2G version or are they just going to throw in the towel? And while I have your attention, give us an iPod forecast six months out. 100GB? Smaller? New products, features? Thanks, as always.

Rob Pegoraro: I still haven't seen a Zune in the wild either; the only time I've seen one this entire year was at a Microsoft demo earlier this week.

My iPod forecast calls for major jumps in capacity for the shuffle and nano--both because it's now possible and because those DRM-free files will be twice as big as the old kind. I would not be shocked if the nano gained a video-playback option either.

I'm not so sure about the full-size, video-capable iPod. Its storage capacity can only increase, but how much? Some of this will depend on what Apple does with iTunes video downloads--if, as a lot of people seem to expect, it starts offering HD downloads off iTunes, will we see a video iPod with a bigger screen, or just the addition of an HD-capable video output?

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Tina in Falls Church: I will probably have to replace my beloved 36" Sony tv (15 yrs old). The picture tube is probably shot. I do not need HD, home theatre, surround sound. I do not have a fancy stereo system that has to be hooked in. I just need a good tv. I have FIOS tv service.It will sit on a tv stand and I watch it from an angle in bed. I do not want a wall mount. Any suggestions? Is it realistic to get something for 800-900 in a similar viewing size screen? Uggggg, I do not want to do this but what's a gal gonna do? Yikes, I'm overwhelmed. Thanks, Tina

Rob Pegoraro: A 36 or 37-in. screen for $800 or $900 is completely feasible. You could get a CRT--but it will weigh something like 200 pounds and won't cost that much less than an LCD.

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Takoma Park again: Rob and Fairfax,

Thanks for your help. However, my line shows up ONLY in programming with the 16:9 ratio. I don't see it at all in 4:3 programming. That's what makes it really annoying - it shows up on the highest-quality images precisely because I used the Sidebar mode to watch low-quality images for so long. Also, I'm not sure how to create a white background on my LCD TV like Apple suggests - the Apple column looks like it was written for computer monitors.

So will the line disappear over time if I stop using Sidebar viewing mode? Or am I stuck with it unless I can get Sharp to replace the TV with a new unit?

Rob Pegoraro: Posting this in case anybody has suggestions for Takoma Park (if you can e-mail me afterwards with the details, I can do a little more digging).

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Rockville, Md.: When would you recommend buying a 802.11n router? Too early? Also, would there be any benefit of purchasing one when my laptop has a 802.11g card? I obviously won't get the speed increase but what about range?

Rob Pegoraro: It's now safe to buy an 802.11n router, as long as it comes with some sort of guarantee from the manufacturer of a firmware upgrade (if needed) once this standard is finalized--which seems to be not far off.

The range increases are real; they're also the only major reason to upgrade, unless you're sharing some massive files over your home network.

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Cody, Wyo.: Hi Rob, I've been using Firefox almost since the time it became available to the public. Until recently, I've had no problems at all with it, and I love it. But lately it's been very slow when accessing almost all the web pages I regularly visit. I don't think it's my computer since, on the rare occasions I use Internet Explorer 7 (usually just for Microsoft updates), the speed is fine.

Do you think I should uninstall Firefox and then download it again? Or do something else? Thanks, Rob -- I love your online discussions and blog! John

Rob Pegoraro: Try the cache-clearing advice from Sunday's Help File.

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Reston, Va.: Rob, love your chats. thanks for doing these. I am in the market for a DVD player. I am leaning towards a home theater system that comes with a DVD player. Is that a bad idea? Should I be buying a bluray or a DVD player and writer thing?

Rob Pegoraro: Don't get a Blu-Ray (or HD DVD) player unless you're willing to risk being on the losing side of a format war. (I wouldn't.)

As long as your home-theater-in-a-box (HTiaB) setup includes an upconverting DVD player, you should be fine in terms of picture quality. If this DVD player can also record, then you'll really be ahead of the game... but I haven't seen too many HTiaBs meeting that description.

This is a popular category, mainly because of the decluttering effect of having everything in one unit instead of having to stack separate components next to or underneath the TV. Don't underestimate the appeal of minimizing the collection of remote controls, either.

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Washington, D.C.: I can't log in to the site 'stockbny' using the Firefox browser but I can using Internet Explorer. This is annoying as I don't trust IE. Is there any explanation for this?

Rob Pegoraro: The login button on that page doesn't work in my copy of Firefox (thought I haven't tried allowing pop-up windows). Or the site just might be so badly designed that it doesn't work in Firefox at all... in which case, somebody at the Bank of New York needs to remove the 1998 desk calendar from the wall. Firefox is here to stay--as Brian Krebs noted the other day in his Security Fix blog, about 20 percent of washingtonpost.com visitors use Firefox.

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King George, Va.: Don't know if this is on time, but: General guidance for digital TV reception: if you get ghost-free, reasonably clear reception of analog signals, then all that is needed is the DTV tuner. Until the tuner does its magic, there is virtually no difference between analog and digital TV signals - they're both RF signals that occupy one TV channel. Antennas, coax cables, and amplifiers work equally well for both.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks, KG! I concur with that advice.

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Centreville, Va.: Re: St. Pete, FL and et al, this blog is for technical questions not food related. I enjoy reading about technical issues, if I want to read about food issues go to City Guide.

Rob Pegoraro: I dunno, I've had some seriously technical discussion about food...

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Ballston: Rob, I like that Playstation 3 has a web browser and built in wireless. However, I don't see how it is protected from viruses. Do you risk hosing the machine by using it to view the web, or getting personal info hacked since it stores it for ordering games etc.?

Rob Pegoraro: Viruses don't attack just any old computer--they're written to attack specific kinds of software. In the realm of personal computers, that is almost always Microsoft Windows and the software that runs in it--not Macs, not Linux and certainly not the PS3 (which, unlike those other platforms, isn't designed to allow third-party additions to its system software anyway).

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Tampa, Fla.: RE Philly cheese steak for St. Pete: Westshore Pizza in Tampa has a decent one. Don't know if they have a store in St. Pete, but you can drive across the Gandy Bridge, left on Westshore, about 1.5 miles N on left.

Rob Pegoraro: (I hope this doesn't, er, cheese off Centreville...)

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Sequim, Wash.: Hi -- Got an XP laptop, since XP has gotten so much clunkier over the years have been cutting back on overhead processes. Switched Norton to McAfee for virus etc., still too heavy, switched to AVG. Recently got a message about "Norton Worm" -- a program I didn't know I had, and there's no trace of Norton that I can find. Do I need to fix my registry or something? What's still running in there? Sometimes I see lots of disk activity, and check the task manager for problems --- it shows 'msn.exe' running 95 to 99 percent of the cpu cycles. Is this the sign that something is wrong? This happens sometimes when I'm not downloading anything, and all windows are open and fully drawn. PS - discovered a huge conflict between Spyware Dr. and SpyBot. Best not to even have these on the same computer at the same time.

Rob Pegoraro: None of those symptoms sound normal, although I can't say they're proof of a virus break-in either. MSN.exe should be MSN Explorer--but if you were running that you'd know it. Are you not seeing anything in your spyware scanner?

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wiredog: For Tina in Falls Church, check out Tweeter. They have a widescreen 32" LCD 480P HDTV for 800.

I have the EyeTV Hybrid USB dongle from ElGato.com for my Mac. The HDTV antenna is super-technically-advanced, hyper-expensive, and, well, just kidding. My HDTV antenna is a $10 set of rabbit ears from Radio Shack. I live in McLean and get about 30 DTV channels. Every PBS station seems to have 3 or 4. The EyeTV also tunes in regular cable, so I have a combiner switch ($7 from Radio Shack) to switch between the two inputs.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the report and the suggestion!

(If "480p" doesn't mean anything to you, it's a reference to "enhanced definition" TV, where you get the same image quality as DVD but nothing better. It's a fair compromise on a smaller TV, where you wouldn't see the extra pixels of HD resolution from the couch anyway.)

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Somewhere in the South Pacific: Hi Rob,

My Satellite Smart-Phone can't seem to get any signal. There is a radio tower nearby broadcasting a distress signal, but I'm not sure if that's the problem. Everybody around me only answers my questions with vague non-answers, or more questions.

Can you tell me what's going on?

Rob Pegoraro: And Oceanic Airlines isn't even crediting you with frequent-flyer miles for your flight? That stinks...

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Rob Pegoraro: I've got a meeting to get to, so I must sign off for today. Thanks for all the questions!

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