Greetings & things from a newbie!

[AikonEnt]

Firstly a big hello to my fellow Blu-Rayans, Blu-Ray-O-Philes, oh let's just be honest, the people on here are just the most intelligent when it comes to choosing a format for the full HD experience. HD-DVD has neither the capacity or bandwidth for both HD video and audio, and if you don't have both it's not truly HD is it?. I know it, you know it, and as soon as everybody with even a vague interest in watching a film at home knows it, we can finally put this whole war thing to rest.

As I'm fairly new to Blu-Rays I've found this site useful for pointing me in the right direction when I've needed to know information. Especially with the whole overseas buying as not all films that I'd like to own are available here in the UK, and more importantly they are a lot cheaper when bought from across the pond. I recently purchased Fifth Element and Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy from amazon.com for a very reasonable price of around £25 (including postage), much cheaper than it would be if bought in this country. However when the turned up I was hit with a customs charge of £12.42 on top of what I'd already paid!! Not quite so reasonable now. I returned home today to find that I have Troy and Underworld waiting for me at the post office, with a customs charge of £12.62 to pay before I can get them!!

Has anybody else here had this also? Does anybody know if I purchase them separately would I still have to pay the customs charge? The label says that anything under £18 (around $36) in value is exempt so it would seem logical that I wouldn't have to pay if I bought them one at a time. Can anybody confirm my thinking because if I'm going to have to pay this everytime I might as well buy from this country (if they're available obviously) as I won't be saving any money?

Now for something a little off the Blu-Ray topic! Has anybody here had to return their Xbox360 to M$ for repair (I'm guessing that's probably a big yes knowing how shoddily built it is). Because I have and it's been with them since July 17th (2007!) and I still haven't received it back. Is this a record for the length of time anybody has had to wait to get theirs back? The number of lies and false promises I've had beggars belief but I'm still (fairly) optimistic about getting it back. Whether it will work and for how long I'm not so optimistic about.

Nearly at the end of my very first post (is this the longest post a noob has ever done?), and if you've made it this far I appreciate you putting up with my ramblings.

I am now officially a member of the Blu-Ray army (with the whole war talk that seems fitting) and will be a loyal member until the bitter end (of HD-DVD).

ps. I convinced somebody at work that the PS3 with Blu-Ray is the technology to get into and forget about the 360 and HD-DVD. They told their friend, they went out and bought a PS3, a week later the price dropped £100! I shouldn't really laugh but I can't help it!

Thanks for listening. In future I promise not to go on and on and on and on quite so much!