Viva la technology

Gooch · 10-23-2006, 03:10 PM

my god....i've gone domesticated. I've bought a plasma tv. may god have mercy on my soul....but the fuckin thing is a godsend. Glengarry Glen Ross, with Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, and company all saying "fuck", "cunt", and "shit" at a terrifying pace in 42 inches of HD majesty. Now, all I need to do is make a movie with my cell phone, and then plug it thru my TV, and DVR it so to watch it again and again, and I can loop my life via technology. On an interesting sidenote, Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" has been reprinted, and actually on the bookracks at a fabulous discount at BJ Wholesale and Costco....amid stacks of Shrimp Toast on a stick, iPods, and LCDs. I might be on my way to hell, but once I get my Xbox 360, I'll never know the difference.

Luna · 10-23-2006, 03:23 PM

I tried a plasma tv for 30 days... I didn't like it. I thought the picture quality wasn't that great so I exchanged it for an HD.

you have a camcorder in your phone, too???? I just upgraded my cell phone and it has movie making capabilities. I may make one cell phone call a year, but I can make movies and take pictures with it now. wooo.

Gooch · 10-23-2006, 03:37 PM

my plasma has HD and all the bells and whistles. Plasma and LCD are just the screen technology. HD is an absolute for anything now b/c eventually all things will be HDTV. We looked at a cheapie plasma with no HDTV, and it was a waste. and the LCD is too flimsy and won't look as good...so went for the Plasma, and only spent $1500 ((6th Avenue Electronics who had a grand opening on Long Island)). We were given the price of next weeks sale...which I wasn't able to match online...so I was happy.

HedCold · 10-23-2006, 05:19 PM

my brother in law has a 50 inch panasonic plasma. you can tell whenever a tv station is using crappy hd signals. when they use the good stuff though its a sweet picture.
my parents have a 55 inch rear projection lcd and even some non hd channels still look pretty decent on that.

Gooch · 10-23-2006, 05:25 PM

yeah, we noticed the varying signals. on ABC-HD, you could see the clumps of makeup on the weathermans face. Pretty amazing. Got to get a HD DVR from cablevision..and we'll be good to go. Football, I could see the clumps of turf, it was pretty amazing also.

Goatweed · 10-23-2006, 05:37 PM

what brand/model did ya get? I need to get one lf these things one day.

Gooch · 10-23-2006, 05:42 PM

Hitachi 42" Plasma HDTV (42HDS69)
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=151161&WT.mc_n=4&WT.mc_t=U&cm_ven=COMPARISON%20SHOPPING&cm_cat=GOOGLE&cm_pla=DATAFEED-%3EPRODUCTS&cm_ite=1%20PRODUCT&cm_keycode=4">http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productD ... _keycode=4</a>

Got a better deal though....6th Ave Electronics gave me next weeks sale price of $1498. It's pretty well-reviewed on Cnet also. It was between that and Panasonic. We were determined to get a good brand with a good consumer satisfaction record. Both Panasonic and Hitachi are good in that regard. But they wanted $1999 for the Panasonic..and they are almost identical...so Hitachi is what we got.

Goatweed · 10-23-2006, 05:47 PM

6th avenue was great when I bought my Sony 5 years ago, but that was, of course, right before the plasma & widescreen boom (though it is HD & the picture is stunning). I always recommend them to people, they seem to be one of the last retail stores that are willing to work with the customer in regards to price - giving you next week's sale, for example. Best Buy wouldn't even consider that, let alone offer it.

Congrats & good luck!

Luna · 10-23-2006, 06:08 PM

Gooch Wrote:my plasma has HD and all the bells and whistles. Plasma and LCD are just the screen technology. HD is an absolute for anything now b/c eventually all things will be HDTV. We looked at a cheapie plasma with no HDTV, and it was a waste. and the LCD is too flimsy and won't look as good...so went for the Plasma, and only spent $1500 ((6th Avenue Electronics who had a grand opening on Long Island)). We were given the price of next weeks sale...which I wasn't able to match online...so I was happy.

well, my plasma experience was about a year ago... maybe it was my cable company, too... in any case it just didn't match my decor here either. This is an old post & beam farm house and it looked like a high techno drive-in here.

I'm happy with my Sony flat screen. It's perfect for what I need.

Have fun with your plasma and take lots of home movies. tehehee

GonzoStyle · 10-23-2006, 06:46 PM

I'd def look into getting a plasma, I dont know about the HD though. Don't you have to pay extra for the HD channels? Cause while a higher quality picture is nice, the cable bills are high enough.

I was checking out the plasmas at best buy and the prices have really come down. So maybe for my birthday I can save up some fazools and get me one of them fuckers.

HedCold · 10-23-2006, 06:57 PM

you can get the local hd channels with an antenna, or pay 5 bucks more a month to cable and get them

Ronin · 10-23-2006, 07:00 PM

cablevision doesn't make you pay for HD channels.

HedCold · 10-23-2006, 07:06 PM

don't you pay more for the HD box though? thats how comcast is. its a dvr/hd box thats 10 dollars a month, compared to the normal box which is 5
you can also just plug the cable line straight into the tv. then you can get the local chanels that way too, but none of the other cable hd channels. i can do that on my computer with my hd tuner card

GonzoStyle · 10-23-2006, 07:09 PM

i'll have to look into this, if its 5 bucks for all of them then thats ok but if you have to pay for them inidividually, then fuck that.

HedCold · 10-23-2006, 07:12 PM

it usually works that if you get hbo, and you pay the 5 dollars for the box, then you get hbo hd too.
but then depending on the cable company you have to pay extra for some channels. on staten island my brother in law doesnt' get espn hd because time warner charges extra for that, but he gets hbo hd and showtime hd because he gets hbo and showtime normally.

Gooch · 10-23-2006, 07:13 PM

With cablevision, which is LI only, its $5.95 for the DVR box and $10 for the DVR service and HD comes free with the packages of your regular cable service. in otherword...HD is free if you have it and are a digital cable susbcriber

GonzoStyle · 10-23-2006, 07:15 PM

I have the IO digital cable from cablevision but when I scan past the HD channels it says I have to order them.

I can call and ask when im ready.

Goatweed · 10-23-2006, 07:16 PM

with Time Warner, if you have an HDTV then you can get an HD cable box OR an HD DVR. The HD cable box costs the same as a regular box, the DVR is the same also but you gotta pay $9/month for the DVR service.

As for HD programming, you get the locals in HD (assuming it exists - My9 isnt available in HD for me), and if you sub to HBO and/or Showtime you get those HD channels as well. There's an HD pacakage thats extra, I think $10 more, that has concernt, movies & shit along with ESPNHD - I dont sub to that but I'm thinking to dropping Showtime & getting the HD package (it'll be a wash, i think).

HD quality from the cable co. largely depends on the signal you get, so as mentioned one channel might look amazing and another not as nice - but if you have an extensive DVD collection you really should go for the HD set.

HedCold · 10-23-2006, 07:18 PM

also if you're going to be picky about how local hd channels look, as long as you can manage to pick up the free over the air signals, that *might* look better then cable. cable companies have to allocate different bandwidth to different channels, so that could affect the quality. using the over the air signal you don't have to worry about that.

nearly most of the time the average person probably wouldn't even notice a difference though

Ronin · 10-23-2006, 07:30 PM

GonzoStyle Wrote:I have the IO digital cable from cablevision but when I scan past the HD channels it says I have to order them.

I can call and ask when im ready.

it just means you have to call and get them for free. plus, you may need to get a new box for the HD channels. but that's free also.