Cruised on over to Pluckers to watch the Steelers game. This week, they are up against the Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans. About halfway through the game, the Titans took out Vince. We didn't have audio with our game, so no idea what the announcers were saying. Pluckers only plays sound to one game at a time, and they obviously picked the cowboy's game. LOL, Dallas not doing too well. We had a bunch of wings, sides, and too much dessert.
After Pluckers, I thought "what the heck, let's go to Best Buy and check out some of the new TVs" because I keep hearing about all these fancy new features. Sure enough, I get a salesman that likes to lurk along while I'm checking out the various TVs. Not completely terrible. I'm actually surprised he knew what he was talking about between the different technologies of LCD vs Plasma, or regular vs LED backlighting, DLP... good. -- One thing you have to be really careful about with looking at TVs at stores is that they will calibrate certain models to look better or brighter to help sell them. Almost every single LED-backlit model was super-saturated with color and brightness. Another thing I wanted to check out was thickness and heat; I want something that isn't super heavy and hard to move, and also I don't want a space heater. LED-backlighting looks like it might be better on that front, but the super-brightness just made the image harder to see.
In summation, I have no idea why I'm looking at TVs. I have something that works for my current living situation. If I were to get a TV, I would definitely want to go big. Plasma is generally cheaper, and has excellent response time, but doesnt really get as bright and can be problematic with burn-in. LED-backlit produces very little heat, usually very thin, but also looks fake-white. "Traditional" LCDs are middle ground. And they didn't really have any DLP, I guess that's not doing as well in the market.
Why would I want a TV if everything is fine as is? Probably because TV manufacturers want me to think I need a new one. They've really ramped up with adding new features and trying to keep people uneducated about specs so they can make a quick buck. Does 120hz/240hz/600hz really do anything? Yes. It's synthetic, but it smooths out the image. Necessary? Hardly. Will you actually see something that other viewers may miss because your TV is better? Probably not. You can't create new information "in-between" frames. Every LCD and Plasma suffers from at least some ghosting.
So this guy is walking around with us, talking about TVs and whatnot. Then I eventually get him to walk off, and he comes back like 5 minutes later talking about different specials they have, like free sattellite for 6 months, no interest payment plans, and installation options. One of the installation options he showed was one about setting up a wireless router and "securing" it so people couldn't hack into it. Yeah.... thanks dude. Another thing to note, on our way out of the store I wanted to check out the receivers section to see about sound systems... yeah I couldn't find it. Maybe they shoved all the home theater systems into a small room or something.
Back at home, Kelc and I fell asleep to an episode of Smallville. Yay we get to watch it again later.
Kelc left for Arlington, I played Minecraft into the late evening. Oh, and I started working on some circuits. My room turns into a pigsty when I pull out all my electronics. If I ever get my own place, I need a project room, or a roomy garage.
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