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    #1

    New Gear

    I just want to take this opportunity to tell everyone that this weekend I finally succumbed to the social pressure and lure of bright shiny things and bought a 42' flat LED-LCD tv. I spent all afternoon yesterday, when I should have been outside enjoying our planet, just transfixed. It's like seeing TV for the first time. I have a big clunky not-flat HDTV, but it's nowhere near as good as this. I guess it's the frame rate that makes it so everything is incredibly sharp such that films and TV look far more like real life than film. I watched How to Train Your Dragon, which just looks amazing and is a damn fine kids movie anyway and Splice, which is a fun creepy sci-fi horror-type film, made much better on my awesome TV. Then I was flipping between the Saints-Steelers (NFL), the World Series, and the MLS playoff first leg between Seattle and LA, which was pretty dull, but on my TV it was like the greatest match ever played.

    I can also instantly stream the Netflix films that it has available that way. For Hollywood reasons I don't entirely understand, most new popular films are still only available on DVD, and I don't have a blue ray player. But...

    I almost also bought a pS3 while I was at the store, but decided to calm down. That ad for FIFA11 was really making me want one badly. I haven't played video games in a few years because I know that if I get that, I'll never leave the house. But I still think I want it. It would also double as a blue ray player.

    This is a dangerous road I'm going down.
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    #2
    New Gear

    That's cool that the TV has the Netflix app built in. Beware--some of streaming stuff from Netflix (including all of the Starz Play movies) can look pretty crappy in terms of picture quality. Sometimes it's just a matter of how it's available (again, the Starz Play movies), but sometimes it's because of the download speed. I have DSL, and at night, when internet usage is high, I can never get a HD picture because of high volume. During the day it's fine.

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      #3
      New Gear

      I haven't watched much of the Netflix yet, but so far it seems to look ok. Those movies I mentioned I watched from On Demand. Not cost effective so I don't want to make it a habit, but it's a new toy, so...

      I have cable internet and my own wireless router so it's going to the TV via wireless from the next room. I had to buy a little wireless thing for like $40, but I figure this is the TV I'm going to have for the next 10 years, I hope, and more and more stuff will be available from the internet, so I figured stretching a bit will be worth it.

      I need to call Comcast and upgrade because right now I'm not getting FSC or GolTV. I don't think either are available in HD, but I want to at least get the basics.

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        #4
        New Gear

        I assume you have spent the time on the ridiculously detailed forums configuring your TV? Many folk (I believe fools) get people in to configure their TV for them.

        Me? I went online to one of the dick measuring forums comparing setups and picked out the one that seemed to get a reasonable amount of favorable reports. It makes a difference, for sure, but not enough to warrant all the craziness about it.

        The TV sounds similar to mine (size, LED). They are splendid TVs, much like yourself I don't care too much for that world, but upgrading from a 10yr old set... wow. Friends who have 50-odd inch TVs in small apartments = very sad.

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          #5
          New Gear

          FSC does have an HD channel, but it is really, really crap.

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            #6
            New Gear

            In what way? Isn't it just the same games, but in HD, or not?

            I assume you have spent the time on the ridiculously detailed forums configuring your TV? Many folk (I believe fools) get people in to configure their TV for them.
            No, I haven't. I just went through all the picture settings and picked the "recommended" and adjusted it a little until it seemed to be right.

            The size seems perfect for the room. I was limited by A) price, although I spent a lot B) the built-in shelf-area where i have it. The previous owners had a similar set there. It doesn't have that "King of the Family Room: Master of all it Surveys" feel that you get with some people's TV/room arrangement.

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              #7
              New Gear

              I recommend looking it up on the interweb (there is one huge TV forum I forget the name of). Beware - the thread will be about 100+ pages long. The config you pick out will be a great improvement though.

              So, FSC HD. I have my TV on autosize, and it always looks crap. The HD they claim they give you is dire in comparison to the other Fox Channels or ESPN. I have no idea what they are doing. But yes, it is the same games in HD. They do have some premium channel hidden somewhere too.

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                #8
                New Gear

                Be happy you have Fox Soccer in HD.

                #TimeWarner'ed

                JV once had a description of the picture quality of Fox Soccer, something along the lines of "mud and cum wiped on the camera lens". Take that and factor in the crappiness of some SD channels on an HD set = Fox Soccer on my TV.

                I once went to someone's apartment who had a roommate that won a TV on the newish Hollywood Squares (this was in early 2000s). The TV was a massive 60 + inch rear projection TV. There was barely any room to sit in the rest of the living room to watch the stupid thing. A 19" TV would have been preferable, because there would at least have been some picture definition.

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                  #9
                  New Gear

                  A forum to set your TV? Why do you need that? Bloody hell, whatever happened to plug and play?

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                    #10
                    New Gear

                    I don't know. I looks really good to me. I don't see why I should futz with it any more.

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                      #11
                      New Gear

                      ZumaBeach Manningtree wrote:
                      A forum to set your TV? Why do you need that? Bloody hell, whatever happened to plug and play?
                      Somewhere on one of those forums, someone is asking, 'a forum to talk about football? Why?'

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                        #12
                        New Gear

                        SamLKelly wrote:

                        Somewhere on one of those forums, someone is asking, 'a forum to talk about football? Why?'
                        Yeah, but you don't need an engineering degree to talk football.

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                          #13
                          New Gear

                          You might not necessarily need one, but it does come handy.

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