St. Louis, MO - HDTV - Page 364

That's the deal breaker for me. But even if/when they come down in price, I just don't want to have to put someone one to watch TV. Neither does my wife. I believe my TV (Samsung HL67A750) is even 3D ready, but there is no way I'm spending $300 on glasses to watch TV. I"m just not that excited by it.

Seagate 1TB hard drive for $40 today at TigerDirect.

Later this summer, probably around August. Heard it from a buddy who works there who was given the "official" word today.

When I came to view this page it detected I'm using an iPad, and I got a popup claiming AVS has a nifty iPad app for the AVS forum.

B.S.! I installed it and it is not an iPad app. It's just an iPhone app that displays as a small window. Don't bother. It works on the iPad, but is not an iPad app otherwise. You're better off using the iPad native browser.

How do you like your iPad, Dean? Do you use it a lot?

I love it, and use it all the time. My MacBook Pro sits in my office unused, except when I'm working. The iPad is a game changer. Ol' Stevo has done it again.

The app is great on the iPhone however .. I was going to see if AVS was using Tapatalk, then discovered the native app ... its cool.

That may be, but it seems pointless on iPad when you can use the full screen with Safari. My point, though, is that the popup on this site explicitly claimed it's an iPad app. They should fix that.

I'm not arguing your point On the phone it says "iPhone app" so there

I understand that.

I can see where it would be nice for the iPhone, I just don't see using it on iPad until they revise it to take advantage of the extra screen area.

Yeah, I have a considerable number of iPhone apps that I won't bother to install on the iPad. Some just don't make any sense. There are also iPad apps that make little or no sense on the iPhone.

But I'm not seeing how this is an iPad flaw to any degree. It is what it is. The iPad and iPhone are just different, and I think with a lot of people me included they will be used in different ways and for different things.

Can't you double-tap the screen to enlarge an iPhone-only app on an iPad? That's the way I saw them handled during an iPad demo. Resolution is a bit stretched, but they all went full screen.

You can run iPhone apps in 2x mode, and that accomplishes nothing useful. It just pixel-doubles the iPhone screen. You see the exact same thing, just bigger and blocky/jagged. It doesn't scale anything to take advantage of the larger screen. The iPad adds nothing to a standard iPhone app, unless the app is written to specifically take advantage of the bigger screen.

In fact, with the few iPhone apps I run on the iPad, I don't bother. I just run them normal size.

I don't think of 3D as a gimmick. I think it has as much potential as any other tool available to filmmakers. Not every film should be (or will be) made in 3D. When it's appropriate, though, it can be a tremendous enhancement to the viewing experience. There's no reason to believe that 3D will increase the percentage of quality films. To the contrary, until filmmakers master the technology used to create 3D, we can expect far more abuse than art. But, that's always been the case, no matter which element of filmmaking we're talking about.

IMO, visual effects are still generally abused in movies, rather than adding to their stories. In any given year, there will be only a small percentage of film and television shows that are of truly superior quality. There will be no more reason to blame 3D for that than any other production tool. I firmly believe that we will see brilliant 3D productions in the future - ones in which 3D is indispensable and integral to the storytelling, and obviously so.

For the next hour and 24 minutes or until their stock runs out...

The complete Battlestar Galactica on Blu-Ray for $134.99 with free shipping at Amazon. That's about $120 less than I paid for it on its release date.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27

And for the whole day today, Denon AVR3310CI 7.1-Channel Multi-Zone Home Theater Receiver with Networking Capability and 1080p HDMI Connectivity for $649.99, also with free shipping. Click that same link above for this one, too.

No posts here in three days? So where the hell is everybody?

I have to work tonight, then I am on vacation for a week. Staying local, maybe some storm chasing, and getting ready to have a geothermal heating/cooling system installed.

Id really enjoy hearing about the geothermal system, Tom. Let me know what you find out.

I'm sure some of you know about a program called MyMovies. I think I looked at it a long time ago, but at the time I didn't bite. If you know about it, or have no interest, please skip this post. (In the back of my brain, something tells me that someone here may have mentioned this program before, but I can't recall for sure.)


After a recommendation from someone on the UnRaid thread, I downloaded and ran MyMovies. Since I'm now a regular user of Win7 Media Center, MyMovies is an amazing way of integrating my entire movie collection into a database that shows up directly inside the Media Center Interface. Got a new movie? Stick it in the computer drive and MyMovies checks its server for all the disc info. It asks if you want to add it to your own MyMovies database. Click yes and it downloads cover art, actor/crew information, screen format, etc. I've even added movies that I've recorded via OTA and satellite capture (from the Nextcom R5000, converted to Blu-ray file structure and saved as iso files). In the case of movies I've created from captures, all I have to do is type in the movie's title. It offers you options for the specific release. Pick the one that's closest to your copy. They show up in Media Center, sorted alphabetically and displayed by list or cover art. If you want, you can search your collection by genre. If the movie is saved as an iso file (or as DVD folders) and saved on your server or a local drive, Media Center loads PowerDVD (or TMT) and launches it for you with a single click. If it's a physical disc from your DVD or Blu-ray library, it prompts you to insert it.

If you're like me, and you have movies saved on a couple of servers, and even on some local drives, as well as having a disc library, this could be a piece of software that you'll find useful. Within 24 hours or so of downloading it, I had my entire Blu-ray collection loaded in. Loading all the discs was a little tedious, but from now on, I just have to deal with one at a time. There weren't very many discs that MyMovies couldn't identify when I put the disc in the drive, and even then the info was in the database. It was simply a matter of typing in the disc title.

I've wanted a solution this simple for a long time. I used a similar database movie program, but this one does even more, and it does it better. You can even manage your collection from iPhone or Android.

And it's free!

Highly recommended.

I'm moving to Central West End in less than two weeks. I've been surfing this thread and the Charter thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=805958). I'm curious what you recommend for new TV service in the STL area. Looks like I can get Charter or DirecTV in my building. I would love to get as much quality programming in HD as possible (network, discover, food, versus). Hockey is important, no particular team so Blues are fine to follow. Football I'll stick with Vikings to follow though, sorry Rams. I'll be getting a new 60+" plasma when we move and already have a very nice surround sound system. I would like to take the most advantage of it possible.

What would you recommend? Charter, DirecTV, or another option? I hear uverse is coming to the building but who knows when.

I have Dish, but there are lots of happy DirecTV users here, too. Unless you visit the Charter thread, you probably won't find many happy Charter TV subscribers in this section.

We once had a team called the Rams here in St. Louis, but they left town with Kurt Warner and haven't been seen since.

Do you have your 60" plasma yet? If not, you ought to look at the new 3D sets. DirecTV even has some 3D stations up and running that you could take advantage of. Not thinking about 3D now might be a mistake. At least it might be from my point of view. A lot of folks could care less about 3D. Still, the best plasmas out there right now are the 3D sets from their respective manufacturers (Panasonic or Samsung at this point).

Hm, sounds like one vote for satellite over Charter already... The building's paperwork says "direcTV ready" and offers satellite TV from A&D, but mentions nothing about Dish.

I have not got my new TV yet. I'm using a 42" LCD currently which will either be sold or moved to the bedroom. I want to move in and see just how much ambient light there is before I am sure I'm picking plasma over LCD for the 60+". My friends all love their Panasonic plasmas. I think the V has 3D and the G doesn't. I honestly hadn't been thinking about 3D at this point, but your post prompted me to read http://news.cnet.com/3d-tv-faq/ which mentions that Sony PS3 will get a firmware upgrade to allow 3D bluray. Tempting, but I'm sure almost all of my viewing will still be 2D. I'm assuming Charter isn't bringing any 3D content soon. DirecTV is, but not many channels.

I'm not unhappy with Charter I saw your post over there too. Internet is the high point, fast and reliable. If you want hockey (Versus) you don't want Charter it's SD only and it doesn't look like they'll be bringing back the HD (yes we used to have it.) You can get Center Ice though.

I have a Moxi 3012 DVR and a regular Moto HD receiver, both work fine. I'm not going to enter equipment wars, other DVRs may be better. You could always use a Tivo.

Every service had it's high points and low points. Good luck!

You won't be too far from the Best Buy Magnolia store between Hanley and Brentwood, just off Highway 64. Pay them a visit and check out the new plasma and LCD TVs. They have both the regular and the 3D sets. You're right that not much content is going to be available for a while, but you'll probably use your new set for quite some time. If 3D does take off, you're ready. If not, you'll have the best 2D set from that manufacturer.

Even if you decide you could care less about 3D, it can't hurt to be informed about the technology. The demos are fun to watch.

I, too, am a "not unhappy Charter Customer". I find the HD offerings meet my needs, works well with my Tivo 3, and the service has been rock solid here in North County. Now, if I could get them to quit trying to sell me their darn packages over the phone I'd be happy. Or at least be smarter about it.

I received a call again this morning. It amazes me that their telemarketers are armed with the knowledge that I'm an existing customer (thus allowing the call) but have no idea what services to which I subscribe as they try to up-sell me. Comes off as lame.

Steve

I tell companies to take my number off their call list, and to only contact me for issues directly related to my account and current services.

Funny you should mention that right about the same time I changed my tagline.

I don't want to come off as a Charter basher. I have their Internet service and it's plenty fast (25mbps most of the time). It does, however, go down sometimes when I sneeze. I really like Dish's DVRs and their software better than anything else I've seen. I have friends who the other providers, and I think Dish's hardware and software are generally a cut above anything I've seen in their homes. Still, they have yet to announce any 3D plans, so I'm pretty upset about that. Not enough to jump ship -not yet, anyway!

Based on your wanting to follow the Vikings, I would definitely recommend DirecTv since they have the NFL Sunday Ticket available that you could subscribe to. With that, you could watch every Vikings game - plus any others that you wanted. Although I don't subscribe to Sunday Ticket, I do have DirecTv and am very happy with it - been a subscriber since 2004.