OT: Just a thought.

[krw]

Obviously not.

[krw]

Give me the specifics and I'll give you the P/N.

[krw]

sentence: "An electrical ballast is a device intended to limit the amount of current in an electric circuit."

Pig-headed asshole.

[m II]

Same old, same old, warm and fuzzy responses here.

LEDs and any current operated device needs a ballast to absorb the difference in voltage in a circuit.

I know you are not just a troll, despite many reports, 'cause you are Canadian and that would almost be impossible.

Time to admit your lack of electronics terminology and knowledge.

[Bill]

Larry Jaques wrote:

If you are buying a camera at Amazon.com, you might wish to consider the COLOR you choose. I thought this was sort of funny

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FP3

Prices (as of 2 days ago): Dark Blue - $199 Red- $154 Silver - $109 Black - $94.99

Hopefully, the one I selected will do more than take B&W pictures... (anyone remember those?). My last camera only yielded tintypes... ; )

Bill

[Jack Stein]

I have both LCD and LED TV's. The LCD was breath taking compared to my old tube TV. My wife got a Samsung LED with wireless internet for Xmas from the kids. The LED picture is awesome compared to the LCD. The wireless internet hookup works but is not what you would think. You can only do a few limited things, like YouTube, stock quotes, Netflix, weather. It is very limited. I was not able to network my PC or the internet to the wireless hookup. It has a really nice jpg picture viewer that works off a thumb drive, and my digital photos are awesome on the thing. I wanted to hook my PC wirelessly to view the photos but nope, couldn't get it to work.

With comcast, you need a HD box to get HD. That costs extra, and an HD TV w/o the extra HD box sucks worse than my old tube TV. Personally, TV is a wasteland, but, if you have a VCR so you can record the things you are interested in, and then watch at your leisure skipping commercials, it's not too bad.

[Robatoy]

What's a VCR? . . . .

*smirk*

[Jack Stein]

DVR, thanks for caring...

[Robatoy]

I wasn't correcting you, and I truly don't care. Your sense of humour needs a severe overhaul.

[Bill]

Yes, I read alot of reviews this week. That shifted my thinking from the Samsung "7000" series (w/wi-fi, web browser, 240Hz) to the Samsung "6000" series (ethernet connection but no wi-fi, 120 hz, no web browser). I'm not enthused by 3D. This shift knocks about 1/3 off of the price, and I can add some of the extra features as "add ons" when they are more "ready for prime time". Current web browsers on TV appear to be a step back to dialup access (actually much worse than that)!

I've noticed quite a lack of real-time streaming content (like the financial news on CNBC) among Internet "content providers". Of course, Comcast and CNBC are corporately-related somehow, and "they" know what they are doing/manipulating...

I was not able to network my PC or the

I actually have the HD box, because when I moved, the new "standard" box seemed suck-o (taking at least 5 seconds to change channels). I got a replacement box, same thing. So now I'm paying 7.50/mo more for the HD box--but it has a DVR too.

Personally, TV

Yes, the DVR/VCR improved the whole experience. The Woodwright Shop and a few other shows are recorded automatically, and I can zip through the commercials some other shows in short order. Its sort of laughable that there can be so many channels with so little content. I noticed a show the other days teaching women (young girls) how to "flirt". I wonder why more kids don't want to grow up to be engineers?

Bill

[Puckdropper]

Bill wrote in news: [e-mail]:

If you want internet access on the TV, get one with a PC connector (It's a

15-pin D-style connector) or a PC with HDMI output. TVs are getting to be fancy monitors, so you won't get the fuzziness of picture like you would even 5 years ago.

You can get internet access on the Wii, but it's really not that great.

Puckdropper

[Han]

Puckdropper wrote in news:4e2f6ab5$0$3981$c3e8da3$ [e-mail]:

I get internet and internet services like Pandora & Netflix via my blueray player, but since I depend on wifi and a Verizon router, it sucks most of the time. I have to get an ethernet cable strung through the basement from one end of the livingroom to the other ...

As the salesman said, you can get a fancy TV with internet, or one without. Many/most BR players are equipped so can supply it. Or a PC ...

[Leon]

I have a Samsung BluRay that is WiFi and I have pretty good internet Pandora, YouTube. You might want to check your internet speed, IIRC 6 megabits is the least you want for streaming video and or make sure your router is not getting long in the tooth. You do not have to have an Ethernet connection if every thing else is working correctly.

[Bill]

Thank you for all of your comments! Very helpful. My wife has a Wii (a gift). I didn't realize it had wi-fi. Will it support browsing?

I just checked my PC's GPU manual and I have a HDMI output and didn't even know it. But since the TV and PC reside in separate rooms, and the PC is wired down, I would only be willing to move it for an occasion so special that it is unlikely to happen. I think I would rather just carry USB memory back and forth for the sake of content.

Thanks again for helping me catch up with what is going on with the technology.

Bill

[Bill]

No, that wireless router quit doing wireless about a year ago and has been replaced.

Maybe the hardware offerings will improve in the coming months.

I'm assume that the motivation for the larger Blue-ray storage is that they are not large enough for HD movies. I know a standard DVD holds about 5GB and standard BR holds about 25GB. Do you take it for granted that videos you buy for your Blue-Ray player are in HD?

I currently have a DVD player that also plays VHS underneath my DVR and my Cablebox. These units are starting to pile up! : )

Bill

You do not have to have an

[Dave]

If your TV has a USB input, then you may be able to use a USB wireless adapter to transfer your content. $20 or $30 and you're in business.

[Bill]

Thank you for your reply. But based upon reading reviews, I've learned that LG, Samsung and Sony tv seems to prefer (require!) proprietary wireless adapters. There was some "irritation" that tv's which were adverised as "wi-fi ready" required the extra investment.

guess attaching a Blue-Ray player having wi-fi is a way around this.

BTW, if you (anyone) hastn't tried camelcamelcamel.com, it's a great way to view the price history of products you are interested in.

Bill

[Puckdropper]

Bill wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It will. Connect the WiFi and download the software update. Then, you'll be able to access the Wii Shop channel. After that, you can download the web browser (which is a version of Opera).

It seems just about every time I want to use the Wii Shop channel, I have to download a software update. As a result, I rarely go there.

A decent PC with HDMI output can be had for a couple hundred dollars, so setting up a media PC isn't that expensive. You could even add a capture card to use the PC as a DVR.

Puckdropper

[Leon]

Yes you do need the capacity of the Blu-ray to hold a typical full length HD movie. I would suspect that if the movie is in Blu-ray it would be HD.

I hear you on that front. Since switching to DVR's some 6-7 years ago I use the other boxes less and less. I am not the kind of person to watch a movie more than once unless it is damn good.

[Robatoy]

I have one ethernet cable going to my NetGear router/transmitter. Period. The rest is now WiFi. 2 iMacs, a G4 for email and browsing, an Apple Powerbook, and 2 PC's, one of which is a laptop, a laser printer and an AppleTV going to my plasma via HDMI. Flawless performance.