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  • JVirginia5
  • Member Since Nov 2nd, 2007
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Engadget HD38 Comments

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I don't agree it makes sense. It is crazy. Listen to yourself. You just said when it comes to these purchases Amazon is better so let's stop selling them. Well, you can't beat Amazon for many things. And retailers like Wal-Mart are now moving more and more items to online and not stocking and store employees are saying look online. If I am going to look online I will go to Amazon. I go to a local store to bring it home today. Wal-Mart is what they are today because they had great prices and great selection. More and more I walk out of the store not finding what I want and never have I gone on to Walmart.com to order it I went to Amazon. 5 years down the road Wal-Mart will regret decisions like this.
I think they should continue having full screen and widescreen versions of films. And as fewer and fewer would care about getting a 4:3 aspect ratio I think full screen should now go to 16:9 aspect ratio. And I realize that many will call me a novice or any number or choice words, but I would buy the full screen version. They cut off useless crap on the sides anyway and you get rid of the annoying black bars. And for those who think this somehow changes the entire dynamic of the film and ruins it by all means get the widescreen version. Why can’t everyone just be happy?
@PIP

My settings. are fine. I said I can see little difference, not no difference. They are hooked up HDMI and set at 1080i (DirecTv is set at Native). And yes I have set it at 720p and for some reason the quality is better set at 1080i even though the TV is 720p. The differences are perhaps a little extra lines in a persons face here and there, and when bricks are on the screen you can definitely see a little extra texture in those. But it does not make the picture "better". Of course everyone sees something different and has there own tastes. For my tastes I can live with a few less lines in a persons face and I know they are bricks. But with the Netflix (I have only tried off a laptop hooked to my tv via VGA and have not seen their HD content) I see so many compression artifacts that the quality is just unacceptable to me (I have DSL and it is showing High Quality so it is not an issue there). I actually thought it was a little better before they switched to silverlight though. The last movie I tried watching on there was "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and the quality was far below VHS and more something I would expect from YouTube.
I find it kind of funny after this whole format war where Blu-Ray won supposedly because of a few extra Gig enabling it to utilize less compression. Then everyone had to run out and get 1080p televisions as they were clearly superior pictures. Well, I had (have) an HD DVD and a 720p (40” Samsung and a 32” Westinghouse) TV and was/am perfectly happy. In fact I can see little difference between standard def DVD’s and Blu-rays on my PS3. And I can see little difference between 720p and 1080p. But Netflix streaming quality is horrible. They have employed way to much compression. I have tried to watch like 3 movies off there and the quality of all 3 was unwatchable. I am sticking with disks (standard or Blu-ray will do).
You are currently paying TWC to get the channel and they are NOT paying LINN. So you do understand you are not paying the right people? Anyway, this really amounts to a matter of pennies a month. Not dollars, not dimes, but pennies. Anyhow good luck with it. I have to go back up there tomorrow. At least I can watch my CSI tonight. I can go to a friend’s house with DirecTV to watch the Bills on Sunday.
I must disagree and side with LIN TV. Although I live in Virginia, I was born and raised in Western NY and due to family health problems have been up there a lot lately. This past weekend my brother-in-law was claiming LIN TV was being greedy in requesting money for something people can get for free. I said well you pay for ESPN and his response was I can't get ESPN for free so I have to pay for it. I said you are not seriously suggesting that it is ok for people to have to pay for ESPN because they did not spend the millions to make it available over an antenna, but that it would be wrong to have to pay for CBS because they did spend the millions? I mean come on, TWC charges customers’ money to show this channel. It hardly seems right that they charge money to broadcast something they get for free. I have DIRECTV and trust me we pay for our locals as we should. Anyway I am sure it will be resolved soon, and as I am from Olean which is too far to get with rabbit ears, I know 2 people switching to DirecTV.
They are buttering them up for Thursday when they drop their local CBS affiliate.
I left Dish about 2 1/2 years ago for DirecTV, and have not looked back. But it is all in what you want. Dish network is slower to add new channels and fast to delete current ones. DirecTV adds channels the day they come out and rarely would take them away. DirecTV might be a few dollars more, but I would rather pay the extra and get everything I want. That said DirecTV is certainly not without its equipment and customer service problems. But what company is?
Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I am looking for a device that will stream sound from one source to several recipients. For example, I want to stream sound from my TV or stereo to my phone or MP3 player that has radio and Bluetooth capabilities. I have looked into radio transmitters and they seem like a decent choice, but I can't find one that uses external power (USB or from the plug) and I would want one with a transmit range of around 50 meters. Thanks!"

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