Pnambic

Depending on what you're replacing... - if you're replacing a comparably sized TV, prepare to be underwhelmed probably - if you're replacing a significantly smaller TV, I bet you'll love it. Does your room have the space to allow you to set the new next to the old and compare them side by side?

Preach it rev. Monstermile. I think everyone just tunes me out anymore. People are predisposed to believe what they want to believe. And no one wants to believe they're going to be duped.

Ahhh... Got the two Acer 28" 4K monitors I ordered on Black Friday set up....(sorta).... While the specs didn't say they were VESA compatible, I found the requisite bolt pattern under the stand mount on the back when I got my hands on them, so I was able to mount them to my dual monitor stand on my desk with ease. Loving it. And with the screen's at 28" and me sitting less than 2 feet away, the 4K really is discernable. SQL Server Management Server is actually comfortably roomy now. Plenty of room. Except... Even though I checked by laptop's video card chipset to verify it could handle 2 simultaneous 4K signals, and I looked at the back of my docking station to find 1 DP, 1 HDMI, 1 VGA and 1 DVI port, the Pro dock apparently only allows ONE 4K signal through. I thought I'd be able to use the DP and the HDMI (both 4K capable on their own) simultaneously. Wrong. So, now I've ordered an Ultra Dock which adds an additional DP port so I can connect two 4K monitors at the same time. Just a couple days away from having a 7680 x 2160 desktop staring back at me.

Sorry I've been out of it the last week....had a death in the family and have been crazy busy transporting the family halfway across the country on no notice and dealing with funeral homes, florists, church schedules, upset family, not to mention work and school, etc... Happy Thanksgiving ya'll.

I think the 6500 has the better remote too.

Just a quick caveat to the blackfriday charts - the resolution column for HDTVs is not accurate more than it's accurate. It is only conveying what the silly marketing speak is that's on the box/in the marketing description. If it's something you're concerned with, you can generally find the real refresh rate in the manual for the TV from the manufacturer's website or via sites like RTings.com. And if you can't find it in either place, I'd assume it's only 60Hz. That said, I totally love all the great information on those charts and appreciate all the hard work it takes to publish and maintain them. I only have a problem with that one column.

Nintendo likes to blaze their own trail. Always have. They might have issues, but they know exactly who they are. And that's a system for playing family friendly games. Unfortunately, this has resulted in Nintendo earning the reputation of not working well with others. EA refuses to even look at Nintendo these days. Ever since Nintendo chose not to let EA's Origin take over ALL online gaming for Nintendo (which was a totally right decision on Nintendo's part as far as I can see), EA has done just about everything they possibly could to stick it to Nintendo - refusing to release games for their platforms even when the game has been completely developed and was ready for pressing (see: Crysis3). EA has been such a punk in this behavior that I refuse to purchase anything from EA for any system. I'm not that desperate for games to reward their toddler-like behavior. According to Wikipedia, since 2011, EA has released 111 games for all PlayStation platforms and 100 games for all Xbox platforms. In that same time period, they've only released 25 games for all Nintendo platforms (3 on DS, 7 on 3DS, 10 on Wii, 4 on WiiU and just 1 on Switch. Lesson learned is that is you like EA games, don't plan on playing them on a Nintendo system. But if you like solid family friendly games like all the various Mario titles, Mario Kart, Zelda, Splatoon, etc, and Nintendo's always game changing moves in gameplay (WiiMotes, Wii Tablet controller, entirely mobile console), then maybe it's the system for you.

Because Sony and Toshiba and LG and Samsung (and everyone else) refuse to play nicely and agree on a single standard. It was VHS/Beta in the '80's and BluRay/HDDVD in the '00's. Now it's HDR10/Dolby Vision/HLG/Advanced HDR/whatever else comes up in the late 2010's... I guessed right with VHS. Guessed wrong with HDDVD. Done guessing - I'll let them waste their millions/billions fighting it out before I spend an extra dime on it this time. To really get something that will blow your socks off like HD first did in comparison to the old SD sets, you need to have media that's in the cool new formats and you need to have hardware that supports displaying that new media in all its amazing glory. That means 4K media in HDR and WCG (and some other cool new things) and a TV that supports the proper HDR format and also not only supports WCG but does a good job of it and all those other things like color depth and viewing angles and uniformity and brightness and, and and... It sure seems like there are a LOT of TVs out there right now with 4K plastered all over the boxes, but they don't support WCG (Wide Color Gamut). What a waste that would be to buy a 4K TV that only allows you to get a sliver of the benefit of the (already somewhat limited) 4K experience. The 4K pixels only count if you're close enough to discern them, which most people are not - the Wide Color Gamut would potentially be awe-inspiring from all viewing distances. There are so many other things that make a great TV besides "4K" that people are just not really aware of. RTings.com does a fine job of educating.

No experience with them personally, but looks like a good price... https://electronics.woot.com/offers/plantronics-backbeat-go-2-wireless-headphones-4?ref=w_cnt_gw_zlm_bs_2

See my comment above for the 55 inch version in the Kohl's ad as the comments remain mostly the same. The MU is this years version of last year's KU. And the 6290 basically appears to lack the "ultra clear panel" and the voice responsive remote of the 6300 model. Boiled down, it looks like an OK TV, but it doesn't have a wide color gamut, so while it can display all the 4K pixels, it's not going to be able to show them in the better color that HDR is designed for and its a 60 Hz TV. I'm not excited about it for $850 though. We'll see what the other ads bring.

This could be managed at the router in most instances, where you just wouldn't allow the console (any console, XBox, PS4, Switch, WiiU, etc.) to connect to the Internet if you didn't want to.

Wish the OnePlus would work on Verizon. Was planning on getting the Pixel2 XL til all the news about the screen came out.

Wow, BJs coming on hard with the TVs.

Nintendo is very very good at playing the supply and demand game to keep prices up. :/

Link not working at the moment? I guessed you're looking at this one: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-A315-51-380T-15-6-7th-Gen-Intel-Core-i3-7100U-4GB-DDR4-1TB-HDD-Windows-10-Home/677478400 There's a video of the same Intel i3 7100U processor with the onboard Intel HD 620 graphics just like this laptop has running minecraft right here. It looks sufficient, but as the review says, this is with no addons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYVKZbv6m9E

Blow their minds with your new-found HDTV expertise!

I loved HPB back when there was one near me. I probably built 3/4 of my library there.

Hey, Jay, I think this requires flowers. hehehe My current boss is 10 years younger than me, 3 times smarter, and has never owned anything other than Mustang GTs. Not sure what she watched on TV though...

That Pavillion with the 8th gen i7 and the GT940mx graphics looks interesting. Even has a DVD drive, number pad keyboard and a touchscreen. (though I don't see the optical drive in any of the pics...?) Would love to see a bigger battery for it (it's only 3 cell 41WHr according to the website here).

So, I set up one of the Echo Dots in the living room to see how we might use it a few days ago. This morning, while getting ready for school, my youngest (just turned 7) asked Alexa to play Halloween music and she did. Nice. Then my 10 year old interrupted and told Alexa to fart... And she did. And this continued for a good five minutes until I could shoo them out the door to get on the bus. Thank you smart home products, what would I do without you?

Quick reminder of the quasi-marketing-speak these manufacturer's use. The box says 120 motion rate. But the TV is actually almost certainly a 60 Hz unit. http://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/fake-refresh-rates-samsung-clear-motion-rate-vs-sony-motionflow-vs-lg-trumotion RTings tested a model that appears to be the next step up from this one here. Their results indicate conclusively that the unit is 60 Hz. So if you already have a legitimate 120 Hz 1080P TV, this might actually be a step down in performance for the vast majority of your media. RTings gave it a solid score for gaming due to pretty low lag times, but just a so-so rating for regular mixed viewing. The good: - nice design / small bezels - picture quality isn't great, but its good - contrast is good - brightness is good - black uniformity and color gradient are both good - color accuracy is really quite good out of the box and calibrates great if you make the effort - it scaled 480p, 720p, 1080p and 4k really well - no image retention - handled blur well - good on input lag - fully supports both 1080p AND 4k up to 60 Hz with full 4:4:4 Chroma subsampling (mainly helpful if using as a monitor) - good smart features The bad: - no local dimming ability - poor gray uniformity - really poor viewing from an angle - poor color gamut (which is a huge reason for going to 4K w/ HDR in the first place) - very poor color volume - very poor image flicker (some people are more susceptible to this than others) - very poor motion interpolation - poor sound (but really, I've never been impressed with the sound quality from any flat screen TV ever) Comparing the 6290 and the 6300 on Samsung's own website, they appear pretty much the same with the following highlights: http://www.samsung.com/us/compare/#category/N0002201/products/UN55MU6290FXZA,UN55MU6300FXZA - they have the same inputs (3 HDMI, 1 Component, 1 Composite-sorta, 2 USB) - they have the same dimensions (except for possibly different stands) - they have the same power consumption - they have the same sound - they both stream - 6290 doesn't have the "ultra clear panel" that reportedly brightens colors, enhances contrast and reduces reflection while the 6300 does. - 6290 doesn't have voice recognition in the remote while the 6300 does (GARY...BUSEY!!!) Point being the RTings review on the 6300 is probably a reliable look on the 6290 as well.

Loving the voltage tester (with bottle opener)!

Woot has more Alexa goodness today... https://www.woot.com/?ref=so_ft_tn_w_1 Amazon Tap for $55 (plus $5 shipping) certified refurbished Looks like it's $90 refurbished directly from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Refurbished-Amazon-Tap-Alexa-Enabled/dp/B01133ZTQM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1508420945&sr=8-4&keywords=tap

The details say 2nd Gen and new. We'll see. Amazon now owns Woot, so that might explain the deal a little. <off topic tangent> BTW, Woot's original shtick was they would offer a truck load of one item for 24 hours for a crazy good price. The items would vary from just about any category you could think of. You were limited to buying no more than 3. Flat $5 shipping. And they put a lot of effort into making funny item descriptions. If they sold out, then you just had to wait for the next day to see what was next. If you didn't like what was on sale, then you just had to wait for the next day. But when they didn't sell out, they were left with small piles of product. So about once every couple months, they'd have a Woot-off where they would just blow through all their left-overs. Everything was even a couple bucks cheaper, but they might only have a handful left. Stuff would sell out in minutes, and then they'd pop the next item up. As a gag, they actually offered a "bag of crap" where you would just buy it and they would send you crap. Cost was $1 per bag plus $5 shipping. People would rush these things like Black Friday door busters. Acquiring them became badges of honor. I got a couple in my day...probably got $10 - $15 dollars worth or random crap... My brother actually got a DVD/VCR combo in his BOC once (long time ago obviously). Then Amazon bought them. And Amazon pretty much changed everything. Now, there's probably at least 3 or 4 dozen things available on Woot every day. Some things for 24 hours, some things for weeks... The prices are hit or miss. It has definitely lost a lot of its charm. The original creaters of Woot eventually went on to create Meh.com which is truer to their initial intent of one item per day. </off topic tangent>

Woot just blew through some Echo Dots a little while ago for $25 ea. (Today is a Woot-off.) I went ahead and bought 3. We'll see if they improve my life.