lissa

The Samsung 46" LCD HDTV is an awesome deal, and so are the PS3 options. One of our friends wants that tv, so we're all hoping one of us will get the email.

I came across this article off of CNN: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/moneymag/0811/gallery.blueray_players.moneymag/index.html The top two are the PS3 and Sony BDP-S350

I didn't say you couldn't tell a difference in non-special effects movies - simply that it wasn't worth the added expense.... unless of course you like to look at wrinkles and blemishes on the actors' faces. :) For the vast majority of the population, blue-ray is a waste for movies without special effects. We have a Samsung 52" LCD (650 Series - that's 1080p w/ 120hz) and a PS3, which yields one of the best pictures you can get. We have a pretty good blue-ray collection, but won't waste our money on blue-ray movies that don't have CGI or special effects. An exception to that would be those amazing nature shots in Planet Earth and the like. Upconversion is plenty good enough otherwise.

In your case - no, it's not worth it. Don't look for blue-ray to take over for DVD's for a very long time (if ever). They are a growing niche market right now. Unless you watch a lot of movies on an HDTV, don't bother. An upconverting DVD player is plenty good enough otherwise. Even then, blue-ray is only worth it for movies with a lot of special effects or computer animation (think Iron Man or Cars). For your average drama/comedy, it's not even remotely worth it.

No matter what, make sure you get one that is has firmware you can update via ethernet or some other means. Many players on sale are profile 1.x and some new discs require profile 2.0.

Thank you Brad!

I wonder what they're going to change next. We got moved to Premier Silver a few months ago. Once when checking out, apparently someone new was being trained, and the trainer pointed out to her that we were Silver and that made us "special." LOL

For anyone getting married before next summer: Lindt Lindor chocolate truffles are on sale at the Lindt stores and they make awesome favors. It's a better price than any of the online bulk offerings and ours are good until next June. Just keep them cool and they'll be perfect. We picked up enough for 100 guests + extras and some tulle bags from efavormart.com. In total, they will about $1/guest. Not bad!

My FI wants the 60gb PS3 for the backwards compatibility. He's been watching the stock at the local Best Buy. Now they are under 10 units and we're considering picking it up this weekend. If we get it soon, and the price drops in the next 30 days, does BB offer any kind of refund of the difference?

I have the TV all hooked up in our living room. Since this is our second HDTV (we have a really nice Samsung one in the bedroom), we already had the HD cable service for it and the box in the living room could do HD too. :) So far, it does the job. I have noticed that when we switch to an HD channel there is a brief pause and the screen has a green picture to it, and then it kicks in fine. Going from HD to HD or HD to non-HD is fine though. My Samsung switches with no pause or any other quirks. It's a minor annoyance, but hey - it's a cheap HDTV. There is also the possibility that the "quirk" is from the cable box and not the TV. Either way, I can live with it.

I didn't go to Wal-Mart for anything special around 7:30pm, but saw at least 10 of the 32" $598 lcd tv's sitting there. All I could think of was the camping out I did at CC for another 32" lcd for $499. I could have slept instead!!!

I drove by my CC in Kennesaw, GA at 8pm and there was nobody there. We wanted to visit some friends, so we did that and came back at 10:45. We wound up being around 20th in line and got the tv, but could have gotten the laptop or the desktop. The only vouchers they handed out were for the 32" tv, and the cheapest of the laptops and desktops. A lot of people left the line when they ran out of laptops a few people further back from me. I heard employees talking about it later that the other laptop was still available because so many thought both were gone. Our line experience outside the store was... interesting. There was someone that arrived around midnight and stood at the barriers in front of the store. She was told that she needed to get in line, but would not say anything. Every once in a while, a guy would come by and check on her. At one point, he came over to one of the people that tried to tell her to get in line and threatened him with "something from his car" for speaking to her. As soon as he walked away, several people called 911 on him. Three cop cars arrived and were dealing with the matter when the manager arrived around 3 or so. The manager talked to us about it and said not to worry. We got the impression that they weren't after or wouldn't get the items we were all in line for. I don't know the outcome of it, but I was pretty nervous/scared about the situation. We also had a few people that tried to run into the store when it opened, but they were pushed back and employees took care of them. There were a few kids that ran in, but I don't think they noticed them. I'm just glad it's over and I finally got to sleep last night!