len_mullen

Can you recommend something for home users? Free maybe?

Missed the Door Buster by THIS much... I am NOT a door buster! No Soup for you!

I think you need to start by determining what you want. Start by compiling a list of programs you like to watch. Do you want a DVR? For time-shifting or archiving?

Be still my heart...

^^^=== Hobbyist! xoxo! ===^^^

I like Pluto, but mostly watch broadcast television. In fact, I probably have my television tuned to Heroes & Icons or LAFF about 2/3 of the time it is powered on. I own five TiVo Roamios and they are my primary way to watch television. Very limited streaming. I added a Recast so I could watch television on my seven Echo Shows and have put a FTV 4K stick on each set just because. XUMO and Stirr are both available on the Fire TV sticks. I'll check them out. There are a lot of free tv/movie apps out there. The Amazon ecosystem appeals to me becuse the Recast EPG integrates OTA, streaming services, and premium streaming services plus Prime Channels for short money. No one ever uses Apple and Short Money in the same sentence.

Not an Apple fan, though I own a couple ATVs (hate the remote, prefer a grid guide). Having read the program descriptions and watched the trailers, I don't thing I would sample ATV+ for free... https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/09/apple-tv-launches-november-1-featuring-originals-from-the-worlds-greatest-storytellers/ Right now, I am enjoying OTA and Pluto via the Recast. Complete free, the 4k FTV sticks are $25, and everything is delivered in a grid style guide. No Apple plans this holiday season. We are in the second year with our iPhones and my iBoy just bought himself a new Apple laptop.

I got the bags today. I like the 'stiffener' on the bottom. I wonder how many people at Aldis will ask about or comment on GottaDeal.com...

There is also this ritual where you buy a cart off someone in the parking lot. Always makes people smile when you offer them a quarter for their cart.

I don't know what it says about me, but I just read the fist post in this thread for the first time. I am VERY excited about the prize. One of my favorite stores is Aldis which does not provide bags. You also have to leave a $0.25 deposit when yoo take a carriage. You never see a cart blowing around the parking lot.

But where did you put the TV and Xbox?

GE doesn't make appliances anymore. A couple years ago, GE sold the business to Haier. Haier bought the entire business including manufacturing, R&D, and the employees. GE invested $1m in the Louisville facility as part of the deal. As part of the deal, GE employees get a discount on these appliances. Over the last three years, I have replaced my washer and dryer, stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher. I am very happy with all of the appliances -- so is Consumer Reports and a number of other reviewers. I recommend anyone pondering an appliance purchase start their research at consumersearch.com. I would hold off on a dishwasher purchase as the president is going to rollback regulations that have made dishwashers less effective, more expensive, and less reliable: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/climate/trump-dishwasher-regulatory-rollback.html The biggest determinant of failure on a refrigerator is design. The ones that include ice makers and water dispensers are least reliable. The most reliable refrigerators are the freezer over refrigerator style. They are also cheapest. I have a 30 year old GE top freezer refrigerator in my basement which still runs great. Unfortunately, it is rusting through. It has survived the frig that replaced it. As for washing machines, the problem is with the energystar objectives. Hopefully, these regulations are being scrutinized. No appliance wastes enough energy to offset the cost of manufacturing a replacement and the value of the landfill space consumed by the efficient appliance. When I was shopping for a washer, I bought one of these... https://premierappliancestore.com/ge-gtw680bsj5ws-46-cu-ft-high-efficiency-white-top-load-washing-machine-energy-star.html It's a top loader which means it cost less and will last longer. Best feature? Deep fill! Deep fill adds water to the tub when you actually need clean clothes. I bought a smooth top electric range with convection oven. Love it! Easy to clean and consistent to cook on. Extra counter space when I am not cooking. I replaced my microwave as well. No magic in microwaves -- just common sense: Big Enough, Easy to Clean, Turntable. I mounted mine over the range which gave me some additional counter space and put the over at eyeball height which really helps with cleaning. JC Penny is a great place to shop for appliances. Watch for sales and cash back from them and others. Happy shopping!

At work, I have had SSDs fail in my last two laptops. Otherwise, I really like the Latitudes. Right now I have a 5480. https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-latitude-5480 It's a $1k laptop and Square Trade tells us price is a better indicator than brand, right?

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3267699/should-you-buy-a-core-i9-laptop.html http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html The cheapest i9 for a laptop costs about $600 (just the CPU). Also, you can pay 2x for the performance of an i5 in an i7, so use the CPU benchmarks to get good value.

Touch my screen, I break your finger. That's what I used to tell my kids. I spend a lot of time cleaning my phone. I totally get that. Paying with the right credit card can DOUBLE your warranty. The $600 Dell I linked in the first post would be great to take to school. The Lenovo in the second post is pretty awesome for $350.

Reliability requires data. Price, features, etc. can be harvested from online reviews. Unless, of course, you are in the warranty service business. That's why I like the Square Trade report. Synopsis: SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 30,000 new laptop computers covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans and found that one-third of all laptops will fail within 3 years. Highlights of the study include: Looking at the first 3 years of ownership, 31% of laptop owners reported a failure to SquareTrade. Two-thirds of this failure (20.4%) came from hardware malfunctions, and one-third (10.6%) was reported as accidental damage. Netbooks are projected to have a 20% higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers. ASUS and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16% having a hardware malfunction over 3 years.I once inquired about three year leases of computers where I work. At the time, rollovers were becoming a PITA as there was no perceivable performance improvement, but apps, data, and settings had to be migrated. I was told that the mean time between catastrophic failure was 2.65 years. Rolling over at three years statistically eliminated failures for most. Makes sense at the enterprise level, but the we want our home computers to last longer.

< $1k!

Worth considering for Gamers...

Worth considering for General Use... $469 after BIZLT469 code: https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/vostro-15-5581-laptop/cav155w10pc23021 (10/04/2019) ProSupport Plus (Includes Accidental Damage) for the same price as ProSupport $350 after 14408 code: https://www.staples.com/lenovo-ideapad-l340-81lg0004uus-15-6-notebook-intel-core-i5-8265u-8gb-memory/product_24393612 (10/01/2019)

I started a thread here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/topic/321250-black-friday-laptop-discussion/

Before all the ads arrive, I thought I would start a thread to discuss laptop features and specs. Microsoft has been quietly raising the Windows 10 baseline and Intel and AMD have been introducing chips whose names and nomenclatures make my head spin. It is increasingly common to find solid state disks, discrete graphics, and something called 'Optane' in laptops. Let's use this thread to figure out what a solid laptop looks like so that when the bargains appear we all have a better understanding of their value. I would also like to point out that Dell and Lenovo are building tanks these days. I have seen very few warranty repairs with these manufacturers. Square Trade has an excellent study on reliability that covers a lot of brands... https://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf While our study found netbook malfunction rates to be trending 20% higher than more expensive laptops, the variance between manufacturer is far greater and should be a bigger factor in making a buyingdecision. ASUS and Toshiba laptops failed just over half as frequently as HP, which makes them a solidbet in terms of reliability. Laptop Magazine rates HP #1 in 2019 (note that reliability is not part of the scorecard)... It's always an adventure to upgrade a laptop. ifixit.com takes a look at how difficult top laptops are to repair or upgrade... https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability HP EliteBook 1050 2018RAM, SSD, and battery are easily accessible and removable. All screws are standard Phillips and Torx. Manufacturer provides free user-accessible repair documentation. rating: 9 HP EliteBook 840 G3 2017RAM, SSD, and battery are easily accessible and removable. All moving parts, including keyboard, trackpad, and pointing stick are modular and can be quickly replaced. The display is immediately replaceable, without any unnecessary disassembly. rating: 10 Dell Latitude E5270 2017All commonly failing (battery, trackpad buttons, display, keyboard) and upgradable (RAM, SSD) parts are easy to access and replace. Minimal adhesive is used throughout the unit's construction. All fasteners are standard Phillips screws. Overall construction is slightly complicated, but the manufacturer offers clear repair and disassembly instructions. rating: 10 Laptop CPUs Ranked: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html Laptop GPUs Ranked: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html Optane Explained: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-intel-optane/ Intel Optane provides much faster read and write speeds than even the fastest SSD can match without RAM’s constant power requirement. SSD vs HDD: https://www.pcmag.com/article/297758/ssd-vs-hdd-whats-the-difference Users who prefer to download their media files locally will still need a hard drive with more capacity. But if you mostly stream your music and videos online, buying a smaller SSD for the same money will give you a better experience. How much RAM?: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-much-ram-do-you-need/ 2GB: Only really found in budget tablet designs. Fine for them, but you’ll want more in a laptop or desktop.4GB: Entry level memory that comes with even budget notebooks. Fine for basic Windows and Chrome OS usage.8GB: Excellent for Windows and MacOS systems and entry-level gaming.16GB: Ideal for professional work and more demanding games. With RAM prices so low, this is the sweet spot for desktop users.32GB and beyond: Enthusiasts and purpose-built workstations only. Bottom line? If you plan to keep your laptop, make sure the battery and disk can be replaced and make sure you buy too much cpu and memory. Be careful of rigs that include Optane as RAM -- read the fine print. Match the GPU to your applications -- faster is hotter and heat must be mitigated which means less battery life and more noise. I'm not shopping for a laptop this year. Last year I bought a pair of Dell laptops that included discrete graphics chips. At $600 each, the laptops were a bargain. After a nearly year of use, my kids are very happy with their toys... Dell G3 15 Gaming GTX 1050Ti Laptop G3579-5467BLK-PUS• 15.6-inch Full HD display• Intel Core i5-8300H• NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti• 8GB memory/1TB HHD This year a similarly equipped laptop would still attract my attention and, in fact, the Microsoft Store has this one on sale for $600 right now... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/dell-g3-15-gaming-laptop/8thnj2tttgfc I'm more than two years with a Lenovo Ideapad that cost me $525.99 in February of 2017... Processor: Intel Core i7-6500U Processor(Core i7-6500U)Memory: 12GB DDR4-2133Hard Drive: 1TB 5400Optical Drive: 1xWireless Network: 1xPorts: 1x 4-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD, MMC, SDHC, SDXC)Camera: 1x 0.3 MP CameraGraphics: 1x Intel HD 520Monitor: 15.6 HD Love all three machines. You cannot get the Ideapad anymore, but I recommend the Dell.

Now that Pnambic has rejoined the Black Friday conversation, it's time to open a Black Friday HDTV Discussion Thread. Please try to keep all discussion related to HDTVs in this UNOFFICIAL thread as I do not have the authority to merge rogue discussions.

I have four plasma televisions. My favorite of the four is a 720p 55" Samsung. It still takes my breath away at times. Bought it in 2008. We bought a PS3 and found out why HDTV was invented. Just land-filled recycled the 36" CRT it replaced. That TV is also the reason I got rid of Dish -- upgraded DVR plus 'technology fee' sent me to a Comcast bundle then OTA. At the time, we were paying Dish for TV, Comcast for high speed internet, three different providers for local, local-long-distance, and long distance phone service, PLUS another company for cell service. We are so spoiled these days. My second plasma was a smaller Samsung. I needed wide viewing angles in my bedroom and plasma had the best (still does). The third set was an impulse buy. It was an RCA made by TCL and you could read Samsung on the boards through the vents. Fourth set was also an impulse. I was camping with the Boy Scouts the weekend before the Superbowl when I got a deal alert for an LG 60" 1080p plasma for $600. Bought it from my sleeping bag. Had trouble getting it home in my Explorer. The game looked great. No way I could ever part with any of these awesome televisions. BUT, the guy across the street from me has a HUGE television. When I walk out to the street after dark, it's a lot like Times Square. Sometimes, I just watch from the curb. I'm sure it is not plasma -- which would be nice because you could FEEL the warmth of the bright colors -- BUT, I really want to have a home theater and the right hardware is quickly becoming affordable.

Chevy My F150 has a 36 gallon tank. And it streams BT audio. Welcome home! Let's get that television thread goint!

The alexa app on your phone connects to the echo auto and the car's smart software. If the alexa app is open on your phone and bluetooth is enabled when you restart your car, all three ought to connect. The only problem I have had is when I used the phone to make a call. That seemed to mess things up until the next time I started the car.