len_mullen

The Channel Master DVR+ will be on sale for $175 from 6-11 AM pacific BF and CM. There is a limit of three per account.

http://weeklyads.walmart.com/mobile/walmartusa-circular/flyer_item/50619528?grid_view=true&locale=en-US&store_code=5253&type=1 10.1" touchscreen1.83GHz Intel Atom Z3735G Quad-Core processor32GB of storage memoryMicrosoft Windows 8.1 OSWebcams, WiFi and Bluetooth

Totally worth it. Cheaper and more fun than a gym membership!

Feel free to hijack my haiku thread!

Can't wait for Brad ANY LONGER for this! A haiku is a poem consisting of three lines. The first and last line have five syllables and the second line has seven. The first and third lines are juxtaposed ideas with the middle line serving as a bridge between the two. Flyers Found Online Reveal Gifts That Total Nine Hide Under My Pine Sledding Through The Snow To The Tinsel Town I Go Bargains Wait For Me

You should definitely download and print out a manual for each of her devices. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Harmony-915-000143-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B003IZFCFW The BEST way to fool proof a multi device configuration is to buy a Harmony 300 remote ($40 shipped amazon) and program all buttons for all devices for what will make most sense for her. For instance, pressing the DVD button would switch the input to the DVD, but pressing TV, Cable, or VCR button would all set the input to the DVR. Regardless of what input is selected, make all the common buttons (volume) control the appropriate device (TV). Make the buttons you do not want her to touch do nothing (program channel up and down to show info). With the setup you described, the only thing that would change based on input selection would be the VCR/DVD/DVR controls (pause/ff/etc.). It's a little bit of work, but when she calls, all you have to ask is whether the devices are powered on then have her select the appropriate device. I have slowly been doing this with my remotes and WAF has gone through the roof.

The only problem we have had is when my mother in law changes the input on the tv by accident them presses buttons until she gives up. It's amazing how much can be changed when you cannot see the screen as you press buttons. That went on for about a month. No problems since.

There is spanish language support... Hope that helps.

Sounds like my in laws. I recommend the Channel Master DVR+. It is a very intuitive DVR with a nice electronic program guide. The DVR+ does not call home at all, so no internet of phone connection is required. It costs $250 and you will need to add a usb disk, but they are teasing discounts later in the month. Dell is offering a Samsung 32" LED (UN32EH4003FXZA) for $197.99. It has one component OR one composite and two HDMI ports. Best Buy reviews are plentiful and positive... I would caution you that HD TVs are shorter and wider than their SD counterparts, so, if the 32" number is based on the size of the existing set, she may want to jump up to a bigger set. Target has a VIZIO 39" Class 1080p 60Hz Full-Array LED TV (D390-B0) for $219.99. This TV has one composite OR component input plus two HDMIs. I do not think you should worry about 1080p at 32-39 inches.

Her TV is hooked up to an antenna? How big a screen is she looking for? What is your budget? Will she want to plug in other devices (a streamer, dvd player, vcr)? If so, how are they connected (composite, component, hdmi)?

ATTN MINECRAFT AFICIONADOS: There is a Minecraft wiki which lists these requirements... There is also a page which lists user's experiences with specific computers... http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Hardware_performance If you are considering a specific model, google the model name plus minecraft of search for that on YouTube. A lot of people post videos of their computer playing Minecraft. This will help you decide if something closer to minimum will work for you or if you need a machine that exceeds recommended requirements. Today, Best Buy is selling a $350 Toshiba satellite that seems to be suitable... http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-satellite-15-6-laptop-amd-a8-series-4gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-jet-black/8541017.p?id=1219345074266&skuId=8541017&u1=ebs2d-1d4767d1416043266465sbe&sourceName=forums&sourceId=1403778 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbzD3PYuLcg (different model with similar specs) http://www.mobil-edge.com/toshiba-satellite-c55d-b5214/ Finally, there is a free demo of Minecraft. Create an account, visit the store that sells the computer you are considering (or one with similar specs) and play the demo.

Shopping Spree ($987.94)... Best Buy: Sony Smart 3D WiFi Built-in Blu-ray Player $59.99 Radio Shack: RC Drone w/ Video Camera $34.99 Staples: Amazon Fire TV Wireless Media Streamer $74.99Staples: Asus 11.6" Celeron Laptop w/ 2GB, 32GB, Windows 8.1 $99.99 Staples: WD My Book 3TB Desktop Hard Drive $119.99 Staples: Keurig K145 Office Pro Coffee Brewer w/ Free $20 Gift Card $80.99 ($107.99 - 25% off coupon) Wal-mart: 50" 1080p LED HDTV, Brands May Vary by Store $218.00 Wal-mart: Coleman Spa with Digital Control Panel $299.00

pretty good

If you have (or get) Prime, Fire TV has a nice voice search feature. Best place to get Fire TVs is Staples. $74 on BF is a very good price. It's $84 this week. You can apply $25 off $75, 25% back in rewards, and 20% off coupons with those prices plus you can return it to a B&M if you are unhappy. Same applies for the Roku 3. As for the Roku models, there are a lot of refurbs out there, so you can get a decent discount. The refurbs have the same 90 day warranty as the new units (Fire TV is ony year). Of the 'current' models... - Roku 3 is their flagship. It is 5x faster than the other models. You can plug a set of earbuds into the remote control for private listening. Remote is wifi not line-of-sight (IR) or bluetooth. People have problems with wifi. There is a wired ethernet port as well as a usb port you can plug a disk into. It gets all the updates first. There is no analog audio/composite out for people who want to send that to an older TV or the aux in on their HTIB. - Roku Stick got the new Netflix client with profiles. Only this and the Roku 3 get this. - Roku 1 and Roku 2 are legacy products already, but have analog/composite out if you need it.

The Chromecast might be best for that. With Chromecast, he could browse to the show on a PC or tablet using the Chrome browser then tabcast the content to the Chromecast. If the host (is fast) the mirroring will be fast.

I have a half dozen Rokus. I have recently moved on to Amazon's Fire TV and the most recent streaming device I bought was a Sony BDP-S5100. The reason I stopped buying Rokus is that my favorite -- the Roku 2XS -- has not worked well for three consecutive updates. The device crashes when playing files from Netflix or my Plex server. Things have stabilized, but it still crashes. No other streaming device I own or have ever owned has crashed on my. They are working on another update now, and I fully expect to go through another round of problems. Except for the Roku 3 and their latest stick, Rokus do not and will not support Netflix with profiles. I bought a Fire TV when it came out in April. It's much better hardware than any other streamer. It supports games as well as entertainment and you can plug an XBox controller into the USB port (or a mouse or a keyboard). The Fire TV doesn't have as many apps as the Roku, but they have been adding about two a day and the library sits at 586 this morning. The Fire TV streams all the major services. This week a CBS News channel was added that streams live news and ondemand content. This morning BBC News was added. The last 'streamer' I bought was a Sony BDP-S5100. I chose this simply because it had a sleep timer. Generally, I fall asleep with the television on. It is smart enough to shut itself off when there is no incoming signal. My DVR has a sleep timer. Most streamers are always on, so my TV never shuts off if I fall asleep to something on the Plex server or Netflix. This BD player has a sleep timer and it streams just about everything. It uses the Sony PS3 interface and the Opera app store. http://freetvforme.wordpress.com/2014/10/04/amazon-fire-tv-hands-on http://freetvforme.wordpress.com/2014/10/04/sony-bdp-s5100-review I'm going to try to grab an BDPS5200 for $59.99 at Best Buy or the BDPS3200 for $49.99. You will not find a better streamer in that price range...and they do not reboot in the middle of a movie ;-)

I think this inexpensive laptop with a small form and 8 hour battery life would be great for taking notes in class or working on homework just about anywhere. I might add that $99.99 24" display and a full size keyboard and mouse for working at home, but a lot of people do work on phones and tablets, so this would be better than that. Seems like some posts were pruned from this thread. I wonder if that was related to yesterday's outage or if Brad did not like the sneak peak items piggybacked on his press release,..

This should be a banner year for streaming media. Apple, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku streamers will no doubt be under trees as Netflix, Prime, Vudu, and YouTube compete for our eyes. This Topic is a place to discuss the streamers, apps, and services. Best Buy Amazon Fire TV Wireless Media Streamer $74.99 Best Buy Apple TV Wireless Media Player w/ Free $10 Gift Card $89.99 Best Buy Roku Streaming Stick HDMI Adapter w/ Remote $39.99 Best Buy Sony Smart 3D WiFi Built-in Blu-ray Player $59.99 Best Buy Sony Smart WiFi Built-in Blu-ray Player $49.99 Radio Shack Roku Streaming Stick HDMI Version $39.99 Sam's Club Roku HDMI Streaming Stick $39.86 Staples Amazon Fire TV Wireless Media Streamer $74.00 TargetApple TV Wireless Media Player$89.00 TargetSony BDP-S3200 Blu-ray Disc Player with WiFi$49.99 Walmart Roku 1 Streaming Player $28.00 Happy Streaming!

My wife asked me if I would go out and get one of these for her. I will venture out so no one has an excuse to borrow my t100 -- which also has no optical disk ;-)

Well this was fun. It's sad that we could only post five items. So far, my lucky kid has a cool race track, an awesome electric car, an official Red Rider carbine action two hundred shot range model air rifle, and a crazy car. For the grand finale... BURGUNDY RED COMET PEDAL CAR http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODE0WDEwNjI=/z/JPcAAOSwEppUNeFp/$_57.JPG My father got one of these which looked a little like his car and repainted it so it looked a LOT like his car -- right down to the license plate. Like all cars built in the 60s, it succumbed to body rot (the plastic electric car is in my attic). Any kid would love a car like this. I did. In fact, I loved every single posted toy. My mother did most of the Christmas work -- decorating, meal, stocking stuffing, and all the little gifts under the tree -- but my father always got the 'big gifts'. They were very memorable. Thanks dad!

Maybe, but I was buying laptops before desktops had optical drives. The venerable IBM 600 series laptop had a removable bay which could hold an optical drive, a floppy drive, a magnetic drive, or an extra battery. While the definition of a laptop may not be precise, wrapping definitions in historical perspective might help. Initially, there were computers which came as components or all-in-one configurations. Then we got portables and 'luggables' which were designed to stand up to the rigors of transportation. The Gavilan SC was the first computer actually marketed as a laptop. Launched in 1984, it ran on batteries and had the familiar clam shell style case and a 400×64 LCD display, but no optical drive. A year later, the first 'IBM compatible' laptop arrived. The Kaypro 2000 had no optical drive. Optical disks did not become important or common until Windows 95. Windows 95 could be installed from optical disk or floppy -- the upgrade version came on 25 floppies. Office Pro came on 30! I believe the first consumer laptops that came with an optical disk were Gateways. Notebook is a nebulous term created by marketing types. Generally, it was supposed to conjure images of increased portability at the expense of power. The Grid Compass (1979) was called a notebook and the Gateway Solo 9100 -- which had a bay for an optical drive -- was called a notebook. Apple produced a 17" notebook! In 1992, Gateway introduced a 'Handbook' which was half the size of a subnotebook. I believe the Asus eee pc was the first netbook (2007). Its key characteristics were size and cost. It did not run on intel iron and ran linux not Windows and had a solid state drive. That was followed by atom based devices which did run some flavor of windows. The tablet has been around since the fifties and Microsoft and Apple both had tablets on the market in the nineties. Generally, any computer which abandons mouse and keyboard in favor of touch and pen is considered a tablet. Of course, now we have computers which use both and tablets have keyboard and mouse accessories. The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter what you call this or any portable computer. You really need to consider and specify the various components. This is definitely not a tablet simply because the keyboard is attached, but I think it's OK to refer to it as a laptop or notebook -- even though its specs more closely track to what you would expect in a tablet.

Could be a special order. Regardless, good hunting and it's probably pretty close even if it isn't THE laptop.

I see nothing to corroborate bribri25's speculation, but, if true, this is a really good deal. I have had a T100 since August and it is a very capable laptop. There's no optical drive, but that is not unusual these days. Performance is very snappy. For $100, I think an 8 hour touchscreen laptop would be welcome under a lot of trees. Looking forward to the ad scans.

Amloid Krazy Kar Ride http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MzQ1WDUwMA==/z/Lv0AAOxy3yNThFVk/$_12.JPG More exercise than Call of Duty. Another great toy from my childhood. I think my great nephew would love this.

Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTUwWDU1MA==/z/~VcAAOSwmUdUU~e7/$_12.JPG What kid would not want a BB gun for Christmas? My father noticed one more thing behind the curtains by the tree many years before Ralphie got his... http://www.wolfgnards.com/media/blogs/photos/art/ralphie-christmas-story.jpg