len_mullen

hz stands for hertz and that's the name of the guy who did a lot of work on electromagnetism. Hertz means cycle and a 60hz tv refreshes the screen 60 times per second. A 120hz tv refreshes 120 times per second. Problem is that tv is 30hz and movies are 24hz, so 60hz sets are simply showing the same information twice and 120hz sets are showing the same information four times...in theory. In reality, the faster sets cache two frames and create frames in between the two so that it appears that more frames are being shown and the motion seems smoother. Exactly how well each manufacturer pulls this off is what determines the price and quality of a set. It is entirely likely to see motion blur on a 120hz set and not see it on a 60hz set. AND the algorithms used to interpolate the frames may work better on one kind of programming (sports) than another. For this reason, you should use your eyes to judge a set playing any kinds of programming you are going to watch when you get the set home (movies and sports especially).

This tv is on sale at sams club for $339 right now.

Ad scans full of cheer Black Friday is almost here Lines are all we fear

I was in the store yesterday and they were promoting a 15% discount for new accounts.

I love Kohls, but not on BF. I can get better deals online with the monthly 30% and free shipping codes. Kohls Cash is a great promotion for the store since they get you in the store at a specific period (ie., they can control the prices for the duration of your KC), but it's not as good for me.

Most fights can be avoided if people go to a local retailer and LOOK at televisions. Stand in front of a wall of TVs and you will quickly decide what looks best to you. If you watch tv from three feet away, stand that close. If your couch is ten feet away, back up a bit. My eyes can distinguish between plasma and LCD at thirty feet -- as I walk up to the tv section from the side, it's easy to distinguish the LCDs because their color is washed out while the plasmas are still vibrant. This matters to me because we have a wide living room and people routinely sit at wide angles to the set. From the front, it's getting more difficult to tell except that the LCDs that look like plasmas (especially when viewing sports) have much higher price tags. I can distinguish between 1080p and 720p on a 50" set when I am about six feet away -- with my glasses on. Even then, that's all I'm doing -- distinguishing. The 720p still looks great. I can just tell the sets look different. As I walk closer, I can see that it looks better, and if I pause the picture, I can see the greater detail on the 1080p...but that's not how I watch tv, so that's not how I shop for TVs. If I were buying a fifty inch set today, I'd still be shopping for a 720p Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, or Kuro. I'd still decide the Sony and Pioneer sets were too expensive. I'd still settle for a Samsung or Panasonic -- which ever set was less expensive. It's helpful to do research to narrow the field, but, in the end, it is your eyes and ears that enjoy TV. Decide for yourself how little TV will make you happy and don't worry about the experts.

Hardly worth $0.02, conway. You can easily see from this chart that the maker of the chip does not determine performance. AMD Athlon II Dual-Core M300 1320 237 Pentium Dual-Core T4300 @ 2.10GHz 1299 244 2.20GHz 745 410 (officemax bf laptop) Intel Celeron 900 @ 2.20GHz 745 410 AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core L310 658 429 AMD Athlon TF-20 389 580 Comparing the Athlon II to other CPUs in this thread, it is SMOKIN! And, in fact, if you are most interested in performance, I think it is the best laptop discussed to date. Personally, I'm a bit smitten with the AS1410 as I type this. Looks like its passmark cpu is 750.

DS is hoping Santa leaves a laptop under the tree. We hit the road today to shop -- look and touch, not buy. First thing we noticed was that almost netbooks were xp. A couple had 7 Starter, one had Vista and one had 7 home premium. The one that had 7hp caught his eye. It was an Acer AS1410 -- kind of a tweener. The specs were notebook except a smaller screen and no optical drive. People shying away from the netbook form factor due to anemic specs may want to take a look.

First, it would help if you listed the kind of school work she would be doing -- it takes a lot more computer to edit images and especially video than to edit a term paper and some engineering applications can be pretty demanding. Assuming your daughter is editing term papers, any computer mentioned would get the job done. You mention lightweight and decent battery life without numbers. I think <10# and 2-3 hours are reasonable. What do you think? I ask because you would be hard pressed to find a $300 laptop that didn't meet these specs. As for DVD playback, I think that is a given too. I can only comment on the acer 5516 that sits on my desk. The tf-20 and Ati x1200 play DVDs flawlessly. Netflix too. I would guess that other entry level laptops wold fare at least as well, but I'd be interested to hear from others regarding DVD playback. With so many laptops, so many new chipsets, and so many new CPUs, it might be useful to post a sticky at the top of the thread summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

get up early tomorrow and get the hp. you won't be disappointed.

BPR, don't get too hung up on core count. It turns out WHICH core is more important that how many. If you look at this chart, you will find dual core cpus above and below the Celeron 900. Intel Celeron 900 @ 2.20GHz 745 410 AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core L310 658 429 AMD Athlon TF-20 389 580 The Celeron 900 is ~10% FASTER than the dual core L310. Both are much faster than the tf-20 I use everyday. If you want to knock this laptop, the video chip is probably the place to nibble. Or maybe the smallish disk. I think it's fine and may buy two Saturday.

I think it'd be fine, but you may want to take a look at the $298 laptop rumored to be on sale at Walmart this Saturday...hubby could take that on his trip. I love $300 laptops... HP G60-519WM Notebook: Intel Celeron 900 (2.2GHz, 1MB cache, 800MHz FSB) 15.6" HD, 3072MB DDR2, 250GB(5400rpm) HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium $298 @ Walmart 11/8/09 HP G60-519WM Notebook: Intel Celeron 900 (2.2GHz, 1MB cache, 800MHz FSB) Windows 7 Home Premium 3072MB DDR2 System Memory 250GB(5400rpm) Hard Drive 802.11b/g WLAN LightScribe SuperMulti 8x DVD +-R/RW Drive w/Double Layer Support 15.6" Diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView display Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M with up to 1309MB total available memory 3 USB 2.0 Ports or one that can be had right now for $348 at walmart.com... AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor L310 4GB of DDR2 system memory 250GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive 15.6" high-definition LED backlit widescreen display ATI Radeon" HD 3200 Graphics SuperMulti double-layer DVD drive 6-cell rechargeable battery for around a 3.5 hour battery life 5.3Lbs total weight. Ports: USB 2.0 (2), VGA Video Output, Headphone Jack & Microphone Jack Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition Microsoft Works 9.0 (this is the one i'd get)

referring to the Toshiba L505-S5998 T4300 for $399.99 in the removed ad... Thanks for your kind words, but, in this case, I don't have much to offer, so let's hope some people who have owned or at least touched a L505-S5998 can help you. The price seems to represent about a 30% discount which seems good to me. I've always been a Satellite fan, but I tend to shop the less expensive laptops, so I have never owned one. Whether this is a good laptop for YOU depends on how you intend to use the laptop. You need to list the apps you plan to run on the laptop and see how this one's specs compare to the software's requirements. I think it would be a good, general purpose laptop that could run Sims 3 well, play a movie, and get you about the internet. Of course, I could find a $300 laptop that would too...I have one. Looks like it comes with 64-bit OS. Make sure your apps will run on this (google app name and 64-bit). Battery life is less than three hours, but that's the price you pay for running a better cpu, bigger disk, and more memory. I don't think you'll be disappointed, but I bet, by BF, you can find a just-as-capable laptop for < $300 without waiting in line. If you are seriously thinking about this, go touch one in a store -- just to get a feel for whether it is zippy, if the screen appeals to you, and how much you will like the keyboard and mouse.

I think you will not see any console deals on BF. Probably should be looking now. Deepdiscount had the PS3 for $250 this weekend. $250 (shipped free) is an excellent deal for a game console + blu-ray player + netflix/dlna client.

This is my favorite part of BF -- anticipating the fliers, making my list, researching products, and deciding when, where, and if I'll line up on BF. After that, scoring a ticket for a coveted gift...or maybe poring over my haul when I get home ;-) As for shopping, I prefer the time when all the gifts are bought and I'm simply shopping -- enjoying the insanity, sights, and sounds of the season. This year may be different as my oldest wants to come out for BF. When we're done, I'll take him out for breakfast.

I think you would do best to be less awful at handling your money. I suggest you create a shopping list with gifts, merrchants, and cost. Work that out in the quiet of your home. If you shop only to the list, you will not blow your budget no matter how you hold your money. With that discipline in your corner, you should look for ways to hold your money that benefit YOU rather than the banks. There are many cards that give you cash back and have no annual fee. Using one of these is a big win for you since you can 'hold' your money in an interest bearing account until the bill comes in PLUS you get the cash back. Discover Card will give you more cash back (up to 2x) if you take in in gift cards from their partners and will give you as much as 20% back if you shop via their partners launch page. If you can land a free financing balance transfer, you can earn interest on your cash for a year while paying the credit card no interest. On one episode of Two and One Half Men the men are going to Vegas. Alan puts 1/3 of his cash in his wallet, 1/3 in a money belt, and 1/3 in his boot. You could go that way, too...

I'd look hard at the Samsung HT-BD1250. Lots of nice reviews including this recent one. I don't know much about HTIB. I wasn't *really* looking for one. The HT-TZ512 came as part of a promotional package. I thought as part of a $910 bundle (I recalled $930 above, but after best buy rewards and discover cash back it was actually $909.98) that included this TV, I would take a chance. It sounds great. I think you can expect that from just about any HTIB. If you're not sure, buy both and return the cheaper one if it disappoints. Some thoughts... 1) Wireless rear satellites make setup a LOT easier. It's not easy positioning speakers for best sound in a room that is not designed for a home theater. Tall, light, free standing speakers work best with wood/smooth floors. I mounted my satellites to the walls (keep the wires off the floor if you have a dog...don't know why wires taste so good). 2) Our HTIB includes a five disk upconverting DVD player. We also (in case you're not paying attention) have a PS3. We have ~20 blu-ray movies (which I have selected for their amazing video content) and hundreds of DVDs. The upconverted DVDs look very good and get more play to date than the blu-ray disks. If you have a lot of DVDs, make sure your BD player upconverts nicely. 3) Increasingly, I am watching streamed video and have recently subscribed to netflix ($9/month plus $2 extra per month for BD). If you think streaming movies might be in your future, investigate units with netflix capability (both units you are looking at include this feature). You can get a standalone BD player with this for $100 right now (it happens to claim to upconvert nicely). 4) Integration with your tv/cable. Just because it's a pain to deal with three (or more) remotes. Samsung tv plus Samsung HTIB is decently integrated. Just something to think about. Happy shopping.

I have seen these for $600-$700 on a regular basis on bargain sites. I got one with a 1200w 5.1 htib for $930 *last* September. Panasonic and Samsung look great, Sonys look great too, but are more expensive, and Pioneer Kuros look best but are *much* more expensive. You don't need 1080p on a 50" tv unless you are going to use it as a computer screen. My experience, lots of links, and lots of reviews (mostly from last year but still valid especially for 720p) here.

Vizio is highly regarded among the value brands and you can grab this one for $208.

According to Popular Science...

The best point and shoot I have ever used is the TZ5A. Watch for deals on this camera and its siblings. In 9/08 I got one for $179. For a lot less money, the Canon a590 is also terriffic. Both of these are pocketable.

You're welcome. You will read good and bad about all brands and most models. Your use sounds like mine, and I have been happily computing on an Acer 5516 all summer and fall. I take care of it, but it seems rugged enough. The 15.6" screen is beautiful but is reflective in strong sun, and running Windows 7 with no crapware, is very snappy. I run OpenOffice on it. OO is pretty demanding so I think MS Office versions would run fine. At $240, I could afford to take a chance. So far, so good. FYI, Acer also makes Gateway and eMachines. Together these brands constitute the second most popular computers on the planet -- mostly based on laptop sales, and largely without benefit of big business contracts. I'll speculate that there will be $300 laptops BF, but I think you will find deals throughout the season. Spend a little time in the stores assessing keyboards and screens. For Vista and 7 machines, right click my computer and select properties from the popup menu to see the Windows Experience Index. Take note values that feel sluggish or snappy to you. I have found that scores >3 are good for most use, >4 are good for good for light gaming, and >5 is good for more serious gaming. Most $300 laptops are going to be in the 2-3 range.

Pecan Pie INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons white sugar 1/2 cup butter, chilled 4 tablespoons ice water 3 eggs, beaten 3/4 cup light corn syrup 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup 3/4 cup light brown sugar 3 tablespoons butter, melted 1 pinch salt 1/2 cup pecans, finely crushed 1 cup pecans, quartered 1 cup pecan halves DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350 degrees F In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and white sugar. Cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually sprinkle the water over the dry mixture, stirring until dough comes together enough to form a ball. On a floured surface flatten dough ball with rolling pin. Roll out into a circle that is one inch larger than pie dish. Place pie shell into dish and refrigerate until pie filling is complete.Mix together eggs, light and dark corn syrups, brown sugar, butter, salt and finely crushed pecans. Spread quartered pecans over bottom of refrigerated pie crust. Pour syrup mixture over top of pecans, then arrange pecan halves on top of pie. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for one hour or until firm.Let cool for one hour before serving.

My advice was sound. It comes from my doctor. And he is qualified. I cannot take the vaccine for medical reasons and the suggestions I posted were his recommendations for someone who hasn't had the vaccine. He also noted that the practices were sound for all since there are many flu viruses and you can get one even having been vaccinated. Do what you want with it.

Also, Best Buy has a 'connected' BD player for $170 is you don't mind refurbs.