len_mullen

Because there are SOOOOOOOOOOOO many apple deals on BF ;-)

I swear by the farmers almanac and we're looking at heavy snow in New Hampshire for BF!

My tv came with a 1200w 5.1 speaker system with a five disc upconverting player. It is paired with the tv, so the back speakers power on when a program is encoded to use them. The rear satellites are small and wireless. It sounds good. I'm happy. But I'm not an expert and recommend you read through buyers guides... http://www.hometheatermag.com/buyersguides/

The Ghost of Opalina or Nine Lives by Peggy Bacon

I'm not an expert, but this is what I think I know... There are two issues: image burn in and image retention. Burn in is permanent. It occurs on all displays -- CRTs, LCDs, and Plasmas. It is much less common today than in the past. In fact, few modern displays have this problem under normal use. Image retention is a temporary phenomenon. It is also more common. Most people have this problem because 1) they watch a program all day that has a static image on the screen (a ticker or logo), or 2) they play a game which has a static display (controls area, for instance). New displays have technologies designed to minimize impact including pixel shifting and screensavers. Generally, the retained image will fade over a short time once programming changes (ie., you change the channel) and modern displays have tools to facilitate the process. My PN50A450 is a plasma that has preventitive technologies and corrective tools. We rarely see any hint of image retention. Two exceptions are 1) I left a DVD in the machine that had a moving picture in an otherwise static frame. The screensaver did not kick in and when I returned in six hours, there was an image on the screen. A few minutes of the all white screen, and all was back to normal. 2) Sometimes when we play something that does not fill the screen, you can see the border if you look very carefully when the full screen is very bright. This retention is subtle and short lived. My kids play games on this tv for hours on end.

Thanks for the insight. I've really been impressed at the verasatility of the console. We bought it to play games and the occasional movie. Now, we have quite a few games and a growing library of movies. My oldest streams music, tv, and video to it from his PC, too.

I hope no one buys a GPS based on others' opinions. Buying a GPS is much more complicated than is it good. It's important to consider all features and price. Here are some features to think about... 1) screen size. yes, size matters. as i get older, i realize that some of us need a 4.3" screen or larger. understand your driver's eyes before selecting a GPS. 2) text-to-speech. this means the GPS will attempt to pronounce the name of the right you have to take in 300 feet. this *is* a big deal in cities and complex intersections. 3) traffic alerts (this applies to any other additional information like gas prices and speed traps). do you need them and how much do they cost. i have found traffic alerts mosly uninteresting, but one time i was tooling towards the airport when my gps alerted me to the fact that a railroad crossing was malfunctioning and offered to re-route me. i did not miss my flight. 4) POIs. it took me to #4 to mention this, but POIs may be more interesting to you. not a big deal if you use your GPS to find a destination, but, if you are on vacation and need a walmart, atm, or restaurant, POIs become very important. 5) other stuff. some GPS devices include blue tooth, some can play music and video, and others can call a nearby restaurant. read through all these and see what makes sense to you. 6) price. cheap is good...especially if someone steals the gps out of your car. once you have considered all the features and have a list of units that have the features which you can afford, ask what people think of the units. i have used two. i got the $99 navigon 2100t at staples a couple BFs back. it has traffic and text-to-speech. my first update was free and i'm hardly ever lost. the 3.5" screen is a little small for my aging eyes, but it was only $100, so i'm good. the POIs are adequate. i find what i need when i travel. i got a couple omnitech units from staples last year for $70. these have a bigger screen, less POIs, and no traffic. they work fine too. one was stolen...glad i didn't pay $400 for it.

The answer is no.

Just curious...have you chosen a tv? Size/resolution? I'm looking at TVs for my kids' bedrooms and the Vizio VO320e tops my shopping list. It's a 720p 32" lcd with a good price (as low as $339) and great reviews. Consumer Reports says... This 32-inch 720p (1366x768) Vizio delivers excellent picture quality and a fairly wide viewing angle at an especially low price, making it a CR Best Buy. Its sound was good, unlike its 37-inch sibling's, fine for typical TV programming. ConsumerSearch.com describes it as the bese Budget 32-inch LCD TV. 1greenproduct.com says it only consumes 87 watts of energy (my kids never turn anything off).

You're welcome.

I hope you're wrong or anecdotal. My PS3 has been playing movies (db, dvd, and burned) for a year. So far, so good. Of course, we play a lot of games too, but I don't understand how *not* playing games would make matters worse.

My Navigon GPS. I haven't been lost since. Great toy.

I posted about that -- hopeful like you. It turns out the premium you'll save running energy star appliances -- a refrigerator, anyway, in my case -- is not what you'll pay up front. Not even close. There are lots of promotions going on right now, so don't wait for BF and Obama to start shopping.

You may want to consider a PS3 as your blu-ray player. With prices coming down, it's a viable alternative even for people who will never play games. Besides the player function and internet connectivity, you can use a pc to stream content to it. Kids are always watching content stored on their PCs.

First thing you want to do is decide where your new tv will sit. If the room is brightly lit, an lcd will not be as reflective as a plasma. If you sit off to the sides, the lcd will wash out as you move away from center. Measure the distance from where you will sit to where the tv will be. Use this chart to get an idea of how large a set will be appropriate. A sales rep at Sears told me that most tvs come back because they are too big for the room. Put this distance on a piece of paper and stick it in your wallet. When you shop for tvs, stand back as far as you will sit at home. Also not a bad idea to cut out a piece of cardboard about the size of the set you are considering. Stick it where the tv will be and sit in your seat. Is it too big? Too small? Once you know size and distance, use this chart to get a feel for resolution. Use your eyes too -- at the stores at the distance you will watch from at home. Now it's time to shop. Visit a lot of stores. Watch sports and movies -- same stuff you watch at home. Note the sets that look good to you. Go home and google them. Search bargain sites for best recent prices. Make a short list of the tvs you like and grab the first one that fits your budget. I bought a set last year. I documented my experience and linked resources I used here. I think plasma looks best. I was sensitive to motion blur on LCDs and since we sit at wide angles to the set wanted a tv with a wide viewing angle. I went with 720p. In a 50" set, I could not distinguish 720p from 1080p at five feet and we sit eight to twelve feet back. Loved the Kuros, but they were too expensive. Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony occupied the second tier. Sony was much more expensive than the other two. I watched for a good deal and grabbed the Sammy pn50a450 for $930 with a 1200w htib shipped free. We curtained the living room and the window over the sink in the adjacent kitchen to eliminate reflections (many simply tilt the set slightly forward). After a year, I'm still blown away. Hope that helps.

Tough run of luck maisey, but Acer laptops have a *very* low repair rate per PC Magazine. 0% repair rate at my house

Two years ago, I took my sister with me. We started at Kohls. She was late so we were separated in line. I got in early and was at the checkout putting my credit card away when she entered the store. I've shopped alone since.

I mostly shop online and when I hit stores, I am in and out as quickly as I can be. I do, however, like to go out and enjoy the decorations, music, and cheer. Those who decorate get a smaller chunk of my gift money, but I do shop their stores, eat in their restaurants, and spend more time in their malls.

Puppies make a great Christmas toy. Just gotta get the right one... http://danvilledelivery.com/images/dogs.jpg

I couldn't share the data since it was part of a contract negotiation. It wasn't specific to laptops, either -- it was all computers. We just happen to be a Dell shop. Trouble tickets are not a good indicator of reliability. All that matters is hardware MTBF -- which is closely guarded for PC manufacturers. I also don't like that Dells are extremely closed systems -- proprietary parts and connectors make repairs/upgrades difficult/expensive. Mostly applies to desktops, though. I don't know what's going on at HP. I had to strap big honkin' coolers onto the CPUs of my a6112n Pavillions so they would not crash playing games or encoding video. A similarly equipped eMachine runs much cooler. The difference between the two machines is engineering -- HP put the card slots between the cpu and the power supply disrupting air flow once you install a video card. My personal laptop is an Acer 5516. It cost me $240 and I use it to edit and encode video, maintain my web site, surf the internet, and watch movies. I haven't had it long enough to claim it is reliable, but it was cheap and so far, so good. I really like that is runs cool. In the long run, this should correlate to reliability. Still, I don't recommend this to people. Each shopper has to work out the best combination of price, performance, form, and portability.

This is way off topic and not particularly germane to BF. There is definately empirical data that suggests Dell makes terrible computers (we did not extend the replacement cycle to four years because mtbf was 2.65 years for all Dell computers across the company). I've personally had two Dell 610 laptops fail in my camper due to moisture (I have three IBM 600Es that have been camping for six years). BUT a lot of that is part of getting these things to $300. Buy at that price and put the extended warranty money in a bank account. Your kid is going to drop, lost, or otherwise abuse the laptop. Spend as little as you need to and get a new one when that happens.

I can't do a WII. I'd like to have one, but it's SD and looks like crap on a HDTV. I'm going to hold out for an HD WII. Next year, I'm guessing. Thing about the WII is Nintendo has exclusives that are incomparable. For now, it's the PS3 for me -- got it for $250 last fall. Great games for big kids and an excellent blu-ray player for movies.

Listen kids, none of the major computer companies manufacture laptops. Acer is an exception and they make Gateways and eMachines too. They happen to be a Tiawanese company -- that's where laptops are made. At one time, Dell and Quantex laptops were identical except for the name tag and the software build -- and the price. For each distributor, there are high end and low end machines and a bunch of stuff in between. High end machines from one company have more in common with high end machines from another company than they do with low end machines from the same company. Furthermore, choosing a laptop/notebook is completely different than choosing a desktop. It's much more complex. This is because every laptop purchase is a compromise. Cost, size, performance, and battery life all play against each another. If you rely on another's opinion, you will probably find yourself among the 40% or so of laptop buyers experiencing remorse. I suggest that you begin by making a list of all the things you want to do with a laptop, identifying the software that will perform those tasks to your satisfaction, and setting a budget. Make a list of all the laptops that will make you happy. Go out into stores and touch each one. Eliminate all the ones that are too pokey or have a funky form, or you just don't like. Take your short list to google. See what other people think, read reviews, and note prices -- including past promotions. Keep this list near your computer. When a good deal comes up on one of these grab it. You will be a happy lappy pappy!

Kohls is a great retailer. They have LOTS of merchandise for BF and using their cards gets you another 20% in Kohls Cash. On top of that, they manage their crowd wonderfully. If Kohls has something I want, I stand in line knowing they will have enough on hand to satisfy their patrons.

The most important thing you can do now to get ready for Black Friday is to start shopping. Make a list of items you plan to buy. Research brands and features. Note 'regular' and 'sale' prices. Set aside some cash so that you do not need to finance unexpected deals with a credit card. Last year, I had most of my shopping done before Black Friday. That's unusual, but a deal is a deal. My most unexpected deal was a 50" plasma tv with a 1200w home theater for $910 in September. I have not seen a better deal since. Other unexpected deals included $150 off Chase credit cards. Even though it was not tangible, an offer to transfer credit card balances to a new account with no interest for twelve months saved me a bundle. Something you can do right now for Black Friday 2010 is to get a credit card with good cash back terms. I use a Discover card all year long to pay for everything that I can. This year, I have gotten $507.77 back. I take these as Staples gift cards so they give me $25 for every $20 I earn. That's $634.71 towards a couple netbooks for my kids. That's what I call a Christmas club!