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By David on November 17th, 2009

To Save Energy, California To Limit The Size TV You Can Buy.

I don’t have much to say, really, but I will say that I think this is absurd. Yes, I am an environmentalist. And yes, I am a liberal who is OK with some government regulation. But not selling certain size TV’s to customers in order to save some energy? Ridiculous.

On November 18th the California Energy Commission (CEC) is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would require by 2011 flat screen energy use be reduced to 30% of the power used today, and by 2013 the energy use would be reduced to 49%. The Consumer Electronics Association says the current CEC proposal would essentially ban the sale of all plasma TVs larger than 60-inches and 25-percent of all HDTVs currently on the market.

So, residents of California can water their lawns all day long, enjoy gigantic swimming pools, play a round of golf on one of thousands of golf courses, drive gas guzzling cars, run air conditioners all year, and light up their cities all night…but they can’t buy a certain size TV for their home? Stupidity reigns sometimes…

What do you think?

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By David on November 17th, 2009

My Experience: Don’t Spend A Ton Of Money On HDMI Cables.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned trading in some American Express Rewards Points towards a new HDTV and a Blu-Ray player, and I finally have them all hooked up here in the new apartment. And while the cable guy brough an HDMI cable to hook the cable box to the TV, the Blu-Ray player didn’t come with one so I had to buy one for myself. So I went online to look for one and was amazed at how vastly different the prices can be! A 6 foot HDMI cable on Amazon.com can vary from $.27 all the way up to $299…I was absolutely stunned. While some are basic and some are high-speed HDMI cables, I did some research online to discover that most of these cables all work perfectly fine, especially for people like me who probably wouldn’t notice any difference at all in the quality. On some HDTV forums it was suggested to at least get a high-speed HDMI cable for Blu-Ray players, so I settled on one that got a ton of positive reviews and only cost $9.99 – this Mediabridge Ultra Series 6ft High Speed HDMI Category 2 Certified cable. I hooked it up and everything works and looks great and I am very happy that I didn’t spend a fortune on a $10 cable!

hdmicables My Experience: Dont Spend A Ton Of Money On HDMI Cables.

Out of curiosity I stopped by Best Buy this weekend to check out the prices on their HDMI cables – wow. People actually pay those prices? $79 for a cable with the same ratings and length as the one I bought online for $9.99? What a ripoff. I am willing to bet that no one could tell the difference between an image being sent through my $10 cable versus one sent through an $80 one, and I am so glad I did some homework before wasting all that money.

The lesson here? Don’t blow your money on overpriced cables for your home audio/video setup. Chances are that unless you are charging admission for others to watch movies at your house, you are just wasting your money that could be better spent elsewhere!

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By David on November 16th, 2009

Went With The Comcast Triple Play; Hope They Don’t Let Me Down.

If you do a search for Comcast on the internet, you come across some complaints…actually, a LOT of complaints. (Really, all cable/communication conmpanies have a ton of complaints) And I am not happy that they limit the amount of bandwidth you can use per month, especially since I work from home all day. But I hated DirecTV even more than those issues, so hopefully these guys will be a little better. A few weeks ago I wrote about how much I would save by combining my TV, phone & internet, and after talking with a customer relations specialist, here is what my final bill and package looks like:

- $134 per month, including all taxes & fees
- Unlimited phone
- 12 mbps download speed internet service
- HDTV w/DVR service

Compared to the $152 per month I was paying in New Mexico for no HD and slower internet, this is a pretty good deal. I also got most of the set-up and installation fees waived just by asking, so if you are signing up for any new services you always have to ask. We set up the appointment for between 8-10am last Monday morning, and the guy showed up at 8:10am. Not bad for a first impression!

The guy that came to my place was incredibly nice and friendly, asked me exactly what I planned on hooking up, where I wanted all the “stuff” and a few other pertinent questions. In under an hour, my phones were working, my TV looked great, and I finally had internet service back after 4 days without it. It’s WAAAAAY faster than my old internet service in New Mexico, which is really great for 2 reasons:

1. I can finally do online backups of all my data from my computer. I am trying out BackBlaze for $5 a month.
2. My Blu-Ray player can stream high-quality movies over the internet from my Netflix account to my television. Sweet!

Overall, I have to say that I am pretty happy with the whole process of getting set up here at my new place and happy with the price. Hopefully it will continue and I will still feel like I made the right choice 6 months from now!

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