fulsome and I have recently been having discussions about him possibly buying a new TV. I’ve obviously got some experience in this department since I’ve bought 2 TV’s in my life (but have spent about half of it researching the purchasing of those 2 TV’s) and fulsome is obviously a cheap bastard.

Living in the SF area, fulsome has been hoping to procure one of those HDTV’s that the rich upper-crust discards like used tissues as new models come out. In this case, it involves sending me pictures of TV’s and asking me what I think about them.

I’m obviously coming from a different place them him when it comes to TV’s but I think we can all agree that we want the most bang for the buck.

So here’s a little bit of a primer about how you want to shop for an HDTV (more…)

So just a day or two ago, I finally got around to getting my PS3 that I’ve been talking about for a while. The need for HD signal is really what drove the decision. I couldn’t settle for my crummy PS2 driving my new TV.

Unfortunately, while I picked up the PS3 earlier the HDMI cable did not come until today. Until that point I was connecting using the S-Video cable from my PS2 (480i = balls). Now though, we have upgraded to the 1080p/720p/480p set for games and movies.

I still don’t have a Blu-ray movie yet (I’ve requested some from BB Online but they have not come) and I still don’t actually own any disc-based PS3 games. I tried to rent Call of Duty 3 but the Blockbuster store I went to accidentally gave me the PS2 version so I’ve got to go exchange it sometime.

I have been abusing the ability to download demos to the machine though. I’ve got the Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm, Full Auto 2 downloaded already and am in the process of downloading the Ridge Racer 7 demo. I’ve also purchased flOw, Blast Factor, and the free Gran Turismo HD games that are available in the store.

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So, as I’ve repeatedly mentioned, I’m in the process of getting my whole HD system setup. One of the steps in that process is getting an HD movie player. While I’ve already decided to go with the PS3 I don’t really have anything against the HD DVD format (except that stupid Universal won’t release stuff on Blu-ray. Stop that.).

Anyway, as anyone who watches a fair number of movies will tell you, buying every single movie you’d like to see gets expensive fast. With these next-gen video discs clocking in at $20 or more (with list prices near $35-40 for some titles) this is even more true.

That’s why humanity invented the video rental store. As we’ve been through with Chuckles, he’s not really a fan of the chain stores. For my purposes (and in order to make this post applicable to more than the 3 people in the same metro area as me) I’ve decided to focus more on the national rental stores.

As independent local chains have their own unique advantages so do larger chains. Perhaps the most important of those advantages (for their local store) is the need to position themselves in the marketplace. In order to maintain their hardcore customer base, they need to be seen as a chain that supports an individuals rental habit.

Besides the traditional brick and mortar retailers I’ve mentioned so far though, the environment has obviously expanded in the past decade with a much larger group of online disc rental outlets. This includes Netflix and most recently Blockbuster‘s new online arm.

So for the purpose of temporarily acquiring high definition video content for home enjoyment, what is the best method? (more…)

I didn’t think buying a new TV would really change all that much (besides making my bank account emptier) but over the past week and a half I’ve realized that I’m half wrong.

First, I am now of the opinion that watching non-HD material is painful. I watched a couple movies on my PS2 over the weekend and it was almost too much to bear. While the movies used to look crisp and nice on my old TV, they’re now blurry and ugly on the new television. I don’t know if it’s simply because of the inferior connection I have for it (I have it hooked up via the non-HD S-Video cable) or the fact that I haven’t put time into calibrating it yet but some of these discs just look bad.

I’ve got a plan to rectify this via a PS3 and some Blu-Ray movies but I’m still waiting on my Best Buy gift certificates to come in the mail from my credit card rewards program. Supposedly they mailed out on Valentine’s Day so hopefully they’ll come sometime this week.

Besides that though, there’s the fact that if something is in HD I will consider watching it just because IT’S IN HD. I was kind of sick this past weekend so I was just lounging around on Sunday when I noticed that the Daytona 500 was on.

I’ve never watched an entire racing event (except the one time I went to the Target Grand Prix in Chicago with some free tickets) let alone NASCAR before that. And yet, I sat here watching almost the entire thing. I would switch occasionally between the HD golf on CBS and the HD NHL on NBC but 90% of my time was spent watching the race.

I’d have never even considered watching that race if it weren’t for th HD. The same is true of PBS. I’ve now watched more PBS in the past week and a half than I did in the past 10 years combined. And all because it’s in HD. This stuff is like a drug. A crystal-clear, vibrant drug.

This of course highlights the newfound inadequacy of my non-HD TiVo but hey, we’ll solve that problem eventually. I probably don’t need MORE HD content distracting me from writing updates for the blog right now anyway.