Search Results for: blog blu ray or hdtv

HDTV Settings and Room Lighting

With the new high definition television (HDTV) sets, you can get amazing picture quality! You will feel as though you are in the movie theater at home or perhaps even in the middle of the movie itself, and the picture quality gets closer and closer to reality. Unfortunately, you can also get eye strain, garish colors and more if your setting and room lighting aren’t correct. In fact, I would bet that most HDTV users haven’t considered some of the basic things that should be done before watching your HDTV. Let’s first take a look at lighting. Most people turn … Continue reading →

Office 2008, New Blogging Tool and HD DVD

Here are the latest headlines in the world of technology. Office 2008 Released Yesterday, Microsoft officially released Office 2008 for the Mac. The announcement was made at MacWorld, which is taking place in San Francisco. The software was originally scheduled to be released sometime last year, but lingering problems and software bugs delayed the release. Microsoft is also becoming more support of Mac, redesigning a website, Mactopia.com, that showcases Microsoft products to be used with the Mac platform. New Blogging Tool Going into Beta testing today is a new blogging tool that promises to allow you to update your blog … Continue reading →

HDTV FAQ

Wondering if you should upgrade your television to a high definition unit? Here are the most common questions I have gotten about the HDTV technology. How much better is HDTV? Perhaps you mean how much sharper? Regular television is called analog TV. it is the stuff that we have been watching since the 1950s. The resolution on an analog television broadcast is 640 x 480 pixels, much smaller than most computer monitors these days. A HGTV program comes through at a resolution of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels, about six times as sharp. You can see an obvious difference … Continue reading →

Philips New Eco HDTV

One of the shining performers at the Consumer electronics show was a new HDTV that promises to sip power instead of guzzle it. Dubbed the Eco TV, the 42-inch, flat-panel LCD television, this new model has plenty of energy-saving features. Among these features are the ability to dim the backlight as a response to the program being watched, or as a response to room lighting. This is similar to the “local dimming” featured on the Samsung LED HGTV, but in this case with Philips, the backlight can be dimmed up to five times the brightness of its normal high peak. … Continue reading →

Blu-ray Frequently Asked Questions

After yesterday’s article about Blu-ray and HD-DVD technology, I received several private messages from readers who wanted to know more about this technology. Most of the questions were about Blu-ray, so I thought I would start there. 1. Will I be able to play my old DVDs on a new Blu-ray player? Yes, definitely. Blu-ray players are backwards compatible with DVDs, meaning that they will be able to play movies and other content that are on standard DVDs. The players come with multiple heads to support the different formats. You are likely to notice an improvement of quality in your … Continue reading →

Blu-ray or HDTV?

When it comes to true high definition on recorded media, you’ll need to upgrade your home theater system to feature a DVD player that is capable of keeping up with your high definition television, such as a plasma or LCD unit. While progressive scan DVDs make a good effort, they aren’t capable of fully taking advantage of true high definition, either playing it or recording it. Many newer standard DVD players feature technology called upscaling. This maximizes the quality of DVD, giving you better detail and color quality. While these DVD players do an even better job at coming close … Continue reading →

Blue-ray vs. HD DVD

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Earlier, we discussed next generation DVDs that are ready to take the market by storm. Now, I want to give brief introductions to the two competing formats. I’ll save the technical discussion for another time and place, but want to give you just a few bits of information about both Blue-ray and HD DVDs. Blue-ray The Blue-ray format was first created and developed by the Blue-ray Disc Association, which includes the electronics giants, Sony and Phillips. Blue-ray discs (BD) can hold more data than HD DVDs, but also will probably cost a little bit more to buy. BD capacity is … Continue reading →

What Will Black Friday 2012 Be Like?

What kind of deals will you get this year for Black Friday 2012? How early will the stores open and will the bargains be worth fighting the crowds and the lack of sleep? Even though it is only September, some of the experts are already making their predictions. Gottadeal.com is reporting that things will mostly be the way that they were last year for Black Friday. The stores will be open early, some of them on Thanksgiving, as I already reported. There will be a handful of hot deals, but quantities will be extremely limited, making it unlikely for the … Continue reading →

Three Dimensional TV

I love technology. I wish I had the inclination to invent something, because technology is amazing. There have been so many technological advances during my lifetime. Microwave Oven My parents bought their house when I was 10 months old. The house was built in 1915 and was always very hot in the summer. Mom didn’t turn on the oven, nor did she allow the children to do so, when the weather was warm because it made the house that much hotter. The microwave certainly helped. VCR The first VCR I remember was enormous. One of my sister’s friends brought it … Continue reading →

Follow Up On Our Flat Screen TV Saga

Earlier this month I wrote about the problems we were having with flat screen televisions. As I had mentioned, were we unhappy as these TV were breaking and in need of repair long before any of the old standard TV’s did. I told about one TV that lasted 18 months then cost us $200 to fix the power circuit and then our newest TV refusing to work after 2 months. We were having a power issue with the flat screen TV in our hotel as well. I conjectured that the problem was with the Charter cable box that seemed to … Continue reading →