Why are there problems!?!?

Ok, there is a problem with the TV now. It turns itself off when left in standby for a long time, like overnight or during the day while I’m at work. When I say that it “turns itself off”, I mean that it looses all power and has to be reset by unplugging it, waiting a few seconds, and then plugging it back in. When you hit the power button on the TV, it never really turns off, it shuts down the LCD portion of the TV but the internal PC is still functioning. Well, if you leave it in that standby mode, it eventually powers all the way down and can’t be turned on without that previously mentioned reset. So, this sucks. It sucks double because you have to do the reset maneuver whenever you want to watch TV AND when it’s shut down like that, it doesn’t record anything OR update the TV Guide system. I’m calling LG.

A few issues with new TV

So, I’ve been with my HDTV for a few days now, and I can officially say that it rocks. It records shows with the DVR that’s built in, but I don’t get to use it a lot though. It’s almost like a digital VCR, meant to record things when you aren’t home to watch them. It will only record the channel that’s playing. If you schedule something to be recorded, it will switch the channel to that channel and record it. So, you can’t record two things at the same time and you can’t watch one show while recording another. You CAN watch something pre-recorded and record something live at the same time though. So, it’s not perfect, but it’s great for recording shows while you’re not home. It doesn’t compare to the TIVOs available out there now though. It works great for a free DVR built into a TV though.

HD Rocks!

So, the cable guy came and hooked up my cablecard. Of course, the cable guy was about two IQ points above inept, but that’s a story for a different post. This one is about how glorious my TV displays HD content. I watched Leno in HD last night. Seriously, it almost looks 3D it’s so sharp. It’s almost eerie. It’s like it’s a window into the studio where it’s filming. Very, very cool.
I flipped and watched parts of a couple movies in HD and they looked great. To be honest, I didn’t see a huge difference with the exception of the fact that it was widescreen on the TV with no black bars. The picture quality was great, but nothing exceptionally better than regular def TV on a regular TV. I imagine it’s because the movie wasn’t filmed with HD cameras and was only converted to HD later. That’s my thought, but I don’t know for sure.

New TV!!!

I just purchased a new LCD flat panel TV. It’s my entry into the world of HDTV and I’m pretty excited. I called the cable company and got myself hooked up with the HD package and I’ve got a cablecard coming. The TV I bought is the LG 42LB1DR, which rocks! It’s 42 inches and has a built in DVR. With the cablecard, I’m going to be able to get rid of my digital box and use the TV Guide On Screen menu that the TV uses. I’m super excited to get this bad boy up and running. Well, I mean, I have it running now, but it’s using the box and it’s just standard definition. I’ll keep you all updated on the TV situation.

Insultingly bad movie physics

http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/
This site is great!!! You have to check this out! It’s a bunch of physics majors reviewing movies for the physics used in the movie. Sounds stupid, but it’s hilarious! They rate movies, not on story, but on how physics work in the movie. They have ratings like PGP (Pretty Good Physics) and RP (Retched Physics). They rate Spider-man and talk about how much energy and mass it takes a spider to produce webbing. They said that the amount of webbing that Spider-man shoots is impossible; he would have to be constantly eating to generate that much mass out of his body. It’s funny stuff. Check it out.

A900

I just got a new cell phone. I got a Samsung A900. The phone is cool as hell. It’s super thin, which is great for me because I always carry my phone in my front pocket. Now I look less like I’m carrying a baseball in my pocket. It has a decent camera, you know, for taking pictures of things. The screen is a good size and it has some great color. I downloaded Zelda on it. ZELDA! I mean, the original game, the whole thing. Amazing eh? Now when I’m bored, I can whip out the phone and play Zelda for about 2 minutes before the battery dies. That’s the only problem I have with the phone, the battery life. You can practically see the battery bars moving as you talk on the phone. Otherwise, it’s a great phone.

Nick of time

Crazy weekend.

Friday: I was at work until 9:15, right up until I had to make a MAD DASH to the airport to drop off a package for FedEx. We missed the 8:30 FedEx deadline here, so the only other option was to take it to the airport. The airport FedEx closes at 9:45. I got there at 9:46. They have a set of double doors as an entrance to the FedEx building and they were locking the inner doors when I got there. I banged on the door and yelled at them inside. They motioned me to an emergency exit and let me in to take my package. If I had been 10 seconds later, I wouldn't have been able to get a hold of them by banging on the door. I would have been screwed and probably would have had to drive to Memphis to drop off the package. That sucked.
Crazy