Classic! Turner Classic Movies Makes the Move to HD

Classic film buffs are buzzing about Turner Classic Movies finally becoming available in High Definition (HD). Ted Turner, of course, is known for loving restorations (and a few controversial ones ) but most agree that the films shown on TCM represent the rich history of American cinema.

Who would have thought, decades ago, that we would one day have the opportunity to watch Billy Wilder classics in our own home, with even more clarity than the original print? There was a time in history when we thought many of these films would be lost to the ages (a fate which has met only a small handful of films ).

Of course, if you want to enjoy Turner Classic Movies in High Definition, you have to have HD ready electronic equipment. If you were waiting to upgrade to a home theater system, thinking that HDTV was only for football games and pay per view, now might be the time to make the move.

One more thing, letterbox viewing can be fun, especially since it’s the way the director intended and you have a really big HDTV screen in a really dark room. You get that movie theater like experience that makes you smell buttered popcorn. Anyway, there are some who don’t like the letterbox view or believe if you watch plenty of letterbox style movies your HDTV screen will wear unevenly. CNET has an interesting piece on whether to configure your HDTV screen to remove the black bars in the letterbox and stretch the moving image to fill the screen.

One way to get that theater effect is to put a big screen in a small dark room. Big like 60″ LG Plasama Big

For the best prices for modern viewing of Classic films check

• B & H Video
• Beach Camera
• JR Audio
• Electronics Expo

1080p Beauty is in The Eye of The Beholder

Oh, Mike Miller, you are such a kidder. Michael J. Miller is senior vice president for technology strategy at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm and author of the blog Forward Thinking on PCMag.com. He is also quite the kidder. He conducted a little unscientific HDTV resolution experiment to determine whether people can tell the difference between the state of the art technology in television displays with a resolution of 1080p and 720p. Miller gives an easy to understand definition so I’ll quote him,

“The difference is the number of horizontal lines on the display; the “p” stands for progressive, meaning the display refreshes the lines one after the other.”

He put to similar LG TVs side by side and set the resolution on one of them at 720p and the other at 1080p. He then played the recent Star Trek movie and watched the reaction of his 64 guests. Well he didn’t tell them which was which either.

Fifty-nine percent thought the 1080p was a better, sharper picture. Twenty-nine percent selected the 720p picture as best, and 16 percent thought the picture looked the same on both. Miller did not provide the age or visual acuity of his friends.

Look, part of this technology progress is just because we can, part of it is demand creation (we all have to work you know), and part of it, at least for 59% of Miller’s friend, is because you can really tell the difference.

Most everything in TV, camera, and entertainment land is moving to 1080p so jump on board. Now there is a slight price difference for those extra 360 lines on the screen.

Here’s a search at B & H Photo for 1080p 42” Plasmas

Compared to a search for 720p 42” Plasmas.

The difference in dollars may be worth it to you, and more than half of your friends. Hey look at it this way, if you get the 720p screen, you’ll probably need to buy less food for next year’s Super Bowl party. Ha, more savings.

PC Mag Makes the Call, But I Throw the Challenge Review Flag

Wendy Sheehan Donnell wrote a nice piece in PC Mag called “HDTVs for the Big Game” highlighting how there are great, and I mean great buys on HDTVs. If you act fast in certain markets and destinations you can get that beautiful picture in your home in time for the game. Every brand is priced competitively, but now is the time to go for that quality brand that may have been once out of your range, but now may well be affordable.

For example the Sony Bravia Series is always highly rated, the PC Mag piece lists the KDL 46XBR8 that was list priced at $3999, can be found for $1,999 – but you can do better yet, J&R has this Sony Bravia KDL46XBR9 for under $1,700 . Look I know prices are always in motion, which is why it’s good to follow websites like Roominations www.roominations.net and the Twitter profile @bigscreendeals for great deals in big screen HDTVs. We will bring you highlights of some great deals. This year will be particularly good for HDTV enthusiasts because of the introduction of 3D HDTV. That will be the bleeding edge of the market for 2010, but those kind of year always have good value pricing on current mainstream technology, which is more suited to my budget with five kids to still help get through college.

Here are some more deals to consider with hundreds of dollars of savings, once you finish your Super Bowl office pool.

J & R has several Sony Bravia series and a huge Toshiba at great prices

Sony KDL-52W5100 52″ Class BRAVIA W Series LCD HD Television

Sony KDL-52W5100 52″ Class BRAVIA W Series LCD HD Television

Toshiba 55ZV650U 55.0″ Class REGZA 1080p HD LCD TV with ClearScan 240

If you are a Samsung fan, and I swear by Samsung, Butterfly Photo has one of the sets in the PC Mag rating at a terrific price.

Samsung UN40B7000 40″ 1080p 120Hz LED LCD HDTV

Now back to the game.

Big Screen Deals On Twitter

Hi, I’m Linda Meehan of Manna Distribution. Our company is full of people that approach their work differently. They are straight talkers, admit mistakes, believe in fairness and respect it when people take responsibility.

We believe the only way for Manna to do well is for our customers to do well. These customers include some of the largest online retailers on the web who are constantly offering great products at competitive prices. That means consumers win too. We will be using the @bigscreendeals account on Twitter to showcase deals from these Manna customers on big screen televisions. If you are in the market for a big screen TV follow us and re-tweet those deals you think are among the best. We will also provide links to comparison sites as well as write ups on our own blog Roominations in the electronics section.

Any ideas on how we can provide worthwhile information related big screens or HDTVs, pass them along in this comment section.

HDTV is a Guy Magnet

Gals, you may have never looked at HDTV this way, but it is, especially during high profile sporting events season, just that: a guy magnet. This is also the season for getting great HDTV deals. It’s pre-Super Bowl season and if you are really planning ahead, get ready for March Madness. Guys, you know what I’m talking about.

By the way the Aaron Rogers’ facemask attack came after the ball was stripped by the same hand. You can see that right, but maybe should still have been called. Imagine that in high def? I digress.

There are some fantastic deals from now ‘til Super Bowl across a variety of screen technologies and brands. This is the best
time to be looking because with shipping guaranteed before the big game, you get to choose between brick and mortar and online deals.

Here are some that I found attractive TVs to consider.

One of the Samsung deals at B&H Photo and Video

Samsung – LN52B630 52″ LCD TV save $500 offer good through 1/16 but keep checking the www.B&H.com site for other models with similar savings.

Sharp Aquos – Sharp LC60E77U 60 inch Aquos Full HD 1080p LCD HDTV – from Electronics Expo crazy $900 savings but stock is low,

Sony Bravia 52” XBR9 Series HDTV from www.Datavis.com – DataVision Computer Video. This model has great reviews and worth a look if you are on the higher end of the price range

Panasonic’s critically acclaimed PC series has a Plasma that will make most men drool, even when the set is turned off. J & R has competitive pricing on this model so take a look before the Super Bowl.

What’s your favorite HDTV?

Black is the New Green

Black Friday sales have turned out better than expected according to retailers. Between the earlier store opening hours in the wee hours of the morning, to the online payment system Pay Pal reporting a 25% increase in the amount of money being exchanged on Thanksgiving morning, black is making retailers green with happiness.

Hamster toys are for girls and boys

The big sellers are TVs, (deals on these home staples are through the roof), laptops, and the Zhu-Zhu pets. OK I’ll save the Zhu Zhu for the kids, big boy and girl toys are TVs, now is not the time to go small. The deals are big and the screen sizes should be BIG.

Searching on the web, this caught my eye from Electonics Expo

– A raffle for a 55” Samsung LED, now that’s worth some cyber window shopping at the very least. These folks are on top of the social media technology thing as well, you can follow Electronics-Expo on Twitter for up to the Tweet deals.

Enter Electronics-Expo raffle

Not to be out done, Cyber Monday buyers are tracking with their own website, no seriously a website called what else www.cybermonday.com It tracks a bunch of store and online deals. Shippers, including Manna Distribution who sponsor this www.Roominations.net site, are geared up (pardon the pun) for 25 days of hauling and installing.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, pretty soon the whole weekend following Thanksgiving will be given its rightful name, “Consumer’s Weekend” I suggest. Have at it gift givers, this is your time. Happy consuming, it is better to give than receive.