hockey sucks

Goddamn hugeass hangover ..... AAaaaAAa

Sorry to hog this thread, I'm actually a very happy person, but IT'S SNOWING AGAIN!!! WHITEOUT!! AHHHHH!

On a positive note regarding a previous post, I'm off to get a new t.v. on Monday and I've never had a flat screen before, don't know what HDtv is, don't know nothing about nothing. I'm on a teeny tiny budget but anything I get is going to be entering into a new level of tech, so any advice on this matter will be much appreciated. I mention budget because I asked my brother about this and he immediately lays down this multi thousand dollar set up that "You have to have or you are just better off with nothing!" Yeah, I don't think so. :P

Well, your reply should have been: "Good, when will you bring it over?" ;)
As for the HDTV part, I think there were two standards, HD Ready which is up to 768 pixels and FULL HD which is 1080 pixels. While both will play all content (or should play all content), the Full HD will have to stretch normal content a bit, while HD Ready will have to compress it a bit. Compression usually ends up with better image than stretching, so if you wish to watch mostly DVDs instead of Blu-Rays, HD Ready may be a better option, especially on a budget.
And do mind the distance you'll usually be when watching the TV, no use of a 40" monitor if you'll be sitting within 3 feet of it.

Thanks my friend. You hit upon something that I was curious about. I was looking at flat screens (killing time) a few years ago and term you mentioned "HD Ready" kept showing up. When I asked about it I kept getting the confusing reply, "Well it's an HD but it's not HD ready." When I said I didn't understand, the salesman looked at me like a was beyond stupid. The distance goes both ways. When I'm at my pc I'm only a few feet away, but at night and for the big game and the 3am showing of Alien it's more of a theater vibe. I'll opt for distance because when I'm at my pc I have the set on by only have pay attention to it. This may seem like basic stuff to you but I'm actually writing all this stuff down.

Oh and I watch mostly DVD but they are all in widescreen format. I don't know if that matters.

Basically HD Ready says "this television has a maximum resolution of 1280x720" and Full HD means "this television has a maximum resolution of 1920x1080".

The part about DVDs is that the native resolution of them is 720x480 pixels. Thus, if you ask for the DVD video to be at 100%, that is the size of the image. If your monitor/tv has a native resolution of 1280x720 (HD Ready), the DVD image will fill a bit more than a quarter of the screen, and will have to be zoomed in to 150%-200% to be played full screen.
If your TV is Full HD, thus the resolution is 1920x1080, the dvd will fill even less of the screen, and will need to be zoomed in more to be displayed in full screen.
Take any of the avatars displayed here, zoom in to 200% and to 300%, and see how they become distorted. While a few televisions and dvd players do have some routines to display the dvds a bit better, the upscaling is not always good, since if you start with decent quality, you can't get excellent quality.
BluRays on the other hand have a video resolution of 1920x1080, thus have to be zoomed out to be displayed in HD Ready monitors. Zooming out though doesn't distort the image that much, since you do start with excellent quality.
In both cases, if the monitor is medium sized (up to 32" or 36" I'd say), the difference isn't that bad. But if you go for the large to huge sized monitors (42"+), then you may have quite a few artifacts on your DVD collection.
As for the distance, the rule of thumb by Amazon is Take it with a grain of salt though, since Amazon is a store after all, and it would prefer to sell you a 42" TV instead of a 36".

I think there were a few discussions here about what TV to get, though can't look for them right now.

Edit: Had the wrong resolution in mind for HD Ready, fixed it.

You guys have a weird way of bitching about life.

Ummmm, my foot hurts!

First world problem: got my AICE Economics test on Monday.

That's the spirit! Keep it going.

annnnnnnnnd i'm 20 now...........great.

oh well, gonna see iron man 3 and money headin' my way, time to go on a gaming shopping spree soon.

will have to remember to pick up Pandora's Tower (i'm a adamant supporter of Operation Rainfall)

I'm getting a little 'traveled-out' right about now. By the time I get home Monday night or Tuesday morning, I'll have put in ~2,700 miles of windshield time since the 29th. It was around 550 miles today, from southern Texas to Wichita. Pretty enough drive, especially through southern Oklahoma (no, I'm not kidding), but you reach a point around that 6th hour where you start daydreaming about the possibilities of teleportation.

The last 700 or so miles on this trip will be behind the wheel of a Uhaul truck, towing a trailer, hopefully all in one shot on Monday. That's if I get a truck. After making a reservation online for Sunday, a woman from the local Wichita agency said they have no trucks. With luck, someone will drop one off tomorrow afternoon. Got the auto transporter trailer, though - not that it does me any good without a truck to pull it with. I'm sure it will all work out one way or another; might just take an extra day, tho.

I think I'm off again the following Monday for another two weeks - just gotta confirm with the guy next week. Closer to home this time, about 200 miles away, and I might get to come home over the weekend. The work is good to have, but now that the weather is finally coming around I'd like to be around a bit more.

HOLY SHIT.
When I made the move from St. Louis to Copper Harbor I was making the one way 750 drive a couple of times a week for three weeks or so getting everything transported and until now I used to brag about it. You seem to have me beat.

and just as I'm typing this I get hit again. Phew! I was getting worried. Beginning to think I would be able to go 24 hours without some dickless asshole derepping me for no reason. :P

I don't suppose someone wants to admit it? Didn't think so. That would take a spine. :D

I'm mentally picturing that drive you had... ugh. St Louis to Rockford there's not much to look at, not bad from Rockford to a bit past Madison, and it gets dull again for an hour or so from Portage to about Stevens Point. Easy drive since you aren't hitting any big cities directly, but booooriiiiing. Pretty enough once you get past Wausau.

The hardest part of mine will be that last stretch with the rental truck / trailer. Not looking forward to hitting Kansas City in that thing but if the schedule works out it'll be right around 10am-noon. Smooth sailing once past. Er, got Des Moines a few hours after and construction will make that interesting, but the timing should make it okay.

And then turn around and make another trip next week. And another guy between KC and St Lou is looking at having me come down for a week or two in June. That one should put the car right near the 100,000 mark.