Smart TV

​Now for something totally boring. 

We bought ourselves a new TV. Not necessarily for christmas but it worked out that way. Shawn had a 60″ tv when we met so we put my old 45″ in the spare room. Out of nowhere, the big one just up and died.1  I was happy with the 45″ back in the day but I’ll tell you downsizing to that 45″ again was painful after having the 60″ for several years. It was like going from the old 36″s to a 19″. Yeah, you know exactly what I mean!

I’ve always been a big fan of Panasonic, but we opted for a Samsung. We got the 60″ SUHD 8-series version. It’s super thin, light and pretty easy to setup. The only frustrating part was the remote wasn’t paired to the TV and I got frustrated for a few minutes thinking it was broken. Why do men hate reading directions? Once I figured it out, everything went smoothly.  There is almost no bevel on the edges, which is different from our old one. It’s also LED instead of plasma. I really liked plasma TV’s as they are much easier to setup and use. For the longest time, they provided a truer representation of images and motion without pixelation. However, LED (and soon OLED) won the format war with ever decreasing production costs. The upside is much lower power consumption. The power cord is practically the same type you’d find on a DVD player. I’m curious to see if I notice a difference in our electric bill since we watch TV a lot. Anyway, almost all the TVs we saw, regardless of brand, were super thin. The quality is similar but the devil is in the details. 

I knew I wanted the same size, or bigger, but I didn’t really care about all the fancy features. It’s a damn TV, it doens’t need all the fancy stuff. I’ve seen other smart TV’s at friend’s houses and they all felk gimmicky. Or at least that is what I used to think. hehehe  Our new one is pretty snazzy. To my surprise, I totally love the enhanced features. The menu is super quick so it doesn’t feel gimmicky at all. I wonder if that is why I thought previous tvs were so gimmicky? It also supports 4K even though I didn’t really care about that either. It supports wireless or ethernet to connect to the web. Another pleasant surprise, it supports Google+ Play, which I use a lot. Google+ Play and Amazon Video are my go-to sources for streaming media. It also supports Hulu, Nextflix, Vudu, etc. They actually came preinstalled on the TV. There is a list of other apps you can download for broader options. Pretty much every movie channel was availabe, ie HBO Now, Starz on Demand, etc. You can easily use the TV and still cut the cord from cable as long as you have internet. And while I have several of these available thru the Tivo, it’s actually easier to use and navigate them thru the TV. 

The frame rate is faster so it makes everything look live. In some examples it can ruin the effects for you. heehee  We eventually turned it off. It’s hard to explain until you see it in person. It gives everything a sharper more realistic view as if you’re watching it live. Shawn doesn’t care for it but I kinda like it. The TV is also very bright. We’ve had to lower the brightness pretty far to feel comfortable. Even now, anything with white space will light up the whole room. The only odd part is the TV only has one connection port. It connects to a small hub that supports 4 HDMI ports and few others including usb. I didn’t really like the idea but considering how thin the TV is it makes sense. If you’re into video games, like I am, it has a special ‘game mode’ setting for making games play smoother, and it really works. I noticed a difference right away. 

So, if you’re in the market for a new TV, I recommend the Samsung 8-series line. It is well worth the money. It was on sale black Friday so we got a decent deal on it. If you do the Vizio line, which is cheaper, do the M-series, NOT the E-series. Vizio’s were about $300-$400 bucks cheaper but we really wanted the higher quality display for gaming. Vizio had a much lower rating for gaming and the refresh ration for motion were lower. Now, if you don’t watch a lot of TV or use it for more than the casual show, these differences really don’t matter. 

The TV also serves as a nice distraction to keep me off FB more. heehee

  1. It might be fixable but we both wanted a new one. I will try to get it fixed a little later. It’s getting burn in from the hours and hours I spend playing Destiny []

Ooops VII

I totally spaced that I a VA1 day today. I had originally planned to make a trip home however, w/all my EMT stuff lately, I never booked it. Scratch two trips this year. Ugh! I did get out of the house over the weekend so there is that. It’s sunny today albeit chilly. Very typical SF day. I’m having dinner at The Cove and then I’m thinking its a good night for DVDs.

I picked up God of War 2 for the PS2 yesterday. I spent all last evening2 and most of today playing it. hehehe. It is a very visually stunning game with a superb soundtrack to match. Throw in some great mythology and it is one of the few games worth the $50.00 price tag. Needless to say, I didn’t do any chores. lol Thankfully, I have today for that. (yeah right)

In other news, I have a bitchy rant coming soon. Just a list of inconsiderate quirks that people do that really pisses me off.

1 Vacation day.
2 I was up till 4:00am