The future of TV: bigger and better screens at home, smaller on-demand screens in your pocket

cleveland.com ^ | January 30, 2010 | Mark Dawidziak

[Skenderbej]

Don’t know. Mine melted before it failed.

[Chances Are]

Hear, hear!!!

I know exactly how you feel! That’s why we have 2 TVs in the living room, to handle crises just such as this.

(Actually, we have TVs in every room in the house, save the bathrooms.)

But alas, neither of these TVs have voice activated menus...

Yet!

CA....

[Tunehead54]

My "TVPC" features:

• Displays any PC video to the HD big screen
• Internet, email, word processing etc. easily workable from 15' away on couch with feet up on hassock ;-)
• Wireless mouse and keyboard from 20' +
• BluRay HD recorder/player
• 2nd DVD recorder for archiving DVDs, home videos, backups, etc.
• TV can display in window in "PC Mode" with all normal PC functions active - you can switch back and forth between PIP modes - PC or TV as main screen ...
• Hi-Fidelity Jukebox - can play throughout house/yard
• Family Photo Album
• Over The Air HD - many channels not even available on cable - plus cable channels
• Watch cable channel, record an HD OTA channel and use the DVR for two more recordings - important on Mondays when MNFootball Chuck and House are on and daughter wants How I Met Your Mother "taped"
• Any PC in the house can play multiple netflix movies or a channel off cable/OTA HD - in HD!
• "HUGH" growing list of online TV programs and videos -
• Separate monitor off PC allows "normal" PC access with TV in "normal mode" - works fine with 25' VGA cable
• Windows Vista Home Premium included (reluctantly for testing)
• Works fine on 100MB/wireless N network - next step 1GB wired/wireless
• Cost - $1000.00 for the PC (quiet box with full-size cards and intel motherboard and CPU) separate from wireless network ... quite the deal! ;-)
• Separate software for TV to other PCs and archiving DVD required but not expensive depending on your needs ...
• Just a hobby now but thinking about upgrading and selling online ... ;-)

[Tunehead54]

My "TVPC" features:

• Displays any PC video to the HD big screen
• Internet, email, word processing etc. easily workable from 15' away on couch with feet up on hassock ;-)
• Wireless mouse and keyboard from 20' +
• BluRay HD recorder/player
• All sound goes through home entertainment amp - digital or analog with full surround sound
• PC games are amazing on big screen!
• 2nd DVD recorder for archiving DVDs, home videos, backups, etc.
• TV can display in window in "PC Mode" with all normal PC functions active - you can switch back and forth between PIP modes - PC or TV as main screen ...
• Hi-Fidelity Jukebox - can play throughout house/yard
• Family Photo Album
• Over The Air HD - many channels not even available on cable - plus cable channels
• Watch cable channel, record an HD OTA channel and use the DVR for two more recordings - important on Mondays when MNFootball Chuck and House are on and daughter wants How I Met Your Mother "taped"
• Any PC in the house can play multiple netflix movies or a channel off cable/OTA HD - in HD!
• "HUGH" growing list of online TV programs and videos -
• Separate monitor off PC allows "normal" PC access with TV in "normal mode" - works fine with 25' VGA cable
• Windows Vista Home Premium included (reluctantly for testing)
• Works fine on 100MB/wireless N network - next step 1GB wired/wireless
• Cost - $1000.00 for the PC (quiet box with full-size cards and intel motherboard and CPU) separate from wireless network ... quite the deal! ;-)
• Separate software for TV to other PCs and archiving DVD required but not expensive depending on your needs ...
• Just a hobby now but thinking about upgrading and selling online ... ;-)

[Las Vegas Dave]

He who dies with the most remotes, wins..! < /humor >

[Tunehead54]

Sorry for the double post - at first nothing posted so I back-paged and added the sound and pc games features and re-posted - again sorry. ;-)

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

What are the odds? You guys have exactly the same setup. But seriously, sounds mighty nice.

[Tunehead54]

Heh! Yes its a fun system but not for the faint-hearted - there’s no “all-in-one” solution but Windows Media Center works surprisingly well for a lot of uses ... ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

My guess is, when really huge screens become economical, we’ll see a resurgence in theaters, including drive-in theaters. Distribution of movies will be entirely digital and direct from the studio (no distribution middle-people, apologies to friends of mine who are in that business). Movies are already color-matched and edited digitally, and it’s only a matter of time before they are shot entirely digitally. Digital distribution and digital reproduction on screen are not that far off. Glad the Loeks people didn’t demolish Studio 28 in Wyoming MI...

[Yardstick]

Wow, B850 — top of the Samsung line I believe. I was looking at TVs the other day and was impressed with how much better the picture on Samsung 6-series was compared to the other TVs there and even compared to the their own 5-series.

[GRRRRR]

yeah, still getting used to it...pretty huge. The sound system is great too, blu ray is magnificent!!