This Old Bull

Yesterday was a day of deliveries:

• TiVo HD
• TiVo Wireless G Adapter (for the old TiVo Series 2 unit in my bedroom)
• Linksys WRT54GL wireless router
• A couple more HDMI cables

I hooked up the TiVo HD to plain old basic cable for now, but Time Warner’s arriving tomorrow to set up my digital cable and give me a CableCard adapter for the TiVo. I realized I had a bunch of devices in the living room that need to be on the network, and rather than put all of them on the wireless individually — which, in some cases would require purchasing an additional wireless adapter for the device — I could just get the Linksys router, slap the awesome and free Tomato third-party firmware on it, disable the routing functionality, and set it up as a wireless bridge to my main wireless router. Then I can just plug things in to the LAN ports on the “router” in the living room and they appear to be on the same network as the rest of my LAN. Neat stuff. I also finally put an 802.11g adapter on my older TiVo, which means I can shut off the 802.11b network that I was running solely for its needs.

Here are some photos:

The new TV was delivered by Yellow Transportation freight Monday evening. It was later than I’d expected because the driver had a really bad day; first his cargo liftgate was stuck in the up-and-extended position, and then later the rolling door on the back of the truck lost a couple of hinges. But he was incredibly friendly and professional and helped us get the TV inside. The set itself was remarkably light, and we had no trouble getting it on the stand I’d gotten and assembled the week before. I let it relax for about an hour to reach room temperature — setting up the PS3, cable, and stereo hookups while I waited — and then fired it up. It looks, in a word, glorious. It’s bright, crisp, and fast. If I try real hard I can see the rainbow effect when quickly moving my eyes across the image, but I don’t notice it when I’m watching. Two games that I’d had problems with — Burnout Paradise and PixelJunk Eden — on my older, smaller TV are a lot easier and more engrossing on the big screen. Vann’s was great, with phenomenal prices, free shipping, and excellent sales support, so I’d recommend at least checking their prices if you’re going to be making a big A/V purchase.

I’m looking forward to enjoying this thing for a very long time.  Here are some photos:

Yeah, it’s a [D&D](http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/welcome) reference. Sorry. The [TV stand](http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-TR-500X3BX-Adjustable-61-Inch-Stand/dp/B000P53JRG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1219163958&sr=8-1) was one of the most difficult pieces of furniture I’ve ever had to assemble. After about two hours of struggling with it, it’s together, looks great, and seems sturdy enough. You can’t even tell where the back fell off, stripping out chunks of the [MDF](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard), when I inadvertently applied too much pressure in the wrong spot during construction. It’s not as if the screws were load-bearing, at least, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.

I drove out to [Legends](http://www.legends-club.com/) in Raleigh last night to see a [dear, dear friend](http://bejipan.livejournal.com/) off before she moves to Atlanta. I’m going to miss her, and I got in pretty late because I didn’t want to leave the club. This morning I awoke with a headache — which isn’t uncommon for me after not getting enough sleep — and one of the construction people was in the courtyard alternately banging and circular-sawing. The joys of living in a construction zone. I can handle headaches; I can handle noise. But the two of them together? Ugh. I’m looking forward to an evening in, and getting to bed early.

This weekend I finally ordered the new TV from Vanns.com. I settled on the Samsung HL61A650, a 61″ LED-based DLP TV (OMG!). What this means is that while it’s a rear-projection set, it uses LEDs instead of a lamp so I won’t have to replace a bulb ever. It got great reviews, is the right size for my viewing distance, and looks phenomenal.

Last week, I ordered the stand for it, which just got delivered today. The FedEx lady called me from the front door’s call box, and I walked up there from my office, helped her get it in to the apartment, and headed back to work, helping some of my coworkers load some systems into a car to take to campus on the way back.

I love living this close to my office!

Update: It turns out that this isn’t an LED model, which I found out after looking very, very carefully at the spec sheet. I talked to one of the sales support guys at Vann’s and he recommended the lamp-based unit anyway. His points were that it produces a more natural white light rather than the bluish tint that the LED units can have, and it’s a tried-and-true technology so there are likely to be fewer kinks to work out. For what it’s worth, I’ve loved the TV so far, and am exceedingly happy with my decision on this model.

I went by the apartment yesterday to take some measurements of the living room and master bedroom to determine how my furniture might best fit (the living room is approximately 12’ x 16’ and the bedroom is about 12’ x 13’, in case you’re keeping score). I’ve also been wanting to pick up an HDTV, so I wanted to get an idea of the living room dimensions to help me decide on the optimum screen size.

It looks like I’ll have a viewing distance of about 10 to 12 feet, which would mean I’d be looking for a screen in the 60-inch range. My knowledge of HDTV isn’t all that great, though, so I may be mistaken. I’ve been eyeballing a handful of DLP rear-projection screens because they offer the best size-to-money ratio. I also do a lot of gaming, and DLP screen have faster response times than LCDs, offering a faster and cleaner picture when playing video games. I don’t appear to be susceptible to the rainbow effect that some people have when watching lamp-based DLP TVs, and I’m not worried about having to replace the lamp all the time because I don’t use the TV too terribly much.

I’ve been weighing getting a new TV from Vann’s versus getting a refurbished unit from Second Act; the latter is cheaper and I could use the money I save to buy a nice five-year warranty, but with Vann’s I’d get free shipping and a discount on a matching stand. I’ve had good results with refurbs in the past, and I’ve read great reviews of both, so I’m kind of on the fence. Anybody have any thoughts on this?