The Belly of the Beast.
Gentlemen, start your engines!!!
You don’t have to be a pilot like your friend, Sky, to appreciate this amazing video of a Boeing 747 taking off and landing with a camera secured to the nose gear. The music isn’t too bad, either.
Enjoy!
Plasma, LCD, or LED – Which flat screen television is right for you?
By Drayton Pryce
When shopping for a big screen television, the number of choices can be overwhelming at first. The three main types of televisions you will find when shopping are plasma, LCD, and LED. In this article I will go over the differences between these three main types, as well as the pros and cons of each.
Plasma Pros and Cons
A popular choice for video gamers and sports fans, plasma televisions have several advantages over their LCD and LED cousins. One major benefit of plasma televisions is their very high refresh rates and fast response times. This virtually eliminates motion blur, making it the better choice if you will be using the television to enjoy content with significant amounts of rapid motion (such as the aforementioned video games and sporting events).
Another advantage of plasma televisions is more accurate color reproduction and fidelity; on most LCD screens the color black looks closer to dark gray.
The third and final main advantage of plasma televisions is price. At sizes of 42 inches and above, plasma televisions are generally cheaper than LCD and LED sets.
Now for the cons: plasma sets are typically heavier than comparable LCD and LED televisions, use more power, and rarely come in sizes under 42 inches.
LCD Pros and Cons
LCD televisions do have some definite drawbacks, yet they are still an attractive option for many shoppers. They come in many different sizes and price ranges, with the sets under 42 inches being affordable for many people. The lighter weight and less power usage compared to plasma televisions are also desirable selling points for some shoppers.
The cons of LCD televisions, as mentioned earlier, can be deal-breakers for the more discerning shopper. The lower color accuracy and low refresh rate can seriously hamper one’s enjoyment of many types of different media. If you are planning on using your television for predominantly fast moving media and are looking at purchasing an LCD set, make sure to buy one with a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz.
LED Pros and Cons
LED televisions are similar to LCD televisions except that they use an LED backlight instead of a fluorescent lamp. This eliminates most of the drawbacks of typical LCD televisions and allows the manufacturers to make the sets extremely slim. The major drawback is price – since it is a newer technology, LED televisions are very expensive.
The Bottom Line
When looking for the best combination of performance and value in a big screen television, plasma is the best choice. Once LED sets come down in price they will be a very viable alternative, but at this time plasma is king.
For more HDTV information, go to Big Screen Television Info.
Netflix “Watch Instantly” Takes An Eternity.
What swell folks at Netflix!
Out of the goodness of their little hearts — and perhaps to stave off competitor services like those from iTunes — some months ago they started offering subscribers “free” movie video streaming that they call “Watch Instantly.”
For the first few months, it was a neat little service. Didn’t have time to wait for another movie to arrive in the mail? You were too tired to do anything else and decided at the last minute to watch a movie?
Sure, the selections weren’t always the most current, but the library was deep enough to keep even a movie buff like me at my computer screen.
Overwhelmed by their own success, Netflix’s servers are now overwhelmed. “Watch Instantly” used to mean “instantly,” i.e. the server checked your video connection and the movie started. Simple!
Not anymore. I’ve been keeping count. During the past three weeks I have tried to start a movie 178 times — often the same movie to see if I could get it to start streaming. ONLY ONCE in 178 tries did the movie start streaming the first time a tapped on that little blue “play” button. Wait times have ranged from four hours up to 6 days. In the screen capture above, it says I will have to wait 48 minutes before my selected movie starts to play. By then, I will have slashed my wrists, made obscene phone calls to former girlfriends, and probably write this blog.
And it’s gotten worse. Customers used to be able to reset that play button until they caught the Netflix server at the right moment and the movie started. It was a little like playing the lottery. Sometimes you won, usually you lost. But now Netflix has caught on to this little game and changed the rules. Try to reload the movie and you will get an error message that says you have two movies running, which is against Netflix policies. The only way out of this dead end is to close all your browsers and start over.
Keep in mind that a few weeks ago I went through an entire series of diagnostic routines with my PC and with my cable provider that proved beyond a doubt that my Internet connection was indeed fast enough — I run a top-of-the-line system here! The problem is clearly at the Netflix end.
Netflix used to be fun. When I slashed by cable TV connection, Netflix gave me access to great movies at a reasonable price. Now they are one of the scourges of my little world. Like one of Skinner’s rats, each time a movie fails to start, that’s one more shock to my furry head saying, “Don’t bother!” And I am beginning to think I won’t.
Netflix 1, Customers 0.
