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Product: Garmin 010-00577-23 List Price: $699.99 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I recently bought a Nuvi 850. Here’s my advice for what it’s worth.

The real value of a Nav system comes from the fundamentals.

* Receiver

* Maps

* Routing Engine

* Display

* User Interface

Garmin does a solid job in all these areas. But that’s not why you’re paying a premium for an 800 series Nuvi.

This model has a couple of “nice to have” features that were introduced on the 700 series of Nuvi’s.

* Where Am I

* Where’s My Car

Both are very well implemented and can be very handy. But again, all of the stuff I mentioned so far can be found in a Nuvi costing $300 less.

So what are you paying a premium for?

* Voice Recognition

* User Replaceable Battery

* Front Mounted Speakers

Well, the front mounted speakers are still drowned out by moderate road noise. So, I wouldn’t pay a nickel for that. The only real sound solution remains the FM transmitter that everyone complains about. It works OK for me, in my car, in my area. Your mileage may vary.

The user replaceable battery is excellent. For $30 you can carry a spare battery and go totally wireless in the car or use the Nuvi for 8 hours of walking around a city. I’d pay for that. In fact, every portable device should have user replaceable batteries.

OK, that leaves the “Big Kahuna” feature, voice recognition. Don’t believe the hype from the professional reviews or some of the hosanna’s being thrown around in Amazon reviews.

Does it work? Yes, it works amazingly well. In a dead silent environment.

With moderate road noise or even indoors with a TV at low volume 15 feet away the thing to gets confused about what it’s “hearing”. It should have a microphone with low sensitivity and high directionality to screen out spurious noise. A little DSP noise filtering wouldn’t hurt either. Unfortunately, the standard piezo mic that Garmin also uses for bluetooth phone calls will pick up any sound coming from any direction. The result is that voice recognition becomes an excercise in frustration.

Still, I’m gonna keep the darned thing. I’ll simply enter destinations in the quiet of my home, office, hotel room, or a restaurant before heading out on the road. The remote will live in my briefcase. It does save you from a lot of tedious keyboard entry. But, it is not the mobile safety feature that reviews would have you believe since voice commands are all but useless in a car. You can get essentially the same features in a Nuvi 760 and save yourself $300.

Your decision.

EDIT: Update…..OK maybe I was a bit harsh first time round. I have found that the unit will respond with moderate background noise…..some of the time…..if you yell at it. It appears to have the ability to lock in on the loudest sound it “hears”. So, if you are relatively close to the microphone and speak really loud (yell), it does respond some of the time.

On the upside, connecting to the Garmin website was very easy. I registered the 850, downloaded the newest firmware, and downloaded/installed the latest maps (2009), all in about ten mintues without a glitch.

I am a Realtor and have been using my Garmin GPS for almost four years. (It was the 2720 and had cost $999 when I bought it.) It’s invaluable to me in my business. Today it died as I was previewing a dozen homes and I went back to where I bought it originally and picked up an 850. Boy, am I disappointed!

The new graphics will take some getting used to, but that’s not the problem. With the newer technology and all the bells and whistles, I had expected this unit to be MORE intuitive than my old one. Turns out it’s not. Twice it told me it could not find addresses in older neighborhoods where my old Garmin never had a problem. I had to guess my way across unfamiliar areas to find them and, sure enough, once I got there, the street names registered on my screen. I immediately saw what happened but was shocked that Garmin hadn’t picked up the slight differences.

One street is named McLain Road. I typed in Mclain (small “l”) and it couldn’t find it. The old Garmin used all upper-case letters, so it found every address regardless of upper or lower case. This one obviously needs you to know which to use — very frustrating. The second one is spelled Hollowbrooke Lane. I typed in in every which way I could think of — Hollow Brooke Lane, Hollow Brook Lane, Hollowbrook Lane, etc. Now that I’m home and could play with it a little, sure enough, it found it. I should have typed in “Ln” instead of Lane and it had Hollowbrooke without the “e.” When I had typed in Hollowbrook Lane, it couldn’t find it because I spelled out the word Lane. Again, the old Garmin knew that Lane and Ln were the same thing.

Another very annoying thing I found missing on this new one which was on my old Garmin was the display of streets. Typically, each street will show up as I get near it, whether I’m turning onto it or not. With the 850 it doesn’t show streets unless they are major thoroughfares. I finally clicked on the “plus” button twice in succession and it started to give me lines (which represented streets), but it rarely showed the name of the street. Again, the old Garmin showed every street you came up to.

The voice prompts are also unreliable. Several times the voice prompt did not match up with the screen and if I tried to answer based on what I saw on the screen (for example, a city was on the screen and the voice was asking for a street address), I could not get it to sync and had to start all over or (more often than not) just gave up and tapped the information into the GPS. Again, a nice concept but frustrating if it’s not working properly!

I can’t figure out why this newer model would be LESS intuitive than the old system. I’ll play with it for a few days, but at the price I paid, I won’t be keeping it very long if I can’t figure out how to make this work better.

And, not to beat a dead horse here, but I’m shocked that the unit doesn’t come with a carrying case. I just bought my daughter a nuvi 350 last week for her birthday and it cost a fraction of what the 850 cost — and it had a carrying case! SHAME on you, Garmin!

This unit functions perfectly as it is described. The voice-activation is nearly perfect. Probably one of the best implementations to date that I can remember. The map is a bit under-detailed for the price but it gets you where you need to go. Voice commands from the unit are very easy to understand. Controls are easy to navigate as are the menu options. One thing that I think is a bit ridiculous is the absence of Bluetooth Hands-Free calling. For $800 they could have included that and it is the reason that I gave it four stars instead of 5. Many of the options included with the device are useless to me to be honest. Games? Picture viewer? MP3 player? I don’t need any of these but the voice-commands for unit control are awesome.

If you have the money to buy this unit, get it… if not look at some of the lower-priced 700-series Nuvi’s

Al Davis has owned the Raiders since 1972. Originally founded in Oakland, the team played there until Davis moved them to Los Angeles in 1982. Later, the team moved aid to Oakland in 1995 and remains there to this day.

The football team has had the colors of silver and unlit since Davis was general manager of the team in 1963. He worn these colors originally because all TV’s were available in dark and white only and these colors showed up better than others.

John nettle became the head coach of the Raiders in 1969. He later guided the team to its first ever tidy Bowl gather in 1976. inflame stayed on as coach of the football team until 1979 when he left the team and the league, to go into TV broadcasting.

In 1982, Davis moved the team to Los Angeles, due in piece to the refusal of the city of Oakland to remodel the football stadium. In their first year in Los Angeles, the team went to the well-organized Bowl and won. That has been the last time the Raiders have won a desirable Bowl. In 1995, the team moved benefit to the city of Oakland.

The fans of the Oakland Raiders are some of the rowdiest fans in all of professional football. They near early for tailgate parties dressed in silver and shaded paint, masks and costumes. One of the more rowdy spots in the stadium is known as the “sad hole”. This fragment of the stadium is definitely not for the feint of heart.

Hall of Fame

The Oakland Raiders have 18 unique members in the pro football Hall of Fame. They include: Marcus Allen Fred Biletnikoff George Blanda Bob Brown Willie Brown Dave Casper Al Davis Eric Dickerson Mike Haynes Ted Hendricks James Lofton Howie Long Ronnie Lott John anger Ron Mix Jim Otto Art Shell Gene Upshaw

There have been many other famous players on the Raiders over the years including: Ray Guy Lyle Alzado Cliff Branch Bo Jackson Carl Weathers (later played Apollo Creed in “Rocky” movies) Jack Tatum Jerry Rice

The Raiders have been known as a franchise that has had more than its section of awful football drafts over the years. This, combined with the constant head coaching changes by Al Davis, has made winning sometimes difficult over the years. One of the more memorable draft day mistakes was the selection of jumpy QB Todd Marinovich.

The Oakland Raiders have some of the storied rivalries among any NFL football team, with the fiercest being San Diego, Denver and Kansas City. Even when the Raiders are not as competitive, teams do not like playing them. That is one reason why the team will always remain as one of the more well-liked ones in the league.

Watch The Super Bowl Online

The most well-liked of these reasons would be that the game the person wants to peek is not available in there position. The game has suffered the dreaded blackout. Or they don’t live in the dwelling for their approved team to even be on the TV. Is this discontinuance to the reason why you want to sight live NFL football online?

Let us retract this is your reason. Chances are that you have or will reach across Internet TV software that will rep you 3000 plus stations as the device to view live NFL football online. Is this a viable solution? Yes most definitely. And for the 50 bucks it cost, there is cramped excuse for you to not already have it if you are seriously wanting to scrutinize live NFL football online. One remove will last you a life time of avoiding blackouts.

But is it the only solution. No it is not. However if you are in the United States, it is your best choice. Will you obtain all of the games? No, anybody who says you do is lying. You will bag a lot of the games. The plus is that the software is not GEO. IP address cramped. Meaning the station you are in has no carry out of what games will be on.

The ask then becomes which software is the best choice to view live NFL football. And is there some plan to peep the game of your choice if your original software isn’t getting it on any given Sunday?

How To Watch The Superbowl Online

On the other hand many may think that the topic of this article may be a contradiction since the Saints have lost their last two games it seems as if their run is already over. But I would have to disagree with that 100%. In my opinion the New Orleans Saints run has just begun. With every game they are learning themselves more and more and if you don’t already know then please allow me to inform you, the key to any team becoming better is knowing all of your strengths and your weaknesses.

With that being said, I think that it’s pretty easy to see that the Saints do still have some work to do before they can actually be the very best team in the league. To be the best you have to beat the best and as of now the Indianapolis Colts are the best and for as much as I love the Saints I just don’t believe that they have what it takes to defeat the Colts. Aside from a lack of the apparent skills and personnel that it would require, the Saint just don’t have the experience that the Colts do. They have been playing football together as a unit for some time now and if they should meet one another in this year’s Super Bowl the Saints will be hard pressed to get a win against them. So is the Saints run over with? Not as of yet but I suspect that it soon will be…

Watch Nfl Games Online

Download Papa’s Delicate Condition Online. Movie Title: Papa’s Delicate Condition Average customer review: Papa’s Delicate Condition is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Papa’s Delicate Condition

For years I had been vaguely aware of the existence of this film, but wrote it off as being a product of it’s time such as “Cheaper by the Dozen”, which by todays standard is SO DATED. Boy, was I wrong. Papa’s Delicate Condition was funny, witty, and refreshing. Jackie Gleason’s sly sarcasm is as hilarious as it is timeless. For those of you who only know Jackie Gleason from “The Honeymooners”, you will be delighted to see Gleason’s artistry go way beyond his character as Ralph Cramden. Though the movie is filled with great character actors, Gleason definitely carries the picture.

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I found the relationship between the father and his youngest daughter to be particularly endearing. In one scene, he tells the older sister and the mother to stop ganging up on the little girl. It is at moments like that which cause the picture to break away from the mold and stereotypes of it’s era.

This is a great family picture. The storyline is simple enough for children to follow along, while the adults will enjoy the great writing, snappy comebacks, and saltiness of the dialogue.

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I agree with the previous reviewer that said that the story was a little weak. It is for this reason that I am not giving the movie 5 stars. Do not confuse a weak storyline, however, with great dialogue and acting. Not only is it entertaining, the color and cinematography make this a visual stunner.

I am surprised that this movie has not made the crossover from VHS to DVD when so many less satisfying movies have. Perhaps, like myself, they judged the movie by it’s cover..and are only now just discovering what a gem it really is.

When Jackie Gleason passed some years ago I remember a couple of tidbits from his obituary. One relates a doctor telling him that he had lung cancer and suggesting that he cut back on his smoking. Heeding his doctor’s advice Gleason cut back from six packs a day to four packs. Gleason had his own little Algonquin Round Circle that consisted of Salvador Dali and Mickey Mantle among others. What did these seeming unlike public figures have in common? A love of the bottle. Gleason made something of a mark in films after his “Honeymooners” heyday. He was absolutely mesmerizing as Minnesota Fats in “The Hustler”. I’m still waiting for a DVD release of “Soldier in the Rain” with Steve McQueen. “Papa’s Delicate Condition” is an interesting film in that it was probably promoted as a comedy but dig a little deeper it’s a sober look at the scourge of alcoholism. Gleason’s Jack Griffiths is one of those larger-than-life gregarious personalities whose impulsive behaviour, usually when soused, that wins over some people particularly his impressionable six year old daughter. Not so his wife and older daughter. Why I don’t rate this film five stars is it’s not written explicitly that Griffiths is a self-destructive personality. Gleason, probably through personal experience, reads between the lines like he implicitly knows Jack Griffiths. This is not a slurring, stumbling, stereotypical drunk. Griffiths on the surface appears rather sober but underneath is destroying himself with liquor. This is an average film raised to the next level by a great performance. If your a fan of Gleason’s this film is essential.

Stream City Hunter 2: Collection 1 Online. Movie Title: City Hunter 2: Collection 1 Average customer review: City Hunter 2: Collection 1 is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download City Hunter 2: Collection 1

The beginning is the same as ever, action and mokkori everywhere.

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Through the entire season, though, we can see more and more clearly the feelings of Ryo towards Kaori, and we start to understand our hero better. Why he acts as he does - all to protect Kaori, the only woman he ever loved, from the life he leads.

But there’re still enough guns, smoke and explosions to satisfy even the most scepticals. Enjoy!

On the second part of CH.2 Ryos best friend the American sweeper Robert Harrison came to Japan to visit Ryo or what will he realy in Tokyo ?? or you will see Ryo as Santa Claus on the first CH Christmas Episode or a little Girl can read Ryos Thoughts or Ryo lost his Macho power and Ryo save Tokyo from a Terrorists ant their leader KAORI MAKIMURA or Kaori saw her real Sister and the 3 Parts CH.2 end episodes between Ryo and his preceding partner Marry that to Japan come to kill Ryo and save the live to her friend !!!!!!!

And now wait for City Hunter.3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stream Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper Online. Movie Title: Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper Average customer review: Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper

The other reviews are right. If you like the Talking Words Factory, you should like this follow-on video.

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In this episode, children are taught about long vowel sounds, ’silent E”, blended letters (such as sh and th), as well as blended vowels (the old when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking).

In addition, children are shown how vowels are forced to say their names when E’s are added to their ends. Fat becomes long-A fate, for example.

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Worth the money, for sure. [Certainly my 2.5 year-old would not know his letters and their sounds without these videos.]

You DO learn something new every day, and this DVD will give you a few days worth.

While visiting the Complex Words Complex with their Dad and the Professor, Leap, Lily and Tad accidentally cause Mr. Websley to lose his voice in the Silent E Machine, and have to solve a word puzzle to get it back for him.

This DVD teaches three lessons in an easy and fun way that will have kids singing along and actually enjoying an educational program.

First of all, we learn about the silent E, visually depicted by a semi-transparent letter E with band-aids across its mouth. Next, we learn about the sounds CH, SH and TH, and finally, how to pronounce words where two vowels come together.

Of course, given the complexities of the English language, these simple rules don’t work in all cases, but your kids will easily grasp the basic concepts.

My one problem is in the opening sequence, where it sounds as if the Professor is incorrectly singing “the O says Aaaaah”, but that may be a case of either a strange accent or a bad audio transfer, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

It certainly opened my eyes to a few learning tools, and I would recommend it to the parent or guardian of any child between 2 and 6 years old.

Amanda Richards, May 1, 2006

Download Hard Boiled Online. Movie Title: Hard Boiled Average customer review: Hard Boiled is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Hard Boiled

There should be no doubt that HARD BOILED is a phenomenal action picture, one of the best ever produced in Hong Kong. Much has been written all over the internet about it in the years since it was released direct-to-video in North America in the very early 90’s.

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Now, some 16 years later, through any number of flawed prints, alternate edits, crummy dubs and subtitles of varying quality, not to mention several PREVIOUS special editions on DVD, each with their own pros and cons, the chance to do right by this film in so many ways is, typically, blown by the Weinstein machine and their cabal of Hong Kong cinema experts.

Oh, sure, this disc is watchable, and considering there is now a generation of teenagers out there who weren’t even BORN when this was released, I’m sure there will be new fans made from watching this film. But the film ain’t the problem for the rest of us.

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Who in their right minds, in 2007, puts DUBTITLES on a “premium” special edition of possibly one of the most important Hong Kong motion pictures of all time. DUBTITLES based on a dub that was made, what, 16 years ago now? That dubbed version was indeed responsible for bringing a great many western fans into the fold, but that doesn’t mean we liked it. Or any dubbing for that matter. Just because HARD BOILED is over half action sequences doesn’t automatically mean the dialogue sequences are unworthy of even a moderately more accurate translation of WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE ACTUALLY SAYING IN CANTONESE. Instead, they appear to have paid the receptionist a few bucks to type the original dub script verbatim into the subtitle stream.

Thankfully, far superior subtitles are still available on other, BETTER DVD releases of the film. Some of which even have an image where Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Chow Yun-fat DON’T look like they’ve put on about 50 pounds!! I’m no expert on aspect ratios and the like, but I know enough, and I’ve seen enough Chow and Leung movies to know that they don’t quite look like this in real life. Gotta wonder who’s bright idea it was to CROP the movie, then STRETCH it back to the proper aspect ratio. I can think of a few people who probably figured no one would notice, or if they did, that they’d just be the usual internet pedants.

If that’s what I am, so be it, but for god’s sake, you think a label that so eagerly wants to be viewed as the top shelf for Hong Kong and Asian movies, would actually start treating those very products with some REAL respect. But then again, look what they did with their “edit” of the Protector. Laughable. And to hear the commentator on that one JUSTIFY the cuts tells me where he really stands when it comes to his paymasters’ wishes. This edition of HARD BOILED is another clue.

If I were just reviewing the film, I’d give it 5 stars. But since this is a DVD review, and I managed to find one at a store that broke street date, AND I’m now out about $18 bucks for something I now know I DIDN’T NEED TO UPGRADE, the best I can muster is (a generous) two stars, largely for the interviews on the second disc, which are not bad, and the location tour, which is not without interest.

The commentary on the other hand, while not a total write-off, obviously, offers SOME interesting tidbits that are tangentially related to the film itself, but to save a list of errors and ‘best guesses’ that would make your eyes glaze, just dig up a copy of the old Fox Lorber DVD from and listen to this film’s CREATORS, John Woo and Terence Chang contradict Dragon Dynasty’s commentator on several occasions. Or listen to the track on the Criterion edition of this title, where they do the same thing (though in fairness, the Fox Lorber track may have been a longer, uncut version of the Criterion one, only minus Roger Avery and Dave Kehr). John Woo and Terence Chang MADE the film, so who should you trust? A self-anointed expert? Sure, he means well enough, and he knows more than I do (which is why I’m a lowly peon who doesn’t do commentaries ), but a lot of the less film-specific stuff on this track feels awfully familiar…

Watch this disc for the movie (in Plump-o-Vision) and the interviews. Then do a little surfing to find one of the superior international versions if you really feel you need an “ultimate edition” in your collection, ’cause this ain’t it.

Hard Boiled is one of the best action movies ever and every John Woo film from the 1980s is golden. Hard Boiled has been released twice in the U.S. now, once from Fox Lobrar and once from Criterion, both are now out of print. (Of course there are numerous companies in Asia selling the film currently, thank goodness for Ebay!) I own both versions; the Criterion one has the best features but the picture is noticiably darker. This version of Hard Boiled from Dragon Dynasty/Wienstein Company has an amazing picture, stand out colors, well lit dark scenes, and excellent detail. If I was juding this film on color, brighteness, and overall picture, I would give it 5 stars.

However, there is one major flaw to the film somehow slipped through the cracks. The original film’s aspect ratio is 1.85:1; wide screen tvs at home are 16:9, or 1.78:1 (Standard tvs are 4:3 or 1.33:1). Because 1.85 is wider than 1.78:1, you will have small black bars on the top and bottom of a widescreen tv, this is normal. For some reason, they decided to turn this movie into widscreen 16:9, and what this means is images on the sides as well as top and bottom are cut off slightly. Imagine looking at a photograph and then zooming in about 7 percent all around, essentially this is what has happened here. The film is still viewable, but artistic quality is compromised because the image is being cut off all around.

As for this release, the menus are good and the special features looked neat, I haven’t had time to watch them yet.

Hopefully by releasing this movie many people will get to see the film for the first time. Just be aware that the movie is not in its original format and that the image is cut off slightly on the top, bottom, and sides.

Product: Samsung LN40B550 List Price: $949.00 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I was undecided between this 2009 model and last year’s LN40A550.

The features are substantially identical, but after figuring that the difference between best prices for the two, which I could find after extensive shopping around, was only $50, I went for newer one for its updated look and lighter weight.

In the reviews, one of the principal complaints for 2008 was the sound quality. I can’t directly compare 2009 and 2008, but found 2009’s LN40B550 to have perfectly adequate, if not excellent speakers, as far as TVs go.

Picture quality, menus, setup are excellent as expected.

One aspect that I did find puzzling is Wiselink not being able to recognize my old trustworthy USB Flash Drive. I even tried formatting the drive in various ways, unfortunately none of the tricks worked.

Perhaps, it’s the ancient drive not being comparable in some way, but it had never let me down before. Anyhow, I ordered a few different flash drives, and will try again, and then post an update.

====================================

Tried four various flash drives, all of them work just fine in computers, all four freshly formatted same way (FAT32). Two of the drives are read by the TV with no problems, the two others are not recognized at all… Go figure… The slideshow functionality is nice, quite limited, but does the job.

Just for the reference, one of the drives that does work in this TV is Kingston Data Traveler 4GB.

Only the second night with this set and I can’t unglue myself from it. This is a great sub-$1,000 set that will please all but the most hardcore videophiles. This set is also very light, I tucked it under my arm to move it up and down the stairs. ToC is subtle, almost invisible, so those who don’t care for last year’s ToC, don’t worry, you can barely see it the color on this TV. The swivel stand makes it easy so access the rear of the TV to hook up the cables that it makes you wonder why other manufacturers make stands without the swivel feature.

I had originally purchased an LG, but the off-angle viewing was awful, but from the same seating position, the Sammy shines. As with all LCDs, some color is lost when viewing from off-angle, but this set always displayed a picture that was acceptable.

If there’s a weakness, it’s displaying standard definition, as in regular cable, but that’s a challenge shared by most LCD screens. SD does not look as good as I’ve seen on some other LCDs, but the picture is more than acceptable.

DVD’s showed great… Upconverted DVD even better, I was impressed… Blu ray blew my mind. The color depth, the dark blacks, the crisp picture… I was VERY pleased. I am sure you will be too!

====================================================

Update 07/13/09… Almost 3 months and I’m still happy. Had it hooked up to a Samsung BDP2550 bluray player and it’s awesome. Currently using the upconverting Samsung 1080P9 DVD player and it’s still awesome. I have to sit closer than 7 feet to see any difference between DVD and bluray. Also connected to my PC via an 18ft HDMI cable, streaming Netflix and using Windows Media Center to view the NCIS and Star Trek episodes I have on my hard drive.

Still a GREAT purchase and I recommend this set to anyone interested in a 1080p LCD.

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Update 10/31/09… Hooked up a PS3 Slim last month and started viewing movies on Bluray… it’s like I got a new TV! I’ve never been able to see a substantial difference between DVD and BD, but after a few months of just DVD, Bluray on my 40B550 is blowing me away once more! I think I just picked up another habit… no more DVD purchases, only Bluray. And with prices going down on flat screens, this set is a bargain at $849.

I had been eyeing upgrading to an HDTV of some sort for about three years. I had been researching and dreaming about it for the whole time. Samsung was always on the top of my list, and when they came out with this model, which has a lot of features for a comparatively reasonable price tag I finally decided to take the plunge.

I have the most basic Cable service imaginable, so most of the time I am viewing SDTV (480i) stretched to 1920×1080. Considering this enormous stretch, it looks pretty good. It is definitely a tad fuzzy, it looks as good as any other 1080p TV I’ve seen. Similarly, my Wii is pretty fuzzy if you get up close, but it looks fine from my couch, especially when I enabled Progressive output. The Wii isn’t trying to be a graphics powerhouse anyway.

On the flip side is my DVD player. It has component output and is capable of doing 480p, and holy cow does it look awesome! After watching the SDTV and Wii, I was a little worried my DVDs would be equally blurry unless I upgraded to an upscaling player, but with progressive output, holy cow, I do not feel that is necessary at all. I was very pleased because watching movies is what I do most.

As for HD picture, my options are limited currently, but I for some reason NBC does come in in 1080i over my plain non-digital cable and I also tested OTA HDTV and I’ve gotta say, it is GORGEOUS. So in my limited experience, the HD picture on this TV looks fantastic.

My Dell laptop has an HDMI out (video and audio) so I decided to hook it up to the side HDMI connection on the TV. At first it looked kind of terrible and I had to do a lot fiddling. It still didn’t look right though. After consulting the manual, I discovered that computers are really supposed to be connected to HDMI 1. Switching to that I also discovered that naming the HDMI 1 port “DVI PC” it disables audio input, so bear that in mind. Once I hooked it up right though, it is fantastic. Videos and games look great and surfing the web with a wireless mouse and keyboard is AWESOME.

There are tons of video options and tweaks so you can get the TV to look perfect in whatever environment it is in. Another great feature is that you can connect a Digital Camera or USB storage device to show pictures at the full resolution intead of 480i all streched out if you do it over composite video. It looks great, but unfortunately my Canon camera uses PictBridge instead of acting like a USB Mass Storage device, so I can’t do it. I’ve tested it with a USB Thumbdrive and it looks great though.

So, here’s a recap for the “Too Long; Didn’t Read” crowd:

+PROS+

+Great Price/Feature ratio

+Awesome HD Picture (as far as I’m concerned)

+Great DVD 480p picture

+Tons of Video Tweaking options

+USB

+Tons of Inputs

+Digital Audio Output

+Rotatable mount

%Neutrals%

%SDTV Picture is only OK

-Negatives-

-Auto Program takes FOREVER

-Front buttons are practically invisible… and therefore practically unusable.

-No Picture-in-Picture at all

As you can see, the negatives are pretty minor (except maybe the PIP for some people). All in all…. I love this dang TV!!

Product: Kenwood DDX514 List Price: $750.00 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I just bought this recently for my 2006 Scion XB. I did a lot of research on the different head units and I definitely made the right choice. This head unit is easy to use, delivers great sound and great video. I just installed the iPod cable KCA-iP301V (necessary to watch video or listen to and control the iPod/iPhone from the head unit). The installation of that cable completed this device. I can watch podcasts, videos, or listen to music straight from my iPhone 3g.

i ordered this for my ranger and after getting it installed it works great! the iPod interface is cool and super easy to use and dvds look awesome. theres lots of expandability and the touch screen is always responsive. i have yet to see all the features on it but so far its a great unit…