Sunday, May 12, 2013

It's like I'm really there!

If you read my previous post about my cassette tape case I mentioned it would look great next my XBox, Blu-ray player and 3D LED Smart TV. So if you weren't paying attention that means I got a new TV.  I actually got it a while ago before I went on my last trip to Cranbrook.  I ended up getting a 47" LG LED 3D Smart TV from Future Shop.  And it's already out dated!!


I went to Future Shop with two models in mind, one from LG and one from Samsung.  Looking at the display models, I didn't see anything that set them apart, I thought they looked just "okay".  While I was walking around I saw another model of LG that looked real pretty, it was one of their higher end models.  The price was a lot more than I wanted to pay, but they were selling the floor model for about $1000 less than retail, so I decided to go for it.  Once I got home I looked my new TV up online and some of the reviews weren't too kind.  Still it looks a LOT nicer than my old TV, so I'm happy with it.

It's a smart TV, but so far I haven't even used any of those features.  It has some stuff preloaded on it like NetFlix and YouTube, but you can also download other apps on to it.  It is 3D too, so good thing when I upgraded my Blu-ray player a few months ago I got the 3D enabled one. The 3D is actually pretty good when watching a 3D Blu-ray, but the 3D conversion the TV does from 2D  to 3D is super weak.  I don't even bother using it.

Luckily, I happened to have a few 3D Blu-rays like Tron, Captain America, Dredd and Spy Kids.  Cody went out and bought Transformers: Dark of the Moon from Best Buy for $40 which is a lot of money for a Michael Bay movie.  I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.  I have picked up a couple other 3D movies like the new conversion of Jurassic Park which turned out pretty nice.  Now I have to throw all my old Blu-rays in the trash and get 3D versions.  Oh well, it's only money.

 I guess you aren't supposed to use them as sunglasses.  But they look so cool!

My TV from LG uses passive 3D, where as Sony and Samsung use active 3D.  I'm not sure the difference, but two pairs of LG glasses cost $10 where one pair of active 3D glasses can cost $50.  I got eight pairs of glasses with my TV which is six pairs too many.  I need more friends.  Still the glasses seems flimsy and cheap and I'd like to get some better quality ones.  I don't really want to pay $150 for the Oakley glasses.


The TV also comes with a weird remote that is sort of like a Nintendo Wii remote.  You point it at the TV and select things with an onscreen cursor.  It also has a curved grip, so it fits in your hand nice, but then it doesn't sit on the coffee table very well.  It has toppled off a few times on me.

My old Toshiba TV was a 46", but my new LG is a 47", so it is bigger!  Not noticeably bigger, in fact it actually looks smaller.  This is probably because the bezel(?) on the Toshiba was a couple inches, but on the LG is a couple millimeters.  This is nice because it takes up less space and is a lot easier to move around and carry.

I just bought an open box 2012 TV that received a mediocre reception, so now the new 2013 TVs are here and my new TV is so last year.  Could I have gotten a better TV?  For sure!  Could I have gotten a better TV for what I paid for mine?  Maybe, I don't know.  As I said it looks better than my old TV, so I'm totally happy with it.  Hopefully, it will last until 4K TVs become affordable.

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