Vizio VW26L LCD HDTV

OK, I finally bit the bullet and replaced our perfectly good but outrageously large Sony Wega flat tube TV in our bedroom with an LCD HDTV. Don't worry, the Sony has found a new home in one of the spare bedrooms that previously had a 13 inch "whack the side when the brightness drops" TV. I'd never put my beloved Wega out on the street.

I'd been holding off on the TV shuffle for a variety of reasons. First, the deteriorating TV was in a spare room, so it wasn't a priority. Second, I was still relatively happy with my "big baby" Sony flat tube, even though it ate up quite a bit of free space in our bedroom. And lastly, I haven't seen anything in the "can't pass that up" category for LCD HDTV's.

I love the Samsung LCD that I have in my man cave. It's part of the 53H line, which are their top 720p models. I love the picture quality, features and the space saving bottom mounted speakers on these TVs, but I don't love their price. A 19" 53H goes for about $400, a 23" is over $600, a 26" is over $700 and a 32" is over $800. I wanted at least a 26" in the bedroom but I just couldn't see shelling out $700+ for a bedroom TV. Although I would never skimp on our main TV, I'm thrifty (OK, a cheapskate) when it comes to the rest.

All the cheaper makes and models I looked at either lacked the picture quality or the features I desired. I'm constantly checking out the TV "lineups" in the electronics stores, looking for something that has the clarity and color of the big names, but with a smaller price, and lately one manufacturer has caught my eye. Vizio. The picture looks as good if not better side by side with the top of the line Samsungs and Sharps, and while not feature rich, they have a very nice assortment, including bottom mounted speakers so that the TVs don't look as big as most of the others in their size range.

It has a variety of inputs, most notably 2 HDMI's, and the NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners allow you to receive HD signals via antenna as well as digital SD and HD broadcasts via cable, both with and without a box. A little known HD factoid is that you can receive SD digital and some HD digital signals via Comcast cable without a box if you have a QAM tuner. You won't get the high end channels in high def, but you will get PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox in both standard and high definition, so you don't need to go adding cable boxes all over your house. The high def channels register as 7-1, 7-2, etc., just as they would if you were using an HD antenna.

Another feature I like on the Vizios is that when you set the screen width (aspect ratio) on one SD channel, the setting is applied to all of the SD channels. The choices are 16:9, Panoramic and 4:3 for SD channels. 16:9 stretches the picture to fill the screen, giving everything a slightly fatter look. Panoramic stretches just the edges of the picture to fill the screen, giving you a more natural look while still taking advantage of the wide screen. 4:3 gives you that square "regular TV" look that we're all so used to, but is an incredible waste of screen space. On a lot of wide screen HDTV's, SD broadcasts don't look as sharp as they do on a 4:3 set, but the Vizio does a nice job of 2:3 pull-down and the picture is sharp enough to expand to wide screen and still look pretty great.

I settled on the Vizio VW26LHDTV, which Walmart has for $474. It's a lot of TV for under $500. The only short comings with this set are the lack of RCA or optical audio outputs, it has mini stereo only (the larger Vizio sets have multiple audio outs), and the lackluster remote (no back light). These didn't influence my purchase though as my bedroom sound system has a mini stereo input and we've also got a back lit touchscreen universal remote. Gotta have two remotes in the bedroom, his and hers.

So I'm a happy camper. I didn't spend a ton of money, I can watch HD in bed, we gained all kinds of space, and overnight guests will no longer have to whack the TV in the spare room to watch it. Plus, I get to visit with my trusty old Sony whenever I've been bad...

Must have albums for your collection - Indianola Mississippi Seeds

Indianola Mississippi Seeds - B.B. King

Joe Walsh (rhythm guitar), Carole King (piano/electric piano), Leon Russell (piano/electric piano), Bryan Garofalo (bass) and Russ Kunkel (drums)

Angelic Chorus - Merry Clayton, Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews and Venetta Fields.

Strings and Horns arranged by Jimmie Haskell

Original Release Date: 1970

Indianola Mississippi Seeds is one of the most highly regarded blues pop/rock crossover albums of all time. BB himself has said that he thinks it's the best album that he's done artistically.

Although I love BB's "Live at Cook County Jail" for straight up house rockin' blues, Indianola Mississippi Seeds is an album by a master at the top of his game. With an all star lineup, the music is rich and multilayered with horns, strings and backing vocals, and BB and Lucille glide through it all in a smooth and powerful way.

My favorite cuts on the album are "You're Still My Woman", "Kings Special" and "Hummingbird". I love the stark contrast in the transition from the solo piece "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother (And She Could Be Jiving Too)" into the complexity of "You're Still My Woman", and King's guitar work on this track reaches in and tickles the pleasure centers of my brain.

The cover art on this album, complete with a copy of Riley King's birth certificate on the inside, won the Grammy for Best Album Package - Album Cover, Graphic Arts and Photography in '71.

Indianola Mississippi Seeds is a true "must have" for your music collection.

Sox Solidarity

Red Sox players threatened to boycott today's game against the Blue Jays in Fort Myers and also their trip to Japan in a dispute with MLB over compensation for the coaches and staff who will be travelling with them.

Boston.com has full coverage of the story, but in a nutshell, the players refused to take the field today in Fort Myers after learning that MLB was reneging on it's promise to pay the coaches and staff an appearance fee. The fee was part of the original agreement the team had with Major League Baseball, and the players had voted to go to Japan based on those terms.

Finding out this morning that the terms had changed, the players voted to boycott today's game and possibly the whole trip to Japan in order to send a message to MLB. About 30 minutes into the game delay, MLB relented and offered to pay the coaches, trainers and staff as promised.

Normally I hate it when money matters interfere with the game. The players make so darned much that it always makes me a little sick to hear about it, but this is different and I think it bodes well for the team and the season.

The people who were getting the shaft were the people who could afford it least, and it did my heart good to see the players take a stand. It shows heart, determination and brotherhood on their part, and that, combined with the talent of this team, smells like victory to me.

Nice job men.

iRobot ConnectR

Check out the latest addition to the iRobot family, the ConnectR, a Virtual Visiting Robot. It's a Wi-Fi enabled audio visual robot that can be controlled remotely from any computer with access to the Internet or locally via remote.

Check in on the pets while your away, interact with your kids when your working late, or just scare the bejesus out of your wife, this baby has soooo much potential.

All kidding aside, I can see this as being an invaluable tool for someone with an elderly family member who lives far away, or just for piece of mind when you're traveling. Imagine being able to link up and take a video spin around your house. An itty-bitty house sitter who won't raid your fridge. Too cool!

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. There's no release date as of yet, but I signed up for the pilot program as soon as I saw it.

Do The Bunny Hop,

hop, hop, hop!

It was a miserable Saturday in the northeast. Rain came down in buckets off and on all day, washing away the last of the snow and coming dangerously close to entering our basement. I was keeping a close eye on the backyard throughout the day and on my last trip out I noticed my old pal Mr. Bunny come hopping through the yard.

Mr. Bunny and I have come to an understanding. When he was just a little baby bunny I had scared him out of a bush while mowing. He hopped right out in front of me and then just froze. Being the nice guy I am, I quickly shut down the mower. He continued to squat there, quivering with fear and staring at me with those enormous eyes.

My wife was gardening nearby and I called her over to see the baby. The two of us sat down on the grass and talked soothingly too him as if he were one of our cats, and after about 15 minutes he ambled lazily away and disappeared into the bushes along the property line. That was the start of a beautiful relationship. Throughout the spring and summer, Mr. Bunny would come out around dusk and nibble away while we gardened and watered, sometimes coming as close as 10 feet from us.

In the winter months we don't see him as much, and I always feel reassured when I see his little tracks in the snow that he hasn't fallen prey to a hawk or a car. I was particularly glad to see him last night. The rain had finally stopped and I looked at it as a good omen that we were crossing paths. He went on by and I soon lost track of him as I continued on with my water inspection tour.

As I was going back in I caught rapid movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see not one, but two bunnies cavorting in the yard. They chased each other around and around and when they would stop, one of them would stand up on it's hind legs and kind of box. He looked like a tiny kangaroo. I slipped quietly inside but left the back floods on, and my wife and I stood in the darkened dining room watching the bunnies dancing in the moonlight through the picture window.

It was one of those quiet and hopeful moments, watching in silence while the bunnies hopped and bopped around, thinking of the coming spring and hoping it will be a happy and prosperous season.

It even inspired us to dance in the moonlight ourselves...

The Boys Of Summer Are Back!

It's that time again, and it isn't a moment to soon. The Sox are back in sunny Fort Myers and spring training games are underway.

I was psyched to see and hear our old pals the Remdawg and Announcer Boy this weekend on NESN. There's something about drowsing in front of the tube during a weekend day game. It's like a tonic for my winter weary mind and body.

I'm back and forth to the Fort Myers area a lot so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite stops with you. Like where to find a Dunkins, cheap decent eats, beach side fish places, best barbecue, best frappes, and the complete list of local Hooters franchises. Gotta go to Hooters. My wife was never crazy about the place until we met *sigh* Jason and some of the boys there. Now I'm golden! Man is he a nice guy.

So, don't be fooled by imitations. Get your info from our New Englander's Guide To The Fort Myers Area (or Where Can I Get My Dunkin' Fix). You'll be glad you did.

Go Sox!

There Is TV Worth Watching.

As I was sipping my coffee this morning I got to thinking that outside of televised sporting events, there are only two shows on TV that I consider "must see", and they couldn't be more different.

The first, and my all time favorite Sunday morning ritual, is CBS Sunday Morning. Think 60 Minutes with a positive attitude. News stories, music and unbelievable nature and wildlife photography. Take a moment to check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Number two, in case you haven't noticed by now, is ABC's Lost.

The show first caught my attention with their ads leading up to the series premier in the fall of 2004. Something intrigued me about it and got me in a seat for the opener, and I've been glued there ever since.

For me, that first episode was spellbinding. The stark transition as the tranquil tropical beach turns into Dante's Inferno was an incredible jolt. The vivid scenes of the crash of Oceanic flight 815 onto the island were on par with the best of the Hollywood action/adventure movies, and that's no easy thing to accomplish on the small screen. Add to that the fact that as the survivors of the crash started to get their feet back underneath them, they began to realize that this is no ordinary island. Huddled around a campfire at night they're startled by a thudding, roaring, tree displacing entity that sounds like it's heading their way. Yikes! I remember thinking wtf was that? I was hooked.

Four seasons later and I'm still wondering wtf that was, and that's part of the reason I like this show so much. Although it has it's moments of predictability, there's a lot more moments of surprise and uncertainty.

It's also taking TV in a new direction. TV is always trying to hook viewers into interacting with shows via the web. In-game sports coverage, reality show voting, polls, but Lost takes fan interaction to a whole new level. Websites and message boards worldwide are bursting at the seams with both fans and media alike sharing information and asking questions about the show. Even the shows producers get into the act, dispensing information and dispelling innuendo in pod casts and interviews. There is a huge collective Lost neural net out here on the interweb and it never ceases to amaze me.

This season the show is back with a vengeance. Lots of answers right from the get go, and more coming every week. Any show that's as complex as this one needs a lot of background fill, and that has caused there to be some episodes in previous seasons that seem to focus on setup and don't appear to move the plot along. This season marks the beginning of the end, as the show now has a firm commitment from the network and begins it's 3 season arc towards conclusion. This allows the writers to have a clear timetable in which to wrap things up, and the viewer reward is... ANSWERS!

Although I don't always understand them...

Lost - Thursdays @ 9pm EST on ABC. Be sure to check out my theories and episode reviews on www.berryjooks.com

No Mas!

That's it. I've had it with winter.

Although yesterday's snow was light and fluffy, 9 inches of light and fluffy snow is still a pain in my lower back to rearrange.

I think this one bothered me more because I've been in Florida since Christmas and I've lost my winter mindset completely. Plus it was a two day cleanup. We had about 6 inches when I did it last night, but the plows and another 3 inches of fluff insured a repeat performance today.

There are two things that I do enjoy about snow storms though, and I use them both in tandem to help me slog through to the finish.

When I first get started I derive great pleasure in the throaty growl of my trusty Toro two stage. Hearing it start, rough at first, and then smoothing out nicely, fills me with delight. I get that "I ain't gonna have to shovel all this crap" euphoria, and I dive right in with a maniacal grin.

After a little while that feeling starts to fade as I tire of bulling it through the bankings and the blowback freezing on my face and beard thickens. That's when I know it's time for my second small pleasure.

Gatorade slush.

Before I start I take a large plastic cup of orange Gatorade out with me and jam it into a snow bank. Between the cold of the snow bank and the falling snow landing in the cup it reaches the perfect viscosity in no time. Oh, baby... that's good stuff.

But not that good. I'm going back to Florida.

Adding New Tunes To Your iPod When You're On The Road.

The other day my wife and I were in one of the big box stores and we overheard a conversation between a customer and a salesman about the customer's iPod.

It seems that the gentleman was in town for an extended stay, had access to a computer, and wanted to add a few new tunes to his iPod. The salesman proceeded to tell this poor guy that if he tried it on a computer that didn't have his personal iTunes library on it he would wipe all but the new songs off of his iPod. He suggested that the only way to do it would be to either go home and copy his library onto a thumb drive, which he could then bring back and load onto another machine, or have somebody do it for him and mail it to him.

It took every fiber of my being to keep my mouth shut. The evil look from my wife helped also. She hates it when I stick my nose in where it doesn't belong.

What I hate is misinformation.

Now it's true that if you autosync your iPod with an empty library, you end up with an empty iPod. And it's also true that having someone go to your house and copy your library and then mail it to you is a valid solution, but there are some safe and much less painlful ways to accomplish the same thing.

First and foremost, when you connect your iPod to a new computer iTunes always asks if you want to sync it. Just say no (or more accurately, just hit cancel). Once you tell it not to autosync, you can open up the iPod control panel and set it for manual sync. At this point your iPod's onboard library is safe and you then have a number of options.

You can proceed to purchase or rip music into iTunes and manually add it to the iPod. Remember to leave it in manual mode when you're done, otherwise you'll loose your new music the next time you autosync back home. You could then use the thumb drive trick or burn a CD to transport the new music back home.

You can also use either iTunes or a number of third party solutions to copy your songs from the iPod onto the new computer to recreate your library. Starting in one of the early versions of iTunes 7 there is a command under the File tab "Transfer purchases from iPod" that will allow you to move iTunes purchased music only to the new library. This is a fine option if all you have is iTunes purchased music, stick with the third party solutions if you don't.

Here's a great article on iPod to computer transfer from iLounge. There's a really nice comparison chart of third party solutions and some tips and warnings. Be sure to read it before you try anything.

Note: Not all third party transfer software will work with the new iPod touch and iPhone as they have a different synching protocol than the standard iPods. Some that do are: CopyTrans, iPod Access, and TouchCopy.

In Search Of - A GPS Unit

On my last trip I was really pressed for time and I wasted a lot of it trying to find my way around a strange city. Very stressful. On the plane ride home I vowed to get myself a GPS unit. Shortly after getting home I got lost going to a meeting in South Boston and was subsequently late. That sealed the deal.

I went in search of a unit that was small enough to carry around, got good reception, had audible turn by turn directions, a good points of interest database and was cheap. Tall order.

There are tons of GPS units out there with all kinds of bells and whistles, but I don't need bluetooth connectivity with my cell phone or a music player. I just wanted a dependable little device that would get me where I needed to go.

The Garmin nuvi 200 is that device. Small, bright and easily readable screen that auto adjusts to lighting conditions, SD card slot and USB port for updating maps, audible directions and a very deep list of points of interest. Banks, restaurants, gas stations, you name it, there's a listing or 50. You can even search restaurants by cuisine or ethnicity.

Another nice feature is that you can toggle it between street and pedestrian mode, the former takes things like one way streets into consideration, the latter throws caution to the wind.

It comes with a car charger but you'll probably want to get a wall charger and the leather sleeve, both optional, if you plan on traveling with it.

It gets a pretty good review here on CNET. The only down side was that they thought it was over priced at $400, and they were right. But guess what? Less than a year after it's release it's down to around $200. Never be an early adopter.

Digital Music, CD's and the Grammys

I saw a puff piece on the news tonight about the Grammys and how the record industry is struggling due to the move to digital downloads by many consumers.

While it's true that downloads are changing the music landscape and cutting into the industry's profits, it's also true that it's an inevitable step in the ever evolving world of technology and the record companys have seen it coming for a long time. They should have been working on a game plan for themselves, instead of spending all their time and money trying to prevent it. They should have changed their market stratagy years ago.

Now I love digital music, and I spend a fair amount in the iTunes store, but I also buy CD's (and a record or two) on occasion. If I like an artist I buy the CD, even if I've already downloaded a few tracks.

There are two main reasons I buy the CD. Audio quality and storage.

While MP3's are fine as a portable medium, CD's are higher quality recordings. Think better than iTunes Plus quality, and you don't have to worry about filling up your hard drive to store them, or losing your hard drive and your music.

I know people will argue that the digital music encoded at the higher bit rates is close to CD quality and they would be right, but the files are also exponentially bigger and you still need to keep them somewhere.

If you've gone to the expense of putting together a killer sound system in your living room or man cave, you want to have the optimal listening experience, and that's what the CD gives you. Plus you can rip a copy at any bit rate/quality you choose for your portable devices. Lastly, unless you use them as frisbees, you can be pretty sure that your music is stored safely for a long time. You're actually getting much more bang for your buck with the CD.

So as long as there are audiophiles who spend big bucks on their sound systems, there will be a market for the physical mediums.

Here's a thought for the record companies:

Maybe it's time to lower the price of CD's and start hammering home the quality, storage and cost message.

By the way, the Grammys weren't too bad tonight. Some great performances by some great performers and some pleasant surprises, like album of the year to Herbie Hancock, who is only the second jazz artist to ever receive the award.

It was also great to see a couple of tonight's winners and presenters give Kanye West the buisness. Although he's a talented guy, he's also an incredible dick.

This Week's New Lost Episode - Confirmed Dead

Tivo warning! This week's episode runs from 9pm to 10:03pm.

Lost schedule for Thursday, Feb. 7th:

8pm to 9pm - Repeat of season opener: The Beginning Of The End

9pm to 10:03pm - New episode: Confirmed Dead

Be sure to check out my thoughts and screen caps on both episodes at: http://www.berryjooks.com/