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52″ LCD below $2500 shipped available this year.

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Westinghouse TX-52F480S
westinghouse_tx-52f480s.jpg

Vizio GV52L
vizio_gv52l.jpg
Sharp LC-52D62U
sharp_lc-52d62u.jpg

  Westinghouse Vizio Sharp
  TX-52F480S GV52L LC-52D62U
Availability September 2007 (Bestbuy will be the first to have them. Before Aug 20, 2007 (Costco will be the first to have them. Available now in bestbuy, costco and online retailer.
Price $2499 (mentioned in April, 2007, subject to change) $1899 (with $200 costco coupon (8/20-8/26) = $1699) around $2450 from reputable online retailer like buydig.com
Response Time (ms) 6.5 8 (uncertain) 6.5 (they market it as 4 but it’s not true 4
Refresh Rate (Hz) 60 120 (uncertain) 60
Contrast Ratio (Static) 1200:1 (uncertain) 800:1 (uncertain) 2000:1
Contrast Ratio (Dynamic ) 5000:1 1600:1 (uncertain) 10000:1
PIP, POP may be, but the 47 version don’t have it. yes no
ATSC tuners yes yes yes
HDMI ports 4 4 2
VGA in yes yes no
Processor ??? Genesis’ Cortez-Advanced FLI8638 or FLI8668 (Faroudja DCDi Cinema)[info link] ???
Brightness 500 cd/m2 500 cd/m2 450 cd/m2
Lamp Life   50,000 hours 60,000 hours
Auto source switching yes ??? No
Watch out for Since the 47″ has only 2 channel audio from its optical out, the 52″ might have the same deal. The 47″ has audio hum, audio sync issues. Don’t know if this will have same issues. A lot of complaints about banding (video sample)

Vizio has poor Contrast ratio at 800:1 static while rumors have it being 3200:1 dynamic. At $1.7k, it seems so far off from its competitors. Note that it’s processor is one of the top chips which provides better scaling/deinterlacing than a lot of set on the street.

However, Westinghouse’s proposed price might not be too far off from reality at launch date as it was announced half a year ago and $2500 was a decent price point at that time, not anymore.

Sharp has awesome contrast which its black is comparable to some plasma.  Its technology is 1 year old and it doesn’t have 4 hdmi inputs (why do one need 4? 1 for computer, 1 for up convert dvd or hd-dvd or bluray player, 1 for ps3, one for xbox 360, all used up)

A peek at Costco’s system with proof of Vizio 52″ being $1899 before $200 coupon: (Thank you timmyboywonder from avsforum for this image)

vizio52.jpg

Costco coupon that is sent to your mailbox if you were a costco member:

costco_vizio_52.jpg

Interesting findings:

  •  With PIP features, it really doesn’t make sense to route your video through your receiver or you are loosing it’s PIP/POP capability.

Technology, Tutorials | Comments (0)

Fold roses from maple leaves tutorial

Thursday, October 5th, 2006
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While I am yelling about the falling leaves all over my lawn, someone found some fun out of it by folding maple leaves into pretty roses. [tutorial link here]

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Defunct 5% cashback credit cards

Saturday, September 30th, 2006

I used to a few credit card that gives me 5% cash back on everyday purchase (gas, drug and grocery). I researched on a few of them and found that some of the policies had changed. I would suggest to find out for all your credit cards to validate if reward policies had changed.

These are the cards that used to provide 5% cash back which has been discontinued.

  1. Discover Platinum Restaurant
  2. Discover Platinum Home Improvement
  3. Citi Cash Rewards Card
  4. Mastercard version of Chase Rewards Plus (Visa still offered)

The Citi bank rewards cards decreased rewards from 5% to 2% but adding convenience stores and/or cable/utilities. This card will be out of my wallet from now on as I have cards that gives me around 2% for non everyday purchases. After the journey of seeking for my next 5% cash reward cards, I found two cards that I will be getting

(more…)

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Amazon A9 pi/2 discount tutorial

Friday, September 8th, 2006

Updated 10/10/2006:

a9 and Amazon.com discontinued the a9 Instant Reward program on September 29, 2006. As a result, the a9 Instant Reward is no longer available.

The official notice can be found [here]. It has been more than one year that I have enjoyed this discount, too bad it is now gone.

AmazonLogoA9DiscountWhat is Amazon’s A9? It is Amazon’s own search engine at http://www.a9.comWhat is PI/2 discount? It is a stackable 1.57% off discount that you get on all purchase through amazon (including 3rd party merchants)

Why is there such a discount? It’s a way for Amazon to attract its customers to use their search engine.

How do you get it?

  1. Ensure you are logged in Amazon.com (you will see “Hello, <your name>.We have recommendations for you. (If you’re not <your name>, click here.)
  2. Search anything using A9.com
  3. Repeat step 2 once a day and you will get this logo, A9Discount, in your amazon account within a week. You won’t be able to get it in one day or even if you tried to search with A9 1000x times that day. The key is to search daily with a9.com and once is good enough. It’ll eventually come!
  4. Once your has A9 discount, you will only need to search with A9 once a week to maintain the status.

Is there anyway to automate checking A9 daily? This is what you can do on a windows machine:

  1. Go to Start->Control Panel->Scheduled Tasks
  2. Add Scheduled Task.
  3. Select the application, choose your browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox)
  4. Type in a name for the task (e.g. Check A9 daily)
  5. Select to perform this task daily.
  6. Select a time and performthis task everyday
  7. Enter username/password that you use to login to the computer
  8. Check the box to open addvance property
  9. In the “Run :” field, append “http://a9.com/test” to your run command (e.g. the whole field should be something like ‘C:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\firefox.exe “http://a9.com/test”‘ or ‘C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\IEXPLORE.EXE “http://a9.com/test”‘)
  10. Press OK to save it.
  11. Your browse will pop up and perform the search daily.

This way, you will maintain your a9 discount status on Amazon without doing anything. Just make sure your scheduled task runs at a time your machine is on (but most machine are on 24/7 anyway)

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