Like Netflix

[NickD 202]

He has a Ninetondo Wii, didn't even know these video games were on the internet, but signed up for Netflix and my granddaughter can watch Dora for the first time at home. We looked at converter boxes, but most only had HDMI outputs, I love my Pansonic CRT projector that gives me a super bright even daytime picture, but it is the old fashion NTSC. So went shopping.

Learned quickly they are adding internet capability to Blu Ray disk players, wasn't too long ago they wanted over 300 bucks for a player. Ended up with a Sony BDP-S270 for 94 bucks at my Wal-Mart that lets me take it back without any hassle, also read the reviews for other models. To get WiFi was about a hundred bucks more, but only that feature was added. But quickly learned my "G" wireless won't work with it, 2.4GHz as opposed to the 5GHz on this new "N" model. Screw that noise, will run a cable and save a couple of hundred bucks.

We all know anything electronic is worthless in a couple of months. Mostly all computer stuff, notebooks, and cellular telephones, all operational but obsolete like a 300 baud phone modem I laid out $1,200.00 for, the kind you drop a real handset in it, worthless. Or a $1,500 coprocessor for a 386, worthless. Gradually getting rid of this stuff, but pains me as that is thousands and thousands worth of useless #######, like $4,000 each for a couple of 166MHz Toshiba notebook computers. 94 bucks isn't bad in this respect.

But did hook up a 50' LAN cable on the floor to make sure the darn thing worked, has component video, composite video, and HDMI outputs. You know in comparative test, if you have a good signal source, really not that much different between the three. Composite or standard NTSC works great, also had digital and analog audio with Doby, digital mated fine with my receiver. First I tried a Blu Ray disk, really got an extremely clear picture like a movie theater. Really don't like the phony glass look of HD flat screen receivers. Can't beat a CRT for a natural looking picture. Could even set the resolution to 1080. Sony also uses a upgraded resolution for standard DVD's, but didn't do a comparative test.

The Sony has 39 icons on it, Netflix is one of them, signed up for that and had to put a special code to activate the player, can either get instant movies and TV shows, all commercial free or order DVD's. So far we are on our 3rd DVD with a three day turnaround, wife likes Academy Award movies, so far we reserved five out of the ten, thought it was just five. Guess the other five were not released yet. But nice putting that DVD in my mail box as opposed to making a 8 mile round trip to the nearest rental place. And only costing two bucks a month, we should get ten a month, not bad for 20 cents each.

Crackle was a good channel, over 200 movies and plenty of TV shows, the kind of movies I like to watch. Can't say much about the other channels, Sony has one to download their movies for four bucks a crack, but found most of the same movies on Netflix. A how to channel was nuts, like how to make love in a hot tub, 40 seconds long, candles, wine, snacks, and a hot tub. No sex scenes, but a large bottle of silicone grease for the woman, but ended up by saying the chlorine can cause a yeast infection so do that in bed. Another one was how to change cell phone companies, take your cell phone to the new company, get a new SIMM chip, remove your back cover, battery, old SIMM and plug the new one in. Like we have SIMM chips in this country, all are dedicated, another wasted 43 seconds.

Did do an internet speed test on the Sony with my old fashion cable modem, said I needed at least 10MBS for HD, got 32MBS, so well above the limit. Downloads are very quick and a hell of a lot faster than reading all that FBI stuff with a DVD. I like Netflix, can watch what you want to watch and when.

[rsn 135]

Who is your cable provider? Many ISPs may "burst" high speeds, but after a minute or two, you dip down to a more "normal" level. Also, what service requires 10 Mbps for HD? They must use some old-school codec.

Edited February 9, 2011 by rsn

[NickD 202]

Who is your cable provider? Many ISPs may "burst" high speeds, but after a minute or two, you dip down to a more "normal" level. Also, what service requires 10 Mbps for HD? They must use some old-school codec.

Just quoting what the Sony manual stated regarding internet speed, but they sure didn't put that on the box. As well as you can only use a Sony USB wireless dedicated device. See thousands of people teed off about this, instead of laying out eight bucks, have to lay out 80 bucks.

30MBS seems low when my server claims 60MBS, Charter wide band. After talking to some people getting my feet wet on this subject, DSL and definitely phone modems do not work. Something else Sony left off the box with all those positive features, you need a wide band high speed internet service. We recently got a Cellcom wireless internet system in town, has to be somewhere in the cell phone band. Those that switched to it get flicker instead of movies. But as rapidly as technology is changing, give them a couple of years.

[rsn 135]

Just quoting what the Sony manual stated regarding internet speed, but they sure didn't put that on the box. As well as you can only use a Sony USB wireless dedicated device. See thousands of people teed off about this, instead of laying out eight bucks, have to lay out 80 bucks.

30MBS seems low when my server claims 60MBS, Charter wide band. After talking to some people getting my feet wet on this subject, DSL and definitely phone modems do not work. Something else Sony left off the box with all those positive features, you need a wide band high speed internet service. We recently got a Cellcom wireless internet system in town, has to be somewhere in the cell phone band. Those that switched to it get flicker instead of movies. But as rapidly as technology is changing, give them a couple of years.

Oh, I forgot you're in WI too. Charter is kind of pricey, but I didn't have any issues with their service, back when I had Charter. DSL is aging technology that will, hopefully, be extinct in the near future. You can't reliably do much better than 6 Mbps w/ DSL. Cable is nice, so is fiber (if your neighborhood has fiber). Charter claims "up to x Mbps". That's a game many ISPs play so they can point at the "up to" words when you complain about your speed. Luckily, my ISP does not do this.

Most services I am aware of can render HD for 7 Mbps or less.

[NickD 202]

Oh, I forgot you're in WI too. Charter is kind of pricey, but I didn't have any issues with their service, back when I had Charter. DSL is aging technology that will, hopefully, be extinct in the near future. You can't reliably do much better than 6 Mbps w/ DSL. Cable is nice, so is fiber (if your neighborhood has fiber). Charter claims "up to x Mbps". That's a game many ISPs play so they can point at the "up to" words when you complain about your speed. Luckily, my ISP does not do this.

Most services I am aware of can render HD for 7 Mbps or less.

Pricey they are, have the franchise for my area, we have a cable committee you can call, but have no say on either price or programming. What else is there? Kid lives in Wausau with the same problem with cellular phones. Element Mobile has a monopoly on that city, what happened to free trade and competition? And we sure don't have a choice with utility companies either.

I sure had my problems with Land O' Lakes pouring raw sewage next to my home, couldn't fight them no matter what I did, ended up selling my home at a lost and moving away. They also took over with my uncle's farm, when he could no longer deal with the drastic property taxes. Could never learn what property taxes they are paying, but his land was assessed from a hundred bucks an acre to $1,500.00, it killed him. They have Mexicans running his farm now, paying the entire family 100 bucks per week and expecting a couple of hundred hours of labor for that. And will fire anyone that gets hurt.

Glad I don't live near an ethanol plant, all eleven are breaking every EPA regulation in the book, state strongly defends these plants and won't do anything. Now they are talking about building some kind of wood burning electrical plant in the Wausau area for electricity for Madison and Milwaukee, people are very nervous about that. My roots in this corrupt state date way back to the origins of this state, and wonder why I am such an idiot and still live here. We really have a corrupt government. But was good back as far as the 70's.

[rsn 135]

Pricey they are, have the franchise for my area, we have a cable committee you can call, but have no say on either price or programming. What else is there? Kid lives in Wausau with the same problem with cellular phones. Element Mobile has a monopoly on that city, what happened to free trade and competition? And we sure don't have a choice with utility companies either.

Another option is fiber, if your live in a new neighborhood.

[NickD 202]

Another option is fiber, if your live in a new neighborhood.

I live in an ancient neighborhood, already is 27 years old. Was Warner that laid the cable in a three foot wide access area in the back of my yard. Was paying six bucks a month for service. The cable between my home and their box is mine, and also about 25 years old now. Then suddenly Charter came in, can't even remember the year, but that is when we lost local service and started to see drastic price increases. Same with Wisconsin Natural Gas that is history and local service.

Have to say, I am happy with Charter telephone, one low monthly charge for any calls in the USA, really not that bad for overseas calls either. GTE was robbing us blind and really got bad when Verizon took over.

Thinking since HDTV took over, left a lot of unused air space, perhaps wireless will take over. Some cities already have that. Recently added up all my bills, combined cable and cellular bills are greater than my combined natural gas, electric, and water bills. That is criminal for microvolt signals. Wife likes fitness and the soccer channel, but to get that, have to buy 88 channels, then the digital plus channel package, and even pay more for the channel 300 Fox channel. Won't let you just pay for two channels.

Don't have to go down to the north side of Milwaukee in a dark alley to get robbed, can do that at home.

[VinhBao MyTam 3]

You think Charter is pricey? I wish I could move back to a Charter neighborhood. Unless they've gone up incredibly high in the 5 years since I've moved.... try Time Warner or Comcast pricing!