[geeks] Cable vs DSL; Current state of the TV industry

[Kurt Huhn]

"David L Kindred (Dave)" <d.kindred at telesciences.com> wrote:

> I've finally gotten off of my over-sized posterior and should be moving
> into a new (for me) apartment next week.  Now for the hard decisions!
> 
>    Should I go with Cable or DSL for 'net access?

DSL, if you can get Speakeasy (speakeasy.net) where you live - call now and
order.  All of my experiences with cable internet have been poor, and I'm
currently stuck with it as no DSL is available here except the local
telephone monopoly and their product is *PISS* poor.


>   Should I start borrowing old machines from Work?
> 
> Do I really want to start down the path so many of you have followed and
> start building a massive home network from antiquated computers?  Or
> just stick to my windows laptop and spend my evenings researching the
> diversity of the female form?

I went through a 'more is better' approach a few years ago.  My current
philosophy is 'less is more, when your machines are the best you can afford'
- I have an Octane and my wife's laptop in the house running right now. 
Soon I'll have a P4-based game system, and that's about all it will be used
for.  I *may* construct a dual P3 system as well, for running Linux for
work-related purposes.  That will be it for my personal workstations -
though the garage will very likely continue to hold many more systems in a
powered down state.  When we move into a bigger house, I mat be able to take
a section of the basement or something and create a datacenter to rival the
one at work, but that remains to be seen. 

> 
>   What is the right balance between cost/features for today's Television
>   Sets?
> 
> I remember a discussion here a little bit back on some of this, but I
> wasn't in the market then.  The real question in my mind is "how much
> better is a $2000 TV than a $1000 TV than a $500 TV".
> 
> 

I have a JVC 34" that cost me about $450.  It is *very* nice, with multiple
A/V inputs _and_ outputs.  We bought it at H. H. Greg (a local electronics
superstore) when we moved here to OH.  I like this TV very much - picture
quality is superb, especially when piped in via component input directly
from the DVD player.  As always, the cable picture kinda sucks depending on
your cable company, and how far out into the boonies you are.  Most of our
cable channels, especially the local over-the-air channels suck major donkey
balls - however the 'premium' channels (TLC, Dicovery, Food TV, History, Sci
Fi, HBO, etc) all are on the high end of 'good quality'.  We had better
quality in RI, and I think the local infrastructure has something to do with
that.

For $2000 you can get a _very_fucking_nice_ widescreen HDTV from any major
retailer (Sears comes to mind).  Karin and I are considering when we want to
get one - we take our television viewing (that which we actually do) very
seriously.  The only thing holding us back is some confusion over
compatability with our cable provider, and that condo rules disallow
satelite dishes on the condo.  Yes, it *is* time to move.  But as soon as we
find out what the deal is with compatability, or if we find a good parcel of
realestate for cheap, we're likely to find ourselves buying a widescreen
HDTV.

-- 
Kurt
kurt at k-huhn.com