Recent Comments:
Ask Engadget HD: What's the best large LCD (42-inches and up) for the buck? {Engadget HD}
Apr 8th 2009 1:42PM When it comes to quality for the price, Samsung is hard to beat. I've recently owned LCDs by Sony and Samsung, plus a Hitachi plasma. I love my 52 inch 650-series LCD by Samsung--amazing picture!
Nashville, TN grabs AT&T's U-verse TV this week {Engadget HD}
Dec 21st 2008 6:58PM The U-Verse box has been in place at the end of my street for a few weeks now. I'd seriously consider switching to AT&T from Dish if they would offer a low price HD-only package that could compete with TurboHD. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like pricing for AT&T is much better than Comcast.
Firmware update brings HD Netflix streaming to Samsung BD-P2500 / BD-P2550 Blu-ray players {Engadget HD}
Dec 9th 2008 12:22PM I got my Samsung BD-P2500 yesterday and the Netflix streaming was the first thing I tried after updating my firmwire via ethernet. I watched Groundhog Day in SD and it looked pretty good. The quality reminded me of analog cable...not a lot of digital artifacts but everything was slightly fuzzy and the colors weren't very punchy. Overall, I was pleased with it. Then I tried watching Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed in HD. This was between 3 and 5 in the afternoon and my bandwidth meter was between one-half and two-thirds, meaning it didn't even try to stream HD. The video quality was pretty awful! It looked much worse than Groundhog Day in SD. LOTS of compression artifacts and digital garbage. It was still watchable but at times reminded me of watching YouTube.
I tried another HD movie, Widows' Peak, last night around midnight. Netflix's bandwidth meter filled all the way across and displayed "HD". The quality was great! It looked like a lower-quality HD broadcast on cable TV...not up to the quality of OTA prime time HD, certainly not Blu-ray quality, but still HD. Very nice! At one point, though, I paused the movie for several minutes. When I resumed, it had to re-assess my bandwidth and rated me slightly below full quality (maybe 85%). The difference was pretty severe--there was no mistaking that for HD!
Netflix streaming is a nice bonus but it's really just a supplement to cable and Blu-ray. The HD selection is tiny and even then you need a good internet connection, which can be hit or miss. The SD selection is decent and gives you instant gratification. It's good for watching B-movies or stuff you've already seen, but if it's a movie I really want to see, I'll wait to get the Blu-ray in the mail from Netflix or watch it on Cinemax HD so that I can truly enjoy it.
(Oh, BTW, this player does a *great* job of upconverting DVDs to near-HD quality. And Blu-ray, of course, looks amazing!)
Elgato updates EyeTV Hybrid / 250 Plus TV tuners: Clear-QAM now welcome {Engadget HD}
Jan 17th 2008 11:57AM I saw this article and went over to the Elgato site since I had been thinking about getting a tuner but needed QAM capability. When I got there, I found that the EyeTV Hybrid, normally priced at $150, is now on sale for $100 during MacWorld! Plus, if you look around online, you can find an extra 10% discount! That's quite a deal. Looking forward to some sweet HD on my Mac...
