A fuckton of stupid questions, and one "The More You Know"

[tzikeh]

If you have answers, or partial answers, for ANY of these, comments are desperately appreciated.



Question #1: I would like to buy a Blu-Ray player. It has been on my to-do list for some time. Here are the various problems associated with this plan:

1) I am poor.
2) In order for the Blu-Ray player to serve its purpose, I would need an HDTV, which I don't have. I have a 1993 35" Toshiba CRT television that continues to work like a dream, and have seen no reason to replace it until now. (BTW Toshiba RULES.)
3) I use DirecTV, and I do not have an HD DirecTV receiver disc.
4) I own a DirecTiVo. For a while, DirecTV and TiVo parted ways, but they are coming back together in 2010 to create a DirecTiVo HD receiver. I feel there is no need to upgrade to HD until that is on the market.
5) There may be other barriers that I'm not even aware of, since there's so much to take into account that I might not know that I'm not looking for something important.

Question #2: I would like to make my Amazon.com wishlist available to fannish friends, but I do not want to post my RL-name wishlist link. Is there a way to duplicate my Amazon.com wishlist under another name?

Question #3: I want to buy a treadmill (I was gifted with the $ for this on my 40th birthday in May, but have yet to make a single move towards the goal). I'm overwhelmed by choice, and lack ALL knowledge. I walk hard and, back when I was in shape, I ran around 5.5 - 6 mph. I have room for it, but know nothing. I do *not* want to assemble it myself, and if I should ever (eventually, probably) move, I do not want to have to disassemble it on my own. We have a Sears and a Sports Authority nearby; are those the two main places to check out treadmills (I won't buy anything I can't try first)? If you have one, what are the features you can't do without? Which brands have good warranties/customer service? Which brands should I avoid?

Question #4: I have an iPod Touch. I love what I can do with it, but criminy are the options confusing.

1) How the frak do you navigate the App Store? It's completely lacking in any organization, as far as I can tell. Unless you know the name of the app you're looking for (I usually know what *function* I want an app to have, and then have to go searching for it) it's a nightmare. If you go to the App Store via iTunes, using the search field searches ALL OF ITUNES. This is not helpful.

2) My eyes are crossing when it comes to programs that allow you to read downloaded books (free or otherwise). There appear to be a gazillion of them, each with their own functions and lack of functions. Some can read some downloaded ebooks, but not others? Some can read free e-books, and some can't? Some allow for iTouch functions (using pinch to make text bigger/smaller, rotating text) and some don't? Some are linked to a single site for download, and some aren't? Some allow for converted documents, and some don't? Some have books in list format, some have "archives," some have graphics of bookshelves with the books clickable from there... OH MY GOD I JUST WANT TO READ SOME FUCKING BOOKS. Can anyone clarify anything here?

And finally, The More You Know:

If you upload photos on your lj (or flickr or photobucket or whatever) to share with others, please, please, please learn that image size and file size are not the same. In other words, if an 800x600 photo takes a long time to load so that people can see it, making it 400x300 *will not change the speed at which the photo loads*. Image size is simply the size at which the picture will appear on the screen. File size is resolution, or dpi. There is absolutely no reason to upload a photo to share with people at a file size larger than 72 dpi, because monitors don't display anything higher than that. (There are exceptions, of course, hi-res photos are useful when making wallpapers, printing them out, etc.). If you need further help understanding this, or learning how to fix this w/r/t whatever photo program you use, please comment, and I will help you out.

Comments

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Thank You.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

For...?

[roo2.livejournal.com]

I can't help with all of this, but I can say that I use Stanza to read ebooks on my iPod. I'm mostly pleased with it. I've downloaded books from Gutenberg and the Baen Free Library in both .epub and .pdf formats and they all look good. I've run into problems when I take fan fiction that I've converted to PDF and try loading that up. I have no idea why, but text that's perfectly formatted in Adobe Reader looks like unformatted crap in Stanza. I assume there's some magic to the PDF format that I'm unaware of and I'm trying to figure out WTF is up, but this is a new bug I just encountered for the first time this week. Other than that I like it. It's simple and basic, but it works (with the previously mentioned caveats). I also recommend Calibre if you have a collection of ebooks. Not only can it organize things, it can also convert between formats.

[frakup.livejournal.com]

I will try to tackle #1, but it's probably a longer answer than I have the patience to type up. I'm not even sure how to attack it, but here goes.

1) I can't help you there.

2) Why do you want a Blu-Ray player if you don't have any of the other infrastructure to support it (i.e. HDTV)? I use a PS3 for my Blu-Ray playback. It has the bonus of being a gaming system and can now stream instant Netflix. I've also got mine configured so I can stream avis I've downloaded on my big TV, which is awesome. My parents just got a Samsung player with the purchase of their TV, and it can also be configured to do instant Netflix, which is pretty handy. I have no opinions of other models.

3) You would only need/want HD DirecTV if you had an HDTV. However, if you are a longtime customer, they'll give you the dish, deliver and install for free. I just did this yesterday. And the DVR was half price with no contract lock-in.

4) Don't hold your breath. My DirecTivo imploded last week. I'd been trying to nurse it along until the HD DirecTivo was ready, which was initially supposed to be last summer. I caved and got the HR23 DirecTV DVR. It lacks some of the fundamental things I loved about the Tivo, but again, because of the longtime customer thing, they didn't force me in to a 2 year contract, so I can get the new Tivo if it ever comes out. All that said, you can watch your SD tivo on an HDTV. I did it for the last two years. And all that said, HDTV is gorgeous.

5) Is a vast array of topics. First, don't let anybody sell you on the fact that you have to have a 1080p TV. Yeah, it's "full HD", but if you're in a normal sized room, you'll never be far enough away or have a big enough TV to notice the difference, and the lower resolution TVs can be much cheaper if you can even find them anymore. I also completely appreciate your brand loyalty, but don't lock yourself in to a Toshiba if there's a better deal out there. I'm partial to Sharp and Samsung myself these days. Great price for what you get, and the new LED Samsungs are gorgeous. Second, If you get an HD DVR and a Blu-Ray, make sure your TV has multiple HDMI inputs. Alternately, set up a little home theater with a HDMI switching receiver. The Onkyo 707 (I think?) is the one I've got my eyes on when I have money again.

Hope that helps some. Let me know if I can answer any specific questions. I'm happy to try and a huge gadget/home theater junkie (as is evidenced by my recent posts on my LJ).

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

#2 Why do you want a Blu-Ray player if you don't have any of the other infrastructure to support it (i.e. HDTV)?

#3 Right--which is part of why I want eventually to upgrade to HDTV. I've been a DirecTV customer for... 12 years? And yes, their customer service can't be beat.

Because of the significant advantages of Blu-Ray overall. I mean, I'm going to upgrade everything eventually anyway, so I might as well start learning all the requirements.

#4 News on DirecTiVo from three days ago, along with TiVo partnering with other digital tv providers. Unfortunately, since I have the all-in-one DirecTiVo, I can't watch the TiVo as a standalone.

#5 Yeah, I'm not wedded to Toshiba, but damn they make fine products.

Oh - plasma or the other thing?

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

the information about resizing photos.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

You can see some opinions and experiences with treadmills here: http://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/shoes-stuff/treadmills

There's a search forum function so you can see if anyone has opinions on particular brands that you can get hold of.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Ah! You're welcome!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Thank you - that will help!

[frakup.livejournal.com]

which is part of why I want eventually to upgrade to HDTV.

Ah, your original question made it sound like you wanted to go Blu-Ray without having to upgrade the TV. So I was confuzzled. It makes some sense to get the TV before the Blu-Ray, but not really the other way around.

News on DirecTiVo from three days ago, along with TiVo partnering with other digital tv providers.

Yeah, "that product is now anticipated next spring." I'll believe it when I see it. I'll even dance a dance of joy when I see it, but still not holding my breath. I ran my DirecTivo through the HDTV with no problems, so if you don't care about the TV signal for the time being, by all means hang on to your DirecTivo. My hand was forced and I'm still not entirely happy about it.

In order of interest to me, I'd go LED, LCD, Plasma. YMMV.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Ah, your original question made it sound like you wanted to go Blu-Ray without having to upgrade the TV. Ahhh, yeah, I realize now that that was poorly worded. I meant, when I do all this, I have no idea what I'm doing...

I know, I know, re DirecTiVo, but this sounds like a new deal where TiVo is opening it up to all providers rather than locking in w/DirecTV, which makes it far more plausible.

I ran my DirecTivo through the HDTV with no problems,

I... don't understand? You bought an HDTV and used it with the DirecTiVo, which isn't HD?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Huh - Calibre sounds useful. I know a lot of people use Stanza, for free e-book reading, but can it read bought e-books as well?

[frakup.livejournal.com]

Any HDTV will accept a SD signal. Some are more adept at upscaling than others, but you can always watch your DirecTivo on a new HDTV.

So yes, I've had an HDTV for a couple years now, but always just watched my regular SD DirecTivo through it via the S-Video hookup. It looked fine. Sharp has really good upconverters. The first HD source I had was the PS3. As of yesterday I've got a DirecTV HD DVR that isn't a Tivo. So I don't think it's necessary to upgrade the Tivo if you don't want to right away. It won't be HD, but it will work and look fine. Until you watch a Blu-Ray and then you want everything to look that good. :)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Why the PS3 and not a Blu-Ray player on its own? I don't play games, so are there other pluses?

[fantasmabob.livejournal.com]

I like the Kindle-for-iPhone app so far. If you happen to have a Kindle also, you can sync up your last-page-read between them. It is extremely easy to get new books. I assume it's limited to what Amazon offers.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

re: "Question #2: I would like to make my Amazon.com wishlist available to fannish friends, but I do not want to post my RL-name wishlist link. "

The folks at evernote.com had a suggestion for this! Make a shared evernote folder, put your wishlist items in it, share THAT. (you need to set up an evernote account first, but EVERNOTE ROCKS so do that :D) Then you can add Evernote's bookmarklet, and just hit it for adding things to that folder.

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

I've had good luck purchasing already assembled exercise equipment on Craigslist, in partial answer.

[frakup.livejournal.com]

At the time the PS3 and standalone players were about the same price. The PS3 is often mentioned in the list of outstanding Blu-Ray players. I can watch streaming Netflix on it as well as streaming all other media and Hulu to it via the desktop computer in my office. I really love my PS3.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be able to get a treadmill in or out of my place if it were already assembled, but thanks for the idea anyway!

[carbonel]

Not directly related to any of your questions, but possibly useful anyway:

Back when DirectTV and TiVo were still on speaking terms, my parents got an HD DirecTivo. Then they moved to a new building and were stuck with Comcast, so they passed the DirecTivo on to me. After way too much angst, I discovered that a) the DirecTivo model that I had (a Hughes, IIRC) only supported 3-LNB dishes, not the 5-LNB oval dish, b) I needed the 5-LNB oval dish to get local channels, c) while I could get local channels in HD perfectly over the air going directly to the HDTV, the DirecTivo refused to acknowledge the existence of said local channels, and d) I couldn't get a waiver to get the national version of the main channels.

So I have this perfectly good totally paid-for DirecTivo that I still own, and I'm using the TiFaux that I got from DirecTV. It's allegedly free, except for the $5.99/month for maintenance. Which is annoying, since I had paid for lifetime service on the DirecTivo, back when they let you do such things.

I don't know if you can get HD local channels in Chicago with a 3-LNB dish, but if you can, and if you decide to make the jump to HDTV, I have this HD DirecTivo (as I said) just sitting around, and we should probably talk.

(Edited to change the icon, because how often do I get to use it?)

[ratcreature]

I can't help you with any of these questions as I do not have a HDTV tv nor a BlueRay, nor an iPod, and have never used a treadmill. But wrt image sizes, to be fair to the smaller display size thing, many photo sites will generate the smaller preview automatically as a different file, so afaik if you upload to LJ Scrapbook for example and then imbed the link to the small preview, it will actually be a smaller file size without you having to resize the hires image.

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Re: #2 -- ooh, I am almost certainly going to buy a treadmill too. I was pushed into it by discovering this fabulous device; yeah, the website is pretty cheesy and makes it look like something sold at 1:47 am on cable TV, but anything Gizmodo likes this much...! I've ordered it and will pick it up at my folks' in the States after Christmas, and try it out on my dad's treadmill.

My options around here for buying a treadmill under $1500 are -- Sears. Considering that I'm not willing to buy one mail-order and not have any local warranty or repair. (And I'll pay several hundred dollars more than I would in the U.S., dammit.) But my needs are pretty basic, since I won't be running on it, just walking. I do know that I absolutely want it to incline, and that I don't care about things like a water bottle holder and a built-in fan; I mean, they're nice and all, but I already own a fan I can point at the treadmill if I want it, thanks.

In addition to the Runner's World link you were given (which I have bookmarked!), you may find these reviews at Treadmill Doctor useful.