Upgrades

Two posts in one day?!? Say it ain't so Pa! Say it ain't so.

I've been feverishly upgrading home entertainment components. The credit card ain't swiping itself you know. Heh. It's certainly something one doesn't go into lightly. It's a huge investment of, obviously, money and lots of time in research, if you're going to do it right. Nobody wants to buy a piece of equipment, only to find it doesn't work the way you want it, if at all.

The centerpiece of the upgrade was the flat panel TV. We had a 32" Sony WEGA for the longest time. Reliable but a fracking huge television, it's a monster tube. I'd grown tired of hearing the wall unit, groan and creak as it bore it's weight.

Long story short, two Sundays ago, after visiting two Best Buys, in Brooklyn and then Staten Island, spending a total of three hours in store, an hour of which was probably spent flagging down a salesperson, vying for their attention amongst a group of huffing and puffing women trying to keep up with the Joneses and "No that bitch Colleen, ain't gonna watch Desperate Housewives" on a TV bigger than mine!"

I lucked out, catching a salesperson who just reported to work.

After much wrangling with whatever was in stock, which turned out not to be but then was (What age are we living? Hello, automatic inventory updates! Get with the program.), we snagged a very sharp (heh) Sharp Aquos 42" Flat Panel TV. Yippee.

Of course, once I'm in a good mood, I can be talked into anything.

My arm was twisted into upgrading to a Sony Blu-Ray DVD player.

Yes, twisted would be an overstatement.

Best Buy had a special with the player, two free Blu-Ray DVDs, X-Men 3 - Last Stand and Swordfish if you must know. Mmmmm, Hugh Jackman. There was also a buy one and get one free (equal or lesser value). Again, if you must know, Kung Fu Hustle and House of Flying Daggers.

As a bonus, I discovered while unpacking, the player came with The Fifth Element. Yippee. “Leeloo Dallas Multi-pass.”

Yeah, the selection isn't great for Blu-Ray but that'll get better.

Hopefully.

At $24.99-$30 a pop, it has to be worthwhile. Although how worthwhile is it to see every craggy, wrinkly skin surface of your favorite actors? I don't know.

At checkout, I cashed in no less than 10 giftcards from my birthday and the holidays, some RewardZone coupons (12% off and double points baby!!!). Let's say, I did very well and my salesperson was über-impressed.

I was a miffed to find that my receiver could not handle 6.1 channels being pushed by the blu-ray player. X-Men 3 was switching over to two channels, but in French or Spanish it would play in 5.1 channel DTS.

An additional upgrade for the receiver was handled later however after noodling around the options in the player, after the fact, I may not have needed the receiver upgrade after all. Oh well, upgrades are upgrades, you're going to need them sometime.

I do find it vastly unfair that this whole new setup sits in the living room, prime viewing space, primarily occupied by the BF. I did watch BSG on the big screen. Looked like crap. We haven't gotten a new HD Cable. Garbage in, Garbage out as they say.

But it was upgrades for everyone.

The Sony 32" WEGA Flat Screen is a step up, for my XBox 360º gaming, from a 27". :)

Old tech doesn't go away, it gets re-purposed.