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July 26, 2004
New Toys
I am taking the next couple days off (possibly until the WCOOP tournament on Thursday) to get ready for my move. I have to pack up everything, give a lot of stuff to Goodwill, and most importantly order all of the new toys for the new place. So far I am planning on getting a big ass HDTV for playing poker on, and general TV viewing as well of course. I think I am going to get this one since it is a good value. I have more room than I know what to do with in the living room at the new place, so I didn’t even want one of the slimmer LCD or plasma models. LCD models are great but one of that size would cost at least $5,000 more than the Toshiba and the picture would be inferior. Plasmas are flaming pile of junk (everyone who bought one will regret it within 5 years) because they have horrible image burn-in problems, start to go bad after a few years of regular use, and can't produce a good black color (just a very dark green which is more noticeable as the price goes down). I would love to have a DLP television because the picture is better than anything else but it would cost an extra 4 or 5 thousand dollars and is just not worth it to me since I really don’t watch much television. I do watch a ton of movies but the picture quality on a DVD is nowhere near that of HDTV and probably won't be until the blue-laser DVDs become commonplace, which is still a few years away so I wouldn’t see that much of a difference anyway. Maybe then I will buy a DLP TV but for now spending $6-10k on a television just seems excessive.
Much more exciting to me than the television however is the remote that is used to control it. I know what you're thinking. What could be so exciting about a remote? Peep this. For an actual picture of the unit and a review check out Remote Central’s review which should be much more informative than the one customer review so far on Amazon. This remote is an update of Sony’s extremely popular RM-AV3000 remote. I have a ton of components which need to be controlled (Cable Box, TV, Home Theater System, PVR unit) and this will be able to do them all with 100% functionality because it can learn custom commands. I have always hated universal remotes because invariably there is always a feature on each component for which there is no button on the remote (making the remote not universal at all) so now I can simply make a button and have it learn the code. Also this thing can perform macros, meaning I can program one button push to do many functions. For instance I push one button and the remote will turn on the TV, turn on the home theater system, turn the volume up, set the home theater system to DVD input, set the TV to whichever input I have the DVD player on, and turn on the DVD player. Talk about the ultimate in laziness.
Also this unit has timer functions, so if I wanted to I could have it turn my TV or stereo on or off while I am not home. This would be useful for people who have parrots I suppose, but not of much use to me. More importantly for me it will interface with X10 home control units, of which I plan to buy a few. Thus I can have the remote turn lighting on and off whenever I wish which is cheaper and much more convenient than a lamp timer. Suppose you have a normal lamp timer and it turns your lamp off. Now try turning the lamp on. It is a pain in the ass since you have to reach down to the timer and mess with the settings. With this remote I can just flick any light I want on or off from my couch, and unlike a lamp timer (which simply switches the lamp from whichever state it is in to the opposite state at the scheduled times) it is intelligent and will never turn a lamp off when it should be turned on as a lamp timer would if you had switched the state manually (say to turn the lamp off when it would normally have been on).
For a tech freak like me this remote will transform my living into a utopia. The reason for the television actually is more for poker use than entertainment. It has split screen PIP so John and I could both hook up our laptops and play tournaments side by side on the same screen. This would be a tremendous benefit I think and we will hopefully be able to do this for the later WCOOP events. Also I will be able to play my normal ring games from the comfort of my recliner. Which brings me to my next toy the gyration cordless mouse. This little baby is an optical mouse with a gyroscope built in that can be used in the air or on any normal mousing surface. It uses RF waves so it has a 30’ reach (most wireless mice have only a few feet of range) and is unencumbered by the normal line of sight constraints of remotes. It also comes with a keyboard and is rechargeable. Wow I love technology. So there you have the cool tech gadgets of my new home, which will be named Xanadu unless and until I find something better.
Posted by themaroon at July 26, 2004 4:29 AM
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Comments
That remote sounds like it kicks ass.... I would get one if I had anything for it to control.
If you hook up to the TV, is the PIP one of those small windows, or 1/2 the screen?
How would you play against each other, you can't hide your hole cards.. or are you talking about just playing at the same time?
I know you guys kind of work as a team, but it's a bit unethical to look at each others cards if you were both at a final table together or something.
Posted by: Johnny FlopBoot at July 27, 2004 1:58 AM
Matt--
Read the blog daily...thanks for all the great content.
Been thinking about the RM-AV3100 and didn't know it would help me toss out that silly X-10 remote. Now it is worth the $200! LOL.
How are you hooking up to the TV to play poker?
Good luck with your system, you wont want to go to the movies again! My 65" Sony and home theater is the best thing we have ever added to the house.
Posted by: KingSix at July 27, 2004 9:30 AM