Cinkadeus February 13, 2012 Share Cinkadeus Member February 13, 2012 So I've been holding out on HD until it no longer costs more than SD to get. That time finally came. So we shopped around and finally settled on a Samsung LN40D550. Now, I was thinking we just bought a TV but once I unpacked it, I found out I was wrong. It had no "smart" frills... No streaming client such as Netflix or Hulu. So I was surprised when I found a RJ45 port on the back. So I decided WTH, and plugged it into my network. After playing with the settings, I hit the "Content" button on the remote, mainly because I had no idea what it would do and its primary human nature to press buttons when we don't know what they do. It then proceeded to list all my AVI, MP3, MKV, MP4, and JPG files from all my shared folders. "Wow" I thought. Figuring it would only decode MP3 and show JPG files, I went for it and clicked a 1080p MKV movie file. IT PLAYED IT. With no flicker, no sound issues, and in perfect 1080 goodness. So now my entire library is one click away on my remote. No more having to copy to a USB stick and using my WD Media Player (which couldn't run H.264 or MKV files). And the sad part about this is that I would have bought this thing INSTANTLY had the label or the salesperson mentioned that it was also a media decoder. But nowhere was there any mention of this capability. It listed it as having Allshare and at the time I didn't know that Allshare was Samsung's way of saying DNLA. Why they don't just say, "Hey, this thing has DNLA!!!" is beyond me. I already had DNLA on my media server for my tablets and smart phones. Luckily, I designed this house so it has CAT5e run to every room with a switch room in the basement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madvillain February 13, 2012 Share Madvillain Member February 13, 2012 (edited) Nice and congrats! Wish I had CAT5 run through all my walls with a switch room..... Edited February 13, 2012 by Madvillain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lousiest February 13, 2012 Share lousiest Member February 13, 2012 Every hardware post must come with pics, so until Cink posts a pic of his TV, this will have to do: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinkadeus February 13, 2012 Author Share Cinkadeus Member February 13, 2012 (edited) Every hardware post must come with pics, so until Cink posts a pic of his TV, this will have to do: Mybad: Those may not show up due to folder permissions. That's just where I tested it before it went above the mantle in the living room. 40" due to the size of the hole it had to fit in. Edited February 13, 2012 by Cinkadeus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValenAlvern February 13, 2012 Share ValenAlvern Member February 13, 2012 I can see the images. Once you go HD you never go back. The computer I used has been able to display 1080p resolutions, and I have a SD Telly I use some times when no ones on, but there usually nothing to watch on cable.. Whats the covering? Did you steal a display model? =P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinkadeus February 13, 2012 Author Share Cinkadeus Member February 13, 2012 No, I just didn't take off the plastic wrap until I got it moved upstairs. Samsung borders fingerprint like a boss. And the gubment makes all manufacturers put an EnergySaver decal on TVs now. As if I'm going to buy a TV based on how much energy it users on a 5hr a day average. Just more useless government intrusion. oh, and it was $13 a year based on 5hr usage a day if you were wondering. Which I hope you weren't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flitterkill February 13, 2012 Share Flitterkill GC Board Member February 13, 2012 Agree. Was going to repair the standard def projectors we had for backup purposes but once we saw the new HD projector image covering our entire living room wall we we're kinda "Yeah, no, we don't need to do that anymore..." It's nice that TV's are starting build in codecs for playback but nothing beats a PC jacked in directly; at least not yet anyways. And not everyone runs a TV for just five hours a day ya know... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackieChan February 13, 2012 Share JackieChan GC Alumni February 13, 2012 That TV isn't HD, it looks all blurry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamZ February 14, 2012 Share dreamZ Member February 14, 2012 Wow, i have that exact same case and keyboard. Not using them anymore though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VooDooPC February 14, 2012 Share VooDooPC Member February 14, 2012 I can see the images. Once you go HD you never go back. The computer I used has been able to display 1080p resolutions, and I have a SD Telly I use some times when no ones on, but there usually nothing to watch on cable.. Whats the covering? Did you steal a display model? =P Yeah, probably since like, 1995. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinkadeus February 15, 2012 Author Share Cinkadeus Member February 15, 2012 (edited) Nice and congrats! Wish I had CAT5 run through all my walls with a switch room..... Here's my switchroom. Not pretty, but it works It could be worse... Edited February 15, 2012 by Cinkadeus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback February 22, 2012 Share Lookback Member February 22, 2012 Heh, you have been bitten by the bug Cink. I retrofitted Cat5e into our house a few years ago and have now built 2 HTPC's that run on the network. The real fun is getting high performace out of them while keeping them silent and stylish (and minimal maintenance) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage February 22, 2012 Share ZeroDamage Member February 22, 2012 Chief Tek purpose ATX case. Still have mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4N1K February 23, 2012 Share P4N1K Member February 23, 2012 recently bought a 27" Asus 16:9 monitor. Once you go 1080p you never go back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher February 23, 2012 Share Preacher Member February 23, 2012 rather have the old scaling back when you could go 1920x1200 now most scale back to 1080p because of the hype it's gotten as the ultimate resolution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX February 29, 2012 Share NOFX Member February 29, 2012 16:10 > 16:9. I don't know why they settled on an aspect ration with less real estate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymo March 15, 2012 Share anonymo Member March 15, 2012 16:10 > 16:9. I don't know why they settled on an aspect ration with less real estate. Easier to manufacture, basically. Having two standards, one for PCs and one for TVs, makes all production costs effectively double when you're basically using the same technology for both (LCD) TV was already standardized to 1920x1080 and had a much larger consumer base, so all us PC users lost 120 px Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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