Bedroom TV options for under $450

I'm getting a new TV for my bedroom and wanted to share some of the best deals I found on high quality TV's for under $450.

If I can find a 4K TV within that price threshold with a good refresh rate, I will just get it.  Otherwise, a TV smaller than 50 inches doesn't really need to be 4K as long as the refresh rate is 120 Hz or faster.

LG 49UF6430 49" Class 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV
$425 on NewEgg and free shipping
(Limited time offer)
120Hz refresh rate
Wifi
IPS LED
Video/Audio support: AAC/AC3/DivX HD, EAC3, HE-AAC, JPEG, MP3, PCM

LG Electronics 49UH6030 49-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2016 Model)
$400 + $20 shipping on NewEgg
IPS display
120Hz refresh rate

Samsung UN40KU6290 40-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV
$384.90 on Amazon
$298 + $33 shipping on BrandMart USA 
Backordered from NewEgg for $299 + $20 shipping
New release
4.1 out of 5 stars
- wifi
- streaming apps
- Motion Rate 120
- 3 HDMI / 2 USB Inputs

- Quad-Core Processor

- Full Web Browser

LG Electronics 43UH6100 43-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2016 Model)
$447 on Amazon
Inputs: 3 HMDI, 1 USB, 1 RF, 1 Component, 1 Composite, 1 Optical, 1 RS232C, 1 Ethernet

Refresh Rate: 120Hz (Effective)

Samsung UN40KU6300FXZA 40-Inch 2160p 4K UHD Smart LED TV - Black (2016)
$398 on NewEgg
120Hz refresh
Wifi


Just beyond the budget range

LG 49" TV for $469 on Amazon

Ockel Sirius A & B - powerful pocket PCs

Ockel Sirius B: the powerful Windows 10 pocket PC from IndieGoGo is $349 (plus shipping) and features:
Cherry-trail X5-Z8300 processor, 4GB RAM, Wi-Fi AC, 64GB internal storage, a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port. A pre-installed version of Windows 10, an HDMI cable and a power adapter are included.

• No screen (see the Sirius A)
• has an easy to reach Micro SD-card slot, which supports Micro SD-cards up to 128GB
• The Sirius B Black Cherry pocket PC has a Quad-core Cherry Trail Intel processor, 4GB of RAM and a Wi-Fi-AC chip, so you can run more and heavier applications at the same time. Internal memory has been expanded to 64GB and both a USB 3.0 as a USB 2.0 port will be integrated.
• We designed the Ockel Sirius B in such a way that ventilation fans are no longer required. This unique feature combined with flash storage means you can enjoy working in silence and benefit from ultra-low power consumption. 

Ockel Sirius A: the World's Most Versatile Mini PC also from IGG is $549 for early bird.  Super early birds picked it up for $499.  (As of 10/12/16 there are only 32 units left at the $499 price point.

Winter 2011 MacBook Pro and iMac Model Lineup

LCD Monitor Reviews and Ratings

HP w2558hc Black 25.5-Inch LCD Monitor Review - PC World
- 4 Stars on Jun 12, 2009
- Bottom line: This display offers impressive image quality and great features, including a card reader and built-in reading light.
Amazon: Out of Stock

HP LP2475w Review | Displays | From the Lab | Macworld
- 4.5 stars on May 9, 2009
- many connection options
Price as rated: $624
Amazon: $553.69

LG Electronics W2353V-PF Review | Business Center | Macworld
- 4 stars on Nov 26, 2009
- only tilt
Price as rated: $310
Amazon: $230
TigerDirect: $200

Samsung SyncMaster 2233SW Review | Business Center | From the Lab | Macworld
- 4 stars on Nov 21, 2009
- solid image quality across the board
- only tilt
- no HDMI
Price as rated: $200


ViewSonic VX2433wm Review | Displays | From the Lab | Macworld
- 3 stars
- Affordable 24-inch LCD comes with a few compromises

Top 5 23-Inch and 24-Inch Wide-Screen Monitors - PC World (June 2008)

CR2025 Watch Battery Lasted for Six Years With Some Drawbacks

I just replaced the CR2025 lithium battery in my $20 Armitron watch today. The battery has lasted for about six years, however, the extended power drain did reduce some of the watch's performance.

• A few years ago, the alarm on the watch stopped working.
• At the end of the battery life, turning on the watch light would freeze the time.
• The hourly chime also was not making a sound a few years ago.
  

Depending on the features of your watch (glow light, hourly chime, alarm beep) and their usage your battery will last for at least two years with full functionality of the watch, and probably a few years longer if you don't use a glow light or alarm very often.

At our local Wal-Mart, I bought a 2-pack of the CR2025 batteries for $4.37. If you're replacing the same batteries for several watches, Amazon has Maxell 5-packs and Energizer 2-packs.

Consumer Reports: Best TV's

Consumer Reports March 2009

Movie Lover
. . .To do justice to your favorite flicks, choose a TV with a least a 40-inch screen, and think bigger for a greater dramatic impact.

Plasma sets generally display richer, more movie-like images that LCD TV's, with better blacks, truer colors, and better detail in the shadows. . .Our tests have shown that LCDs using LED backlights with local dimming give plasmas a run for their money in producing deep blacks, great contrast, and accurate colors.

Plasma TV's

50-Inch sets

Samsung PN50A550 $1,600 Best Buy
- Rated 'excellent' rating for HD picture, DVD, and SD picture quality.
- 3 HDMI, 2 Component

Vizio VP504FHDTV10a $1,100 Recommended
- Only other model listed as a great value with excellent HD picture quality
- 4 HDMI, 1 Component

None of the 42" plasma TV's are 1080p.

_______________________________________________

LCD TVs

Viewing angle is still a limiting factor for LCDs; most sets got middling scores because image quality declines as you move off to the sides or up and down.

40 and 42 inch sets

#1 Samsung LN40A630 $1,400 Recommended ($870 on 10/1/09)
- Excellent picture quality across the board

#5 Sharp Aquos LC-42D65U $1,100 Best Buy ($900 on 10/1/09)
- excellent picture quality and an unusual five HDMI inputs

#14 Vizio V042L FHDTV10A $900 Recommended
- Excellent HD picture quality and a wide viewing angle

TV Viewing Distance

Provided by Samsung and found on a Samsung LCD TV product page on Amazon.

How to get component video to work

To get the component output to work on his DVD player, my younger brother went into the setup menu of his DVD player and changed it from S-Video to Component. Other DVD players have a switch on the back of the DVD player, next to the inputs to select which inputs to use.

If you have an older TV (ie: not an LCD or Plasma), then hopefully progressive video (480p) is supported, otherwise a Component connection may not improve the video quality very much.
If you do not have an upconverting DVD player, make sure to set your DVD player to Progressive Scan. Lots of DVD players have a dedicated button on the remote, while others you may have to dig into the setup menu of the DVD player to enable Progressive Scan.

Wikipedia has tipped me off on how to solve this issue:

The settings on many DVD players and TVs may need to be set to indicate the type of input/output being used, and if set wrong the image may not be properly displayed. Progressive scan, for example, is often not enabled by default, even when component video output is selected.

Component Video

Saturday: Typepad pricing, Rechargeable batteries

Rechargable Battery Performance
I just bought a bunch of Rayovac rechargeable batteries and wanted to read up on their performance before opening the packaging. Consumer Reports has their rechargable battery test ratings.

Typepad for my future wedding website
After I finish my degree, I'm going to start wedding website as business project and create a website using Typepad, because their pages are easy to edit. Here's Typepad pricing page. The pro plan is $15/month and includes the "total design customization". The plus plan for $9/month does not include the design customization. This a must-have because I would have a modified index template, and not show any blog style entries on the homepage. The pro plan essentially has everything I would need to get the site up and running quickly.

I also read up on Movable Type, and this would be better for a large scale site, since it's an entire CMS system with some incredible features. Movable Type would not be best for the wedding site because it's a platform that runs on your server. Moveable Type Pro is available free for "power bloggers" and the business license is $400. If I ever create a website geared to make it big, I would definitely use Movable Type. Here are the installation instructions for Linux/Unix. It looks like it will work with 1and1. This blogger gives some pointers (from 2003) on how to install MT using 1and1. He gave me hope.

. . .designed for bloggers, design and development firms, and small and medium-sized businesses, and has all of the features of Movable Type plus social networking features, custom fields for extending your content management system, and new Professional Templates that help you get up and running with a beautiful website quickly.