Using Caller-ID - amazing!

I would just like to take this moment to commend Chase Home Finance. When I call their customer service center it DOES NOT ask me for my account number. Their service only asks me for my billing zip code. After that it immediately proceeds to tell my my balance and next payment due date. Now this is an automatic system that ACTUALLY WORKS!

Considering that I can't be the only person in my zip code to have a Chase Home Finance loan, I presume it is using caller-id from my phone to identify the account and then uses my zip code to verify I am the right person.

Compare this to companies like Cingular - who when I call them, FROM THEIR GODDAMN PHONE, don't initially know who I am and require me to input my phone number in their system to talk to someone, and then when I do talk to someone, somehow the system forgets who I am and then I have to tell the person -- AGAIN.

YME & XBox 360

At last, I found some concrete evidence that while today one cannot directly browse Yahoo! Unlimited music from the XBox, it is coming!! :) Oh happy day.

Check out this comment :

Hi Joe,

You’ll be happy to know that there are plans to offer a Yahoo! Music add-in for Media Center Edition. Sit tight and we’ll let you know when it’s available.

Per Ian’s comment… I’d be interested to hear if you’re able to use the Network Music feature with your XBox 360. Network Music is based on the UPnP protocol and is modeled after Windows Media Connect in order to play to the XBox 360 and other PlaysForSure devices. However, we’ve heard that MSFT has locked down the XBox 360 so that it only works with Windows Media Conne

- Ryan

From this post over at the Yahoo Music Blog.

Super sweet!

Structured Wiring Project - DONE

I embarked upon a structured wiring upgrade to my house several weeks ago.

The goals of this project were to:

• Bring wired network connections to my front living room
• Centralize all wiring (satellite, cable tv, phone, and network)
• Get rid of wire clutter

So overall the project has been a smashing success. Due to my bad shoulder (recent surgery) I brought in a contractor to actually run the wires. While I could have done this myself, I could never have done as awesome a job as he did. Money well spent.

And also he was able to run them down my wall into a new wall jack in the living room, something I would never have been able to do. The job required drilling a hole through two boards about 6' down from the attic. Due to the tight spaces he had to have a flexible drill bit that was 6' or more long. I don't really know how he did it - but the installation is smooth.

I'll update this post with more pics, but for now, here is the finished structured panel in the storage room. It's going to get a cover right after this post so no unsightly wires will be visible at all.



Update 2006-03-28

Here are the rest of the photos.

This is the exterior of the house, the black cable was already there and is not part of this job. Notice the nice pipe bends :)


And this is one of my new wall jacks, this is in the front which currently has 4 network ports and 2 RG6 terminals (I guess I still need to do some cleanup - it's not so obvious in real life):




Finally, I've had questions about how I found my contractor. I used Service Magic. If you're in the Bay Area, you might want to give the guy I used a call - Paul at Healey Electric.

Westinghouse LVM=42W2 Experience So Far

I just wrote this up for AVS Forum, so I thought I would post here too:

I made the jump several weeks ago and bought [the Westinghouse LV-42W2] from Crutchfield.

Here is my experience so far (quick summary - I am on the fence, sometimes this set is awesome, sometimes I am quite ready to return it)

- in HD there is no question the set has amazing quality. XBOX360 over component cables is truly astounding and the #1 reason I would keep this set.

- in SD, I think it's as good as you can expect - except I have not figured out what is causing ghosting (see below)

- ps2 (SD over S-Video) looks reasonable but dithering is high - I am willing to accept this is just how the ps2 looks and get over it. I only play one game on the ps2 anymore and grafx are not a high concern here

- DirecTivo - the menuing part is pretty grungy - dithering and aliasing artifacts that I never saw before. I'm not just being picky my wife asked if the set is out of focus. The good news is that TV in general looks good enough that I am not distracted it's just the Tivo interface that looks relatively poor. There are artifacts that I am not quite sure whether they are ghosting or MPG2 artifacts -- see ghosting below.

- Component in from my 6 year old Sony DVD changer caused massive problems. The signal broke up and died. I am willing to accept my changer is old and needs replacement - but I must tell you that it happened *one* time with the XBox 360 so I am suspicious (hard reset aka unplug solved the issue, it hasn't returned in 3-4 days)

- VGA in from my laptop at 1920x1080 works well, but there is again a ghosting problem - see below. Also thanks to the poster of the gray image. I fired it up and sigh I have 2 dead pixels in the corner (not so bad) and also I am not sure it's banding or backlamp uneveness (I think the latter, truthfully, even white doesn't look perfectly even) but I see streaks

- GHOSTING. This one is a major issue. On the VGA inputs any vertical line causes a ghost to appear right next to it, things like icons on a white or grey background are dead giveaways. On S-Video with the Tivo I think I see ghosting but it's hard to tell. If anyone saw Carlos Mencia's special from a week or two ago, he had a silver chair with 4 vertical legs on stage that causes at least 7 repetitions of the vertical signal in certain shots - sometimes when he was several feet away from the chair, the "ghost" stripes from the chair legs went all the way to him. Excruciatingly distracting. Some movies I notice it as well, but again it HAS to be vertical lines. I have not noticed this playing movies from the XBox360 but haven't had the time to analyze carefully.

- LOCKUPS - this may actually get the set on a truck back to the mfr. I have so far recorded three times the set simply would not respond to me. The remote and buttons on the unit were completely unresponsive. unplugging the unit fixed the problem. I thought it might just be initial problems that were lessening over time, ,but it happened again last night.

- Remote sensitivity is poor. You might think this would be ok, but I can tell you it's not the REMOTE's fault, it's the TV. I have a Logitech Harmony and you really have to point the thing at the TV or it does not register (same thing with the MFR remote). Also it's quite often that the TV just ignores the remote until you press it a few more times - this is most noticeable when trying to change inputs.

- Only one picture setting per input. Don't get me wrong, I am happy it at least has memory for picture settings per input, but it's a bit of a problem if you are going to use something like the XBox360 for movies AND games. Games have to brighter esp Project Gotham Racing which provides NO in game controls (unlike Kameo which provides 4-5 presets) for brightness.

Media Center Upgrade

Well, it's been nearly 10(!) years since I bought a new TV, and over 6 since I bought my last piece of A/V gear...needless to say it's gotten dated.

So I have been spending sleepless nights researching the crap out of the crop of technology - DLP, LCD, Plasma screens, HDTV 1080i/p, HDMI, DVI/HDCP etc. The net effect is that I think right now we are at a stage where the choices are bewildering and confusing, and even a hardcore tech junkie like me is overloaded.

Summary

I still don't think the technology or price points are mature enough that the ordinary consumer should think about buying into this stuff. You absolutely must have an external impetus for doing so, such as -
a) I am a google employee and don't know what else to spend my money on
b) I need to get rid of the 200lb monster in my living room, flat panels are the way to go
c) I need to make my Xbox 360 picture look better and it sure would be cool to hook up my laptop in the living room to a 42" hi-res screen.

If you don't fall into one of the above categories (I happen to fall in two of them, but not the third, guess which two - duh), I suggest you come back next year and see if the industry has gotten it's collective act together.

My choice(s)

I finally decided to buy the Westinghouse 42" LCD TV.


I bought it from Crutchfield because no store carries this set in house and I am going to have to buy it based on extensive research online (using the link above, read the AVS Forum - I highly recommend it). That said, there may be a reason to return it, and Crutchfield offers this ability. If there is something wrong with it in 30 days, the return is free, otherwise if I just decide I want the Sharp 45" LCD then I am going to have to pay return shipping - all in all not a bad deal (oh and normally CF prices are MSRP but this set is not really going for less than MSRP online yet, so at the moment their price is extremely competitive when you consider no tax and no shipping)

I also decided to go for the XBox 360.

Part of this decision rested on it's gaming abilities, part on it's DVD playing abilities (for a small time, it will be the only component in my setup that can actually output anything higher than Standard Definition TV) and part on it's networking capabilities. (Considering that Yahoo! Music Engine just released Version 1.1 which can export it's music as a UPnP source, I am about 99% positive that the Xbox will be able to pick it up and play it -- coolness factor x 10)

If you are thinking to buy this, I recommend not buying the core bundle - it's a bad deal. For $100 more the Live bundle or whatever it is gives you a lot more. Research carefully the options online, many of the online bundles are crap. If you want to track it's availability, BensBargains XBox 360 Tracker rocks.

My Research

In general, I used del.icio.us to track my home theater research.

In particular, I looked at hdtv screens, stands, and a few htpc style options. One of my criteria was to get a 1080p television. This is not only harder than it sounds, it also is frought with peril, and probably deserves a blog post all it's own.