Amazon Discount Finder and Amazon Coupons

Does the HD cable use a standard coaxial cable or an HDMI cable?

The built in tuner only impacts you ability to get HD from sources that do not include an HD tuner. Currently pretty much over the airwaves is the only time you will need/take advantage of a built in HD tuner.

Cable (or Sat which I recommended if you are into HD) the “box” is essentially the HD tuner, and therefore you don’t necessarily need a built in tuner. You will need an HD “box” (your normal SD usually will not transmit an HD signal). There is also usually an additional package for $10 or so you will need to sign up.

As for cabling there are two options:

Component (3 wire for video one each for Red, Green, Blue). This will deliver HDTV signals up to 1080i. There are two additional wires (another Red and White) for audio, similar to normal hookup cables.

HDMI - Single wire for audio and video, with HDTV signals up to 1080p. Most TVs and output sources will NOT do 1080p over component, as HDMI (and DVI for computers) can carry encrypted signals.

In terms of quality - they are both a wash and look about the same. HDMI is simplier. Don’t fall into the hype of buying expensive HDMI cables! It’s a digital signal, which means cable quality means very little. The signal is 1s and 0s. Look for an “audio” HDMI cable, visit Fry’s or order online for HDMI cables for around $20 for 12ft.

Last thing: Cable, Sat, and over the air TV will generally only transmit at 1080i or 720, not 1080p (it’s not a broadcast standard). So you don’t have to get HDMI to get the highest quality out of those signals. The only true 1080p sources you will likely find are XBox/PS3 and BluRay/HDDVD.

One last bit of advice - upscaling is NOT the same thing as Hidef! If the term upscaling appears (usually with dvd players) it will probably look a little better than an non upscaled source, but it’s not a true high def source.

LCD, period. Plasma is highly prone to burn-in, your worst enemy. Further, make sure the TV has ALL of the hookups you’ll need (HDMI, Coax, RCA, Cable, et cetera) because you sure as hell don’t want to lug that thing back to the store because you missed one. Also take into consideration the millisecond response time (refresh rate/ et al) because the lower it is, the better the set. Plus nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats actually seeing the set you’re interested in in person. Only then will you get a true look at the kind of picture it will put out.

The Plasma burn in thing is pretty much a non issue with the newer plasma tvs - actually dead pixels might be a bigger issue now and that is an LCD issue.

Basically they both have strengths and weaknesses and neither is a definitive “winner”. It seems to be that if you are going bigger then 50″ then Plasma might be the way to go (all things be equal) mostly for cost reasons. I have a 42″ LCD and I love it. One thing to consider that often doesn’t get mentioned (and may not be an issue to you) is that LCD screens scratch easily - I have little kids and I think I would have gone Plasma for a nice glass instead of the LCD. Here is a chart that might help you out.

Basically, as your screen gets bigger and/or your viewing distance gets shorter, you start to see the ‘pixels’ in the screen - this chart tells you the minimum resolution (such as 1080p) you can get by with before you start seeing the pixels.

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1) Leave Mr. Audio at home, don’t let “expert” change your mind
Everyone seems to have a friend or relative who is a self-professed audio expert, and when he—and usually it is a he—gets wind that you’re buying a home theater, he’ll suddenly become your self-appointed shopping consultant/escort/new best pal. Leave this guy at home. Chances are he will try to talk you into buying a system that he likes, not the one that is best for you. And he may be grossly misinformed. Consult him over the phone if you must.

2) Price is not king.
Cheap price should not impact your consideration. Your home entertainment speaker system is not the place to get cheap. You’ve heard the phrase, “where the rubber meets the road” to denote something’s importance? Just as a good set of tires is essential to the performance of an automobile, a good set of speakers is crucial to the performance of a home entertainment system—whether there are 20 speakers or just two.
The speakers are the last stops for sound on the way to your ears. So you can have the world’s greatest DVD player and amplifiers, all creating this beautiful sound, but if you have a lousy set of speakers, it will still sound lousy. In other words, your system will only be as good as its speakers.
There’s no set figure on how much you should spend on audio versus video, but a good benchmark is to try to budget for them equally, and look for a set of speakers to fit the audio portion. Try to spend at least as much on your speakers as you spend on your other audio components.

3) Same speakers?
Ideally, you’d have the exact same speakers throughout your home entertainment system. If it’s a five-speaker system, try to use the same five speakers. This is often difficult, as the front center channel is usually positioned horizontally, and you may not have room for full-size surround speakers. If that’s the case, look for packaged home theater speaker systems, though don’t bother with inexpensive home-theater-in-a-box systems which often include DVD players and A/V receivers. Opt instead for a package that comes with only speakers. Many manufacturers sell all five or more speakers together, with a smaller center channel and surrounds. The advantage of these speakers is that they are designed to work well together.
The speakers should also have identical power ratings and frequency ranges. A 5.1 surround-sound system, for example, calls for five full-range speaker channels. Look for ranges starting at 60 to 100 hertz for the low sounds and up to 20 kilohertz for the high sounds, and leave the really low bass for a subwoofer to reproduce. Some center-channel and surround speakers may have narrower frequency ranges, as they don’t normally reproduce some lower sounds, for instance.
If you can’t get all the same models or a package for the speakers, try to get them from the same manufacturer’s line, or from the same manufacturer, as each speaker maker tends to have a signature sound. That way, the speakers will sound good together. If you have to use a mix of brands, be sure your electronics professional matches them for tonal quality. This process is called timbre (pronounced tamber) matching.

4) The center channel rules.
It may be smaller than the other front speakers. It may lie on its side and look like it’s not doing much. But the center channel is the most important speaker in a surround-sound system. All of the on-screen dialogue comes through this speaker, and about 70 percent of all sounds in a movie soundtrack come through it. That’s a lot. Scrimp on it or buy an underpowered one, and you may be constantly turning up the volume to hear what’s being said. That doesn’t make for good a home entertainment experience. That’s why the center channel should have the same power ratings as your other speakers. Don’t settle for less.

5) Power isn’t all-important.
Sure, Mr. Audio friend brags about his 200-watt-per-channel blah de-de-blah blah blah. And his system can still sound lousy. Power isn’t important unless you have a really big room to fill. Save the 100-watt-per-channel systems for dedicated home theater rooms where you want to shake, rattle and roll. Sixty watts per channel should be plenty in a family room environment. Thirty-five watts per channel is more than enough for background music.

6) Sensitivity wins.
This is the age of Mr. Sensitive. Much more important than the power capacity of a speaker is its sensitivity, which is a measure of how a speaker plays at low power. This is expressed in decibels, from about 83 to 93, the higher the better. And here’s a little factoid for Mr. Audio: An increase in 3 decibels of sensitivity is equal to doubling the power. The higher-sensitivity system will likely sound better as well.

7) Surround channels should be diffused.
That means they are meant to create ambient effects that can’t quite be localized, such as the hum of a spaceship or crickets chirping in the night. You shouldn’t be hearing your surround speakers all of the time. And you shouldn’t be able to pinpoint where those ambient sounds are coming from. For that reason, surround speakers should be located on the sides of the seating area and at least a foot above the heads of the seated audience. Many surround speakers have dual sets of speaker drivers pointed to both the front and back of the room to help disperse that sound. These are called bipole speakers. A dipole speaker goes step further and produces a sound that’s slightly “out of phase,” which you can think of as a slight delay between the two sets of drivers, thereby making the sound even more ambient. Bipolar and dipolar speakers are used almost exclusively for side surround channels.

More is not necessarily better.
One speaker has three drivers: a woofer for bass, a tweeter for high sounds and a midrange driver for sounds in the middle. The other speaker has just a woofer and a tweeter. The two speakers are about the same price. Which is better? All other things being equal, the two-driver speaker will likely have the better drivers, and the three-driver speaker will have cheaper ones. Moral of the story: Don’t be swayed by the notion of getting more for same price or less.

9) Try them out.
Listen to several speaker systems before you buy. And don’t just listen to the music or soundtracks the store has. The best way to judge a speaker is to hear how it reproduces the human voice. Bring CDs and DVDs of your own and that you are very familiar with. It’s a good idea to select various tracks or DVD chapters that have loud and soft sounds. Bring vocal tracks and a DVD with some really soft or whispered dialogue. Can you hear that whispered dialogue clearly? Listen to the CDs and DVDs before you go to the store, even if you’re sick of them. This will enable you to judge the speakers’ sound and perhaps pick out sounds that you’ve never heard before.

10) Buy your favourite
Don’t be influenced by “this is the better system.” or deceptive marketing (BOSE and others). If one speaker sounds better to you, go with it. You’re the one who’s going to be hearing it day in and day out. But be sure to take other things into consideration, such as the room decor and layout, and consult your electronics dealer on which system would be best for a large space with hardwood floors, for example.

Before we go on, let’s take a quick look at the three leading display technologies; a little knowledge will go a long way when it’s time to go shopping. Without delving too deeply into the weird science of television innards, here’s a quick summary of the three technologies.

Under the Hood:

DLP (Digital Light Processing) HDTV (High Definition Television) is a proprietary product of Texas Instruments. DLP is descendant of digital film projector technology which uses DMD (Digital Multi-mirror Device) chips, each containing millions of tiny mirrors. A projection light is passed through a rotating color wheelbefore striking the chip – producing up to 16 million different color shades.

LCD televisions consist of two polarizing transparent panels with a liquid crystal solution in between. This technology uses florescent light, which is scattered by a white diffusion panel. In an LCD Television, each color pixel (picture element) is created by three sub-pixels with red, green, and blue color filters. LCD technology allows each pixel on the screen tobe activated individually.

Plasma screens are made up of hundreds of thousands RGB (red, green, and blue) pixels, which depend on argon, neon, and xenon gases (sealed between glass panels) to be electrically charged, which generates light and ultimately the picture. Plasma screens are more closely related to traditional television screens.

Just the Facts, Ma’am – Pros and Cons of Various Display Technologies:

(Naturally, the specifications/issues listed here are generalizations, some subjective, and will vary from brand to brand and model to model)

DLP:

Uber-long life expectancy – the main light source is projection bulb, which is replaceable (not cheap, but certainly less expensive than buying a new television!)
The ultra-fast DLP chip has a 16 microsecond response time
High resolution (1920 x 1080) – but others are catching up
Contrast ratios of up to 12,000:1
Usually comes with an integrated stand

Biggest pros of DLP: Provides the best bang for your buck as far as large screens go – probably the price/performance “sweet spot”.

Biggest cons of DLP: Overall size and limited flexibility on set positioning (In other words, DLP screens are large, but so is the rest of the set.) Best picture is obtained by positioning the set at eye level. Lowest “sexy factor” of the three technologies.

Bottom line: If the space/size restrictions aren’t an issue for you and you want a very large, inexpensive screen, especially for latest-generation video game play in 1080i/p, DLP may be your best bet.

LCD:

Generally long lifespan (manufacturers currently claim >50,000 hours)
Many new LCD televisions offer full 1080p (1920 x 1080) native pixel resolution
Generally physically lighter and sleeker than DLP or plasma televisions
Low power consumption
Generally poor relative black levels

Biggest pros of LCD: Small size and placement options give it the most flexibility when it comes to positioning the television.

Biggest cons of LCD: Pixel response time is lower than DLP and plasma, which can mean ghosting during fast-action sequences. Color saturation and black-levels lacking.

Bottom line: Tight on space? Watching TV or viewing digital family photos? You’re all set for LCD – just mount your LCD TV on the wall and go!

Plasma:

Plasma televisions offer good pricing for large screens
Contrast ratios exceeding 15,000:1 in some models
Allows the most flexibility as far as positioning the viewer in front of the set
Many models top out at 1366×768 native resolution, which equates to 720p – still High Definition, but not 1080x.

Biggest pros of Plasma: Excellent color saturation, superior black levels, wide viewing angles.

Biggest cons of Plasma: The image retention (screen burn) issue has been all but eliminated but pixel failure is still a potential problem area. Potentially the shortest lifespan of the three (“the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”) Can be big electricity hogs.

Bottom line: Movie and/or sports nut? Go plasma. Widescreen helps with movies, while the wide viewing angle is perfect for when the whole gang is watching the game together.

New DVD Players
Quick comment on new high end DVD players. You have Blue Ray and up conversion. Depends on how much you want to spend. Blue Ray Starts right around $900.00 and the Upconvert model starts at about $79.00. Blue Ray you get a picture that cant be beat, the drawback is you have to have the Blue Ray version of the DVD which stars t around $29.99, and that add’s up. I reccommend the Upconverson models. You can get a great Sony unit for around $110.00 and they play the regular dvd’s. The quality is not as great as Blue Ray because it’s a near High Def signal where the Blue Ray is High Def. I have the Sony Up Convert on all my TV’s and I love the picture quality, the audio quality and it has a feature where you could take a dvd out at anypoint and when you put the movie back in it will resume at the exact same spot you took it out at. Blue Ray is still to new and expensive, I would wait until it is out a little bit longer that way they can fix all the bugs and of course the price will drop big time.

Unlike the VHS/Beta wars of yesteryear, it’s possible for these different technologies to peacefully co-exist in the marketplace; breakthroughs in one platform forces the others to not only keep pace, but to up the ante, which (hopefully) gives the consumer higher quality products at lower prices.

Conclusions

Modern large-screen televisions are no different than many products or technologies that follow the price/performance triangle: in this case, you can have it large, good, or cheap – pick any two. The trick is to pick your two and then find a product that has as much of the third as possible.

If you’ve been thinking of buying an HDTV this holiday season, but don’t want to spend the cash up front, there’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that major retailers are offering some pretty good deals. Best Buy, for example, advertises no interest until January 2011 on HDTVs over $1000. Similar attractive financing is offered by Circuit City, Wal-Mart, and Dell.

The bad news about some of these offers, say experts, is that paying nothing up front for an expensive HDTV can end up being a bad deal for unqualified buyers. Financial experts warn that buyers lured into “money-saver” deals are apt to purchase a more expensive television than they can afford, and may end up spending more than they intended.

The HDTV deals available this holiday season vary from store to store, but most involve either no monthly payments for a certain period of time or no interest on payments made during a promotional period. To take advantage of the deals you have to sign up for the store’s credit card.

I asked personal-credit experts to share their thoughts on what HDTV shoppers should be watching out for.

The Consumer Trap

If you can’t afford the HDTV, than you shouldn’t buy it, says credit expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, author of Zero Debt for College Grads.

Many people think that because they qualified for a zero-percent financing deal that means they can afford it, Khalfani-Cox says. “Credit card companies are not looking out for your best interest,” she says.

Khalfani-Cox points out that, in some deals, if you don’t pay for the HDTV within the promotional time period, you must pay interest as if it had been accumulating from the date you bought the HDTV.

For example, if you purchased a Sharp 37-inch Aquos LCD HDTV priced at $1450 from Circuit City and took advantage of its “no interest, no payments for 12 months” offer, then didn’t pay for it within the promotional period, you would be subject to 23.99 percent interest. That’s at least $194 in finance charges. If you violate the terms of the promotion by missing a payment, or by being late with a payment, your interest rate jumps to 29.49 percent–at least $242 in finance charges.

High Prices, Bait-and-Switch Tactics

One thing to keep in mind, says Jim Tehan with Myvesta, a nonprofit financial counseling organization, is that even if you do qualify for zero-percent financing, sellers often make up for the lost finance charges by jacking up the price of the product.

PC World took a look at several HDTVs offered as part of zero-percent financing promotions. We found identical models being sold for sometimes hundreds of dollars less at competing retailers without special offers.

“Don’t think retailers aren’t making money on promotions like these,” Tehan says.

He adds that a trap consumers fall into is when they are approved for more money than expected. This can lead some to spending much more than they originally intended on an HDTV.

Another dirty little secret of zero-percent financing is that it’s a gimmick. Retailers use it to get you onto the store, says Khalfani-Cox. She says zero-percent offers are used for bait-and-switch sales. Once the offer lures you into the showroom, a sales rep says you don’t qualify, then tries to sell you the HDTV anyway, Khalfani-Cox says.

How to Get a Good Deal

Gerri Detweiler, credit advisor for Credit.com, says that zero-percent financing deals can be great for the right person.

“If you are going to take advantage of one of these types of deals, now is the time to do it,” she says. The best promotions are right around the holidays, she says. “So you might as well take advantage of the best promotion you can,” Detweiler says.

Khalfani-Cox agrees: “Zero-percent interest rates work very well for people with excellent credit ratings who always pay their bills on time and have an above-average income.”

Detweiler advises buyers who haven’t paid off their HDTV within the zero-percent financing timeframe to consider transferring the debt to a low-interest credit card.

However, Jim Hanson, vice president of the Credit Union National Association’s Center for Personal Finance, says most people should avoid in-store gimmicks and come-ons altogether: “Even though it’s tough, you should resist when a retail store offers zero-percent financing or 15 percent off your first purchase with credit approval.”

Store credit cards typically have lower limits and higher fees. He suggests if you’re dead set on buying a big-ticket item, you should consider getting a low-interest credit card from a credit union.

“It boils down to simple elementary advice that never changes,” Hanson says. “Cash is always best. If you need a special promotion to buy an HDTV, you can’t afford it.”

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,14…1/article.html

1. buy the extended warantee
2. buy the extended service plan
3. buy extra telephone support service plan
4. buy the on-site support plan
5. buy the extended laptop distaster plan

Kids: Dell does not make money selling computers; Dell makes money selling insurance. moving their call centers to india is about cost reduction in support of risk mitigation. Dell’s “insurance” is designed to fail you when you need it most.

MP3 & Digital Music Players: Top 10 Buying Tips

1. For many potential buyers of portable digital-music players, the question is simple: iPod or not. Apple is the popular leader in design, ease of use, and so on. iPods play MP3 files (as do all other players), but its own format is AAC, and copyright-protected iMusic downloads play only on iPods and HP iPods. Most other players play Windows Media Audio (WMA) files, which are becoming popular choices for virtually all download services except iMusic. But no one player supports all three formats—MP3, WMA, and AAC.

2. Students (also journalists, doctors, and businesspeople) should look for a hard-disk portable player that also records audio. Get one that records in MP3 format, not WAV, or you’ll use up the disk very quickly. A hard-disk player also can provide transportation and/or temporary backup for data files.

3. With portable-music-player prices so low (and going lower), you may want to think about buying two: a simple, inexpensive Flash-based player that you can load with a couple of hours’ worth of music in just a few moments via a USB connection, and a hard-disk-based player with gigabytes of memory, for longer trips.

4. If you use Windows Media Player, WMP10 is a big step up—especially in its ability to sync with 70-plus+ music players without the need to install software drivers.

5. Headphone quality varies greatly, and the best music player sounds terrible if the headphones it came with are inferior. If yours aren’t making the grade—or if they get stuck in a revolving door at Macy’s—we’d strongly recommend upgrading to a high-end set of phones.

6. When buying a PC speaker system, don’t choose by wattage alone: Amplifier power is only one of many factors that determine a system’s ability to shake the floor. It’s common for systems with smaller amplifiers to play louder and have more bass than higher-powered units.

7. If your PC’s sound card offers multi-channel analog line-out jacks (and most do), don’t spend extra money on a speaker system with digital inputs and a Dolby Digital decoder. You can connect multi-channel speakers directly to your computer’s analog audio outputs with virtually no difference in sound quality.

8. Most people should consider buying 4-, 5.1-, 6.1-, or 7.1-channel speakers only for multi-channel source material, such as game soundtracks and DVDs. If you primarily listen to stereo CDs and MP3s, a two-channel system will sound almost as good and will cost a heck of a lot less.

9. Size isn’t everything, but it’s not nothing either. Many of the best-sounding PC speakers are actually repurposed bookshelf models that consume an inordinate amount of space on your desk. If you’re unwilling to settle for a small-footprint desktop model that may not sound quite as good, consider a bookshelf-sized offering that can be wall-mounted.

10. A convenient way add to your digital music collection is to purchase from a download service; iTunes, MusicMatch, Napster, Real Store, and MSN are the big players, offering much of the same music. One important way in which they differ, though, is in music formats: Make sure that the service you buy from provides music in a format that your portable player supports.

Amazon is very good about refunding money if they lower the price within 30 days of a purchase. All you have to do is send them an email to their customer service department and they will put the credit back on your card - usually within 2-3 days.

The tricky part is how do you know when the price has changed? Nobody wants to spend time surfing throught the site to find the stuff you bought and continually monitor it. The trick is to add the item to your shopping cart right after you purchase it and immediately move it to the “Save for Later” list. You’re not going to ever actually buy it again, but you will get alerts every time you visit your cart if the price changes. That way, you can keep track of a whole mess of items from one easy to find place. After 30 days just remove the entry from your “Save for Later” list.

Amazon discount is what you want, but find out all of them is very hard.

Saving money is everybody’s love. Here are some tips for saving money while shopping at amazon.com

• You must look at the bestselling lists
• Today’s deal is your lover
• Promotion banner is your coupon and deal source
• Amazon secret discount finder is your weapon
• Google and Yahoo is your coupon mine.
• Check the product you can not see the sale price

I will talk about these one by one later.

Yes. Find HOT DEALS is easy but you need spent some time.

All sites provide the weekly special deals link, hot deals,  and promotions. You can directly go there and click the link. But, sometimes they don’t provide the special promotion deals directly to customers, what do they do ? They provide such information to their affiliate members ? Why ? Answer is that they need to provide their affiliate members some exclusive deals.

What should you do ?

Search ” top hot deal” on search engines or “hot deal” on Google or Yahoo. There are so many coupon sites and deal sites to provide such information to customers. All customers need not pay to those affiliate websites, why ? Because affiliate members can get referral fee from the website that customers buy products from.

Or you can use the price comparison tool to catch up .

Or you can use the Amazon Discount Search Tool to search the discount products offered by Amazon.

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