Aaron Ledger

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But I am sure you needed it 

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Newegg is now offering this deal today. $100 Newegg gift card instead of Amazon credit, of course. Also a bonus item is included: Newegg t-shirt!

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Public Service Announcement: Ceton’s $100 InfiniTV rebate promotion ends June 30th.

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Thanks! 

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Did you see the review from X-bit labs? While it is only one sample, it seems like it’s worth it to just take the price differential and buy the G620.

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[quote=Oldmajor]

Also, what happened to Hauppauge’s USB CableCARD Tuner? 

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Hauppauge and Silicon Dust have a partnership where the USB variant is essentially based on the Prime hardware so I don’t suspect we’ll be seeing it for a bit.

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In general, Comcast doesn’t apply Copy Once except for premiums like HBO and FIOS doesn’t apply Copy Once at all IIRC.

As long as you aren’t dealing with Copy Once recordings, you can do as you please with them.

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Okay. You two pushed me over the edge. I’m going to get one of these.

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Horrifying.

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[quote=oliverredfox]

Awww, the deal is already dead.  But as long as you’ve got a thread started, I’m curious.  I don’t know much about monitor calibration tools.  Is this one a better model than most?  I sold off my Samsung plasma and picked up one of the new LG passive 3D LED LCDs over the weekend.  The initial black levels were driving me nuts so I spent a bunch of time over at AVSforum digging up info and setting up the TV.  I eventually found settings that I’m more or less happy with, but I’ve always wondered how much more I could squeeze out of a setup with a calibrator of my own.

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I have this same meter and recommend it even at its normal price point of ~$150. Compared to other meters that are less expensive, it is apparently faster and much more accurate. There are also meters that are better, but they cost much greater amounts of cash. One thing to be aware of with this type of colorimeter, is that they lose accuracy over time due to the materials used which change due to temperature and humidity.

Regarding your specific problem, you would be best using a proper PLUGE to set your brightness which determines your optimal black level (check out our calibration guide). Unless you have a meter, I don’t recommend mucking with the white balance settings. I’m not sure of your model, but LG has been using a 20-pt. white balance which I have read is difficult to work with in prior model years. Your display could have something akin to Samsung’s “HDMI Black Tone” and dynamic contrast which could be affecting your black level. I recommend turning these off.

I’m not a big fan of using other display settings and applying them across the board. There are many possible variations that can exist in each display and viewing environment. In addition, if you take all those settings and change something like brightness, the white balance settings will no longer be valid. 

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brennok, have you considered using something like SyncToy or similar for your situation? It has its own set of pros/cons like WHS data duplication feature, but for the need that you describe, it should be considered.

You mention using WHS 2011 and it would be a good solution for you assuming you need the features it offers like backups for your PCs, remote access, etc. Going with WHS 2011 would allow you to retire your existing WHS and stick with a single machine to do all of your backup/server duties.

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Sounds like you’ll need to rebuild your WHS/SageTV server box anyway. Why not retain your usage of SageTV since it seems like you are happy with it and already have a license? If you happen to move to a CopyOnce provider, switch over to WMC at that time.

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It looks like these went out of stock, but they are now back in stock if you missed it before.

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[quote=dbocce3]

My final system build comes from the ‘Guide to building a HD HTPC‘ on the AVSforum. That person put together a great guide and has everything I need. I am using what he recommended except for what I have put in bold below. Any help you can offer on the PSU is greatly appreciated as I think the PSU he recommended might be overkill.

 

• Case: NORCO RPC-450B Black 4U Server Rackmount Chassis
• PSU: Corsair TX650W CMPSU-650TX 650W Seems a little much
• CPU: Pentium G620 2.6GHz 2C/2T 65W LGA 1155. I will be using the i3-2100T based on your recommendations.
• CPU Cooler: Stock Cooler
• Motherboard: Intel DB65AL LGA 1155 Intel B65 chipset microATX. I will be using the Intel BOXDH61BEB3 board based on your recommendations.
• Memory: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ DDR3-1600 CL9 2 x 2GB Kit
• HBA: HighPoint Rocket 620 2-port SATA 6.0Gb/s Controller PCI Express x1 Card
• HBA: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-port SAS/SATA 3.0Gb/s Controller PCI Express x4 Card
• Cable: 0.5m SFF-8087 to Four SATA Forward Breakout Cable (e.g. 3ware CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M)
• Cable: 0.5m SFF-8087 to Four SATA Forward Breakout Cable (e.g. 3ware CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M)
• Mounter: SYBA SY-MRA25018 2.5??SATA HDD Tray Less Mobile Rack for PCI Slot (attaching the 2.5″ HDD (HDD A) for OS to an empty expansion slot).
• HDD for OS: Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s mobile

 

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How many HDD are you planning for? It appears the chassis supports 10 3.5″ bays. With all the SATA ports from motherboard plus add-in cards you listed, you’ll have 16 SATA ports to play with.

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[quote=frijones]

The shipping on my original order was $24 so going off that, the shipped price should be around $293.

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I don’t think we can assume the original shipping charges still apply. Currently, when ordering from Fluid Digital in the Amazon marketplace, shipping is $4.

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