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gadgtfreek
Last reply · posted in General Home Theater Equipment
I will start this by noting that this is a bedroom TV/2nd TV for football and I do not really care for LCD's. :)

That being said, I've been looking for an upgrade from my 2009 32" Panny for a while now. Samsung plasma was on the list, as well as Samsung and LG LCD's. My dad has owned three insignia LCD's in varying sizes and loved them all, I'll even admit I thought the PQ was very nice for the price. Fast forward to now and everything I was looking at was going to cost me $400+ (wanted smart functions too), so I put my hands on this LED LCD early this week. For roughly $320, I got this 39" set plus the Roku stick (TV has a MHL port on it) and it works surprising well.

I broke out my meter, and while this does not really have any calibration control, I set light output to 35fl, color, brightness, contrast etc… and then checked grayscale in color temp modes. Set came in super torch mode BTW, with white test bars being severely clipped. I had to take contrast all the way down to 35 to get the bars to show up mostly as they should, and then used backlight for light output adjustment. Actually ended up with a 35 backlight setting as well, so this set will go WAAAAAY brighter (not that someone would need it IMO).

Brightness was spot on as it came at 50, and color was set to 75 out of the box (I ended up at 37). After all that was calibrated, I have to say for $249 + tax, I am very happy. The increased size will help in both the living room as a 2nd football TV and the bedroom as needed. My only complaints are the viewing angle is not as good as the old IPS Panny panel (not a problem for me), and even in warm mode it I still too blue. I get almost 8000k color temp with my meter, and a dE of under 10 for the whole grayscale run. The Panny had the normal service menu grayscale adjustment so I was able to get color temp where it needed to be. Not huge, but a con. Looking forward to the next several days with all the college rivalry games; should be a blast with65" and 39" displays going :)

http://www.insigniaproducts.com/products/televisions/NS-39D400NA14.html

Roku stick rebate came in the box.
3 Replies · 7559 views
osu1991
I picked up the stripped down insignia model ns3940sna14 on Monday for $170 from Bestbuys Black Friday sale. I have elite member status at the moment and got early access to the specials. It is a nice budget tv. Ill be using it on my 3 seasons patio. It arrived last night with a shattered screen, was lucky to be able and get an instore replacement before they closed. Picture is nice, setup was easy. May try and get another one instore for the offices if I decide to get out and fight the crowds for anything

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using SatelliteGuys
gadgtfreek
Great deal. Hard to beat for a tv thats not used much or that you want to put somewhere that might shorten the lifespan. Only reason I got this one for $250 was the MHL port. If I watch anything in the bedroom it's late at night and it'll usually be some netflix on the Roku, like their original series. Will also help if there is a game we want to see on ESPN3, i can use the WatchESPN app.
gadgtfreek
FYI, my menu started popping up and scrolling and started doing all kinds of funky blankety blank. I did some reading and it seems the module on the side of the tv (volume and channel buttons) is known for being buggy on Insignias. Popped the back of the tv off, disconnected the one wire coming from the module, bam, fixed. Not taking it back for something so little.
osu1991
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club

The number-one US state for EV growth, according to the June 22 Yardi report?
Oklahoma.


:eek


It has no ZEV mandates and "minimal" incentives, Yardi says, but also has cheap electricity, high multi-car household rates (so, for example, a non-Lightning Ford F-150 pulls their trailers), and a consumer base willing to switch.
117 Replies · 1148 views
meStevo

Never realized that Tesla is losing to BYD at manufacturing too, which IMO is Tesla's biggest accomplishment and area of innovation. Nice writeup about the state of play and how we got here though. I have no faith that we're moving any productive direction though sadly, most changes and efforts feel reactionary rather than rooted in making use of the time being bought by tariffs, with few exceptions.

So: how are the cars so cheap, and what is being cut to get there? The best public accounting comes from the Rhodium Group, which compared BYD, Geely, and Leapmotor against Tesla's Chinese operation, a fair comparison because it removes labor costs and shipping from the equation entirely. Their estimate is that BYD builds a car for about $4,700 less than Tesla builds a Model 3 in Shanghai, roughly 15 percent of the Model 3's price. The breakdown is the interesting part. Direct government grants account for about $292 per vehicle, which is 5 percent of the gap. The biggest single factor is vertical integration: BYD makes about 80 percent of its top-tier components in-house, against 37 percent for Tesla, and that eliminates roughly $2,369 per vehicle in supplier markups. Lower overhead, meaning cheaper engineering talent and administrative cost spread across enormous volume, accounts for another $1,719. And BYD pays its suppliers on 155-day terms, against Tesla's 60, which is worth about $214 per car in float. When people say the Chinese advantage is subsidies, the per-vehicle number says otherwise. When people say it is slave wages, the Tesla Shanghai comparison says otherwise too. The advantage is mostly that BYD decided, twenty years ago, to make its own batteries, its own motors, its own power electronics, and its own semiconductors, and Western automakers decided the opposite.​
harshness
If it weren't for the sky-high electricity prices...

Of course, the real scare with Winter coming is the insane cost of heating oil.
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osu1991

GM said its next-generation vehicle architecture will provide 40 times more computing power and 30 percent less wiring than before and will expand from the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ to its high-volume SUVs, trucks, crossovers, and fourth-generation EVs, which will be powered by lithium manganese-rich (LMR) prismatic batteries

Despite the politicization and perceived consumer pivot away from EVs in America, GM needs to remain globally competitive, so it's doubling down on its fourth generation EVs, with energy-dense, cheaper-to-manufacture LMR batteries, more efficient motors, and state-of-the-art centralized computing architecture. With a stated goal of cutting the traditional four- to five-year concept-to-production time in half, GM is clearly challenging the concept of "China speed," which in the Chinese automotive industry can be as quick as 18 months from design to start of production. In the AI space, GM is smartly collapsing all of its marque-specific apps under the familiar OnStar brand, while providing more features—both on the phone and in the car—than it ever has before.
harshness
Let's tell it like it is. GM's EV efforts are coming from SAIC. The brain trust is almost entirely in China, and GM is hanging off of SAIC's shirt tails.

It is a lot like asserting that the Corvette was designed by Chevrolet when most of it came from the Cadillac CTS-V.
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T

Never realized that Tesla is losing to BYD at manufacturing too, which IMO is Tesla's biggest accomplishment and area of innovation. Nice writeup about the state of play and how we got here though. I have no faith that we're moving any productive direction though sadly, most changes and efforts feel reactionary rather than rooted in making use of the time being bought by tariffs, with few exceptions.

So: how are the cars so cheap, and what is being cut to get there? The best public accounting comes from the Rhodium Group, which compared BYD, Geely, and Leapmotor against Tesla's Chinese operation, a fair comparison because it removes labor costs and shipping from the equation entirely. Their estimate is that BYD builds a car for about $4,700 less than Tesla builds a Model 3 in Shanghai, roughly 15 percent of the Model 3's price. The breakdown is the interesting part. Direct government grants account for about $292 per vehicle, which is 5 percent of the gap. The biggest single factor is vertical integration: BYD makes about 80 percent of its top-tier components in-house, against 37 percent for Tesla, and that eliminates roughly $2,369 per vehicle in supplier markups. Lower overhead, meaning cheaper engineering talent and administrative cost spread across enormous volume, accounts for another $1,719. And BYD pays its suppliers on 155-day terms, against Tesla's 60, which is worth about $214 per car in float. When people say the Chinese advantage is subsidies, the per-vehicle number says otherwise. When people say it is slave wages, the Tesla Shanghai comparison says otherwise too. The advantage is mostly that BYD decided, twenty years ago, to make its own batteries, its own motors, its own power electronics, and its own semiconductors, and Western automakers decided the opposite.​
That's how Ford did it- vertical integration. He even set up a rubber plantation in S. America
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
I figured some of the guys would be looking here for an answer. You'll need to use this link

I'll mention what happened over there. I don't want to cause Scott any issues or put him in a bad spot.
6 Replies · 231 views
dishstaller
If any of you know some of the guys from the board and you have their contact info, please reach out to them....many failed to update their contact info and some even had starband email addresses.
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Scott Greczkowski
I figured some of the guys would be looking here for an answer. You'll need to use this link

I'll mention what happened over there. I don't want to cause Scott any issues or put him in a bad spot.
Now I have to go check out what happened now. Lol!
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Scott Greczkowski
Went and looked, not too bad...

Just let people know the address is satelliteretailer.com as DishRetailer.COM is not working. :)
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(((Garyd)))
If any of you know some of the guys from the board and you have their contact info, please reach out to them....many failed to update their contact info and some even had starband email addresses.
Your old link triggered my Bitdefender today.
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(((Garyd)))
Now I have to go check out what happened now. Lol!
I had a direct link to ]Political, thought provoking and debatable but now have to go in the main section or I get a warning on my Bitdefender
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dishstaller
Now I have to go check out what happened now. Lol!
I sent you a PM Scott. Doesn't really make any sense to me BUT....I've never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer....though I just might be the most persistent. :baby
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network
0 Replies · 2 views
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68682 Replies · 2681513 views
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Bobby
Oh Susanna, Dust off the Old Pianna - Ozzie Nelson & His Orchestra
harshness
Garden Party - Ricky Nelson
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gms49ers
The Garden - Rush
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sdfntx
Safe In My Garden - The Mamas & The Papas
long_time_Dish
Mary Shut The Garden Door - Donald Fagen
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T
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
I have Dish Hopper and Hopper Plus and also have Alexa Echo. I link the Alex skill to Dish and it asks me to enter the pairing code shown on the TV. I go into Dish Settings and there is no Alexa shown. Not sure what to do.
18 Replies · 868 views
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navychop
Ungood.
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R
What is the purpose of connecting Alexa and the H3?
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navychop
Tell Alexa verbally what to do.
snissen
What is the purpose of connecting Alexa and the H3?
I stand up from my chair with my glass in one hand and my plate in the other, when a story I really want to hear comes on the TV. So I say, "Alexa, pause DISH", and it waits for me to return from the kitchen, at which time I say, "Alexa, resume DISH".

Or maybe, when I return with a full glass in one hand and a new plate in the other, I realize I forgot to pause to hear this good story from its start. So I say, "Alexa, skip DISH backwards 3 minutes", and I still get to catch the whole story.

I use this every day. Or until I acquire a third hand.
navychop
The Resurrectionists can help you with that.

For a price.
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