Sometimes small systems are plenty

KJINTF wrote:
I guess we are old farts here at RV.net (Now I am speaking for myself only) For me born in the very early 50's - I prefer (while at home) a large screen and large surround sound not the PC varity but 6ft or greater screen size with at least 7.1 surround and while on the road surround sound with a 32" screen that is when we actually WATCH TV when camping (only when the weather does not cooperate)

You're just a youngin' ... try on for size being born in the early 40's! I was around 14-15 when the very first round tube color consumer TV's showed up in my dad's appliance store. I built our own color TV in my early 30's and was amazed at the technology that both lead up to - and wound up inside - a color television ( ... and they dare call companies like Google, YAHOO, etc. "technology" companies - what a bunch of malarkey).

I'm with you regarding the content of today's movies and how the "kids" degrade them even more by watching them on low resolution teeny weeny iPhone screens with squeaky mouse sound - what a waste. As a contrasting example, I recently once again watched "Once Upon a Time in the West" on a friend's big screen with a real sound system complete with a Velodyne subwoofer - what an experience! Just last night I watched again part of a teenage movie (T2) on our home theater system ... the kid's today don't know what they're missing even with respect to their own movie material, such as good old T2.

My laptop is an HP "Entertainment" model. It outputs full HD via HDMI to an external larger screen, if desired. It has a plug-in TV tuner card for over the air TV reception. It pretty much does it all from Photoshop, to wireless Internet, to BluRay DVD movies, to live video chatting - all in one convenient box. It's internal sound system and speakers are even actually usable for enjoying movies. If it wasn't for the data limits in my plan, I could even watch Netflix movies on it out in the middle of nowhere via the RV's long range Internet access system that I've installed.

There is one minor thing I can't understand regarding all laptop computers - at least as far as I'm aware. Since laptop computers are battery powered unless you want to mess with bricks and cables - they are current draw sensitve. So ..... why don't laptop computers now all use LED screens ... instead of LCD screens with their power-sucking fluorescent backlighting?????? If someone is aware of new laptops with LED (or Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens- please educate me.