Calling Al Gore...?

Goddamn t-shirt weather outside.

Walked from Columbus Circle back to work in Rockefeller in bc clothes, came in all steaming...

PS. In NYC weather like that means it's gonna get damn cold right after...

AV upgrades

I'm using the upcoming cosmetic renovation of my place to get new furniture and, more importantly, new HD AV system.

I have purchased my venerable Sony STR-DA30ES receiver in April 1999 and up until just a few years ago it has been more than enough, with its Dolby Digital DSP and optical digital inputs. In almost 10 year of operation, I have been totally satisfied with the receiver. The DSP died in spring of 2007 (leaving just the video working with no sound), at which point I had a choice of either upgrading to a proper HD receiver (which would have necessitated buying a new HDTV, which would in turn have required a change in the AV storage) or just fixing the good old one. So I fixed it for $180 in a LI lab. It still works fine. Sony used to rule, really.

My old Sony 27" CRT TV has also been purchased around the same time. The damned thing doesn't even have an S-video input, ferchrissakes, so it has to go :)

Now that I am throwing out all of my old furniture including the AV storage rack, I'm treating myself to a new HDTV, HD receiver and a Blu-Ray player. I am allowed to change AV components once in a decade, am I? :)

After much research, seems like receiver choice will be  Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH. It has three primary things I need in a modern receiver: great sound processor, upconversion of all video inputs to HDMI 1080p, and DLNA-compliant MP3/WMA/video playback from your LAN/internet. The choice is not final but it seems that for the price neither Sony, nor Denon, nor Yamaha provide the complete feature set I need. The only thing about this Pioneer people complain about is an apparently terrible on-screen menu for setup. I'll live.

TV research to follow...but could be Pioneer Kuro Elite series if the price is right...

Вот это я понимаю здоровый сон

via ostrich_san  (or whomever impersonates him these days)