rjventre

I am going to purchase my first Mac this week and I have a question. I am looking at the 21.5 inch iMac with a 3.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 8 GB of RAM. I have used PC's all my life and I currently have a laptop running Windows Vista with a 2.0 GHz Intel core 2 Duo processor plus my ancient desktop which I am replacing (it is using a Pentium 4 processor). So My question is: Will an Intel Core 2 Duo processor run faster, slower, or the same in a Mac as it does with the Windows OS?

How is the speed of the 722, as far as going through the guide and changing channels and stuff? That is one of the biggest complaints I have had with the DirecTV HD DVR's is the fact that they are so slow to do anything.

I am thinking Dish might release the 922 soon because they have stepped up their advertising lately. I think they are trying to get rid of all their 722's by giving them away to their new dumb customers that don't know about the 922. DirecTV says they will be releasing their DirecTV with Tivo HD DVR in January officially but when I called them to ask about cancelling my service they had said it would be out for the holiday season. So, hopefully Dish will try to beat DirecTV to the punch.

Thanks for the advice NErancher. As for as the remote goes on the 922, the one that is included with the receiver has a button on it that says keypad. So, i am guessing you need to press that which would bring up a virtual number keypad and then you would have to scroll to each number and hit the trigger on the back of the remote to select it. To me, that sounds like a pain, so maybe a Logitech remote with actual numbers on it might be better in that case. Other times though, I think it would be nice to just scroll around. Anyway, Dish just needs to get off their butts and release the dang thing, it was supposed to be out Spring of 2009.

I am hoping I can control the VIP 922 with my Logitech harmony remote. I don't want to go back to having several remotes. Logitech already has the codes for it up on there software but I just don't know how it will work with the receiver being the Logitech remote does not have a touch pad. I am hoping they get this new receiver soon because DirecTV's equipment is really pissing me off with how slow it is.

Yes my 70" is 1080p. I think I will go with Dish, but now I need to decide whether or not to wait for the VIP 922 receiver to come out. If anyone has any other opinions on this post, please post what you are thinking. I value the input of the members of testmy.

I currently have DirecTV. I am thinking about switching to Dish Network because they offer more channels in HD and because DirecTV HD DVR's really suck. I was wondering if anyone has Dish Network or has had both DirecTV and Dish. How is the HD picture quality on Dish and how does it compare to DirecTV? How is the picture quality on OTA HD channels on Dish Network? I watch TV on a 70" in the living room and a 40" in the bedroom if screen size matters for picture quality. Thank you in advance to all of the wonderful testmy.net members, RJ

Today I downloaded the Safari 4 beta for Windows and I must say 2 thumbs up for Apple. I am using it on Windows 7 and it seems to be running real nice. They finally added the plus sign at the top to create new tabs. It was getting annoying to have to go to file new tab every time in Safari 3. The appearance has greatly improved. The old Safari looked depressing with those dark grey colors. Safari 4 looks like a native Windows app as for as the colors go. The look of the fonts has also greatly improved. Now I am sure there will be criticisms but I think I will look at the glass half full and say way to go Apple! RJ

Keep in mind that these pictures are from the New Orleans Mardi Gras. Contrary to popular belief, New Orleans is not the Mardi Gras capital anymore. The Acadiana Mardi Gras celebrations are far more numerous and of a much better quality than New Orleans. Most Krewe's in Acadiana still follow the old customs. Only white men allowed to ride, all riders must be masked except for the Capitaine who only wears a cape with his costume, and they ask for a chicken from each house they stop by to put in the gumbo for the whole town at the end of the parade. And to top it all off they have the Louisiana Mardi Gras Association's King's Parade (In honor of King Gabriel) and the Queen's Parade on Lundi Gras (in honor of Queen Evangeline) in Lafayette, LA.

Wanted to wish a Happy Mardi Gras to all of the TestMy.net members! The festivities are in full swing down here in the Cajun land. We are partying hard while we can, but come Ash Wednesday we will all be in mass and in full Lenten mode.

As I am sure you can tell by my subject line, I have a question about the Wii. I am getting one for Christmas and I would like to play the 007 game on-line. My question is this: What do your ping times need to be and what do you upload and download speeds need to be to play on-line with the Wii? Have a very Blessed and Merry Christmas, RJ

I am using a 900 MHz canopy advantage SM. This particular system has a 4 Mbps aggregate. I signed up about 11 hours after the ISP launched in April of this year. My neighbor who owns the ISP (and whom I distinctly don't like) has a 10/10 Mbps fiber connection at his tower. Unfortunately, I can either subscribe to his service, dial-up, or satellite through Hughes or Wild blue.

I am changing the sustained upload and download values to what is advertised and setting the burst values to 8x's the sustained values, which is the ratio that the ISP uses. The values are different from what I set them at when I go into the unit, so I am pretty sure they are changing them.

No, I have been changing the settings for the speed and the ISP is getting mad. The ISP keeps setting our settings lower than the advertised speeds (about half of what is advertised to be precise), I guess they are trying cut the speeds of their existing customers to be able to have the bandwidth to add more customers to their system. I have been raising them back to normal. That is why I was wondering is their anyway to block their access to the radio. RJ

I have internet service via a canopy system. I was wondering, does anyone know how the ISP is able to access my radio even when I lock the unit in the configuration settings? Also, is there anyway to prevent them from accessing the radio all together? Thanks, RJ