Costco blog/discussion forum

See my update here.

If you read all the recommendations about buying a high definition television (HDTV), one common thread is that you don't need full 1080p resolution if the screen is smaller than about 50 inches. Here's one of the best .

Costco.com will sell a 32 inch 1080p LCD HDTV manufactured by Sceptre (Costco item number #290311) this summer. So why am I interested in a 32 inch 1080p set, if I won't be able to see the extra resolution watching TV? I want to use it both as a computer monitor and TV.

According to the limited information available, this set will have a resolution of 1920x1080, 2 HDMI inputs, and ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuners.

It is will be available at Costco.com only, and it is scheduled to be on sale from July 14-20, 2008. The sale price is $650 plus shipping and handling, which should be about $50.00.

Unfortunately, this TV is not yet listed on the Costco.com website, and I can't find any information on the Sceptre web site about it either.

Sceptre is not a well known brand, but they have been around a while. Headquartered in City of Industry, California, they started selling OEM LCD monitors in 1993. You may very well have already owned a Sceptre manufactured monitor, but it had a different brand on it. They are now trying to establish their own brand in the HDTV market.

This is one product that I can't say much about, but I'm looking forward to purchasing it. If it doesn't work out, I'll just return it to Costco within 90 days and get my money back.

If you are in the market for a wireless router, and you head to your local Costco Warehouse, you won't find a huge selection. My warehouse only carries the Dlink Xtreme Gigabit DIR-655 wireless router (Costco item number 193683). Don't worry, it is an excellent choice at a good price. You can see the detailed description at D-Link. Among the features I found most useful are the Quality of Service (QoS) engine and the port filter scheduling.

In order to remotely monitor our home, I hooked up the Panasonic BL C131A Network Camera Wireless (not available at Costco). However, when the camera was being accessed, our home network became bogged down, making normal web access painfully slow. Also, for privacy reasons, I wanted to make sure no one could access the camera outside of regular working hours, (when I'm home!). The DIR-665 solved both of these problems. I changed the QoS setting for the camera to be a lower priority than normal web browsing, and I only opened the port that the camera uses from 9-5 Monday through Friday.

I did some comparison shopping, and as of May 2008 these were the prices I found for the Dlink DIR-665:

Price $114.99 at my local warehouse
$119.99 at costco.com (free shipping)
$117.99 at amazon.com (free shipping)

$119.99 at newegg.com (free shipping)

Everyone should have a widescreen monitor these days. Costco has some great deals on them. A few months ago, the Costco coupon book had a $30 off coupon for the Samsung 2220WM 22 inch widescreen monitor with integrated speakers. It has a fast response time of 5ms, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 1680 x 1050 maximum resolution. At my local Costco this monitor (Costco item number 292220) sells for $279.99. So, I got it for $249.99.

I just compared this to prices on Amazon, and found that Samsung has released a new model to replace this one.
The differences between the old model 2220WM and the new model 220WM seem imperceptible. The new model, 220WM, is available at Amazon for $267, they also have a $30 mail in rebate.