Not all international lounges charge. I drank many a free beer from the beer machines in SPG properties in Japan recently and also have experienced free alcohol in certain European SPG properties.

I believe that's the plan.

So it's just hit or miss? Or do most US properties charge? Good to know that at least some international clubs serve free booze.

I'm new to regularly staying at SPG properties and just want to know what kind of expectations I should set.

Thanks for the :D

I'm not that bad, though ;)


Int'l ones typically don't but even that can vary.

Plan on it in the US. I haven't been to one yet in Asia that charges (and the selection is fantastic) but Europe is mostly complimentary, you'll find a few that charges.

I do like the Sony better. Not to say that I don't like the Toshiba.

The Sony's menus are much better and it's easy to set up. That being said, I did have some HDMI handshaking issues. These were easily solved by flashing the firmware. The Sony site had a download that you put onto a USB flash drive and plug into the USB slot on the TV. The update was painless.

(In the past month, I've flashed the firmware on the Blu-Ray DVD, the HD-DVD, the Sony Bravia TV and the SkyCaddie (twice!) The Sony update was the easiest by far. I'm sure if I looked there would be an update for the Toshiba TV)

If you get Bravia devices (DVDs, receivers, iPod controllers, etc) to go with the Bravia TV they are all aware of each other which makes setup and control easier. I did not go this route as I am kind of married to the HD-DVD from Toshiba. I have too much HD-DVD content to walk away from it. That's why the DVD player in the living room is the LG dual format Blu/HD model.

The picture on the Sony is better than the picture on the Toshiba, but there is nothing wrong with the picture on the Toshiba.

Sorry for the long answer.

I see I have a new firmware for my bluray player. No rush to be honest to go through that long process. TV still as the origanal firmware. That's a good sign.

Manhattan Hotel suggestions needed. Anyone know of decent hotels in Manhattan, near subways, etc. that's in the sub $200 a/i range?

I haven't been there in about three months but at that time, the beer and wine was free in the lounge at the Westin BWI. I do not know about the booze since the wine was of not bad quality.

Classic! Absolutely, classic. I laughed out loud at this one!! :D

I'm figuring out how to get off Comcast also. Those b*st*rds down here have just announced that they are dropping the NFL channel on May 1. First thing that I did was cancel the sports package tier that I bought from them when they put in the channel. Who needs three soccer games from Europe and South America and a baseball game from Tampa? But everybody needs the NFL channel.

I am ready for Direct TV in a heartbeat but I have nowhere to put the dish. All of my balconies and the patio here face to the north and the condo rules prohibit it on the roof. I don't think it works thru a glass window so my south-facing windows are out.

This constitutes a major problem.

I get my first NW 330 ride when going to/from AMS. Hopefully the back is not as punishing as CO.

I have a Harmony 670 and enjoy it quite a bit. I liked it so much that I got a second one for the upstairs. It controls all my equipment, including my XBox 360 when I want to watch Netflix on it. It had made using the equipment much easier on my wife and it's a lot nicer than having 6 remotes hanging around. ^^

The only pitfalls that I found are that it eats batteries fairly quick*. The included batteries were dead withing two months or so. I've switched to rechargeable ones and they last a bit long, but I do end up charging the main one 4 a year or so.

The software makes you create an account and login. This is slightly annoying, but when I got the second remote it was unable to handle two devices. I had to create a second login for the new remote. Annoying, and when tweaking them I would have preferred the software be able to switch back and forth.

*caveat is that I changed how often and how long the back light stays on (more is more), so you may find different results based on usage.

I may be in EWR on Wednesday.....won't know until tomorrow or Tuesday though

Check with Olton Hall but I think that is still the case.

I have a candidate for June in Boca Raton but am checking it out this week to see if the food quality is still up there since they lowered their prices.

What gets me is that every maker has a different way to flash the firmware:

Sony TV: USB Flashdrive into dedicated service port - easy
LG Blu-Ray: Burn regular data CD - fairly easy, but you waste a CD.
Toshiba HD-DVD: Burn ISO CD - PITA, I made a lot of coasters.
Toshiba TV: Not a clue, no updates needed
SkyCaddie: Synch to PC via USB port.


One more point on the Sony Bravia devices working with each other - Sony only talks to Sony. They talk nice, but they keep it in the family.

All other HDMI compliant makers use CE-LINK that are supposed to talk to other CE-LINK devices. My LG Blu-Ray is smart enough that when a disc starts, it turns the Toshiba TV to the correct HDMI input for the disc all by itself. My receiver does not have HDMI ports (it has digital audio) so I have to fiddle with that.