TroyInt
TroyInt's Stats
- Review Count17
- Helpfulness Votes39
- First ReviewFebruary 15, 2014
- Last ReviewJune 1, 2016
- Featured Reviews0
- Average Rating4
Reviews Comments
- Review Comment Count0
- Helpfulness Votes0
- First Review CommentNone
- Last Review CommentNone
- Featured Review Comments0
Questions
- Question Count0
- Helpfulness Votes0
- First QuestionNone
- Last QuestionNone
- Featured Questions0
- Answer Count1
- Helpfulness Votes0
- First AnswerFebruary 15, 2015
- Last AnswerFebruary 15, 2015
- Featured Answers0
- Best Answers0
![The 1975 [CD] [PA]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/1714/1714326_sa.jpg)
The 1975 [CD] [PA]
Mostly forgettable to annoying teen pop.
Customer Rating
2.0
This band is being heavily promoted, since their album is on major discount at just about every retailer and they're on tour in the US, so I thought I would check them out. Unfortunately their sound is mostly bland and forgettable. The formula works on a few songs, but I suspect the heavy production accounts for most of what works.
The vocals are very annoying, not so much because of the very heavy accent, but because of a high and whiny teenage sound. I usually prefer younger British bands to their American counterparts, because the Brits seem to want to sound and look more mature and accomplished while the Americans want to be like junior-high rejects. These young Brits seem to have learned all the wrong lessons from American music.
There are a couple of bright spots on this very long album, but not enough to recommend it. The package does come with a full lyrics booklet which is a nice but all too rare feature.
Perhaps in small doses a few songs might be fun, but as a whole it's rather forgettable. I'm 38, and while I try to keep up with music, particularly British bands, this was probably targeted at a younger age group.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
-2points
0out of 2found this review helpful.
Share this review:
![How to Train Your Dragon/Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon [2 Discs] [Blu-ray/DVD]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/1216/1216934_sa.jpg)
How to Train Your Dragon/Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon [2 Discs] [Blu-ray/DVD]
This release contains a two-pack of the animated fantasy adventure film How to Train Your Dragon and the direct to video sequel Legend of the BoneKnapper Dragon.
Clever, Charming, Exhilarating Fun for All Ages
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: Story, animation, characterization.
What's not so great: Extras are lacking.
One of the few recent movies that truly feel complete, exhilarating, innovative, and simply charming.
There is a strong through-plot with a satisfying conclusion. As opposed to a lot of action movies that feel more like a loosely connected series of parts. It's simple enough to hold a child's attention but smart enough for adults to enjoy. There is the usual uplifting but somewhat banal lesson about being true to yourself, etc., that all these movies have to have. But there are so many clever turns that it works as a whole.
The animation is as good as it gets and the action and the flying scenes rival any live-action movie out there.
I have not yet seen or heard the commentary with picture-in-picture mode. But the rest of the features are rather sparse and brief. You get a succinct idea of what went into the making of the movie, just not a lot of details. It would have been nice to follow the movie's progress chronologically for those who like to see how plots and animated characters are developed.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
Share this review:
![AM [CD]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/1665/1665131_sa.jpg)
AM [CD]
Fresh, Catchy, Innovative Music
Customer Rating
4.0
What's great about it: Good songs with memorable tunes
What's not so great: Not enough variety.
This is actually my first Arctic Monkeys album. I had heard only a couple of songs before, and many audio clips on BB and amazon. Nothing quite caught my attention previously as just the clips did from this album. I bought this CD after seeing them perform live on Graham Norton's show and enjoying the performance. And the album was on sale at BB.
It's really quite a good album with more than half of it being quite memorable. I tend to like hooks and melodies. The songs on this album are much more toned down and mature than their somewhat harsh first couple of albums. And there is a distinct style, both in the melodies and the vocals, that make them stand out from their peers. That unique sound might actually sound a bit atonal or just odd to some but it's quite refreshing to me, particularly in an era of sadly bland and forgettable young bands.
There are a couple of drawbacks: There is not enough variety between the songs, and there are a few duds.
The album comes in a cardboard slipcase, and does include a lyrics booklet which is always nice for those of us who actually still buy music. The artwork does not stand out.
I would recommended this to anyone who still yearns for great Britpop but with a refreshingly updated flair.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
Share this review:
![Kasabian Live!: Live At the O2 London 15/12/2011 [Blu-Ray Disc]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5715/5715424_sa.jpg)
Kasabian Live!: Live At the O2 London 15/12/2011 [Blu-Ray Disc]
Engaging Concert Film, Limited Extras
Customer Rating
4.0
What's great about it: Very nicely filmed and lively performance.
What's not so great: More special features would have been nice.
I was a lukewarm fan of Kasabian until I saw them in concert during their last US tour. They are fantastic live! This concert film captures the energy and quality of their performance, and the excitement of the audience.
Kasabian are one of the rare bands that actually sound better live than on their albums. Too often the songs are muddled by over-production. This is particularly evident on the "West Ryder" album. Fortunately the recent album, "Velociraptor", which this tour promotes, is somewhat closer to their live sound. It's also their best album since their debut.
The concert film is very well filmed. Too often the directors of concert films get carried away with effects and deliberate distortions. This film follows a less-is-more approach and lets the performance dominate. It looks great on bluray. Audience shots are fortunately limited to just enough.
The one slight disappointment is the only special feature, which is a half hour documentary that follows Kasabian on their UK and Ireland tour. It's a sort of over-the-shoulder collection of interviews which doesn't reveal or say much. (Warning to Americans - you will have to turn on subtitles!) It would have been nice to have performances at other venues, songs that weren't on this show, or music videos too. But it's better than nothing.
So I would definitely recommend this to fans of the band, but also to moderate fans since Kasabian are better live than on their records.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
Share this review:
![Blade Runner [30th Anniversary] [3 Discs] [Blu-ray/DVD]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/2046/20466728_sa.jpg)
Blade Runner [30th Anniversary] [3 Discs] [Blu-ray/DVD]
Brilliant sci-fi classic, loaded with extras.
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: TroyInt
from Troy, MI
on February 15, 2014
What's great about it: Beautiful movie, nicely packaged, lots of extras, inexpensive.
What's not so great: If you have the 2007 editions, this release is not worth the upgrade.
Brilliant and beautiful sci-fi masterpiece. One of the most unique looking movies ever made. Absorbing atmosphere and haunting music. Ridley Scott's masterful direction ensures this is sci-fi for adults which is very rare in cinema.
This re-issue on bluray is very nicely packaged. It comes in a hardcover "book" type of case with a few pages of sketches and artwork from the production. However that is the ONLY new feature of this 30th anniversary release. Which is not bad because the 2007 release was LOADED with everything you could possibly need to know about this movie, and all those features DO carry over to this release, even the ones that are not explicitly listed on the package.
Because the imagery is so dark and hazy throughout, I didn't see a huge difference from my DVD edition. But at the time I bought this 4-disc blu-ray pack it was only $13.99 and I didn't have it on blu-ray at all, so it was worth it for me.
So if you only have the single disc edition then the loads of features included here make it worth an upgrade. If you only have it on DVD then the blu-ray is somewhat worth the upgrade, although by its nature this particular film is always going to look only slightly better in HD. But if you already have the multi-disc 2007 edition blu-rays, then I would not bother buying this again just for the few pages of artwork and packaging.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
Share this review:
50W Bluetooth CD Compact Shelf System
Play back audio from a wide range of sources with this Insignia™ NS-SH513 compact shelf system, which features Bluetooth technology, a USB port and a CD player for flexible use. The FM tuner features 30 presets for simple station recall.
Good for playing CDs, Not mp3s flash drives.
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: TroyInt
from Troy, MI
on February 15, 2014
Sound Quality
4.0
Ease of Use
3.0
Features
2.0
What's great about it: Decent sound, easy set-up, small and nice looking, plays mp3 discs and hooks up to phones, etc.
What's not so great: Folder structure is not displayable or recognized for stored mp3s on external devices.
This is a decent sound system for the price. It's quite small and looks nice, so it sits nicely on a shelf. Set-up was quick and easy. I did have to return mine because it didn't quite fit my needs though (see below).
I'm not a music expert so I'll try to describe the sound in layman's terms. The sound is surprisingly good for such small speakers. But the higher end is a bit distant and metallic. So the bass sounds good but the vocals could be more up close. Why does EVERY sound system out there sacrifice everything to the almighty bass? You can turn up the top and tone down the bass but it doesn't really make the top sharper. Overall it's really not bad.
There are several settings for different kinds of music, but they are all totally awful, just leave the setting on normal and it's fine.
Still, for the price, the speakers are good and do fill up a bedroom or a small to average living room quite well. I found them definitely loud enough for 95% of CDs. Some early CDs were way too compressed and will not sound right or loud enough on any system.
I thought this system might provide an elegant solution with its flash drive port but...
I have over 900 CDs and ripped everything at 320 kbps, amounting to about 105g. Obviously no phone can hold all that, and only the ipod classic can store that, although I dodge the ridiculously over-hyped and over-priced Apple like a plague. I don't want to bother with putting some things on a phone and having to unplug and swap that for another device or inserting CDs, and repeat. What options do people with a lot of music have these days? What I wanted to do was get a 128g flash drive and plug it into this system, which has a port right in front, and be able to quickly access all my music at once without importing to an app or anything in between.
Which leads me to the one big flaw with this system: Yes it plays off flash drives, BUT, it doesn't recognize your folder structure: so for example if you put 10 albums on it, each with 9 songs, it sees tracks 1-90. And it ONLY displays the current track. So if you want to play track 8 from album 6, you just have to skip forward until you reach it. You can enter track "65" on the remote control, but again you can't SEE any track titles until they are playing. So you can imagine having 900+ CDs on a flash drive would be completely ridiculous.
I realize that this port is for phones or mp3 players with their own displays and touch screens, but again they don't hold enough and I don't want an ipod or iphone. I can also plug in my laptop to the headphone port, but I don't want to have to turn on a laptop to listen to a speaker system, and it sounds much worse that way.
Also it does not recognize external drives, but it does recognize flash drives.
I would give this 4.5 stars if I could, subtracting one half for speakers that are decent but not quite excellent, but the big oversight of not having a searchable display makes me knock it down a bit further to a 4.
So in summary, if you want just a CD player this is good (and it DOES play mp3 discs.) If you have a small amount of music on your phone or mp3 player and you want to plug it in here and control it from your other device this is also good. If you want to make any sense of your own stored music and folder structure that you've ripped and saved yourself this will not work. I don't know what people are doing these days to simply play a lot of music off one source.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
+24points
26out of 28found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Microsoft - Wireless Mobile 3500 Ambidextrous Mouse - Loch Ness Gray
Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500: Designed for portability, this wireless mouse features BlueTrack technology for use on nearly any surface, a nano transceiver that can be stored in the mouse or in your laptop for convenience and an ambidextrous design for comfortable use.
Very good reliable mouse for average user.
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: TroyInt
from Troy, MI
on February 15, 2014
Design
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
What's great about it: Good size and shape, easy to use.
What's not so great: Does not have a 4-way roller.
This is a very nice compact mouse. It feels comfortable to the hand and its buttons are just responsive enough. It's very easy to install in that you just have to plug its receiver into your laptop and you're off, but any mouse is like that these days. Obviously this is not a gamer's mouse and it's not very flashy, but it really doesn't need to be. I haven't had it long enough to judge battery life, but it uses just one and simply turning it off when not in use should extend battery life significantly.
It could really use a four-way roller though. That's a roller that lets you quickly go backwards and forwards on a web browser, or any folder structure, just by tipping the roller wheel to the left and right. Once you've had a mouse that can do that you can't go back. Microsoft's next level up mouse can do that for an additional $10 dollars, but that seems excessive to me. I would give this mouse 4.5 stars if I could but it only lets me take off whole stars so I have to take off one for the roller.
Mouses (mice?) at BB tend to go on sale a lot, so while this is a very good mouse I would still wait for the ones with a 4-way roller to go on sale down to the usual price of this mouse. If a 4-way roller is not so important to you then you'll be fine with this mouse.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Verified Purchaser:Yes
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
My Best Buy number: 2799111141
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
Share this review:
TroyInt's Questions
TroyInt has not submitted any questions.
TroyInt's Answers
NETGEAR - RangeMax N600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Router - Black
Choose this NETGEAR router and receive high level wireless security, the ability to share photos, music and more, and a way to keep track of your kids’ activity online. Plus, with easy installation for tablets, smartphones and computers, you’ll be able to start enjoying Wi-Fi throughout your home right away.
This router has quit on me...
Have there been any reliability issues with this router? I purchased October 2014 and now this router doesn't perform. I continually have to power off and then power on router to get it to send wireless signal to my devices. Usually works for a while then I will have to do the same thing in an hour. Now, it doesn't do anything no matter if I power it off and then back on. It is attached to a modem. No problems with modem, as I am typing this while hard wired from the modem.
Would netgear offer an equivalent replacement? This is an $80 router that hasn't lived up to expectations. Thanks, Jeffrey Young
Would netgear offer an equivalent replacement? This is an $80 router that hasn't lived up to expectations. Thanks, Jeffrey Young
We have had this router going for about 16 months now with no problems at all. I think we had to turn it off and on maybe twice in all that time. In fact it's a dream compared to the abysmal Comcast router we had before.
Perhaps there are some environmental issues interfering with your signal, like other transmitters, or perhaps its setting might be a factor. Or possibly you just have a defective one. Maybe either Best Buy or more likely Netgear will replace it.
Perhaps there are some environmental issues interfering with your signal, like other transmitters, or perhaps its setting might be a factor. Or possibly you just have a defective one. Maybe either Best Buy or more likely Netgear will replace it.
9 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
TroyInt
from
Troy, MI