Sheryl and I have just installed a Panasonic 42-inch plasma screen monitor in our bedroom hooked up to a Sony surround sound DVD player that shakes the bed like those old devices they used to have in motel rooms. Suddenly some of those Academy DVDs I dismissed so quickly are looking like… hey, why didn’t I vote for this? (Of course, nothing could save The Phantom of the Opera.)
We went for EDTV because, frankly, you can’t tell the difference from HDTV when you’re more than five feet from the screen (at least I couldn’t). We also bought the stripped down Sony with the wall speakers because the floor ones were just more clutter. And I don’t regret it because if the sound was any bigger, we would levitate. I have to admit the whole thing is great and just another indication that in the future no one is going to leave the house. What does this mean? I’m not sure, but I sure wish I had had the courage of my convictions a week ago and invested in this company.
Small tip to anyone contemplating this form of rank consumerism in the near future: Buy a monitor, not a TV. For those who don’t know… and among the readers of this site, judging from responses to the Firefox post just below, many people here know a helluva lot more about this than I do… the monitors do not have tuners and (usually) speakers. You don’t need them. The satellite or cable boxes have tuners and better speakers come with the surround system. You just saved yourself five to six hundred dollars.
Also, if you’re buying plasma, be prepared for relatively poor reproduction of blacks, even with the Panasonic, which is reputed to that best. Still, movies look great on it, even the “plush” The Phantom of the Opera (for five minutes until Madeleine said it was putting her to sleep).
One other thing, thus far there are only about eight HDTV channels hereabouts through Adelphia cable. One of those is some version of HBO. The surround sound plays very well through our system and the picture looks as good as the DVDs. Even better is KCET, the local PBS station. For some reason, they have mastered HDTV better than the networks.
Roger, I think you will be happy you didn’t invest in Netflix. Herb Greenberg at CBS Marketwatch quoted a money manager who was shorting Netflix and had some negative statistics on member turnover. Brief followup today from Herb, here is a quote.
“While fourth-quarter earnings and revenue were higher than expected, they were also in line with, or, in the case of earnings, at the low-end of, guidance. Netflix cut its projections in November. And performance was only as strong as it was, the company said, in large part because usage slipped for the second consecutive quarter. The fewer DVDs they ship, the more money they make. (As if that’s supposed to be good?)”
Warning: shameless lobbying!
The Isreallycool Jewish Blog award nominations are up.
Roger is nominated in several categories
Kesher Talk (my blog), Meryl Yourish, LGF, and several other RogerLSimon-friendly blogs are also nominated.
You don’t have to be Jewish to vote.
You can vote for all of us, since we are nominated in different categories AND you can vote once every 24 hrs. until this Sunday, so even in categories where we compete you can vote for more than one.
just installed a Panasonic 42-inch plasma screen monitor
Oh you rich Hollywood types and your fantastic movie wealth. Maybe some day we poor oil field trash will be able to afford such luxuries, until then we’ll just get by on our black and white Zenith console.
Re: no one leaving the house in the future: The future is now!
Re: the dearth of HDTV programming: Consider Voom. 35 HD channels and counting at rates that are competitive with cable. I’ve had it since July and am pretty pleased with it, a few service issues in the early going notwithstanding.
P.S. Only 42 inches? I’ve got a 55-inch HD projection. Mine’s bigger than yours!
Wallace:
It’s all part of the divine plan. Movie types need the big, color, HD screens so that they can keep up on movies. Oil field folk need black and white so the day’s work isn’t so noticeable when it smudges the screen. Here in St. Louis, we need televisions that require a good whack occasionally – it gets us up off our butts.
I have it on good authority that Wichitaboy has a 12-foot wheat and white projection screen.
Roger,
I hope it is tax deductable,tools of the trade and all that.
Allah only has 55″? So what’s the point of being a deity, anyway?
I’m not too surprised you couldn’t see the difference between EDTV and HDTV – the source material probably wasn’t good enough to see any difference. A lot of the HDTV material is being shown at less than the optimal resolution of 1080p x 1920 and so ends up looking not much better than an oversize TV.
I was less than impressed by HDTV image quality until I saw a 1080p image. It looked like you were looking through a window – very impressive. So far, the 1080p sets have all been high end but, judging from this month’s news out of CES, that’s going to change starting around April.
This is OT but since you’re a big FireFox fan, how come you don’t have a favicon for your website? It’d make your site stand out among the tabs. Instapundit, Volkh, LGF and many more sites have already done it – isn’t time you followed suit with your Fedora?
My mom got a new Sony rear-projection DLP HDTV last summer, and we watched the Olympics in HD. It was amazing – you could read scores and the crawling captions from 30 feet away – and when you were actually in the family room watching, it *did* look like you were looking through a window.
Current DVDs are not at HDTV resolution, so EDTV is enough for this until the next-gen DVDs come out.
–Foobarista, who isn’t looking forward to yet another format/standard change.
I thought the Creator of Worlds was supposed to be in the poor house right now. Now we learn the truth behind the lack of blogging from Him! He’s been watching his Traci Lords collection on that ungodly sized screen!
“Also, if you’re buying plasma, be prepared for relatively poor reproduction of blacks”
Lawsuit from Rev. Al coming right up!
I watched both playoff games in HDTV via Adelphia, stereo Dolby whatever with six speakers, WIDE screen plasma, and…..?
My 27 inch regular TV gets every bit as good a picture. $200 plus tax compared to at least $8,000 plus tax. I do admit to channel surfing when game One got out of hand and have to admit that the black and white movies were much better. But for $7,800 more? I don’t think so.
ìEven better is KCET, the local PBS station. For some reason, they have mastered HDTV better than the networks.î
Thatís almost certainly because the affluent yuppies comprise the majority of PBSí viewers. They have to keep these people happy to continue receiving donations. The networks only have to worry about the hoi polloi.
42″ inch screen and he still won’t get behind Zapped! 3 ó The College Years… some people just don’t get it.
Don’t worry about investing in Netflix, its a bridge service that will be soon done in when we can download any film we want directly to our homes (On Demand for everything). Although Netflix is a better service than Blockbuster, it cannot survive that long.
Roger,
We bought the same moniter and we love it. We made the same decision not to go with HDTV for the same reasons. By the way, if you play around with the color settings you can make the black look really good. My husband really geeked out and bought a Sony digital amp and is building his own home theater while have more options with components and the digital amp and it seems to make the picture from the HD cable box even clearer — it could be the great cables though. The first movie we watched on the TV was Master and Commander — all I can say is WOW — no comparison to our 27 inch sony — it blew it away.
Duke, I don’t know where you’re shopping, but that Panasonic model is no where near $8,000 plus. I found one on-line for $1800 (after we bought ours for a little more). The prices have dropped on both plasmas and lcds — go to Best Buy if you doubt — it is a problem for the industry, plasmas loose about $50 per set and lcds even more. They’re hoping to make more money down the line, unless someone comes up with something better and cheaper……
AnnNY
You may want to get a Mac mini . . . there are people who are buying it with the intention of using it as a media control center. I don’t know exactly how they’re doing it, but there will be more information coming out about this before end of this month – you may want to check http://www.applewack.com to keep up with news from other Mac news and blog sites.
Roger! Heavens forfend, Phantom is the best chick flick of all time!
Thom, I agree on not buying Netflix–the time to buy was two years ago. Everybody is doing it now.
Great choice, Roger. I bought the same plasma (actually, the “5″ model, yours is the newer “7″ model), passing up the HDTV version for the same reasons, and I do not regret it. Even high-def still looks fantastic on it.
I loved Phantom of the Opera! Have you no heart?