Recent content by Michael Lomker

Scott, I live in Minneapolis and have TWC. I had DirecTv for all of a month and cancelled it. Please keep in mind that there are HUGE cancellation fees if you hate your DirecTV service -- $120 in my case....and that's if you cancel 10 minutes after signing up for service. There is NO grace...

I wait for a significant reason to upgrade. Would you believe I didn't even have Dolby Digital until this year? I did a forklift upgrade of my entire system, centered around an HDTV. I doubt I'll need to do that again for quite a while. HDTV/DD/DTS aren't going away for quite a long time.

The price difference is quite simple, really....Internet dealers cannot offer a warranty. That wasn't a concern for me...I got a pair of Stratus Silver's for $1250 delivered and the local dealer wanted $1900+tax. Crazy price difference at that level.

You won't find VGA at that price. Indeed, I haven't seen a 34" set at that price at all. If you had more like $3k to spend then you could look at the Princeton Graphics AR3.4FTW when it comes out. Princeton's AR3.0HD is considered one of the best sets for the money and they have VGA inputs.

The PQ and brightness will always be superior on direct-view. Most RPTV's just give you a lot of size for the money. Sometimes I get teased by my friends for spending $3k on such a "small" set but I don't regret it. I bought a 34" Panasonic and a high-end DVD player but if I had to do it all...

It depends. If you have a proper room and you are doing mostly HT then I'd go with dipoles. If you don't have walls in the right places then dipoles don't work. If you listen to multichannel music then dipoles don't work, imo.

Perhaps I'm the exception, but I don't like the 16-46 PCi for music. My mains are PSB Stratus Silveri's and they produce so much bass on their own that the sub always makes for too much. I suspect that this is a crossover issue in my receiver (Arcam AVR200) but I'm not interested in going to...

I keep mine at 8 ohm but I doubt there is much of a difference in sound. No speaker has a flat ohm response across the frequency band, anyway. Any setting will be a compromise.

If the guy actually did file bankrupcty then you don't have any legal recourse.

My father's 43" Sony went 7 years before the power regulators burnt out. It cost about $300 to fix it and it now looks fine. My 53" Sony had to have one board replaced under warranty when I first bought it, otherwise not a problem for 3 years. I don't think there's any more reliability issues...

I'd use Avia or VE on any set. It allows you to get the colors and brightness closer to accurate than you're likely to manage by eyeballing it. I've observed that most people's televisions are set too bright and the fleshtones are way off (generally too red). I can hardly look at it anymore...

You need quite a subwoofer to come close the impact that a decent car stereo is going to provide you. In home audio the size/placement/acoustics within the room are what will do you in. If you want the best sound then you need to carefully consider the placement of every object in your...

The 30k is the only model currently available. Two more are due to be released this fall at a reduced price. The 30k is available online for around $1200.

The problem with DVD was that software decoders were available (for PC's). I can guarantee that won't happen with any new HD standard. That is, perhaps, one advantage that D-Theater currently has: only JVC in Japan can master the tapes. The studios really don't have much risk of the tapes...

I think some people on here are missing the point. Nobody expects D-Theater to be mainstream. This is a niche product that is going to fill the gap until HD-DVD is readily available (3-5 years out). The new D-VHS decks coming out this fall should street for $750 or so. That's quite a bit less...