Philip_G

I've been around here awhile, and granted a lot of you guys and gals have forgotten more about HT than I'll ever learn, I at least have the sense to research things before I buy them.

so, I'm staying with my parents until I can find a place (just moved to town, new job etc...) and they decide they want a small TV for their bedroom, I try to steer them away from the crap towards what I feel is a decent set, and what do they do?

they go out today and buy a new mitsu 42" (they say, it's probably a 27 LoL) and let the salemen sell them everything, the tv, grossly overpriced monster cables, a new (cheap and crappy) sony progressive scan DVD, and worst of all, INSTALLATION. They own a DVD, a crappy kenwood STEREO receiver, which to my knowledge hasn't been powered on in 8 years, and a VCR. AND THEY PAY FOR INSTALLATION! FOR A DAMN TELEVISION!

To top it off I'm taking down the old sony set (a nice set, btw an early wega) and I get yelled at for taking apart the components because the installation guys need to see how it's set up

Clinton McClure

If it's any consolation, Philip, my folks are waaaaaaaaaay behind on the technology curve too. Fortunately, they ask for my input before investing in any new HT or related equipment so I can steer them away from rip-offs and the like.

Don't Panic

My Collection My Equipment

Ashley Seymour

And then there was Jay Leno who had a great routine about buying a new VCR for his mother. I would spend the night and when he came down in the morning the VCR would be blinking 12:00. His mom - regrettably has passed away - would unplug the VCR every night to save electricity.

Go Orange, Go Blue,
Fight Fight Fight BSU!

It\'s not whether you win or loose that counts, but whether you win.

Tom Meyer

why not just tell them they got ripped off and return the set ?

Philip_G

they might.. I explained what is involved in owning a projection set and my mom freaked. I mean, they paid 1600 bucks for a 42" table top set, another 160-180 for a sony DVD carousel (the salemen sold them on progressive scan, not that they'd notice the difference) had to buy a $700 armoire for it, so they're pushing almost 3 grand, the cost of a 42" plasma set.

MikeAlletto

Luckily my parents have learned to run all computer and tv/audio stuff past me or my brother before they make any purchases.

Michael Alletto

Steve Owen

I understand completely. Since I always get called in for tech support, I always ask that my parents consult me before buying any technology product. I've gotten to the point that when they don't, I just tell them "You're on your own... no tech support from me."

If you want to read some very funny and interesting comments on this subject, check out this article on Slashdot.

-Steve

\"He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him.\"

Philip_G

oh dear god the saga continues.
so they bought this armiore (sp?) from a cheapo furniture place. Mind you this is a 42" tv, now it's a widescreen, but it's still a big ass TV

so the armoire comes in 2 parts, they bring them home and the top half is damaged. they go back, get another (I'd guestimate it weighs roughly 200 pounds...) and *I* put the whole thing together.

the tv has less than a half inch of clearance all around, I had to break out some little rollers that guide the doors because they were in the way, but I got her in. You can't get to the AV jacks at all...

so I get it all together, after about 4 hours. and *drummroll* they don't like it.

the damn TV is literally 4 feet off the ground in this cabinet, I'll post pictures later, it's funny as hell.

so tomorrow I get to take it all apart while they go and buy the $200 mitsubishi stand they should have bought in the first place, wonder who gets to assemble it?


I feel like jack briggs now with his friend.


surprisingly, they caught on to the aspect ratio explanation pretty quickly, since they're on cable I was able to demonstrate and explain the various views. Sooo now they're wathing a TV broadcast stretched out to 16:9 because the salesman told them not to leave the letterbox bars on the screen for fear of burning the set. I have a 45" mitsu RPTV and don't mind watching widescreen DVD's and have no problems, how do you 16:9 guys watch cable? stretch? god I hope not, zoom? or boxed? I prefer boxed, but that's just me.

Edwin-S

I don't give a shit about broadcast TV, so I watch it stretched. The Toshiba stretch modes are passable. I have standard cable. The picture quality is so-so; therefore, watching broadcast TV stretched doesn't bother me. I also don't much care for the grey bars on the Toshiba. I have also heard they can cause burn in, but so far I have not had that problem. I do watch a fair amount of 4:3 ratio stuff. For everything else I watch in the proper ratios.

Philip_G

the bars are grey in 4:3 on the mitsu also. It doesn't belong in this forum, but if anyone has an explanation I'd be curious. Just a few more hundred and they could be hanging a plasma 42" on the wall

Edwin-S

An explanation regarding why the bars are grey? If so, it is because manufacturers think that black bars are more likely to cause uneven wear of the tubes. The pixels in the black bars are off. Manufacturers figure that those areas of the tube will wear unevenly because the pixels are not being lit. By making the bars grey, the pixels are lit. The theory is that lit pixels will wear more evenly along with the rest of the picture area. The grey color seems to be a compromise color.

Yee-Ming

You're kidding?!?! Are plasmas really that cheap in the US already? I wish...

Tim Morton

Anyone mind me jumping in and reminding Phillip_G that maybe his parents should be allowed to buy whatever TV