List A Disappointment- I'll Go First... (1 Viewer)

[ChristopherDAC]

Why not fault the consumer electronics companies? Even right now, today, they are marketing brand new televisions without DTV tuners. If they'd put an ATSC receiver into every new TV sold over the past 5 years (since digital transmission really started to get its feet under it), the fraction of households capable of recieving digital broadcasts would be considerably higher than it is (remembering that most American households have more than one TV set). It still looks like crud a lot of the time, particularly (but not exclusively) in multicasting — only the very poor quality of today's NTSC signals could make ATSC, especially ATSC-SD, look good. Why the local broadcasters don't at least go over to 16:9 SD, even if they don't want to buy HD equipment (which is far more expensive and finicky) I don't know. Of course, I think we should have adopted the MUSE analog HD system from Japan in 1990…

 

[Eric_L]

Wow, Talk about misunderstanding my point. I never sugested that everyone who hasn't bought a new TV in the last eight years is poor. Not once. If you read that then I regret it - but go back and check - I never said it. I did mention "the poor people who couldn't afford to buy new TVs" which is not the same as "all people who did not buy new TVs are poor."

I DID say that the reason we don't have 100% high def signal/content is largely because the digital signal rollout was delayed because they felt the poor could not afford new TV's or converters - so we all get to buy one for them. Think about that - the government is essentially using our tax money to buy people TVs or access to them.

That's when I rolled out my 'Sam Kinnison' font and suggested it might be a good thing if the poor had no TVs. I was kidding! Nobody really thinks that poverty is caused by watching too much TV. Sam might - if he were alive. Afterall - he did suggest that a fleet of U-Hauls could solve world hunger.

And yes - I realize there is a difference between DTV and HDTV and I did note that.

Sorry if I knocked any chips of any shoulders. Sorry for any misunderstandings. Please lighten up folks.

 

[drobbins]

Outside of our theater, all our 3 TVs are 5-10 years old. I would like to update to newer technology, but I don't have any reason to. My phone/TV/internet co. doesn't have any HD or 16:9 broadcasts. :frowning: Why buy a 16:9 just to see black bars.

 

[Eric_L]

I agree - there are alot of people who will wait until the last possible moment before they upgrade. It's human nature to procrastinate.

 

[MarkHastings]

Yeah, you can't demand that everyone purchase a TV that takes advantage of 16x9 programming, and then ONLY offer less than 10% of that material that takes full advantage of your 16x9 TV.

 

[Seth=L]

James, thread starter, hit it on the head straight on IMO. I completely understand how that can be agrivating. I will never understand why when someone who has $10,000 laying around decides to just throw in-walls in every room of the house and just make one poor decision after the other, and they don't listen to a word you say.

I also find it annoying when someone says the sub isn't working or the surrounds aren't working during dialogue scenes. "I want to feel them talk and I want to hear them talk behind me, even though they are in front of me." People can be so fanatical, if they aren't surrounded with sound bad or not, then it isn't surround sound to them.

I also don't understand how people can stand stretched picture. My dad does this all the time with his HDTV. I say, "Dad the picture is stretched horizontally." He says, "I couldn't tell, Oh well, it doesn't matter, I will just leave it that way because it fills the screen." What really gets me about him is when he was looking for a TV he said he didn't care about the black bars and wanted to maintain the proper ratio. He also made the argument "in full screen it is the Magnificent 5, but in widescreen it's Magnificent 7". He has contradicted himself many times over. He has Martin logan speakers with junk sitting in front of them. What is the point in buying $3000 speakers if you are going to just put a bunch of junk in your sound stage.

 

[Micah Cohen]

Hmmmmm. I watch a lot of TV... I'm pretty much running on fumes... Hmmmm.

You sure about that "nobody"?



MC

 

[MarkHastings]

I completely understand it. It's not that hard to figure out. People with money to burn, just go with whatever they think is good. People like us (who have to save up money to get something really nice) are going to invest the time into finding the best possible solution for our hard earned money that we are spending.

Like I say with Plasmas - it's a dumb decision for the guy who works 3 jobs just to make enough money to buy a plasma tv, but plasmas are great for those who have $10,000 in their back pocket.

And also don't forget, those who can afford to spend $10,000 just like that, they usually have other things to worry about instead of investing time in figuring out the best way to spend that money on HT equipment.

It's not about the money - the mind set between two people (who are willing to spend $10,000) is going to be different according to the way they got that $10K to spend.

 

[Ken Chan]

Right, so they should listen to people that know what they're doing. Instead they choose to impose their wacky notions of what home theater should be. Maybe that comes from the idea, "Well, I'm rich, so therefore my opinion on everything must automatically be right." If so, that's just wrong.

 

[MarkHastings]

or it comes from years of listening to bad advice.

 

[Dick]

People are morons. 'Enuf said.

 

[MarkHastings]

Dick, exactly why are people morons?

 

[Seth=L]

My independantly wealthy grandparents don't know anything about audio, but at least they did research before they purchased their HDTV and sound system. If you don't think there are lots of morons out there then you are sadly mistaken. They are everywhere, "they are so dumb they don't even know that they are dumb" as my dad says. He doesn't have a lot of say though because he watches full screen stretched and has junk sitting in front of his Martin Logans.

 

[MarkHastings]

But why does that make them morons? We know that candy and soda are no good for us. People tell me all the time that it's bad for me and that I shouldn't eat them, but I still do. Lots of people do. Does that make us stupid?

Maybe I don't care to eat 100% healthy all the time. Why do I have to do things "the right way" all the time?

 

[Seth=L]

maybe it is better to describe people as idiots, or ignorant.

 

[Chris]

My major dissapointment:

When I realized I'd never be a major sex symbol. Hit me hard somewhere around 14.

 

[MarkHastings]

But what if people just don't care? I do lots of things the wrong way because I don't care enough to go through the motions to do it the right way.

or what about people who prefer to do things the wrong way? I know it's wrong to constantly flip burgers on the grill and to smoosh the juices out, but I still do it the wrong way because I prefer it that way. Is that ignorance or stupidity?

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Regarding the analog cutoff: Congress passed a law to subsidize the cost of up to 2 digital STBs per household, so come February '09 they will just have to buy a tuner box. I suspect that the demand for these will be high enough that economy of scale will bring the cost down to just a tad more than the subsidy allowance.

Of course, the majority of purchasers of this box will not be able to connect it to their tvs properly nor will they understand that their tv remote will no longer change channels.

 

[Justin Lane]

Though I have a Hi-def set, I also have two standard def Sony Wega which are suiting me perfectly fine as bedroom televisions. This subsidy will come in handy in extending the lifetime of these sets which are used sporadically.

J

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

My friend wants me to help his neighbor set-up his new projector and build the screen for him and that he'd pay me for my time, but get this, he wants the screen to be 1.33:1!

I told him to tell his neighbor that he should configure for 1.78:1 but *SIGH* says his neighbor doesn't want "black bars" and he only buys foolscreen dvd's. I know, please don't ask me if I explained things because I did or should I say my friend did (he's well versed in the ways of OAR because of me), but it's...just...useless. :rolleyes

I've never turned down money for helping someone set-up their new system before but i'm passing on this one, I cannot in good conscience build a 4x3 screen in this day and freakin' age lol.