CurtPalme.com Home Theater sales, calibration, service, and discussion forum. Hundreds of free manuals & setup tips.
   


 
Sign up and receive the latest newsletters by email!     Join the Forum discussions!    
    Site Map  
Home Products
For Sale
FAQs, Tips,
Manuals
Referral
List
Photo
Gallery
Links Contact
Us



My CES 2007 Report

   (Page 31)

Back to Special Reports Index

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
 


 

SUMMARY / EDITORIAL

So here’s my views on the overall show. I know there’s a wide variety of people viewing this report, from complete novice end users to other techs like myself and audiophiles that have been completely offended by my high end report <grin>, so here goes.

There’s no question that electronics has come a long way since I read the ‘ABC pictorial guide to color TV tube replacement’ while in high school while learning how tube color TVs work. The upside is that pictures are brighter and sharper, flatter and with the tiniest of electronics behind the display devices than ever before. The downside is that the bulk of the electronics industry is now completely non-repairable and disposable. Whether you’re buying a $50 DVD player, a $100 digital camera or a $2000 plasma TV, expect to throw it away when it dies on you. This mentality is what today’s 20 year olds are used to, but those of us that have been around for a bit longer (I’m 43, gasp!) remember days when you paid a bit more and things lasted a lot longer than they do today.

With a lot of what I’ve reported on above, I know little more than any other end user of the product. The typical non technical user of anything electronic needs to educate themselves so that they aren’t purposely misled by a commission sales guy hell bent on up-selling.

I saw a lot of great exciting new things at CES, but I also saw a lot of badly set up display devices, such as the HD DVD booth, that had terrible looking plasma displays. They showed massive amounts of green in areas that should have been black or dark gray. This wasn’t a malfunctioning product, it was simply that no time was spent with some basic test DVDs and a good set of eyes.

So if you’re shopping for a new TV or projector, take a CAREFUL look at what you’re buying. HD sports will always look great on all but the most grossly misadjusted HD displays. Take a DVD with you such as Harry Potter or Star Wars with a lot of dark scenes, and check out the reproduction of them on the display device of choice. When it comes to audio, use your EARS to listen to what you’re buying. The laws of physics are as old as the earth itself, there’s no speaker manufacturer that can change those laws with a new speaker.

Check out the new technology, and look into the future to see if what you’re buying will do what you want it to do (if it lasts that long). Buy a name brand that you know of, chances are that manufacturer will stand behind what they sell a bit more. You wouldn’t buy a car at Radio Shack, so why are you thinking of buying a DVD player at a car parts place?

Rest assured I'm still very comfortable by telling all of my customers that for the lowest cost per hour of runtime and the most lifelike and appealing picture, a CRT projector is still king of the available large screen images.

OK rant off! Cheers!

Curt Palme

Did you find this information useful? Please consider making a donation to help defray the cost of managing and hosting future articles, tips, and documents.     
Or purchase from Amazon.com and a small percentage automatically goes to support this site at no extra cost to you! Visit their Blu-ray and 4K UHD stores for sales. Want to show off your home theater? See our Blu-ray Release List & Must-Have Titles. Shop at Amazon.com and support our site!


... Previous Page

Back to Page 1

 
 

© Copyright CurtPalme.com. All Rights Reserved.