It's An HD Jungle Out There! - One End-User's Tale of Survival

I’m what’s charmingly referred to as an “end user.” Unfortunately, I’m a blond “end user” w/ an Iowa Catholic schoolgirl voice. Sales people can spot me a mile off.

The last time I shopped for a car the salesperson wasted no time in asking me to name my favorite color. “Actually,” I replied, “I’m more interesting in how many seconds it take this baby to get from zero to sixty.” I came this close to asking Borat-like if they had any you-know-what magnets on the lot.

Normally I drag my husband along on shopping expeditions. He hates it. But just having him there, slouching in the background on his cell phone, pacing like a caged tiger radiating his I’d-rather-be- anywhere-but-here vibe, means that salespeople are less likely to spin me.

But the HD plasma display was a surprise gift. So I was on my own. I’ve negotiated mortgages, auto leases, insurance policies of all types, and all manner of electronic purchases. But nothing - nothing - prepared me for the intricacies and pitfalls of buying a flat screen.

It’s not rocket science; it’s astrophysics: burn-in, 4:3 vs. 16:9 ratios, dead pixels, cinema vs. vivd mode, recalibration after 100 hour break-in, HDMI to DVI cables, upscaling, gamma (amount of light output at any given IRE step) s-curve to 2.2...

After an intense flurry of Internet research, first stop: Best Buy.

I described my situation: cable subscriber upgrading to HD and looking for a HD plasma stripped of unnecessary extras. Yet, I was steered to screens costing thousands, packaged w/ bells and whistles– mediocre speakers, a built-in tuner, and…a stand.

A STAND? In earthquake country?

“You need the built-in tuner,” I was told.

“Why,” I asked.

“To watch television.”

“But, in my case, won’t my DVR serve as the tuner?” I asked.

“Well, yes, but most people prefer two tuners,” asserted the salesperson.

“Why?” I asked.

The salesperson squirmed. “The picture quality is better,” he claimed.

A stare-down ensued until I broke the tension, “I’ve never heard that. Is this official Best Buy technical information?”

Deer in the headlights. “Oh, well, it’s true that it’s a very small difference.”

Trips to Target, WalMart, Circuit City and Costco were fruitless. All were selling flat screens laden w/ add-ons. And most of the salespeople seemed at best well-intentioned but misinformed.

Specialty stores were selling plasma displays for a premium (charging MSRP and above) and home theatre systems so sensitive only a dolphin could appreciate the qualitative difference.

Enter Nancy, a helpful techie at Visual Apex, an Internet seller of flat screens and home theatre systems patronized by the fussy users on AVS Forum, the electronic bible of geeks and geekettes.

Over the phone, Nancy walked me through flat screen esoterica. She agreed that a plasma monitor was best for my needs. She suggested I coordinate w/ Comcast before finalizing my order and did not upsell me on warranties, wall brackets and other items. I did buy a warranty since Consumer Reports was recc’ing them for plasma screens at the time. (CR has since dropped that advisement.)

Comcast scheduled the DVR install almost immediately. Upon arrival, their tech also decided the cables both inside and outside the house should be upgraded. We discussed how to best run the cable (for aesthetics) and he crawled around and over my house for two hours. I hesitate to say if there was an installation charge. If there was, it's almost not worth noting.

My Panasonic HD plasma display and reasonably priced home theatre system arrived in perfect condition. I splurged on professional installation through Visual Apex’s network of independent installers. The guy was a little curt but he knew what he was doing. It’s a good thing a carpenter happened to be working on my house that Saturday because it took TWO guys to lift this monster and position it onto the wall bracket.

Everything Visual Apex recommended was correct except one cable (not their oversight) but a quick trip to Radio Shack solved that problem.

I'd order equipment again from Visual Apex in a heartbeat. However, I can't recommend w/out reservation their network of independent installers. The services seemed a tad overpriced and I was shortchanged (the package promised a two-man crew but only one showed up) and the installer was clearly over-booked and anxious to move on to his next job.

To be fair I never communicated the problem to Visual Apex because, bottom line, my flat screen and home theatre system went in without a hitch. I'm not sure the installers lived up to all of their promises but they live up to the ones that were important.

Given the headaches that could have ensued, I consider myself pretty fortunate. I’m still deciphering all the remotes, however – THREE of them to be exact. One for the receiver/DVD player, another for the display, and another for the dual tuner DVR.

IMHO, a flat screen owner cannot truly cope w/ this alien household item w/out registering at AVS Forum, where generous geeks spend hours politely fielding questions posted by newbies like me.

I keep a file full of paperwork and manuals by the bed. Recently, I think I pressed the wrong button. Now three speakers aren’t working and I can’t figure out how to turn them back on. Sigh! I’ll have to set aside an hour or so to pour through the manuals.

I know I’m not the only one. The massively smart engineer sitting across the dinner table the other night said his wife sometimes ends up watching the same channel because she “can’t decipher the remotes.” The CNN anchor to my left said he’s thinking of a flat screen purchase but admits it’s “confusing.”

With the exception of the MSE (massively smart engineer) we all have a geek posse – handsomely paid and indispensable men and women who make house calls, our last line of defense against electronic hell. We feed them, we know their coffee preferences, we give them Christmas gifts – anything to make sure they pick up when they see our numbers pop up on their cell screens.

Okay – if engineers’ wives and CNN anchors are intimidated then…it seems to me that the average consumer could be a sitting duck.

Months after my purchase I still have plenty of lingering questions because a flat screen is actually a lens into all sorts of thorny consumer and industry issues.

Just that question of “built-in” tuners points to a host of trends and questions: redundant add-ons, free (but often inaccessible) over the air (OTA) HD signals, rising subscription rates etc. - issues the electronic manufacturers and cable companies and broadcast affiliates would probably rather sweep under the rug.

First, for anyone w/ cable or satellite, a built-in (or external tuner) is redundant. Paul Gilmore, president of Visual Apex, scoffs at the claim that two tuners increases PQ (picture quality). “The second tuner does nothing in terms of picture quality.” Nevertheless, he points out that a built-in tuner comes in handy in some situations.

For instance, there are OTA (over the air) HD broadcast signals freely floating in the urban air, just waiting to be tapped. A viewer would need a tuner and an antenna to pull in OTA signals. Anecdotally, the average viewer I’ve spoken to doesn’t know they can access broadcast HD channels for free. Most seem to think HD is only available via cable or satellite.

Some say OTA HD picture quality is “simply better” and it’s an option that works in their case.

(OTOH, I did come across a post on AVS Forum noting that Comcast “passes everything through in native resolution in most markets.” I’m assuming this means little to no loss in PQ but…perhaps readers would like to weigh in here.)

Others, once they catch onto the fact that HD is available for free, especially in the face of several (1, 2) cable rate hikes, may simply opt out of cable and satellite altogether.

But oh, the thorny issue of signal access! Not so easy. Viewers here in the San Francisco area are angry. Read the bitter rant by one guy called NBSF over this issue:

"If you knew anything about TV in the Bay Area you'd know that the OTA broadcast used to be from the Top of the Mark, when most in the center city could get a good signal, but when it was moved to Sutro Heights, the signal disappeared. Nuff said. We should have been getting free basic cable, and now free digital cable because they took away our signal to pander to the suburbanites!"

And OTA HD is sketchy in urban areas and non-existent in rural communities. (However, AVS Forum devotes an entire section to OTA w/ discussions grouped according to market.)

I suppose no discussion is complete w/out mentioning the murky world of....C-Band, where satellite users fiddle w/ their systems to access 350 channels. mops brow!

So, I ask again - why the redundant built-in tuner?

But manufacturers continue to imbed unabated. Integration is all the rage.

Last March, the WSJ reported that Humax, which is “better-known for making set-top boxes than TV set will make its first foray into the TV market in the U.S. by unveiling a 20-inch liquid-crystal-display, or LCD, set that has a built-in tuner to receive programming from satellite-service provider DirecTV Group Inc.”

For about $740, said Mr. Tony Goncalves, VP of biz development and marketing, in the WSJ, “U.S. customers won't have to worry about connecting a satellite box to their TV sets to get programming. A 32-inch version will be launched late in the fourth quarter, with a DirecTV tuner and a high-definition, or HD, receiver built in. The TVs will cost about the same or 10% to 20% more than competitors' conventional models, depending on the brand,”

Hitachi is selling flat screens w/ built in hard drives. LG now incorporates a 160 gig built-in DVR capable of 16 hours of HD recording. Also built-in: digital cable tuner, HD receiver, speakers, and memory card slots for photos and music.

Gilmore says these are systems for “our grandparents. Manufacturers are trying to dummy proof the installation.”

True but…
16 hours? And 160gig DVR? I have one of those. It’s already obsolete.

No way can I be gone two weeks and DVR all my favorite HD programming. I’m waiting for the upgrade. 650gigs would be nice.

Then again, observed the CNN anchor at dinner the other night, if most programming migrates to on demand, doesn’t this obviate the need for DVR’s?

Says the Wall Street Journal: “Industry watchers don’t think it will mean the demise of set-top boxes; viewers still would need them to access movies on demand and other interactive programming.”

Which again brings me ‘round again to my question – just how many consumers need that built-in tuner?

Are consumers investing in hundreds of million of dollars worth of electronics which are either a. redundant; b. will be soon be obsolete; or c. locked into one provider…or even all of the above?

By one estimate consumers would save $200 to $300 and up to $500 on their flat screens by just avoiding the integrated tuner.

According to the WSJ. the Chief Technology officer of Scientific Atlanta, Bob McIntyre “questioned the logic of putting things like hard drives directly into T'vs…and said most technology products have a life span of 18 to 24 months, and it wouldn't make sense to embed the technology into TVs.”

Visual Apex’s Gilmore is also uneasy. First, he says, “there is just more to go wrong. I agree that it’s too much functionality in a system. What if a component is 20% of a televisions functionality in a users mind?” He points out that it may cost more to repair one part of the system than to simply buy a new one entirely.

Plus, he adds, integrated systems “aren’t scalable.” And he further observes, “the plasmas are basically the same – to get everything else in there, you have to assume that they [the manufacturers] had to cut corners somewhere. And I do think it’s in the audio. And the table stands that come w/ them aren’t as solid either.”

Personally, I’m inclined to agree w/ Gilmore. First, I've seen some screens sitting on poorly secured table stands. Can you say: hazard!

Plus, I wonder how the integrated devices would be repaired. Within eight weeks, there was something amiss w/ our first Comcast provided (Motorola) DVR. The channels were slow to change and would often freeze, even when the DVR hard drive was only 10% full.

Comcast swapped it out as soon as we complained. Problem solved in an hour.

Lifting our flat screen from its moorings and/or boxing it up for return in order to repair a built-in DVR is not an option.

At any rate, my best advice, for what it's worth, coming from an end user who has traveled the maze and emerged only marginally more knowledgeable is:

Tool around AVS Forum and read other users assessments of their flat screens.

“Look at [your flat screen] like you're building a puzzle and the last piece of that puzzle is the plasmaa,” advises Gilmore, “Everything else around it can be separate. And therefore scalable too.”

I would also say: take a deep breath and roll w/ the glitches. And you will play conductor as you orchestrate the shipping, the installer, Comcast (or whomever) etc.

Visual Apex isn't the only shop to get good feedback on AVS Forum. But be careful. Lots of websites will get lure you like a carnival barker w/ great screen prices. Do not be fooled. They then charge sky-high prices for warranties, wall-mounts and the like.

So – bon chance!

And, please – perspectives welcome. Please jump (politely) into this fray.