Secret #1: WHAT YOU BUY TODAY WILL BE OBSOLETE TOMORROW, IF
IT ISN'T ALREADY.
What you should do about it:
Don't sweat it. Just read what you can before you buy to educate
yourself so you don't make a terrible mistake. If you shop wisely,
you can get a tremendous leap over what you have come to know
as television. The good news is the better stuff coming down
the pipe is knocking prices down on the stuff out now.
Plus, consumer surveys SCREAM to the electronics companies
that people WANT these new, slim, high resolution Home Theater
setups. There are billions of dollars to be made. Those surveys
snapped the head of every exec in the biz. They geared up to
make more. "Make more" equals "economies of scale" equals "make
MORE money," even at lower price points! The first one costs
a bazillion dollars: research, tooling up, marketing. Then,
with volume, the cost per unit plummets. The guys who want to
have very latest get to pay the most. Why be that person?
If you’ve already purchased a particular technology – Plasma,
DLP, LCD, front or rear projector, whatever, ENJOY it. It IS
important to realize that wide screen aspect ratio does not
equal high-definition TV, though. Some think if the picture
is wide, they’re there. That might be FAR from there. I hate
to say this because I’m a guy and guys hate this – you might
want to read the instructions.
Secret #2. And this is really, really big: YOU CAN'T TELL WHAT
THE PICTURE LOOKS LIKE FROM WHAT YOU SEE IN THE STORE.
What you should do about it:
What you are doing now. Research. The hard part is cutting
through the opinions of weenies who want to see a feather clearly,
blowing in the wind at 50 yards. I'll help you there. Read on.
There are three reasons why Home Theater Ugly Secret #2 is
true.
1- The sets aren't adjusted right. They are turned way up to
dazzle you. The dazzle will bother you when you get home. Worse,
it drives the set to what you'd call distortion. The better
picture happens when the picture is turned down in brightness,
sharpness, contrast, and whatever else has been goosed. Why
do they let this happen? It's like a conspiracy that everyone
is in on - except you. Because when they are all lined up, 40
sets in a row, the manufacturers know you might think theirs
is different and better. But they ALL do it, so it's a wipe.
And if a store is a little bit shady, with some hi-def sets
to move at a higher profit margin, well, now, those might have
been "optimized" to look better than the others.
Yes, most of the hi-def sets CAN be adjusted correctly for
you in your home. MAYBE by you.
Did I mention that Bubba the shopper-doofus was there, just
before you browsed in, that he found the remote control and
screwed up all the settings anyway?
So, you can't trust what you see in most stores. But wait,
there's more.
2- Many of the sets are being fed video poorly. A distribution
amp or humungous splitter shares the picture among the displays.
That hurts the picture. A store might have 40 sets on one distribution,
but the ones they really want to move on a purer source, showing
a better picture. You'll never know.
3- What you see may or may not be high definition or even good
quality. Just as bad, it might be super fidelity you won't likely
ever see again. Because, what you watch at home might not be
broadcast or cablecast with a good picture. So, you can see
misaligned sets fed bad pictures that bear little resemblance
to anything you'd see at home. Ready to drop several THOUSAND
on that? Didn't think so. But tens of thousands of people do.
Probably WILL this weekend. Eager commissioned salespeople will
confide that THIS unit is the superior one. No hidden agenda
there, do you think, huh?!
Secret #3. THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH EVERYTHING.
What you should do about it:
Relax. Don't obsess. It's more a matter of things being done
different ways by different designers. For example, on this
set, the colors are spot on, but the resolution is a little
off. On that set over there, the resolution is incredible, but
the red... You are still going to love the setup you buy - and
remember - you just might have it for 10 years or MORE! You'll
look at it more than you look at your wife, husband or kids.
I'm talking face time. Relax. We'll get you through this.
A personal note to THE OBSESSIVES:
If you haven't already left this article, I want you to think
about the fact that there are millions of screen dots to go
wrong. Not that they will, but the 317th one from the left and
119th from the bottom IS a little shaky, don't you think? Time
to take a deep breath. One, two, three. Exhale. Even though
there's something wrong with everything, if you embrace that
thought and LET IT GO you'll be able to enjoy the - uh - big
picture. The state of the Home Theater art - even if it IS yesterday's
art, is very very nice.
Relax.
Why a Home Theater? And what's it MEAN anyway? Good questions.
A Home Theater is simply the natural; evolution of the TV experience.
Now that we can, we do. It's how it goes. Basically, you get
a shorter, wider picture (more like a movie in a... theater)
and the picture is much clearer than the TV you sat too close
to as a kid – remember Mom yelling? And you can have better
sound too. It can be all around you, or just in the front. You
choose. You can have a box that plays the deep notes - fun things
like car crashes, earthquakes, whale farts, cannons. You get
to experience them like never before. It's not essential, but
it's there if you want it.
A Home Theater is just like going to the movies. Except the
screen isn't that big, but you can get a good seat. You don't
have to endure advertisements in the ‘pre-show entertainment’
if you don't want to. You can go to the bathroom and touch the
door handle on the way out. No paying $5.75 for a bag of stale
popcorn. No popcorn bagging zomboid teenagers. No lines. No
sticky floors (unless that's the way you live, not that there's
anything wrong with that.)
There. Now you know the top 3 Ugly Home Theater secrets.
But, it isn’t quite that simple. At http://www.GreatHomeTheater.com/
there are 9 more secrets revealed. I promise you won’t get neurotic
or your hands dirty, and I won’t talk you out of what can be
a tremendous and highly enjoyable leap forward in home entertainment.
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About The Author
Bob Wood, for over 30 years, served in front of, and
behind the microphone, at popular radio stations across
the United States and Canada. Throughout that journey
he developed a passion for great sound and was an early
adopter of many of the video toys and tools that have
evolved into today's state of the art.
Bob also became known as a voice-actor at that time,
leading him to literally hundreds of recording studios
where again he would work with top equipment. In the mid
80s, he was able to examine and demo the early high definition
broadcast quality equipment out of Japan.
Copyright 2005, Bob Wood
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This article was posted on October 02, 2005
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