HD TV surprises! (1 Viewer)

[The Counterfeiter]

The good surprise was a result of waiting for Cox to convert all channels to digital. Best Buy Rewards members received a coupon for 12% off one item purchased Dec 5-8!
Other surprises - your digital DVD player is obsolete! You need an HD player, and you need a more expensive one with a 30 gig hard drive that will upgrade digital DVD's to HD on the fly. The SONY I bought was $350 a month ago - on sale yesterday for $130. Still researching an HD DVD recorder.
Unexpected surprise - cables! SONY DVD player requires a $99 HDMI cable and Bose surround system needs a THX cable set - another $99.
Also have a $99 (this is sounding familiar!) fiber optic cable - I have no idea what it is for. Guess I can return it if it's not used -
The Best Buy deal included free delivery and setup of all devices, including reprogramming my Logitech Harmony remote (a REALLY cool device!).
I had no idea how complicated this conversion was - Best Buy salesman was very careful to explain that I would not be satisfied if this was not done correctly. We'll know Wednesday night - if it's all good, I can't wait for Winternationals in HD. Fire 'em up!!!!

 

[Todd Tvetene]

A few suggestions..

Other surprises - your digital DVD player is obsolete! You need an HD player, and you need a more expensive one with a 30 gig hard drive that will upgrade digital DVD's to HD on the fly. :

You can't "upgrade digital DVD's to HD on the fly" The player is simply reformatting the picture to a HD signal but it can not add the missing resolution.
a normal DVD is around 500 lines of resolution while HDTV is generaly considered to be a minimum of 720P and usually 1080I so a standard DVD is missing 50$-100% of the requried resolution to be HD. It may look a little better but it will not be HD. Actually you may get a better picture by running the dvd straight to the TV in its natave resolution. The chip that does the upconversion is called a scaler. Your TV will most likely also have a scaler.
All the new display technolgies(plasma.LCD,DLP) have to "scale" the picture
to the native resolution of the display. The TV may have a better scaler then the DVD, Or if the TV's Native resolution is 720 you may have the DVD player scaling it up to 1080 while the tv is scaling it back down to 720.Anytime you have a scaler doing anything there are what we call artifacts inserted into the picture. Look at a fast moving object. you will see the moving object appear to be Jagged. this is what is called a motion artifact. In my world it is not uncommon to have external scalers that will run $2000+ just for the scaler.
(i do high end home theater/home automation)

Unexpected surprise - cables! SONY DVD player requires a $99 HDMI cable and Bose surround system needs a THX cable set - another $99.
Also have a $99 (this is sounding familiar!) fiber optic cable - I have no idea what it is for.

HDMI cables are expensive so thats about right. Your $99 THX cables for your bose are overkill. you will not hear a difference between them and a $20 set. And lastly your Toslink cable(the fiber optic one), return it and buy the cheapest Toslink you can find. Toslink is a digital format its either on or off you cant have a "better" on, so it is a waste of money to buy premium digital cables.

 

[BlueStangGT]

I'm no expert on the video end of things but I do have considerable experience in audio. From what I know I'd say Todd's pretty much right on the money. While it's always smart to use the best cables you can afford, the digital audio cables are pretty much on/off just like he says. That being said, Radio Shack has been closing out some of their mid and high end Monster products and there are some excellent buys. The 10' and 20' speaker cable pairs, the analog RCA audio pairs, and the S-Video cables are way below dealer cost in some cases. The HDMI stuff is still WAY to high for me to mess with to justify buying Monster. Go to RadioShack.com and click on cables and connectors.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

Thanks guys! I'm finally understanding how this whole system works. Looks like I need another HDMI and two more fiber optic cables. It's Radio Shack tomorrow morning! I'll just have to experiment with the HD DVD player - at $130 it was a no brainer. The bottom line is 61" of HD Drag Racing with surround sound! -

 

[Mike]

JIm, thats why I told a while back that I would wait. Once you take a year or 2 to get everything right I'll come and check it and then buy one(LOL)

 

[The Counterfeiter]

JIm, thats why I told a while back that I would wait. Once you take a year or 2 to get everything right I'll come and check it and then buy one(LOL)

Mike - no waiting! You can drop by the house any time and check it out!
Best Buy arrived a day early and hooked everything up. The picture is incedible, but the sound is amazing! The set uses THX technology (what you hear in a movie theater). I'm surprised manufacturers don't mention this.
Wife and dogs will be running for cover when I crank up ESPN2 HD -

 

[BlueStangGT]

So Jim, I guess you like it then, right?

I picked up the up-convert Sony DVD-changer from BB today... probably the same one you got. Seems to work just fine!

 

[willy]

Nice explanation up there, Todd.

Not to derail..but the comment you made about the Bose THX cables..LOL..that cracks me up.

I remember back in the 70's when Monster Cables were the rage..at about $5 a ft..and in any testing environment..they fared no better than lamp cord for our hearing range..

Let us know how it goes, Jim.

 

[Todd Tvetene]

Glad you like it

I am glad you are happy with your new setup.
I own a home theater/home automation company and truly love this stuff.I get angry when i hear of someone getting bad information . I know how spectacular these systems can be with the right choices of equipment.

Nice explanation up there, Todd.

Not to derail..but the comment you made about the Bose THX cables..LOL..that cracks me up.

I remember back in the 70's when Monster Cables were the rage..at about $5 a ft..and in any testing environment..they fared no better than lamp cord for our hearing range..

Let us know how it goes, Jim.

I am not saying that all premium cables are not worth the extra $$$ just that most consumer level systems (not to mention our ears)do not have the performance to reveal what the premium cables are capable of. we do not use the included cables as a general rule. The cables we sell are around $20.00 for a six foot audio set.

The one place that we use a premum cable is for video,Esp with component cables. Most of our component cables are custom made with wire that is around $3 a foot and ends that run about $3 bucks a pop. You can get some blooming and smear with the real cheapie's.

Has anyone noticed how much more best buy and others are pushing cables and accesories since they started this pricing war with each other.Its because they cant make very much on the product anymore.

the retailer is making roughly 60% on monster and other brands of premium cables, and the manufacture i would guess is making at least 50% on cost. so your $100 cable cost maybe $20.00 to make, package, ship,and promote.

i have stated it before but if anyone on here needs help or just wants to pick my brain feel free to either PM me or start a thread if you feel the question may be of some help to others.

Todd

 

[Bob]

Not only is the retailer making 60% on Monster, Monster is making at least 60% on Monster when the subject is audio cables. They created an industry by duping people into thinking bigger was better, then charging a premium price for it. I stocked 256 strand oxygen-free 10 gauge speaker wire for customers who believed the Monster hype, to sell to them after they wouldn't believe me when I told them that 16 gauge would do the exact same things in their stereo systems. I sold the 10 gauge for 99 cents a foot, and I was making 49 cents on each foot! ....and it isn't just the human ear that can't detect a difference between thick and thinner wires (10 vs 16, 10 vs 24 is a different story), calibrated microphones can't either!

I still have the better part of a 500 foot spool of the 10 gauge in my garage. It is a good material for fabricating custom gaskets for low temp applications, but as the price of copper goes up, I might have to think about selling it for melt.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

I guess this is all about what your time and knowledge are worth. I paid Best Buy full retail price for the Monster cables and $399 for a 4 year
in-home service plan. In exchange, I got free delivery and hookup to all of my existing devices and a guarantee that if anything goes wrong for the next four years, it will be fixed within 48 hours. IMHO - companies that provide this kind of service are entitled to a profit.
On highest quality time sensitive jobs, we charge a 300% markup on paper and an 85% markup on press labor PLUS ink, plates, computer illustration and graphics/type. For this, customers are guaranteed that that their job will be perfect and delivered on time. We turn away customers who want to argue about pricing.
I have a plaque in my office that says - "All prices are final - I'm not Monte Hall And This Ain't Lets Make A Deal!"
The whole concept of hammering pricing on people who provide great quality and service just pisses me off - JMHO

 

[Mike]

I really dont care how much money they make off of me as long as the crap works and I'm happy. Sounds to me like Jim was happy with what he got and thats what matters.