Moronic Wash Post Writer Buys Technology He Doesn't Understand, Writes Story About It
01-18-08, 10:31 AM
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Moronic Wash Post Writer Buys Technology He Doesn't Understand, Writes Story About It
This article is a good example of some of the misconceptions and ignorance that abounds the general public about HD.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...000070_pf.html
High-Def Disconnect
For $1,399 and Endless Add-Ons He Got 12 Channels
By Howard Bryant
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 21, 2007; F01
Back in August, my needs were simple. As one of the reporters covering the Redskins for The Post, I needed a television and a way to record games so I could analyze what turned out to be a five-win season. A $119 combination 13-inch TV with a VCR would have solved the problem.
Instead, I ended up taking the high-definition plunge, spending $1,399 for a far-bigger and fancier television set than I originally had in mind. As I left the store with my new HDTV, my confidence was boosted by approving nods from people in the parking lot.
"It's going to change your life," one man said.
If only someone had told me that buying the set was the easiest part.
Since then, I have been riding a high-definition roller coaster -- mesmerized by the new TV's crystal-clear images but disillusioned by the disappointingly low number of HD channels you get in exchange for the investment of the upgrade.
My purchase put me in a growing wave of people switching to high definition. Last year, more than 13 million HDTV sets were shipped to stores in the United States, and the Consumer Electronics Association predicts that even more -- closer to 16 million -- will hit shelves this year.
Moving into HDTV had been on my mind for a while. I'd been admiring a 50-inch plasma, and its dropping price tag, for about a year, but I was still fighting the psychological barrier of paying such big money for a TV. I'd spent less than $300 on a 27-inch Toshiba tube set only four years ago and wasn't mentally ready to shell out four figures for a replacement.
And so, faced with the onset of the season and needing a second set at home, I headed out with self-restraint and intentions of saving money by going low-tech -- until I started comparing prices and saw how much they had come down.
A 27-inch tube set is the same price today as the one I bought four years ago, around $275, but a Polaroid 20-inch flat-panel, HD television was less than $50 more, at $318. A 32-inch combination TV-VCR cost in the mid-$300s, but a Samsung 32-inch HD was in the low $600s, which didn't seem unreasonable considering the quality of the picture.
Besides, was I really thinking about buying a VCR? In 2006? I had already been interested in TiVo, the VCR-like device that records TV programming to a hard drive instead of tapes. And after asking a few questions, I discovered that TiVo had an add-on service called TiVoToGo, which would let me transfer the recorded programs to a laptop, iPod or other handheld device. From there, I could use software to burn DVDs of the games, or even the first three seasons of "The Sopranos" (instead of paying $219 for the box set).
I started to imagine the possibilities: I could have a library of Redskins games at my desk, on an airplane or in the press box. Couldn't remember a specific play from that Skins-Cowboys game three weeks ago? Now, I could just pop in a DVD. I was hooked.
I ended up buying a Philips 37-inch LCD HD television for $1,399 -- about $400 more than I had planned on spending. Once I got the set home, I confronted a series of unexpected decisions, the first being the choice between digital cable or satellite service -- a pick driven purely by economics for me. Watching a cheetah chase a gazelle on Discovery HD is just as eye-popping in either format.
Going the cable route seemed easiest. My provider in Fairfax, Cox Communications, made it easy: Simply exchange the digital cable box with the HD version. Taking the satellite TV path meant a complete overhaul. I'd need an HD receiver as well as an HD antenna, which meant DirecTV would have to come to the house to upgrade everything.
Over the long term, though, Cox HD is demonstrably more expensive than DirecTV. Both charge a monthly fee for the privilege of having HD service -- $6.95 for Cox, $9.99 for DirecTV -- but Cox also charges $9.99 per month per HD cable box, while DirecTV makes consumers buy each HD receiver for $99 with no recurring charge. After one year, the expenses are about the same. But over five years, the Cox $9.99 monthly fee for the HD box would total about $600, compared with $99 for the DirecTV HD receiver. My decision was made.
So now I was in love with this TV and its gorgeous picture. I watched a man tool around New Zealand in a hot-air balloon for hours because the picture was so ridiculously sharp. The Discovery HD Theater program "Equator" makes my television look like an aquarium. During a snowy Monday Night Football matchup between Green Bay and Seattle, not only could I watch snow turn to water as it hit Brett Favre's helmet, but I also could see the powdery wisps of pancake makeup on Tony Kornheiser in the broadcast booth.
But man cannot live on nature shows and sports forever. And neither cable nor satellite offers more than 12 channels of HD programming.
That's right. I paid $1,399 for my HD television, $99 for an upgraded receiver, $110 for the proper cables and an extra $10 a month to a satellite provider that offers me more than 200 channels -- and only 12 of those are in HD.
That's 6 percent. Six!
The other 94 percent of programming is in the regular 4:3 format, the same as the square of your grandfather's regular old TV. That leaves six inches shaded in on the left and right of my screen because most channels are not HD-ready.
And remember my TiVo plan, the one with an HD DVD library of Redskins games on the plane or in the press box? Wrong.
TiVo's 80-gigabyte recorder -- the one that requires a $16.95 monthly subscription -- doesn't work in HD. To record those programs, I need a TiVo HD box that costs -- get this -- $800. Really. And the TiVoToGo service, which transfers recorded programming to a laptop, doesn't work in HD, either.
The good folks at DirecTV informed me that I could still use digital video recording in HD and that their HD-DVR receiver costs $300. More money!
The compromise: The HD television is in the living room, but the TiVo and TiVoToGo are attached to the old Toshiba, where I get regular programming and create non-HD DVDs. And sometimes, that doesn't even work. One time, thanks to software crashes, it took nearly three days to burn the Redskins' 24-14 loss to the Falcons to a DVD.
In the end, I realized that the technology is far ahead of the infrastructure and, for me, there just aren't enough HD channels to justify the expense. If I hadn't needed a new set, I would have waited until there was more programming available.
One night, as my wife and I watched a DVD movie on the HD flat-panel TV, she noted how everyone looked a little fatter. I called Philips, freaked out that something was wrong with my new TV. As it turns out, I should be watching high-definition DVDs -- either the HD DVD format or another technology called Blu-ray -- and scrap my collection of 200 DVDs. Of course, those new DVDs work in only special HD DVD or Blu-ray players, which cost anywhere from $600 to $1,000.
And it's unclear -- as in the old VHS vs. Betamax war -- which of the technologies will become the standard. So in the meantime, I guess it's best to just watch movies with actors who look heavier than normal.
Or a lot of sports and nature shows.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...000070_pf.html
High-Def Disconnect
For $1,399 and Endless Add-Ons He Got 12 Channels
By Howard Bryant
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 21, 2007; F01
Back in August, my needs were simple. As one of the reporters covering the Redskins for The Post, I needed a television and a way to record games so I could analyze what turned out to be a five-win season. A $119 combination 13-inch TV with a VCR would have solved the problem.
Instead, I ended up taking the high-definition plunge, spending $1,399 for a far-bigger and fancier television set than I originally had in mind. As I left the store with my new HDTV, my confidence was boosted by approving nods from people in the parking lot.
"It's going to change your life," one man said.
If only someone had told me that buying the set was the easiest part.
Since then, I have been riding a high-definition roller coaster -- mesmerized by the new TV's crystal-clear images but disillusioned by the disappointingly low number of HD channels you get in exchange for the investment of the upgrade.
My purchase put me in a growing wave of people switching to high definition. Last year, more than 13 million HDTV sets were shipped to stores in the United States, and the Consumer Electronics Association predicts that even more -- closer to 16 million -- will hit shelves this year.
Moving into HDTV had been on my mind for a while. I'd been admiring a 50-inch plasma, and its dropping price tag, for about a year, but I was still fighting the psychological barrier of paying such big money for a TV. I'd spent less than $300 on a 27-inch Toshiba tube set only four years ago and wasn't mentally ready to shell out four figures for a replacement.
And so, faced with the onset of the season and needing a second set at home, I headed out with self-restraint and intentions of saving money by going low-tech -- until I started comparing prices and saw how much they had come down.
A 27-inch tube set is the same price today as the one I bought four years ago, around $275, but a Polaroid 20-inch flat-panel, HD television was less than $50 more, at $318. A 32-inch combination TV-VCR cost in the mid-$300s, but a Samsung 32-inch HD was in the low $600s, which didn't seem unreasonable considering the quality of the picture.
Besides, was I really thinking about buying a VCR? In 2006? I had already been interested in TiVo, the VCR-like device that records TV programming to a hard drive instead of tapes. And after asking a few questions, I discovered that TiVo had an add-on service called TiVoToGo, which would let me transfer the recorded programs to a laptop, iPod or other handheld device. From there, I could use software to burn DVDs of the games, or even the first three seasons of "The Sopranos" (instead of paying $219 for the box set).
I started to imagine the possibilities: I could have a library of Redskins games at my desk, on an airplane or in the press box. Couldn't remember a specific play from that Skins-Cowboys game three weeks ago? Now, I could just pop in a DVD. I was hooked.
I ended up buying a Philips 37-inch LCD HD television for $1,399 -- about $400 more than I had planned on spending. Once I got the set home, I confronted a series of unexpected decisions, the first being the choice between digital cable or satellite service -- a pick driven purely by economics for me. Watching a cheetah chase a gazelle on Discovery HD is just as eye-popping in either format.
Going the cable route seemed easiest. My provider in Fairfax, Cox Communications, made it easy: Simply exchange the digital cable box with the HD version. Taking the satellite TV path meant a complete overhaul. I'd need an HD receiver as well as an HD antenna, which meant DirecTV would have to come to the house to upgrade everything.
Over the long term, though, Cox HD is demonstrably more expensive than DirecTV. Both charge a monthly fee for the privilege of having HD service -- $6.95 for Cox, $9.99 for DirecTV -- but Cox also charges $9.99 per month per HD cable box, while DirecTV makes consumers buy each HD receiver for $99 with no recurring charge. After one year, the expenses are about the same. But over five years, the Cox $9.99 monthly fee for the HD box would total about $600, compared with $99 for the DirecTV HD receiver. My decision was made.
So now I was in love with this TV and its gorgeous picture. I watched a man tool around New Zealand in a hot-air balloon for hours because the picture was so ridiculously sharp. The Discovery HD Theater program "Equator" makes my television look like an aquarium. During a snowy Monday Night Football matchup between Green Bay and Seattle, not only could I watch snow turn to water as it hit Brett Favre's helmet, but I also could see the powdery wisps of pancake makeup on Tony Kornheiser in the broadcast booth.
But man cannot live on nature shows and sports forever. And neither cable nor satellite offers more than 12 channels of HD programming.
That's right. I paid $1,399 for my HD television, $99 for an upgraded receiver, $110 for the proper cables and an extra $10 a month to a satellite provider that offers me more than 200 channels -- and only 12 of those are in HD.
That's 6 percent. Six!
The other 94 percent of programming is in the regular 4:3 format, the same as the square of your grandfather's regular old TV. That leaves six inches shaded in on the left and right of my screen because most channels are not HD-ready.
And remember my TiVo plan, the one with an HD DVD library of Redskins games on the plane or in the press box? Wrong.
TiVo's 80-gigabyte recorder -- the one that requires a $16.95 monthly subscription -- doesn't work in HD. To record those programs, I need a TiVo HD box that costs -- get this -- $800. Really. And the TiVoToGo service, which transfers recorded programming to a laptop, doesn't work in HD, either.
The good folks at DirecTV informed me that I could still use digital video recording in HD and that their HD-DVR receiver costs $300. More money!
The compromise: The HD television is in the living room, but the TiVo and TiVoToGo are attached to the old Toshiba, where I get regular programming and create non-HD DVDs. And sometimes, that doesn't even work. One time, thanks to software crashes, it took nearly three days to burn the Redskins' 24-14 loss to the Falcons to a DVD.
In the end, I realized that the technology is far ahead of the infrastructure and, for me, there just aren't enough HD channels to justify the expense. If I hadn't needed a new set, I would have waited until there was more programming available.
One night, as my wife and I watched a DVD movie on the HD flat-panel TV, she noted how everyone looked a little fatter. I called Philips, freaked out that something was wrong with my new TV. As it turns out, I should be watching high-definition DVDs -- either the HD DVD format or another technology called Blu-ray -- and scrap my collection of 200 DVDs. Of course, those new DVDs work in only special HD DVD or Blu-ray players, which cost anywhere from $600 to $1,000.
And it's unclear -- as in the old VHS vs. Betamax war -- which of the technologies will become the standard. So in the meantime, I guess it's best to just watch movies with actors who look heavier than normal.
Or a lot of sports and nature shows.
01-18-08, 10:37 AM
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Wow. There is your J6P right there. I await part 2 where he gets an HD DVD player and movies freeze up until he either configures his network connections or burns .iso to CD for firmware updates.
01-18-08, 10:48 AM
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Originally Posted by Toad
Not everyone can understand this stuff. Doesn't make them morons; just makes them normal.
01-18-08, 10:50 AM
#5
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by Toad
Not everyone can understand this stuff. Doesn't make them morons; just makes them normal.
01-18-08, 10:58 AM
#7
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Originally Posted by TheNightFlier
I think the point is, for a journalist he really didn't take the time to research anything that he wrote about. He could have educated himself on the basics very easily but apparently couldn't be bothered.
This is a year old. Why bring it up now?
Both cable and satellite now have tons more channels than when he wrote this...
01-18-08, 11:38 AM
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One night, as my wife and I watched a DVD movie on the HD flat-panel TV, she noted how everyone looked a little fatter.
01-18-08, 11:56 AM
#10
DVD Talk Legend
The part that bothered me most was at the end. It's obvious that his DVD player is not set up properly, making people stretched. He doesn't know this, and I don't fault him for that. And he at last tried to fix it. But his end conclusion is wrong and he's spreading misinformation on the whole thing, mixing in some nonsense on HD DVD and Blu Ray. As a reporter, I'd expect something better. Not incorrect info.
The rest is more about not researching his purchase well. Which is his fault, and his rant is kind of weak "news". I suppose it's a viable editiorial, but the blame is generally inward, not outward.
The rest is more about not researching his purchase well. Which is his fault, and his rant is kind of weak "news". I suppose it's a viable editiorial, but the blame is generally inward, not outward.
01-18-08, 12:19 PM
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I think the whole point was he was trying to write as the average Joe. This is how confusing it is for most people. If you don't research each piece of the puzzle for hours and hours and read tons of reports and reviews... you're going to be in the same situation. It doesn't apply to people here but I think the vast majority of the public is in the same boat. HD is confusing.
Of course, this is a year old, as previously mentioned... so a lot has changed.
Of course, this is a year old, as previously mentioned... so a lot has changed.
01-18-08, 01:51 PM
#12
Banned by request
May be an interesting idea for someone to contact Howard Bryant to see if his perceptions have changed any. Or if he bothered on reading the instruction manual.
Odd this article would be brought up now though. I think the overall public has gotten at least exposed to the hi def viewing world, especially after the holiday sales. There's no way anybody could have avoided seeing hi def setups when going into any big box store.
Odd this article would be brought up now though. I think the overall public has gotten at least exposed to the hi def viewing world, especially after the holiday sales. There's no way anybody could have avoided seeing hi def setups when going into any big box store.
01-18-08, 02:07 PM
#13
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by chanster
Well that tells me he has his TV stuck on some sort of ZOOM setting...probably because he was watching a lot of standard TV.
01-18-08, 07:58 PM
#16
This guy makes J6P look like a genius.
What we have here, is one of those buy-return consumers who just can't figure out what he or she wants. He's justifying his return by blaming tech, which is too easy. He's just a stupid ass who can't do a little research before buying.
Paying $1400 for a 37" LCD is outrageously retarded. If you read the article, it scatters all over the place. The guy is confused. Take pity on him and hopefully he hasn't written other articles since then.
What we have here, is one of those buy-return consumers who just can't figure out what he or she wants. He's justifying his return by blaming tech, which is too easy. He's just a stupid ass who can't do a little research before buying.
Paying $1400 for a 37" LCD is outrageously retarded. If you read the article, it scatters all over the place. The guy is confused. Take pity on him and hopefully he hasn't written other articles since then.
01-18-08, 08:28 PM
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Originally Posted by DVD Polizei
This guy makes J6P look like a genius.
What we have here, is one of those buy-return consumers who just can't figure out what he or she wants. He's justifying his return by blaming tech, which is too easy. He's just a stupid ass who can't do a little research before buying.
Paying $1400 for a 37" LCD is outrageously retarded. If you read the article, it scatters all over the place. The guy is confused. Take pity on him and hopefully he hasn't written other articles since then.
What we have here, is one of those buy-return consumers who just can't figure out what he or she wants. He's justifying his return by blaming tech, which is too easy. He's just a stupid ass who can't do a little research before buying.
Paying $1400 for a 37" LCD is outrageously retarded. If you read the article, it scatters all over the place. The guy is confused. Take pity on him and hopefully he hasn't written other articles since then.
01-18-08, 08:55 PM
#18
DVD Talk God
Well, to be fair, prices of LCDs did really drop alot in the last half of the year.
01-18-08, 10:00 PM
#21
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by TheNightFlier
I think the point is, for a journalist he really didn't take the time to research anything that he wrote about. He could have educated himself on the basics very easily but apparently couldn't be bothered.
Cause I love my friends, but I sure as hell don't want to install all of their gear and hold workshops on how to use it.
01-20-08, 01:11 AM
#24
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Originally Posted by Drexl
He got ripped off on the cables too, but I guess that's understandable.
I was hoping this would be Tony Kornheiser.
I was hoping this would be Tony Kornheiser.
01-20-08, 10:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Qui Gon Jim
Wow. There is your J6P right there. I await part 2 where he gets an HD DVD player and movies freeze up until he either configures his network connections or burns .iso to CD for firmware updates.
