Samsung Shift

So, yesterday, I turn on my LCD TV, and there is a weird thing going on with the pixels. I try to figure it out, but on every channel, it's fuzzy, and I can't read the text. There's also a vertical interference seen. I start fuddling with the DVR settings, and things are not getting better. Even the HD channels are quite screwed up. I go through the master setup, and I'm not making any progress.

Could this be one of those late night updates that I've heard that Cablevision does. I wonder, but I verify the signal is still ok as my 2nd TV is still fine. I start to get a really sinking feeling when I switch to antenna, and even try a DVD and the weird pattern remains. Yup, it appears to be the TV itself.

I think back, and realize that the Samsung set is just over a year old. I also recall a letter from them just a week ago that was trying to get me to part with some cash for an extended warranty. If I'm remembering this accurately, it was like $175 for another two years of coverage. It seemed kind of steep at the time, but I'm wondering if I might be able to still get in on it. Figures the TV would start to self destruct as it hit the year mark.

I'm now pretty much resigned that the TV is not in good shape. Out of running out of things to do, I unplug it. At least now I don't have to look at the dreadful pattern on the TV. After I plug it back in, and repower up, the TV is absolutely fine. Good thing I hadn't hauled it to the curb.

At this point, I'm very thankful it's working, but still wondering what went wrong. Any ideas?

Jonas

The Second TV Challenge

While there is no shortage of great TV's for the focal point of the den, the toughest decision is often a plasma or an LCD. Contrast that with the second class treatment that the smaller digital TV's get. You know, the ones that typically end up in the bedrooms.

Getting down to specifics, once we get below 26", the choices narrow considerably. Sure, there are some sets that are 19", but at that size they are just too darn small. In between 20" and 26" there just are too few sets. And of the ones that I find, they are overpriced for the size they're delivering.
One such set is from Samsung. For 23", it's currently $545, which is expensive when I've seen 26 inch sets for less than that price point. Still, Samsung is a respected name in LCD sets, and I am pleased with the one I own already, so I am still tempted to consider paying the price.

Surely, there must be some other choices. Amazon has another 23" set from LG. I've never owned anything from LG, and have never been that impressed with their stuff. While their set is going for a better priced $485, the $31 in shipping brings us within a stone's throw of the Samsung set, so it's hardly compelling to try the unknown.

For the even more adventurous, there is a Sceptre brand set that is a cool $349 with $29 in shipping. Then again, I've not heard of them before, and I don't go for "no name" big ticket items. Also, the set can hardly be described as sleek, and looks more like it came out of a retooled Russian tractor factory. I'm also hardly impressed at a 700:1 contrast ratio (Samsung claims 4000:1) for a current LCD, so if these were directly comparable (they're not, but that's another story) we're somewhere between lackluster and mediocre.


I mentioned this in the recent NudgeCast, and perhaps the best route is to go for a Viewsonic LCD monitor that has a built in TV tuner. I'm finding it for $396, with a more reasonable $7 in shipping. Reportedly, it does have a remote control, and plenty of the right connections, including an HDMI port, as well as composite, component, and S-video inputs. You can get all the stats first hand here.

Now you get the idea of not too many sets in this size point? The point of this is that consider an LCD monitor with a TV tuner as it makes a more compelling deal for the price. Also, you could always use it as a monitor for the computer.

Jonas

The Rest of the Monitor Story

I had first reported that I was having issues with my Acer 19" LCD monitor last month. Over the last few weeks it got worse and worse in general, but it still was an intermittent problem. Before I sent it off (at my dime no less), I wanted to be certain that it would show off it's worst stuff. By the time I sent it, the screen was consistently unusable.

I packed the monitor back in the original packaging. As my request only said "vertical lines" I took the time to write a letter detailing the issue I was having to make sure that the technician would know exactly what I had experienced. I then sent it UPS to Acer service in Texas. I tracked the package via UPS, and half hoped that the monitor would get crushed in the back of some truck and I'd get to collect the $200 I had insured it for so I could go purchase a new LCD and be done with it. The monitor arrived safely on 1/3/08.

After a week's journey there cross country, and the inevitable deluge of broken toys to fix, I didn't expect to see it for at least a month, if not more. I was baffled to see the FedEx guy put this box outside my door yesterday on 1/9. How could it be?

I was further confused to see that the service ticked that it was throughly tested and repaired, but no new parts were required. I was fully preparing to send it right back to them, and I hesitantly hooked it up to my desktop.

I was pleasantly surprised that the monitor worked, but was wondering when the vertical lines would return. For the last two nights at least, they haven't. I reserve final judgment after at least a week, but preliminarily we're in the clear.

Too often companies don't take care of the little guy, but so far it appears that, Acer fixed my monitor, and did it in a timely fashion. While this wasn't the most expensive LCD monitor when I purchased it, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one from this brand.

Now I just wish I knew which screw they turned in case this happens again.

Jonas

Update: One week of use and the monitor works fine. Thanks Acer.

Look For Yourself

I've written before about the process of buying an HDTV, and it still rings true. I wanted to point out that this is a shifting landscape of technology, and what folks say is often not up to date.

I've heard too many times about the weakness of LCD's- contrast. The party line goes something like this. Sure, LCD's can go bright, but they are limited by their technology. The backlight can't be turned off, and they can't go too dark with the current crop of LCD's out there because there is always some light leaking through. Plasmas, using a different technology aren't limited in that regard, and have far more contrast. Right?

Well, I was wandering through the local price club, and after buying pounds of iced tea, I wandered past the televisions. Wow, what a nice setup; they have a Blu-Ray disc player hooked up, and the latest Spider Man movie being displayed in hi def across a whole line of TV's. I will say that they had a much better setup for picture display than most of the stores that I have seen (maybe that's what they use the membership fee for).

What catches my eye is that they have a Sony plasma and LCD side by side. They are similarly sized, I believe the plasma was a 50 incher, and the LCD 46. I take a quick look at the two TV's and I notice right away that the blacks are far darker on the LCD than on the plasma. Yup, on scene after scene, the LCD image was far darker on the blacks than the plasma was.

Is there a lesson here? I think there are two. The first is that just because "everyone" spouts that plasmas are better at something, it doesn't make it true in every instance as these are generalizations of two very different technolgies. There has been plenty of development, and there will continue to be, as LCD's are clearly catching up in the contrast department, at least in today's informal test. The other is that there is no substitute for seeing the TV set in person before purchase.

For my money, I'm glad I voted for LCD, and I can see why plasma sales have lost market share.

--Jonas

Things That Make You Say "Hmmmm..."

Some things just don't make any sense, and this week brought a pair of them to me.

No sooner do I post my positive experience with my DVR, the Philips 3575, does it develop a weird issue. I'm watching a DVD while recording something to the hard drive, which I've accomplished before without incident. Suddenly, the disc stops playing, the recording stops, and I've got some weird, white screen up on my TV mentioning some type of system error. Not only that, but the machine is completely frozen, and I can't even get the disc out. I finally have to plug and unplug the machine to reset it, and while the disc responds then, I navigate over to the hard drive, and everything that I recorded previously isn't there! Clearly, a catastrophic hard drive failure has visited me. I then watch the rest of the disc on the Philips, realizing that it's probably toast.

After the film, I head on over to my desktop (thinking that it's a good thing to have a nice LCD display as I'll be watching more TV online without a DVR). When I turn it on, I notice that my monitor has a weird pattern of vertical lines completely across it. Yup, Windows starts, and it's not going away. No, it's not the dreaded safe mode of Windows with the limited color palette. I decide to do a little troubleshooting, as I try and compute via Braille. I plug the monitor from the graphics card into the desktop's on board graphics, but the pattern remains. I then try to plug the monitor into my notebook's video out, and the same lines sit there. I'm a little befuddled as this monitor has been bullet proof since I got it, and performed without a hiccup along the way. I wonder if it might be the VGA cable, but I futz with it and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I start thinking if I'm having some weird household electrical issue, but I recall that the computer and monitor were both off, through a surge suppressor turned off at the time of the Philips difficulty.

The next day, I find my receipts, and start to get some help, as both are under warranty still. First to the Philips. I call their customer support, and they were refreshingly helpful. I confidently blurt out "My hard drive is dead." The tech guy asks what the machine did, and agrees I'm probably right, but asks me to try something first. We unplug the machine for a full minute, and plug it back in to do a system reset. The machine then is back to normal, and the content on the hard drive seems to be there, and playable. Could it really be that simple? The only residue I've noticed so far is that the blue hard drive recording light seems to have gone out, but it was too bright anyway, so I wouldn't RMA the machine just for that.

Now to the monitor. I go to the Acer support site, and I get approved for the send back. I decide to make sure that there's nothing I need off of my desktop, as it could be sans monitor for the next month, and I don't have a spare these days. As I do this, I'm surprised that the display is completely normal! I run the computer for over an hour, and the weird pattern of vertical lines doesn't return.

While I'm pleased as punch that both the Philips DVR, and the LCD monitor are back to their usual state of health, I'm simply at a loss to explain what might have happened. Is this one for the X-Files?

--Jonas

Update: Jan '08- The DVR continues to function fine. Here's what happened to the monitor.

An Observation of Target's TV Line

This week when I was at Target, just for kicks, I decided to wander through the electronics department (Where did you expect me to go...housewares?). While there, I meandered over to televisions. I can make two observations about their department.

First, the less important one, is that compared to some other retailers that come to mind, the worst offender being Wal-Mart, all of the TV sets had a great signal. It did appear to be high definition as well. All of the TV's had the same signal with no static, or digital noise, or signal dropouts. Whoever set this up did it right, and it shows. This makes it a lot easier to compare sets when the only variable in the picture is the television itself.

Speaking of TV's, that brings us to our second point. Out of the entire wall of sets, big and small, I noticed only one plasma set. True, there were a ton of sets in the 26" to 32" range where LCD truly shines and is more affordable, and this size has never been plasma territory which is 37" and up. Still, when the number two retailer is so heavily slanted towards LCD, and away from plasma, it kind of makes me wonder if plasma is going to be relegated only to the high end specialty stuff. I seriously doubt that too many technophiles shop for their gear at Target, but if this is what the bulk of America is buying, you can bet that the sales figures will show it, and the manufacturers will build for it.

For years, there has been ongoing debate on if a plasma or LCD was the "true" HDTV (as if there could be only one). It went as far as coworkers telling me that "I had to buy a plasma as it was the only way to go." Needless to say, I took their advice from whence it came, and proceeded to buy what looked good, and I could afford (which is always good advice no matter what the product). Bearing that in mind, I find it ironic that perhaps this is how the LCD vs. plasma debate will be settled- "Not with a bang, but a whimper," with consumers voting with their wallets strongly in favor of plasma.

--Jonas