Have I mentioned that electronics tend to grumble to dust in my hands? I’m sure I’ve made note of that fact. Specifically, I stated back in February 2010 that our nearly two-year old Uniden phones phones were slowly failing. Since I couldn’t find a standout phone / answering machine, we certainly didn’t want to outlay over a $100 for phones that nobody can seemingly agree to like. Furthermore, here I am on Verizon’s FiOS fiber optic network, it’s 2010, and home phones are still boring. If you compare the technology in the smartphones and home phones, they are decades apart. For home phone technology that lasts me two years (much like the life expectancy of cell phones), why can’t they make better home phones?

If I were to hypothesize, it’s probably the cost factor. Cell phones are subsidized by the telecom operators, expecting to recoup their expenses through the exorbitant voice and data plans monthly fees. I just wish we could see some home phones with color screens, Bluetooth (so I could use a headset), VOIP, and maybe an ability to import or sync an addressbook. Wouldn’t that be something?

Enough ranting and daydreaming. We were down to 1.5 working home phones, so while at BJ’s Wholesale Club, we purchased the 2010 Panasonic KX-TG6545. What exciting details can I tell you about it? There are a number of features that are supposed to be exciting like this “Eco” power-saving mode, but I think the best part is that there is a common phonebook that is shared among the handsets. If you add/modify/delete an entry on one handset, it’s reflected on all. Other than that, not the most exciting. If that’s the most noticeable “Pro”, I’ve already noted one “Con.” While there are many options, you have to dig deep through the menu options to perform those activities. For example, if you wish to quickly intercom someone in another room, or dial someone in the phonebook, you have to dig down at least four (4) menu options to do that. That’s annoying. The package comes with five handsets and a base, but we only needed four handsets. I’m keeping the extra handset in storage, in case another child decides to toss a phone into a filled bathtub.

Panasonic KX-TG6545

See you all in two years when I replace this phone with a ferret/pigeon-based phone system with answering machine. The pigeon would be used for calls outside the house, and I would use a trained ferret for intercom calls within the house.

It’s been two weeks now with the new Panasonic, and we’re well into the 100-hour break-in period. Since this was my dream lusted for so long, it would be prudent to list some thoughts and impressions so far. In no particular order:

• Although we subscribe to the FiOS Extreme HD package (no movie channels though), I’ve noted there are no where near as many HD channels as their are SD channels. Standard def channels are 2-499, and then HD is just 500-599. I’ve also looked for HD versions of Cartoon Network, Nat Geo Wild, the Military Channel, but either they don’t broadcast in HD or Verizon doesn’t offer them. Rats.
• Even though the Verizon FiOS DVR contains an internal 160 Gb hard drive, this will only provide you 16-18 hours of HD recording time. You throw in a few 1 hour shows, a sporting event, kids shows, and whap! you are done. In just two weeks, we’ve been at the 90% mark where previously recorded shows were deleted, and today hit 100% capacity. There’s really not much on there that’s different — we didn’t go and record Bass Masters on the fishing channel in HD. It’s our usual coterie of shows. Interestingly enough, the Motorola DVR that Verizon uses has an eSATA port (that we could use to expand our capacity with an external drive), but Verizon has disabled it. Grrrr.
• HD shows look great vs standard def, so I’d rather live my life never watching standard def again. Sports in HD look cinematic. The scenes from the Tour de France hovering over the French countryside and the Alps are breathtaking. I probably could watch Bass Masters in HD.
• Netflix streams their video in 720p, which looks pretty good. However, Netflix only offers stereo sound for their streaming service. Maybe later this year, if the reports are correct. No 1080p anytime soon though, but I think it’s okay. Surround sound would be nice though.
• Speaking of sound, 5.1 Dolby surround sound for television shows is a nice plus. While I like surround sound, we have one too many remote controls. One for the AV receiver (sound), one for the tv (to change inputs and formats), and one for the FiOS DVR (changing channels and watching recorded shows.) I’ve got my wife seriously contemplating agreeing to move to the Logitech Harmony One universal remote. At least she’s beginning to understand my thought process. I have reasons for why I do the things I do, folks.
• I know Blu-ray is supposedly great and all, but from what I’ve seen, the PS3 is doing a great job upscaling my old DVDs. Nothing has looked choppy or soft yet.

After all these years, I finally got my HDTV. Oddly enough, it hasn’t truly hit me yet. You would think that I would be dancing around, giddy like a little schoolgirl. It would be within the realm of possibility that I would do that, and justifiably so. I’ve absolutely salivated over the thought. Instead, I’ve been pretty chill about the entire purchase. I think it’s partly because I haven’t truly had an opportunity to enjoy it very much. I should explain. We’ve had a busy few days, so my mind has been elsewhere.

• For the past week, I’ve been working in Delaware and staying at my sister’s house.
• Work has been generally pretty busy.
• We have my friend Paul staying over next weekend (July 4th weekend.)
• On July 4th itself, we’re hosting a large BBQ summer party at our little abode, so we’re in preparation for that.
• We’re in the midst of decluttering, and have been tossing out all the old stuff, and organizing the house a little bit better.
• I’ve been having trouble configuring the new Pioneer AV receiver. [More on that later.]

With all that going on, who has free time to sit on the couch and vegetate? Not us. I think televisions are fine, but my life stopped revolving around it years ago. What I do think is that when I DO get to sit in front of it, I like it. I watched Star Wars: A New Hope Sunday morning with Josh & Lily. It was something else to see all the visual detail that I’d never noticed before. I also watched a bit of the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game, and that was picture perfect bummer of a result. I played a little Uncharted 2, and the game went from nice vista to panoramic beauty.

On Friday morning, I woke up at 4:30am, and began to put the tv stand together. The AV receiver has been sitting here since last Saturday, and I was expecting to move the old Sony tv and stand to someone’s house. The tv was scheduled to come Saturday, and I wanted a headstart to get the new stand up, and the packaging bagged and thrown out. It took me about four hours to put the stand together. On a tangent, if I could go back in time, I’d invent the Allen wrench. It’s as if the entire slate of Chinese-manufactured products are required to be built with Allen wrenches. I can not tell you how many months of my life so far have been spent putting together some piece of furniture with an Allen wrench. And dowels. And those annoying bolts that you have to stick into one of those round things in a hole, and twist and lock that bolt in. You know what I’m talking about. Anyway, occasionally, I used a Philips screwdriver as needed, but towards the end, I did have to switch to my Black & Decker cordless screwdriver, which was a big help.

I finished assembling the stand around 9am, which was good, because I had to switch over to doing work. Good timing, eh? I think I’m getting better at putting furniture together after all these years. In the evening, one of Namita’s friends came over to pick up our old 32″ Sony Wega tv and stand. We put that heavy tv in my Highlander, and loaded the stand in her car. Josh wanted to come along, so I belted him in, and we then drove to Princeton to move it all into her apartment. It was heavy, but she was pretty happy. And it was free, since we couldn’t find a buyer. In 2010, everybody wants an HDTV, not a clunky, heavy, SDTV. On the way back, we picked up some Papa John’s and wings for dinner at home for the whole family.

On Saturday afternoon, I moved the old AV rack, and old Onkyo receiver and 6-disc DVD players into storage in our basement. I moved the stand into place, and put all our current devices into their respective spaces. The tv delivery guys from Ceva arrived in the late afternoon, unboxed the tv, assembled the stand, and turned it on for me to verify all was in order. Below is a picture of the new setup, until we re-arrange the rest of the living room. I have mixed feelings about no longer using the old Onkyo DVD player and receiver as they’ve served us well since I purchasing in Nov 2003. Unfortunately, the only reason driving my decision is that neither was compatible with HD. I’m happy that my PS3 plays Blu-rays and upscales DVDs well. For now, I don’t need another Blu-ray player, and that means one less device that I have to buy.

We were busy the rest of the weekend with kid birthday parties and more shopping, but I was a little frustrated with getting the new Pioneer receiver working properly. I did the automatic setup (with the included microphone), but I could tell that the 5.1 surround features weren’t working. It kept defaulting to Stereo, and I couldn’t get the subwoofer to go from Standby to On. It should turn on if the receiver tells it to. Late Sunday night, I read most of the thick VSX-1020-K manual, and played with the HDMI connections via trial-and-error. Eureka! The subwoofer’s little light changed from Standby red to Green On, and I could hear a little bass now.

I’ve also noticed a slight buzz with this G25. If you stick your head behind it or have the surround sound on low, I can hear the slightly perceptible buzz. It’s probably not a dealbreaker, but I thought I should notice it. It’s very reminiscent of a flourescent bulb. I’m wondering if it’s just because I’m in the break-in period on the set? I’ll wait out the two weeks, adjust the display settings (color, brightness, etc.) and review the results.

The new AV setup

Finally, just to note, I’m currently kicking myself for miscounting the number of HDMI and digital optical cables I needed. I had ordered them last week through Amazon for outstanding prices at less than $7 each, but found out that I needed one more of each. I considered running out to Best Buy, but the brick-and-mortar big-box retailers charge 4x the amount. I decided to order from Amazon again, and just wait until Tuesday. In the meantime, if we want to watch movies / play games , or watch television, I have to switch the cables to different inputs. By Tuesday, this should all be better. We renewed our Amazon Prime membership again this year, and I’m very pleased. When this type of situation like the need for additional occurs, it’s not too bad. I can order more stuff, and am not penalized by additional shipping fees. It’s all paid for, and it gets here in just two days. It’s a win-win-win situation.

In 1999, I bought my 32″ Sony Wega flat TV. It weights 200 lbs, but the picture was very nice (and relatively big) compared to what my family had owned in the past. That was 1999, of course, and times have changed. Almost everyone I know has moved onto HDTVs. Knowing me, you would suppose that I would have jumped on one years ago. The first one I ever saw in the flesh must have been this Pioneer at my relative’s house 5-6 years ago.

I never did jump on the HDTV bandwagon for various reasons. For one, the cost. Although the historical costs of HDTVs have decreased, we’d still have to outlay the necessary money for upgrading to a new AV receiver, a new stand, and Blu-ray player. That’s a lot. We never had the extra cash sitting around to finance such a large purchase, especially with the high costs of daycare every month for the kids.

As for the second reason, I haven’t been able to commit to one particular technology. Consumer television technology has evolved over the past five years, and while I’ve always been particular to plasma technology, I’ve flirted with DLP, LCD, and LED LCD. Although I’ve finally decided to stick with plasma technology, manufacturers like Pioneer have exited the industry, and other industry-leading manufacturers like Panasonic have experienced problems with their 2009 models in terms of fading black levels.

What’s a technology enthusiast to do?

Sometimes, you just go to war with the army you got. Here’s the good news. The stars have aligned, the decisions have been made, and the national economy improved slightly. Here’s what we bought:

• Panasonic TC-54G25 – the 54″ model of the 2010 G25 series. I’ve decided against the Sony and Samsung LCD televisions, due to the rumored game lag, but also because the costs are higher. I’m a little worried about the 2010 Panasonics experiencing fading black levels like the 2009 models, but sometimes you need to take a leap of faith. We went for the larger 54″ (not 50″) because we’re planning to rearrange the living room layout, and I loves me a wall of high definition television.
• Pioneer vsx-1020-k — Pionoeer’s mid-to-higher end audio/video receiver. My current AV receiver is actually working fine. Purchased in December 2003, it doesn’t support HDMI. I thought we could space out the purchase to later in the year, but without HDMI, I won’t be able to play cable HD channels that have HDCP enabled. Ah well, now we’re future-proofed for 3D television viewing.
• Techcraft Veneto Series SWP60 TV Stand — This isn’t that fascinating, but we bought a new stand to match our future coffee tables and stuff. We need a new stand anyway, and now I can dump the current AV rack that takes up too much floor space.

Panasonic-TC-P54G25

Pioneer-VSX-1020-K

TV Stand

As you’ll notice, I didn’t buy a Blu-ray player, speakers, or a universal remote. My PS3 will play Blu-ray discs and it can upscale, so I’m set for now. My current Onkyo speakers should work fine with the new AV receiver. I’d love a new Logitech Harmony One universal remote, but it’s too much money to purchase right now. I’ll get that for Christmas or something.

Everything is arriving sometime next week, but I’m most worried about the TV stand. It’s the first item I want set up, but it is only estimated to arrive between 6/23 and 6/28. That’s a big window, and the television is scheduled to be delivered smack dab in the middle of the window. Fingers are crossed. I’m somewhat excited to finally have an HDTV, but I think it hasn’t hit me yet. I’d say that I don’t know what I’ll watch first, but that’s a lie. I want to watch every action movie in my DVD collection, starting with every Star Wars movie and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Short story - I can’t find an HDTV that I like. Each model out there has both rave reviews and serious complaints. Also, I can’t trust CNET on their reviews as my sole source of trusted information anymore.

My Sony Wega CRT TV

Long story – In December 1999, I bought my first TV. I had started my first job out of college, but was still living at my parents’ place. As the story goes, I had seen the Sony Wega CRT TV at a PC Richard & Son in New Hyde Park, and was floored.  I loved it. It was heavy as hell (200 lbs.), but  it was a great picture for its time.

Fast forward to the past few years, and everyone I know has an HDTV in their house. I know one friend who hasn’t made the leap yet, but he’s not into HDTV. I desperately want an HDTV. A bigger, clearer picture. The glory of HD. Did I mention the bigger screen? What has primarily stopped me was the exorbitant prices (over $2000), and the fact that our Sony is working well after 10 years. Sony may have high-priced products (the so-called “Sony tax”), but the products work well. I was almost close to getting one back in 2005 after someone dropped our Sony during our move (I’m talking about you, Vijay.) However, Sears was able to fix a cracked board for just $200. Curses, foiled again.

The premium HDTVs are still at the $4000-5000 price point, but prices have come down significantly for the low end and middle ground TVs.  You can find very good HDTVs (with a good balance of features starting at the $1200. Why am I even explaining this? You probably have an HDTV already, so screw you. Let me move on to explaining my predicament.

My wife will tell you that I’m super particular about my technology. At a reasonable price, it has to have good features, multiple uses, and can scale up as I replace components within my Ipe ecosystem. For example, my home PC isn’t the fastest or greatest, but I can do work, edit movies, or play games. My PS3 can play games, but I can stream and watch Hulu’s TV shows and Netflix movies. I used my iPod Touch equally for listening to music and looking up facts on the Internet while sitting on the couch.

While I can’t afford every product, I continuously research to keep up on technology trends. One, I can be prepared for when I need to replace a product. Two, I can give advice when someone needs buying advice. A good example is my home theater A/V receiver. I’m not replacing it this year, but I’ve already got my eyes on a particular Yamaha among things will allow me to hook my iPod up and play music, and also supports HDMI (my current receiver does not.) CNET is my best friend, as I trust their reviews.

The good news is that we are finally in the market for an HDTV. Our Sony is still going strong (damn you, Sony), but we’re doing a little home redecorating.  Now, onto the problem at hand, and why I’m utterly perplexed, as recent developments tossed my plans out the window.  I’ve always been a big fan of plasma. CRT is dead. LCD has bad viewing angles. DLP is too big and the viewing angle is atrocious. Projectors wouldn’t work with our high ceilings. LCoS is dead, and LED is too expensive.

Plasma technology and my choices

Panasonic

Panasonic TC-P50V10

After Pioneer and Sony got out of the market for producing plasmas, Panasonic and Samsung are now the next best plasma manufacturers, but Panasonic is tops overall. Normally, I adhere to CNET reviews, since I trust their opinions. If they think it’s good, then it’s good.  If they can catch a problem, I might not have noticed initially myself, better still. While I’ve long desired the V10, and to a lesser degree the G10 model, Panasonic has been experiencing recent issues with their deep blacks turning grey over time. CNET never caught onto it, but the tens of thousands of people who have purchased Panasonic plasma sets have. I happened to have started looking at user reviews on multiple websites, and started to find this disturbing trend. Last week, CNET finally reported on the problem.

With that many customers having problem with all of their models, including new problems with image retention (IR), it doesn’t matter how much you spend. Panasonic has now acknowledged the problem, but for now, the entire Panasonic model line is suspect. Last year, when Panasonic announced the V10 at CES 2009, I was in love. How can anyone take a chance at this point?

Samsung PN50B860

Samsung

Samsung supposedly makes gorgeous plasmas, and their PN50B860 is thin and everyone who doesn’t have a problem will shout how beautiful and razor thin it is.  Notice that I said people who don’t have a problem. While perusing Amazon’s customer reviews, there is a tag for the word “buzz.” There is a significant portion of owners complaining about a their sets making a ridiculous buzzing noise. AVS Forum has multiple threads on it as well. While some people say they don’t hear a buzz (like a bad flourescent bulb), some say it can be ignored, but to many others keep returning or exchanging their sets. Samsung states it’s normal, but expensive televisions should not make an annoying buzz that people describe as a buzz that drives into your skull.

Who in their right mind would buy an expensive TV that may or may not make a buzzing noise that will drive you nuts? You may have a problem, but you may not. Uh, no thanks. I don’t win often at craps when I’m hustling in Newark on Saturday nights, and I doubt my luck is going to be better here.

LCD technology and my choices

Samsung

Samsung LN46B750

LCD? Really? I’m not a fan, only because LCD isn’t perfect. While plasmas are older technology and not as popular as LCDs. Sure they are bright and look good in bright rooms, but  people complain about the viewing angles, the motion blur when watching fast action movies or sports, and the lag when playing games.  BTW, did you know there is often a lag when playing videogames on some LCD sets? I didn’t know that.

Samsung makes a well-reviewed LCD called the LN46B750, in multiple sizes. It reviews well enough by sites and users, but some people complain primarily about the viewing angle. Specifically, people/guests in your house who sit off-center (more than 20 degrees from center) won’t enjoy it when the blacks wash out. Or if you play fast twitchy PS3/Xbox games on it, it’s going to lag. This is not encouraging.

Many other LCDs seem to have the same complaints. Good picture, but you may have problems playing games. Or sitting one or two spaces from direct center. Or the colors may be so so. It’s just “not as good as plasma.”

Are you kidding me? I’m not a big fan of LCD technology (except for with my home PC), but I guess it’s the nature of the beast.  I’ve spoken to other friends with LCD TVs, and they love them. I’m so confused.

These are my choices:

• Plasmas that look great initially, but the blacks get lighter and lighter after a  thousand hours?  Or you turn off the menu, and a ghost of the menu’s image is still displayed?
• TVs that drive you nuts with a buzz?
• LCDs with bad viewing angles? Laggy gameplay?

For a guy who finally knows what he wants, I now have no idea what I want. Strike that, I know what I want. I can’t find what I want.  I want a clear-cut winner, but everyone has a problem with every model out there. I feel like I’m in some sort of paralysis mode, since I can’t get a general consensus from the greater population. I’ve already been to Best Buy to see the G10, the V10, and the Samsung LCD. The G10 didn’t wow me, the V10 was nice, but hard to find and expensive. The Samsung LCD is nice, but most purchasers state that the viewing angle problem is not identifiable when you’re standing in the aisle, and when Best Buy has already jacked up the contrast and brightness. True enough, when I saw the Samsung LCD in person, the settings were off the charts. The Samsung plasma would be nice in person, but I doubt I would be able to hear anything out of the ordinary while in a big, noisy box store.

At this stage, I am leaning towards taking my chances with the Samsung LCD for a lower price and smaller screen. I figure that if I lower my investment, then it won’t so bad if I’m not happy later. Furthermore, we’re opting for the 46″ version (not the 50″), as it’s cheaper and probably better fits the size of our room. What I have learned so far is to not rely only on technology reviews by journalists. A great source of information is customer reviews, and I don’t mean just a few. Dig deeper into pages 5-10, and you’ll get a better, more complete, sense of people’s experiences. 

A final, funny anecdote to close this out. There’s a fellow out in the Bay area named P. Radakrishnan. I think he’s my long-lost twin brother. I don’t know what he looks like, but after reading his Amazon.com profile with his other reviews, he’s like a kindred soul. Appears to be a fellow technophile, Indian, and plays the same PS3 games. Weird. BTW, he ultimately returned his Samsung LN46B750 LCD TV, and bought a Panasonic G10 instead.

What is it about me that causes electonics to die a premature death? Do I radiate an aura that burns out circuit boards? I swear, some electonics will last for years, and yet others die ignominously. Is it in my mind, or do I have some useless Jubilee-type mutant power?

Our Uniden phones that are getting crappier each day.

Back in March 2008, just before Lily was born, we purchased new Uniden DECT 6.0 phones (4 of them.) We were now in a larger house, and needed more phones in more places, within arm’s reach.  The old Motorola phones used to work, until Josh threw one into a filled bathtub.  These Uniden phones were pretty good at the time. You could listen to messages from any phone, you could label each phone with a location, and then page someone in another room, and a good speakerphone to use when I’m working from home.

During the past 2 months, the usefulness of each phone is decreasing. It started with our master bedroom phone, and is spreading to the others. During various stages of a call, the phones lose their connection to the base unit. The phone call doesn’t disconnect, but you have to wait for the phone to initialize, find the base unit, and hit the call button again. Finally, you have to explain to someone where you went for 30 seconds. It’s not good. Why is this happening? Only our kitchen and living room phones are  operating properly at the moment. Very frustrating.

I’ve started researching new phones from Panasonic and other manufacturers, but I’m not impressed with what I’m finding. Isn’t it the year 2010? We have fiber optic coming into the house, and VOIP phones in our offices. Why aren’t there cool cordless home phones out there that everyone likes? Our cell phones are so advanced, but cordless phones are stuck in some sort of time warp of the early 2000′s.

The hunt goes on. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment with your recommendations.

I stopped by the Best Buy in Manalapan, NJ, as they had a 50″ Panasonic G10 connected and on display this weekend.  The TV is available at online retailers for a little over $1500, but I was interested in some of the special offers I saw listed online on the Best Buy.com website.  I figured maybe they’d be willing haggle, price-match, and otherwise work with me to sell the TV.  Na-uh.  A complete disinterest.  Here’s the TV, buy it if you want.  The manager I spoke to said they would price match with “an authorized retailer” like 6th Ave Electronics, but not anyone else. 

I asked him about the other specials they might be running, or other benefits to go with Best Buy.  For example, what about the special offers mentioned on their own website?  Nope, he didn’t know anything about it.  As a matter of fact, they don’t have to offer anything the website offers.  I looked at the guy incredulously, and said thanks anyway. 

Shouldn’t they be trying to work a little to get me into that TV?