Originally posted by mymindsblank: No you are correct sir. Toshiba announced that they were ceasing to produce HD-DVD equipment, so barring a few stragglers, the war is over!
That's gotta hurt! I suppose they have no choice really, ya know, with Paramount and Universal going Blu recently. (C'mon to Blu"Transformers" & "King Kong"! ) This has gotta be pissin' off the higher ups. I mean, it ALWAYS sucks when the kid that throws a fit and goes home to play with his own toys has better toys than you do! I wonder if they're kicking themselves for not letting Sony have the bigger slice of the proverbial pie they originally wanted. At least Toshiba woulda had a slice instead of being forced to watch as Sony ate it all.
"I can't live the buttoned down life like all of you! I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles! Sure, I might offend a few of the blue-noses with my cocky stride and musky odor - oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called 'City Fathers' who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about what's to be done with this Monkey_Boy?!"
Posts: 2560 | Location: Springfield, Oh! Hi ya, Maude! | Registered: 01 January 2007
What the crap is goin' on with the people sellin' these damn widescreen hi-def televisions?! Yesterday, I went with the wife to the home of a few friends of hers. They had a beautiful home theater set up --at first sight-- but upon closer inspection, I found that these people had NO CLUE of what they had! One of 'em was playin' Assassin's Creed on the PS3 and I noticed that there were black bars bars at the top & bottom of the screen and the circles in the game were ovals. I whispered to the wife that they hadn't set their Playstation for a widescreen television and she brung it up to her friend. The woman looked at us like we were idiots. So I asked the dude playin' if he could save 'n' quit and I'd show 'em what I was talkin' about. I got the controller and went to the system settings and found that they were set at 420p on an LCD screen that was at least 45" (nobody knew exactly how big it was and I didn't feel like getting even geekier and grabbin' a tape measure. You shoulda seen their faces when I told 'em that that's what one of my friends did to prove to me that my television wasn't 52", but was actually only 50". I have a few geeky friends.) and this was with an HDMI cable!!!!! I set it at 1080p and had them start their game back up and their jaws dropped. They couldn't believe the game was supposed to fill the screen!
Then I asked them to pop in a movie that had an aspect ratio of 1.85:1... and once again I was met with blank stares. Soooo, I grabbed "Hollow Man" on Blu-ray and popped it in. They all freaked because they had never seen a movie on this television without the bars at the top and bottom of the screen. This is because, if you don't have your settings right, the picture will become stretched or squished, distorting the picture. I don't know how anyone can enjoy a movie that isn't being shown the way it should be. I remember, when I first got my widescreen HDTV, I had a hundred questions for the salesman with "How do I adjust the picture size?" being my FIRST one. (I used to deliver pizza and you wouldn't believe how many folks had stretched out images on their widescreens! I was actually kinda scared that you couldn't change the picture size.) The dude showed me how to do it, but then added that I would probably get used to a stretched out picture and never bother with it. I gave him the blankest stare EVER! I've had this t.v. for about 5 years and I STILL adjust the picture size to correspond with every program I watch!
A good example of exactly how much I'm bothered by this: When I was waitin' in line for a PS3 in '06 for a buddy of mine (he had to work and he told me he'd give me his PS2 if I took his place in line for 8 hours. He ended up buyin' me a BRAND NEW slim one! He's such a good guy. ), the store decided to cater to those about to spend over $600 a person at their location and they rolled out a widescreen telly with a DVD player so we could watch some movies while we waited. (We all decided on the "Rocky" movies.) Right when it started I could see the picture size was messed up. I didn't wanna seem like a geek, so I kept quiet, but halfway through the second movie I couldn't stand it anymore! After it was over, I ran to the t.v. and quickly changed the size as the clerk was changing the DVDs and I was met with lots of confused stares. (Maybe it was 'cuz I didn't explain what I was doin'.) However, a few people actually thanked me because they didn't know what was wrong until I fixed it. What's weird is that some of the folks in line actually had the nerve to say that they owned one of these t.v.'s and yet nobody really thought to fix the picture?
Back to my wife's friends' house, we're all sittin around watchin' the movie and it still doesn't look right. When it came to the scene where they're bringing the gorilla back from invisibility, I asked for the t.v. remote and found that their visual settings were the default settings! So, I fixed that for 'em. Then I suddenly realized that the sound had an echo to it and asked for their surround remote. IT WAS SET ON 'ARENA'! (What programs would you watch on that setting anyway? ) So, I set it on 'Theater' and everything sounded so much clearer! Just for kicks, I decided to perform a "tone test" on their speakers and found that THEY WERE IN THE WRONG PLACES AND THEIR LEVELS WERE ALL WRONG TOO! GOOD FREAKIN' GRAVY! In the end, I spent over 2 hours setting up their home theater and I still wasn't finished! Their main problemnow is that they put their t.v. in a corner. This puts their left, right and center channels in the same area, defeating the PURPOSE of surround sound. They didn't even KNOW how surround sound worked! I actually had to explain it to 'em!
This brings me back to my original question: Why aren't t.v. salesmen educating folks like they used to? Back in '96, I got my hands on a large sum of money and ran into Circuit City exclaiming to the nearest salesman, "I want the biggest and the best t.v. you have!" and he told me, "I'll tell ya what, I'll show you the biggest of the best." I went in wanting a GIGANTIC TELEVISION that took up as much of my wall as it possibly could (and I could've afforded it) and I walked out with a 27" Sony Trinitron because this guy convinced me that size isn't what matters, it's the picture that's MOST IMPORTANT. Because of him, I was able to turn up my nose to LOTS of "bigger is better" folks who tried to throw their t.v. in my face because I only had a 27". I was ALWAYS able to say, "Yep, it's a bigger t.v., but mine still has the better picture." Where are guys like the one who sold me my Trinitron (which I still have and the picture STILL looks great)? I've put in soooo many apps at places like Circuit City and Best Buy, but I never get a call back. It could be because I spent 12 years of my life workin' at Pizza Hut (started as a part-time job when I was 16 and ended up being the one that paid the bills after I moved out of mom's at 18) and they probably think I know nuthin' of electronics. Man! I HATE that you can't hand in your app in person so you could let 'em know more about ya. I used to get a job-- *SNAP!* Like that!-- doin' it the "old fashioned way".
I don't know why I felt I had to type all of this up. No one will probably read it, but at least SOMEONE is typing that SOMETHING needs to be done about this kinda ignorance. It bothers me to no end to know that there are actual homes, just like my wife's friends, where the picture and sound are so far below what they COULD/SHOULD be and the owners don't even know it. It's actually pretty darn sad to spend all of that money and not even know what you're gettin' or even how it works. Very sad indeed.
Although, it was nice being the smartest guy in the room. I don't get to experience that too often!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Monkey_Boy,
"I can't live the buttoned down life like all of you! I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles! Sure, I might offend a few of the blue-noses with my cocky stride and musky odor - oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called 'City Fathers' who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about what's to be done with this Monkey_Boy?!"
Posts: 2560 | Location: Springfield, Oh! Hi ya, Maude! | Registered: 01 January 2007
"I can't live the buttoned down life like all of you! I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles! Sure, I might offend a few of the blue-noses with my cocky stride and musky odor - oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called 'City Fathers' who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about what's to be done with this Monkey_Boy?!"
Posts: 2560 | Location: Springfield, Oh! Hi ya, Maude! | Registered: 01 January 2007
) This has gotta be pissin' off the higher ups. I mean, it ALWAYS sucks when the kid that throws a fit and goes home to play with his own toys has better toys than you do! I wonder if they're kicking themselves for not letting Sony have the bigger slice of the proverbial pie they originally wanted. At least Toshiba woulda had a slice instead of being forced to watch as Sony ate it all. 
Yesterday, I went with the wife to the home of a few friends of hers. They had a beautiful home theater set up --at first sight-- but upon closer inspection, I found that these people had NO CLUE of what they had! One of 'em was playin' Assassin's Creed on the PS3 and I noticed that there were black bars bars at the top & bottom of the screen and the circles in the game were ovals. I whispered to the wife that they hadn't set their Playstation for a widescreen television and she brung it up to her friend. The woman looked at us like we were idiots. So I asked the dude playin' if he could save 'n' quit and I'd show 'em what I was talkin' about. I got the controller and went to the system settings and found that they were set at 420p on an LCD screen that was at least 45" (nobody knew exactly how big it was and I didn't feel like getting even geekier and grabbin' a tape measure. You shoulda seen their faces when I told 'em that that's what one of my friends did to prove to me that my television wasn't 52", but was actually only 50". I have a few geeky friends.) and this was with an HDMI cable!!!!! I set it at 1080p and had them start their game back up and their jaws dropped. They couldn't believe the game was supposed to fill the screen!
), the store decided to cater to those about to spend over $600 a person at their location and they rolled out a widescreen telly with a DVD player so we could watch some movies while we waited. (We all decided on the "Rocky" movies.) Right when it started I could see the picture size was messed up. I didn't wanna seem like a geek, so I kept quiet, but halfway through the second movie I couldn't stand it anymore! After it was over, I ran to the t.v. and quickly changed the size as the clerk was changing the DVDs and I was met with lots of confused stares. (Maybe it was 'cuz I didn't explain what I was doin'.) However, a few people actually thanked me because they didn't know what was wrong until I fixed it. What's weird is that some of the folks in line actually had the nerve to say that they owned one of these t.v.'s and yet nobody really thought to fix the picture? 
(What programs would you watch on that setting anyway? 
Where are guys like the one who sold me my Trinitron (which I still have and the picture STILL looks great)? I've put in soooo many apps at places like Circuit City and Best Buy, but I never get a call back. It could be because I spent 12 years of my life workin' at Pizza Hut (started as a part-time job when I was 16 and ended up being the one that paid the bills after I moved out of mom's at 18) and they probably think I know nuthin' of electronics. Man! I HATE that you can't hand in your app in person so you could let 'em know more about ya. I used to get a job-- *SNAP!* Like that!-- doin' it the "old fashioned way".
I don't get to experience that too often! 
