----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Why thank you Rodolfo. This stuff is a passion, a love, and just fun. It is
so rewarding to see a customer light up when they experience something
better. I always tell my staff a great salesman is a great teacher. Show,
teach what is better and the prospective customer will always come back and
buy.
TVs are commodity biz, like anything. Fortunately, the quality of video is
far improved over NTSC, allowing for quality in video, something not before
had as we have in audio (do I hear guns loading now?). When 4k comes in 4-7
years, we will see even more. Then, if we are alive, 16k will rock the
world. Unfortunately, I either will not be here, or too blind for
holography, but Dolly Parton reruns should be a good source material for
evaluation.
Point is, only some people care about performance. The rest, about a deal,
meaning how much can they get off, not what its worth. So, no matter where
the price starts, they gotta deal. If you ever work retail Rodolfo, size up
the customer, and if he is one of those, start high and give him a "deal".
Or just tell him to go elsewhere, as I gently imply, because he will likely
be a long term hemorrhoid!
But among us, quality matters, and we are the ones that cause mfgs. to push
the envelope, especially the small, creative ones. So keep on pushing.
And remind me, what brand of plasma was that that had the tube front end
satge?
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Rodolfo La Maestra
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 3:52 PM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Joseph,
Good, it looks like you are actually doing what I suggested regarding
passing some savings to the consumer, and in your case even better because
you pass the savings even when you still give the advice and the effort.
I have to admit that there is one thing you said to me personally in one of
the last conferences that I take my hat off, there is no owner or manager of
ANY of the hi end places I am familiarized with that would do what you do:
"taking your staff to attend to real life acoustic musical events to let
them learn the inner details of musical instruments, their tones, harmonics,
musical arrangements, etc.
After all a good hi-end store should properly demo and sell high quality
electronic equipment to try to imitate as much as possible a real life
musical event, and any salesman should know what is the real thing before
they can demo how each amp or speaker can convey the musical inner details
differently, to the same ears, and been able to explain it.
Exactly the same should apply to HDTV, many do not even know how a properly
ISF calibrated set looks like, and many do not even know what ISF is.
On my other email I mentioned about stores and consumers being lost in
differentiating between quality and not, and that might be a driver for
looking for rock bottom prices on buying anything, but many years ago I
thought that by now, one year before flicking the switch out of analog TV,
would be much better than what it is.
Ironically, the situation now is similar than when I wrote the following
article 4 years ago for another HDTV magazine about the same subject, there
is no much improvement on the human part, other than the abundance of HD
panels on the showroom and hi def DVD as source in some individual demos,
the increase was in the Internet information, online stores, forums, actual
owners detailing experiences, etc.
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/articles/20 ... _be_prepar
ed_to_select_the_one_for_you.php
This reminds me of the changes the car dealership industry suffered since
the Internet is now the source of research for most car buyers before they
get to a showroom, if they get to a showroom. Those buyers research all the
options, the dealer cost of each of them, the dealer and manufacturer
discounts, and compare between online and brick and mortar dealers; when
they enter the showroom the negotiation starts from the dealer-cost up
rather than sticker-window down as it use to be.
It seems your store might deserve the "queen" status, at lest for hi end
audio.
By the way, we better do not touch the subject of the virtues of vinyl, tube
amps, and stands "for the cables not to touch the floor", because our good
friend Robert F. might suffer a temporary increase in blood pressure after
his last comment about the subject. Who knows? He might be pushed to admit
that the thousands of laserdiscs jackets displayed on the full wall of his
HT are actually "vinyl LPs" and the $25K turntable is not shown on the his
web site.
Take care Joseph.
Best Regards,
Rodolfo La Maestra
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Joseph Azar
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 2:23 AM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Damn, where is that queen? Is it a real female, or just a drag one? When you
find the queen around here, parade that sucker by, Rodolfo. In the meantime,
your son and I can check out the ones in LV!
My local repair company informs me of good vs. junk stuff, gear they will
take, gear they would rather not, and gear that I can just go throw in the
river as they never want to see it. That article came from them, and they
are quite competent, ISF, and old timers in the biz.
Unfortunately, it is hard to know all about all video. Even you struggle to
know whats what. We try at my store and do a satisfactory job, even though
half of us are really stereo music lovers and can give you a real ear
education. I may even give you a turntable ed if I can ever find time to sit
down and write the course material.
Surprise! We sell Panny and Pioneer for the same, or less than the big guys.
Yep. You heard right. The 5000ex and pro hd1 we sell for $2999. We sell the
1080 50" Kuro for $500 or more less than BB. We do not get rich like this,
but make a decent profit, yet more importantly, take care of our customers.
I allow calls to my mobile up to midnight, and even had one Thanksgiving
that I solved via phone. But it was a national emergency: football day!
I know the small stores like mine are disappearing rapidly, and what a
shame! However, with the housing crisis, I hear from reps the appointment
only and trunk slammers are also disappearing. I do believe that our retail
biz will again grow due to the need for somewhere to call for real info and
help. Get them all day: "I can't get my _____ to work. What do I do?"
"Yes, where did you buy it? Have you tried calling them?"
"Yes, but they can't help me. They don't seem to know."
At that point I suggest a either a service call at hourly rates, to include
our learning time on gear we do not sell, or take it back and come buy from
us at the same price for better gear.
My point is we are losing specialists in many fields, not only audio/video.
When is the last time you saw a good photo shop, one that can help you buy a
good film or electronic camera? By not patronizing craftsmen, we lose them,
and ultimately hurt ourselves. One of the big problems for high end guys is
the lack of showrooms and intelligent sales personnel for their product. The
internet serves them poorly, and you too for truly purchasing correctly.
As one customer just told one of our staff, why would I want to buy from the
internet or appointment only? I want to try it and have some one who can
help anytime after I buy it.
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Rodolfo La Maestra
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 1:38 AM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Joe,
I understand your valid concern.
When VHS was preferred was not for quality either, when LCD was preferred
was not for quality either. Massive amounts of people buy those, and many
of those do not even care for your store type.
That wheel is running since hi-fi was invented and the Internet and Costco
type shifted the savings with lower prices to the buyer, not to the salesman
that in most cases is poorly informed, and have done nothing other than
pointing to a floor sample they do not even know or properly calibrate for
proper presentation and comparison.
Many times I go to hi and low end stores to listen to the gross errors and
misinformation their ignorance fills consumers heads, then I take those
consumers to the side, present myself, and give them true knowledge, free.
Your store might be different, but I could not find one in ten years of HDTV
that really knew well the technology and the products, I make them pass all
kinds of tests, and 99% of them fail, and with a face of confidence.
That is the state of business.
You have not provided a source for the Vizio "junk" issue, other than the
article that talks about warranties for tier levels. Those will always
exist. Out of warranty tier 1 also makes people pay for all the expenses,
and they are not cheap, so this is pay now or pay later, and most prefer the
"pay-later" chance because they might be lucky and actually "pay-never", and
the money is in their pocket since day one.
When a plasma sells for hundreds to a $1000 less on Costco or the Internet
than in the brick and mortar uninformed place, that by itself pays for many
many years of extended warranty if that is the buyer's concern.
Joe-six-pack has the choice to buy the warranty with that saving or use the
money for a whole surround system, cabinets, etc.
In other words, how to spend the saving is on the consumer control, not as
an inaccessible commission in the salesmen pocket that no even know the
products they sell; and those are not only the BB and CC type, but also hi
end places that charge full MSRP and believe they are the Queen of HDTV.
The way I see it is simple, the value added service/knowledge a good store
can give to a consumer has become now too expensive by current standards
compared to alternative markets anyone has access to, which means that
survival without knowledge and sensitive overhead cost could not be
possible.
Look at it from another angle, if an informed consumer gets into those
stores, ignores the uninformed salesmen, points to a product and just signs
the check and leave, the store does not pass the value of the not provided
effort as a saving to the consumer, maybe they should start to do that in a
flexible way at the moment of negotiating the sale.
So it comes to "who controls the savings", and consumers will always try to
control the savings, especially when they are large, they have done the
research already, and the store has done nothing regarding advice, even when
they know that a Vizio is inferior to a Panasonic.
Best Regards,
Rodolfo La Maestra
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Joseph Azar
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 10:39 PM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Read this:
http://hdguru.com/?p=107
Buying junk products like Vizio continues to create a demand for junk and
not push the technology envelope. In other words, why should anyone do much
to develop new, better gear when down and dirty pricing is the king? Fujitsu
is exiting the flat screen market and they had done much to advance the
state of the art.
Buying junk makes us our own worse enemy. Buying from big box stores rather
than caring, knowledgeable dealers eliminates not only knowledge and service
for us, but outlets for better technology from enlightened mfgs. Better
costs not much more, and it lasts, saving us money, and makes us happier
with better performance.
Why even buy poor performance?
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Rodolfo La Maestra
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 8:11 PM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
As with most manufacturers and models, and especially those on the rock
bottom pricing range, you will find a mixed bag of owners that are happy
with their sets as well as others that had problems with it. Just a quick
look at the Internet zoos would confirm the sides of the pie.
In fact, that also applies to almost all products out there, regardless of
how much you pay. We just had an exchange about a few disappointing company
decisions on a hi-end Casablanca pre/pro audio piece for $17,000, I own one
and I have to deal with the situation in an intelligent way no matter how
much anger could I have, and I still recommend the piece because of its
unmatched audio quality.
Customer service, repair, knowledgeable sales staff, is full of holes all
over the industry, whether is sold by Costco or by Harvey, which is now in
chapter 11 after the failed merger with Myer Emco. Both companies with
similar interests of quality service.
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6515615. ... c=topstory
In other words, nothing is perfect, and in such mess, telling someone to
consider a lower cost product when no budget is available is perhaps the
only idea that could become an option on an empty wallet.
When I said "consider" I was thinking on the main driver that Robert had:
"no budget", which could create the potential that he would not have a set
at all, if we just push for the best out there and ignore his reality.
Regarding the position of Vizio in the industry, they did a presentation at
Display Search in one of the last HDTV conferences I attended, and after a
low-key down-the-earth presentation of what they do to the market so any
Joe-six-pack can have the dream panel, not one person criticized the parts,
the service, the approach, the consumer satisfaction, etc, it was quite the
opposite, all from an exclusive audience of HDTV professionals from every
part of the industry, including retail.
Vizio reached the #1 selling panel company above Samsung until recently.
Here is some of what they do for the mass market, to have access to panels
that otherwise people could not buy:
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/mo ... 295013.php
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/vizio ... -946.shtml
http://www.avrev.com/news/0307/20.viziogrows032.shtml
Vizio, as anyone else could have its bad side, it all depends on each
person, each case, and against what you compare, on equal terms.
Please be sure to understand that I am not endorsing Vizio, I endorse
Pioneer Elite and Panasonic plasmas, but I am just thinking in perspective,
I have my wallet empty and have to take Robert out to get 'the" TV he needs
to just watch something at home, and he is looking for a plasma, so I offer
that option, among others.
Best Regards,
Rodolfo La Maestra
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Joseph Azar
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 3:43 AM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Vizio is junk, period. Lousy picture, lousy manufacture, lousy parts. That's
how they keep the price so cheap. Who even knows if the parts are legit.
There is counterfeiting in parts too, chips labeled as one thing but are
another. This is talked about in engineering mags, not consumer. They may
work, and within spec, but barely. They may also cause damage or fire. If I
can find the article, I will forward.
6) Wonder why a Samsung or LG plasma looks better some places than a
Pioneer? Ever heard of spiffs and kickbacks? Why not set one worse to sell
the more profitable one?
9) I don't believe a good Pioneer 1080 set would not show these differences.
Try it on a 5000EX or Pro-FHD1, both being the same set except the Pro-Fhd1
is the Elite set (odd being called Pro) and a grand more.
10) The best blacks yes, but sometimes too much. Though I have not seen
better elsewhere, I am not sure gradation steps are linear as I view it. but
never have I seen any measurements on linearity either, and no one talks
about that.
See you guys at CES!
-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
Behalf Of Richard Fisher
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 10:05 PM
To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
Subject: Re: Lost among Choices
----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
7) the Vizio - poor service and repair if it fails
Being on a budget is going to be tough for the performance you are
seeking... Rodolfo has pointed the way if you can find the money.
Richard Fisher
ISF and HAA certified
HD Library is provided by Techservicesusa.com
Publisher
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/forum/index.php
Rodolfo La Maestra wrote:
> ----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
>
> Robert,
>
> 1) I would check first with your home insurance to verify if they cover
> anything of that loss.
>
> 2) If you used a power conditioner such Panamax, Monster, or the like, I
> would check their policy as well.
>
> 3) CRT HD was probably the more eye-appealing image compared to the
> competitor technologies, so there is a reason to get to like it. On CRT
> there is no pixel structure, on 720p plasma that is the first you will
> notice if you are close enough. Two different animals, and many times the
> main issue of disappointment.
>
> 4) The horizontal resolution of your CRT set was probably well below 900
> lines (measured left to right, to what I can recall when that set was
> introduced in 1999), but almost everyone else on the CRT category would
not
> do much better. Out of a total 1920 left to right on the 1080i signal
itself
> you were missing quite a chunk of horizontal resolution (and vertical as
> well), but the CRT technology was so forgiving that even when showing at
> half resolution the HD images look pristine.
>
> 5) You will NOT find that virtue on fixed pixel displays, especially the
> 720p oriented sets, which are limited to about 1300+ (768x1366 in many).
>
> 6) Retail floors are still idiotic regarding proper settings. Make sure
you
> evaluate the plasma sets with the contrast down, no "Vivid" type of image
> setting, neutral settings for color, tint, etc , standard (or the like) on
> color temperature, and view them about 3 to 4 times their height on HD
> material (more for SD). Even with that adjustment you might still see
pixel
> structure which could make it unappealing compared to the softness of
analog
> CRT tubes, but the other virtues of plasma will make you forgive that
issue
> with time.
>
> 7) When quality is the driver I normally recommend Pioneer or Panasonic
(in
> that order), but since you are looking for a good price without
compromising
> quality I would consider a Vizio panel.
>
>
For 2008 it was predicted that 720p plasma panels would go down in
price
> quite considerably, so if I would be you I would be monitoring the market
> for a while if you can wait, especially because price is of a concern to
> you.
>
> 9) Do not be concern with HDMI 1.3 on the display, but be more concern
with
> the number of HDMI inputs (of any version) on the display if you do not
have
> a switcher or A/V receiver doing the switching. The plasma set would
> probably not have the ability to deal with the higher bit video
processing,
> XVColor, Deep Color, etc. brought by the ability of HDMI 1.3. In other
> words, receiving/accepting a level of HDMI does not mean the set can
display
> the higher capabilities of the connection, and in most cases (95%) it
won't.
>
> 10) 1080p will cost you but will give you 2 million pixels rather than the
> barely 1 million of a 720p panel, so if image is your concern perhaps you
> should also compare with the new Pannys or Pioneer Kuro (the best blacks
in
> my opinion, which also gives you better color depth).
>
> 11) If you have the space, and I assume you do because the RCA set you had
> was quite a real state eater on depth, consider DLP or LCoS RPTV while
they
> are still alive, they are 1080p, they are now what CRT RPTV was, the best
> price for size deal, if you do not mind "wobulation" in DLP RPTVs DMDs,
you
> do not see the rainbow effect in DLP color wheel, and if you do good
> research with the LCoS set you choose to avoid some lemons out there.
>
> I hope this helps Robert.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Rodolfo La Maestra
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HDTV Magazine Tips List On
> Behalf Of Robert Wade Brown
> Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 4:37 PM
> To: HDTV Magazine Tips List
> Subject: Lost among Choices
>
> ----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
>
> 12/27/2007 2:59pm ct
>
> I have a 6.5 year-old RCA HD 38" 1080i model F38310 (CRT
> tube) which was blown out by a city power failure restart we have yet
> to explain.
>
> I've found that the 2 Plasma (below) sets I've trialed to
> replace it are not as good quality a picture as I am used to:
> Samsung HPTA4254 42" 720p Plasma
> LG 42PC1DA 42" 720p Plasma
>
> Is this because I'm used to CRT ?
>
> I'm told that the next best step up is the Samsung FPT5084
> 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV
>
> Obviously, I'd like to move to a better picture and 1080p
> and HDMI 1.3, but I have an almost non-existant budget.
>
> Advice please.
> Best,
> Robert B
>
> 4106 Texas Blvd Texarkana, TX 75503-3011 voice 903-792-2020 fax
> 903-792-2022
>
>
>
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