🚀 go-pugleaf

Op 22-1-2010 18:28, neppie schreef:
>>> I'm not keen on the plasma thing either. Refuse to buy one. I used to
>>> sell electronics, and the plasmas are crapola - nice picture, but no
>>> longevity and SO many problems - not to mention you don't wanna have one
>>> if you have young children in the house. I have a 46" rear projection
>>> TV, which is nice - I will keep it til it dies. Bought that a little
>>> before the mass hysteria over the LCD flat panels and the Plasma craze,
>>> but I would have went for an LCD if I had bought a TV later. I have a
>>> nice little 22" LCD for my desktop, which was a free upgrade. My other
>>> TVs are ancient, but at least they don't have a dial and rabbit ears
>>> with UHF and VHF....
>>
>> Rear projection never took off here. Unless you mean mooning. I've
>> hardly ever seen them. If they are around they're often rentals for
>> bars and at special, local events.
>
> The front projection TVs never took off here. I remember seeing them in
> stores when I was younger and thinking how strange they were. Rear
> projection had quite a bit of popularity.
> We had a rather elaborate TV in a Victorian style "cabinet" at my
> Mother's. It was a Zenith, back when Zenith made decent TVs, and lasted
> forever.

Beamers, front projection displays, are not too common around here. Usually to 
be found in board rooms, lecture rooms and the likes. Rarely at someone's home.

I haven't seen a cabinet style TV, well ever. Except on TV or in museums. We did 
have one with faux wood paneling. Zenith isn't a common name here. I even think 
I only know about it from American TV. I think I know the logo. It has something 
of a lightning in the Z.

>>
>> LCD's are actually worse in image quality compared to plasma. Plasma's
>> also have a much improved longevity compared to earlier models. Big
>> bad is energy consumption. A LCD-LED is much more energy efficient
>> than any plasma. Though even there plasma has improved a lot.
>
> Plasmas do have a better picture, but they are still not a good buy for
> the money. Actually, they sort of failed around here. The earlier ones
> were so bad AND pricey that it turned people off on them altogether, and
> the LCD sales just took off. If you were to walk into a major store
> here, you would see a huge variety of LCD and only a few plasma - and
> they are usually the very small ones for trendy people to have in their
> bathrooms.

Same is true here. The plasma's win on size. If you want to, you can buy a huge 
TV at MediaMarkt for over 50.000 euro. I'm pretty sure that's a plasma.

Recently it turned out that the most popular TV size is 36 inches. It has 
something to do with the furniture and the cabinet. Now that's bigger than most 
oldfashioned CRT's were. Yet the one celling point these things have is size. 
LCD, LCD-LED, plasma or the ones coming up like OLED or laser, all offer the 
promise of huge (and thin) screens.

>> My TV is an 10 year old CRT, 55cm diagonal. I don't even use the
>> digital cable box because it is crappy.
>
> Side story: My mother was doing a crossword puzzle and asked me "what is
> a 3 letter TV part", and she had three of the letters!! This was yesterday.

Did she understand the concept of a cathode ray tube?

>>
>> Why not have a plasma in the house if you've got rugrats?
>
> With kids, accidents happen!
>
> I came across this:
>
> http://www.plasmafix.com/plasma.php
> If you look at the first problem - the broken screen....yeah...kids did
> that I bet! Or some rageaholic like my ex.
> My ex husband smashed the screen on my rear projection TV, clean
> through, and I ordered the parts and repaired it myself. A plasma
> wouldn't have lasted 2 seconds with him, either.

But that problem isn't plasma specific. Higher wall mounting could help, at 
least against kiddy-fingers. Just don't place a climbable cabinet underneath. As 
a baby I used to climb drawers to get to the bananas. Somewhere there are some 
awfully cute black and white photo's of me doing so.

>> Yes, but most people go buy a TV each year. Besides finding the same
>> salesperson twice in a big box electronics store is quite a feat. With
>> changing schedules and a high personnel turnover chances are customers
>> won't find ya. Unless you know them personally.
>
> What planet do you live in that people can afford a new TV each year? =)
> I'd say about 5 - 10 years! Three if they are geeks who have to have new
> technology!

Aaargh!!! Where did the "don't" go??? The point was that people don't often buy 
a TV and probably don't remember or can't find the same person they dealt with 
last time. On top of that they stand a good chance they're shopping at an other 
store with a good deal at that time.

> I'm not sure how sales are done where you are, but I assume they are
> pretty much the same everywhere? The salesperson gets to know the people
> they sell to, and the people come back and ask for particular
> salespeople. Especially if sales are commission based - then you take
> your customer's personal information and actually call them and mail
> things to them. Customer retention. So, in a way one does get to know
> most of them personally. If they come in for a TV, then they will come
> back for many other things if the experience was pleasant - and I've
> never had any complaints. ^_~

Never done that. I've never asked for a certain salesperson and I don't even 
think I know anyone who did that, at least not for TV's and such. Unless it was 
a complaint.

I'm used to the idea that you won't find the same salesperson twice.

>
>>
>> Oh, and then there is the tiny matter of product knowledge. Sometimes
>> salespersons don't even have to lie to get you to buy, they have to
>> lie to cover up their lack of knowledge.
>
> I've seen both, actually, and it sickens me. When the HD stuff started
> rearing its head, in particular. I SAW and HEARD my co workers lying to
> people just to make sales - "yes, this TV is HD ready" (oh, that blatant
> lie really stuck with me, and still irks me to this day), and others who
> would just fudge things because they were completely inept. The sad
> thing is, that people who bought those TVs had NO CLUE they were lied to
> because HD hadn't really become a "thing" yet, and by the time
> everything was becoming HD, it was too late to make a return, or even
> bother with it. I could go on for days about things I have seen.
> Commission is cut throat, needless to say.

I don't think there are a lot of commission sales over here. Maybe a bonus on 
top of your regular wage. Though tipping waitresses is done over here, it 
doesn't seem to be the bulk of the pay. It seems to be the other way around in 
the US from what I've heard.

Sales persons don't tend to swamp you in most electronics stores. The only place 
where I've gotten down right irritated by pushy sales persons were fashion 
boutiques. Being stopped three times to ask if I could be helped before reaching 
the back of the store was my breaking point. It prompted me to turn straight 
around even before getting to the men's section.

>>> Same same. Everyone calls me to fix their issues when the computer slows
>>> down or stops working, and it amazes me the junk people put on their
>>> computers!
>>
>> And of course the Norton/Mcafee/Symantec stuff you get pre-installed
>> and for which you need to download a special tool, otherwise it won't
>> be properly removed.
>
> My laptop has McAfee on it from the manufacturer, and I just haven't
> felt like dealing with removing it. Call me lazy. I have no need for
> such things, but there are some people who need things done for them -
> but I digress. I can see why they are still popular for protection (I
> use that word loosely).
> I want to shoot my TV every time I see a commercial for ,
> too! *bangs head on desk*

Oh, dear. That company looks like one of those "your PC may be infected" pop-ups.

I always tell people to get AVG free antivirus. It's as good and free.
>
>>> I got a 2 disc special edition of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the
>>> Black Pearl for $4. Bwahahaha. But that's just an example. I'm sure you
>>> are getting the idea that I am quite a cheapskate.
>>> Yeah, my Mother gets confused over 2 discs - even more so the ones with
>>> flip sides.
>>
>> How the heck? Special editions? Someone must have made some boo boo
>> when ordering 10.000 discs too many.
>
> w00t! Yeah! I find them all the time! There's a lot of bargain outlets
> here.

The "someone messed up again so we got it cheap" stores. 99ct stores with 
weirdly named stuff or misprints. I used to live near a horse breeding company 
called "Horses Associated". But that's a bit big for a sign. So it got 
abbreviated to "Horses ass." Seriously. Another one is a bathroom company called 
"Bad Decor". It makes some sense in Dutch: bath decorations. Another one is a 
cereal called "Honey Hitters".

>>> The baby got a 360 for Christmas (from his Dad). So far, so good, but
>>> that was another craptastic idea. Not a huge improvement over the old
>>> xbox - the old one works ok, but there's an issue on occasion. My nephew
>>> has two doorstops however (both of his aren't working), so his GF bought
>>> him a 360 for Christmas.
>>> I'm just not a fan because of the game selection. First person shooters
>>> and war games aren't quite my cup of tea.
>>
>> I've never even considered a X-box. Certainly not the 360. Game
>> selection, price and all kind of problems the thing seems to have.
>> Also, I just don't get on-line gaming.
>>
>
> Yep yep, agreed. I don't do the online thingy either.
> I did play Animal Crossing for Wii with WiiSpeak, and visit other towns,
> but that was a craptastic experience as well. Cute, but uneventful,
> really. And kind of a pain.

I'm just too antisocial.

>>> If I *were* to buy one, it would def be a gaming system (like PS3) so I
>>> could get more out of it than just play movies. They have to come down
>>> in price even more though. ^_~
>>> I can watch NF on the 360 too. I hear they are starting NF for the Wii
>>> also - I will have to see what that looks like. The Wii is such a little
>>> piece of junk, but the games are much more fun. =)
>>
>> I didn't understand why they all wanted that little inferior thing.
>> Until I saw grannies and grandchildren enjoy themselves and look quite
>> silly. It's the same idea as flash games. Keep it simple, stupid.
>
> So true.
> It's funny as hell to watch people on the Wii Fit - hula hooping,
> especially. I have blackmail videos...mwuahahahahaa.

Blackmail videos can come in very handy in a divorce.

>>>> I wonder when the next generation of consoles is announced...
>>>
>>> They are getting too crazy with consoles. I think I am content for quite
>>> a while with what I have. I still play my SNES.
>>
>> I haven't revisited my Atari 2600 for quite a while. 10 years easily.
>
> I had a Coleco with the Atari adapter when I was a kid. I purchased
> another some time ago, and I haven't played it in a while either. I
> think I will. *going to get my Centipede and Roller Controller*

I liked the Coleco, but there were too few games for it, though they looked 
better. There were over a 150 for the Atari. So it was an easy choice then. I 
even got that "Pac-Man Fever" song with it.

-- 
Danny.