This was originally intended for the Displays section, but it became so disjointed and pointless as I wrote it that I decided to post it here instead. Without any further ado, my pent up rage from this afternoon:
Today I went to Ultimate Electronics, mainly for 2 reasons. 1) To check out the newest batch of 1080p TV's and find out the shipping day of the new Yammy receivers, and 2) To mess with their "knowledgable" sales staff as much as I could.
Being a youngin' (17 years of age), I don't exactly expect a lot of attention when I go into a boutique electronics store with employees paid on commission. Luckily I was able to find a guy willing to check the shipment day of the yammies. easy enough. Talked a little HT, and that was that. I went and found the qualia 006 ($13,000 70" rear projection LCoS. WOW!) and was watching LoTR: Return of the King on a $300 panasonic S97s dvd player. Not bad, but I wondered why the denon 3910 was sitting idle under an average 50" plasma or whatever (since the plasma was getting the generic store HD feed). As I'm watching, a salesguy walks in with a potential victim and starts talking about the TV. I chime in every once and awhile, asking my own questions, but he (the salesman) knows where the real business is. I ask what de-interlacing chip the dvd player uses. He doesn't know (neither do I but that's why I'm asking!), and basically gives me a look telling me to shove off. But the potential victim seems concerned about this "de-interlacer thingy" so after 3 salespeople, I find out it's a faroudja DcDi. "But that doesn't matter, the picture quality depends completely on the TV." Is what the salesman counters with. I offer to change the settings on the dvd player to 480i, and that's when I receive the "I am going to kill you" stare that I had been expecting since the conversation started. I apologize and leave, but I am now asking this question. Which do YOU believe is more important, TV Picture quality or source picture quality. Kind of a no-brainer since PQ is impossible without a good TV to acheive it, so lets assume you have an "average" HDTV matched with an "average" souce supplying HD content that looks good, but not as good as it could be. Which thing are you going to spend money on... maximizing the current TV with the best source, or getting a "better" TV, even though the content might not look a pixel better.
So umm, yeah. I wish I had $13,000 for a TV.... That's about all I really get out of this post. Thanks for reading.
