Return of Home Theater

It's back- now getting new home theater calls for the first time in 18 months

Is Plasma TV dead?

with audioholics reporting that Pioneer is getting out of the Plasma TV biz and will only be stocking LCD in the future- does that put pressure on the LCD makers to improve their feature set?

3 hour install

Not untypical changeover from NTSC to HDTV





Assume CRT TV out to LCD TV in will be easy peesy 10 minute job.
Unplug old TV. Set on bed (TV is heavy & bed is empty and close). Spend 10 minutes cleaning dust bunnies that had accumulated below old TV.
Unpack new LCD HTDV.
Use included cables to make "good" connection to DVD/VHS player (formerly used "basic" connection - coax cable). Find power cord and learn that is a 3-prong plug. Look at walls - every outlet is 2 prong.
Search house for 3-prong adapter that I know I have somewhere. Fail to find it.
Go to Walgreen's. Buy 3-prong adapter - despite reading that the fact that I have "old wiring" means I probably shouldn't use it.
....
Discover cord for new TV does not reach outlet.
Find 3-prong extension cord (bought by mistake a couple months ago but never returned cause I knew I'd need it some day).
Plug in TV and DVD/VHS player.
Turn on TV. Juice!
Turn on DVD/VHS player. Juice!

Time spent: about 2 hrs.
Set TV to "airwave" - get blue screen and "no signal" message.
Be unhappy. Plugging in a TV should not be this much work.
Attempt to switch TV input to DVD/VHS unit - but fail at using buttons on TV.
Find remote for new TV. Put in batteries. Scroll TV through input options till DVD/VHS player is found (AV3).
Everyone is blue.
Change DVDs. Everyone is still blue.
Disconnect DVD-to-TV wires, 1 at a time in different combos. Either lose signal or make everyone red.
Reconnect everything - color is magically repaired.
Reattempt TV input from airwaves - still fail.
Connect crappy (and broken) rabbit ear antennae directly to TV (was running through player).
Use remote to make TV detect airwave channels.
Discover I now have about 4 times more channels than before!! Can't get some stations (ABC, ABC DT) but figure I'll work that out later (a non-broken antennae??).
Wonder why HD channels are in different aspect ratio. Don't care. Enjoy AMAZINGLY CLEAR signals and wonder JEEBUS, WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME HD RECEPTION WAS THIS MUCH BETTER - and adds so many channels?!?!
Start to cleanup disaster area created by last 3 hours of annoyance. Find TV user manual. Find out use for remote contol buttons labeled "S Mode" (sound options), "P Mode" (picture color options), and "P size" (normal, wide, zoom, cinema, and letterbox). Learn that "cinema" stretches HD channels to full screen.
Get happy. .....

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