the corner office : New TV

New TV

Well, it was time to pull finger, so we got a new telly this morning. We drove through to the Woodmead Makro to get it, on account of our local one being incinerated. Got a 72cm LG Flatron. Jeepers. Whole new range of TV experience. I'm not 100% sure if I'm happy with the sound though, things seem a bit echoey and muffled at times, especially with DVDs. I'm not sure how much of it is my imagination, not being used to the TV being in stereo, and how much can be sorted by tweaking one of the zillion settings. We'll see. Damned fine TV in every other respect.

My only other gripe is this: what's with all the silver componentry? Ten years ago silver meant "el cheapo." Nowadays a look through any of the electronics stores, and absolutely nothing is available in black finish. No TVs, VCRS, DVD players, hi-fi components, nada. Everything is a shitty silver. When did all the electronics manufacturers decide that black was out? Call me cynical, but they probably know that in 3 years' time your telly's matt silver is going to start looking the worse for wear, and you'll be more likely to head out and replace it even though it still works fine. Sharks.

A & P & L came round for dinner & DVDs this evening. I stayed at home while they all went to hire a DVD, and they settled on Jackass: The Movie. I don't think it was quite what anyone expected. I can't decide whether I enjoyed it or hated it. Some of the gross-out stuff was far too gross for me. Some of the pranks were so stupid it was painful to watch. At one or two points I thought about getting up and going to do something else. However, I also laughed my arse off during much of the movie. Strangely, of all the disgusting things these malcontents get up to, the absolute worst had to be the paper-cuts scene. That was just wrong.

{2004.05.16 22:27}

Comments:

1. Joe Litton (2004.05.17 - 02:15) #

OK, I'll admit it. We OWN the jackass movie. My opinion is about the same as yours. Laughed a lot, was disgusted a lot, and my wife, my son, and I all agree that the paper cuts were the WORST. One cannot help but jerk and cringe during those scenes. Oh yeah, and Wee Man is awesome :-)

2. senkwe (2004.05.17 - 09:35) #

I'm practically color blind, however, I've been corrected many-a-time that what I assumed to be silver was in fact "platinum", hence the shift from el-cheapo to el-futuristico :-)

3. Neil Blakey-Milner (2004.05.17 - 10:02) #

The shitty silver colour is there primarily to force you to upgrade your entire electronic component system every time the colour changes.

So, since you can't get black TVs anymore, when you get your silver one, it doesn't match your VCR, DVD player, amplifier, and so forth. You're now supposed to be offended enough to go out and buy them all in the new silver colour.

And when peuce (sp?) arrives in two years time, you'll need to upgrade your DVD player for whatever reason, and then your TV doesn't match...

4. Stan Rogers (2004.05.17 - 22:14) #

That "platinum" might well be "titanium", too. All depends what the marketing department had for brekkie.

As for the sound -- I'm with you, Colin. What you're hearing is heavily-processed audio designed to create wide-field stereo from speakers that are mounted nearly side-by-side (in traditional hifi terms). There IS a lot of whooshing going on for no good reason, and that's how they fool the ear into hearing sound where it ain't. It takes a lot of getting used to, and you'll still find it annoying when it gets extreme if you're not practically deaf. God news, though -- the processing is reserved for the internal speakers, so if you use the headphone jack (or audio out, if you've got it) to feed an outboard pair of speakers, it all goes away. You get stereo, but not psychoacoustically-processed space junk.

5. Stan Rogers (2004.05.17 - 22:16) #

That's "Good news" as opposed to "God news", of course. The Supreme Being is not particularly interested in your television's sound, at least not to the point that He'd do anything about it.

6. Colin (2004.05.18 - 19:44) #

Thanks Stan, at least I don't feel like I'm alone or that I'm losing my mind (are there any subjects you're not well-versed in? :)

That's progress for you... my new TV is immensely larger than the old one, has more features than you can shake a stick at, costs bucketloads more, but is uglier and sounds worse.

(On the upside, it's pretty damned awesome for PS2 games ;)

7. sandy (2004.05.24 - 08:26) #

So, since this telly replaces the one I bought and then had to leave with you whilst I trotted around the globe, does that mean it comes with you at the end of the year and takes pride of place in 'my' lounge? Kick ass!