Do you tip the DirectTV installation guy? I would be guessing no, because it’s like tipping your plumber. But what do I know, never had a satellite dish installed before.
Answer #1: No.
Answer #2: No, you don’t tip. I always offer the guy a drink though.
Answer #3: My installation guy was good and I offered him 10 bucks but he refused.
Looking for information on Protron LCD TV sets. I can get a 32″ lcd for $500.00 (at Sears) and heard they were the third largest maker of oem parts for many major brands. Are Protron LCD TVs any good? And why are they so close to the Proton TV name?
Answer 1: My Fiance’s stepdad has the 37 inch protron. It has a really nice picture! $500 is a bargain for this TV!
Answer 2: There are some rumors floating around that Protron is in big trouble. Someone has posted the following message on at least two different forums:
I work for Protron.
We are in a big dispute with the Chinese factory that makes Protron LCDs. No replacement parts will be coming, ever.There are no remotes and no power supplies available.
PROTON has already won their lawsuit which prevents us from selling
under the name PROTRON. As soon as they pay the bond, we are shut down.Our management is in chaos. Our customer service dept is non-existant. Our rating with the BBB is ‘F’. The product is cheap because it is made with cheap parts. Getting the picture here?
If you buy a Protron LCD, you are completely on your own.
Good luck.
Sounds more like a disgruntled ex-employee than a real one to me so I did some checking. On one of the forums, the poster has been a member since March 2003, so I thought the rumors might be substantial. Then I did a Google news search and found absolutely nothing. If it’s not in the news did it really happen? As far as I’m concerned this is just a rumor but be careful – you never know when a rumor is going to turn out to be more or less true.
Answer 3: Proton makes the Puriti high def LCD TV from 32 – 55 inches. Protron also makes LCD TVs but these are less expensive. I don’t know why. I actually went to the Proton website and clicked on their email, protonusa at sbcglobal.net (which seemed like a very strange email for a real company). Anyway, I asked them about the Proton, Protron relationship and the email was sent back to me (addressee unknown). There’s something funny going on here.
Need help re: HDMI cables for super DirecTV deal – Though I’m an existing DirecTV customer, I was able to get the HD/DVR system for a net $18.00. Now I need the HDMI cables before Saturday when they come to install it. I’ve checked HDMI cables out and they’re anywhere from $50-$200. What’s the story? Any suggestions on what to or what not to get? Monster cables the best? Thanks.
By the way, the cables they are bringing are “standard†cables not HDMI. The deal was basically this: I’m getting a HD/DVR, regularly priced at $299 or $199 and the HD dish free with everything installed at no charge. The first 4 months of HD programming at $9.99/mo. is free. $10/mo off my bill for tweleve months – no reason – just being nice. The delivery charge of $19.99 is being waived, too. $100 + $40 + $120 + $20 is roughly $280 minus $299 is $19.00 give or take.
Answer #1: From personal experience, monster cables are definitely the best, but the difference in quality isn’t worth the extra 100 bucks you’d pay at a retail store.
If you really want a monster cable, get one online. I recently got one from an amazon retailer, 50 bucks, 125 dollar retail value. That was with shipping.
Answer #2: MarkerTek sells a high quality HDMI cable made by canare for 40% less than Monster and it’s just as good.
Answer #3: I paid a crap load for my HDMI cable and $200 would have been a bargain. But I needed a lot of it as I was stretching it across a room and hiding it in the wall. Consider how much you invested in your entire system, how much it means to you and go from there.
Answer #4: Any HDMI cable should provide the same results so Monster cables are a rip off. HD is a digital signal, either it comes in or it doesn’t. Cables used to make a difference with analog signals, but you should see absolutely no difference in HD or digital cable/dish channels.
Answer #5: Crutchfield offers multiple brands and lengths so you can actually buy a decent cable for an affordable price. The retail stores screw you with minimal selection including cable lengths that are twice what you need. Order today and you will have the cords in two days.
Answer #6: Monoprice cables are great. I got them for nothing compared to what Monster costs with great results.
Answer #7: Mine came w/ an HDMI cable. You might want to look up the model that they are bringing and see what the box contains. I was ready to go out and buy the cable after the guy came to install it, but the HDMI cable came w/ the HD/Tivo unit
Answer #8: I’m not sure of the quality of the cable but the D* installer did hook up an HDMI cable, as part of the installation, when I went HD recently.
Answer #9: Monster Cables look so cool…they really do. That said, I only used Monster where others weren’t available. Buy another brand if you can. I also needed 12′ cables and the cost difference is huge.
Answer #10: I hope the receiver works with an HDMI. The receiver I just got from Directv doesn’t and the replacement they sent didn’t either. They said the software upgrade might be coming next month sometime. They were not DVR. I also got the cables from Monoprice. Came in 2 days.
My living room has an open, cathedral ceiling so running wires down the wall isn’t a possibility. I’m going to be laying down a new Pergo floor, and thought about running wires under the underlayment to each wall and up, but I’m not sure if that’s such a hot idea. My wife is adamant about not seeing wires and doesn’t like speaker stands. I looked into wireless speakers (for the rear channels), but the reviews on those are mixed. Any ideas?
Answer #1: Run the wires through the walls dude. Don’t put the wires under the pergo. If you can’t run them through the wall, go with wireless, I guess.
Answer #2: Easy – There will be a 1/4 gap between the pergo and the drywall, plus the drywall should stop 1/4 inch or so above the sub floor. This is for expansion/contraction of the wood and to keep the drywall dry. It will be covered up by quarter rounds or some other small moulding. Have the Pergo installed, then run your wires through this convenient channel.
Then have the floor people install the quarter rounds which covers up the gaps at the wall, and you speaker wires. Good Luck!!
Answer #3: Don’t know what your transitions are like but if you go from pergo to another floor, there will be a transition strip you can run the wires under. If the Pergo goes to another room and you want to cross the threshold, the you might have to go into the wall. However, if there is a door, remove the door molding (which you will have to do because the molding has to run down to precisely meet the top of the pergo), and run the wires behind the molding (outside the door jam) up and around the door to the other side. If there is just a drywall opening, you’d have to fish the wires through the wall up (easy) and over top (hard) of the opening. That is not so easy.
If that is the case, I would go down into the basement, across the door area, then back up again. I have my entire house wired in this way. Of course it is best if you run them through the walls before the drywall is in, but with the drywall in, a professional is going to cost you serious money.
Answer #4:Â I also have a exterior doorway (slider to patio) and yes, run it right under. Just make sure to weatherproof it with RTV (silicone) or something equivalent. Make sure your wires are heavy enough to handle the long runs, too.
I’m thinking I’ll get my mom a year’s subscription for one of these DVD rental things for her birthday. She’s retired and has a big LCD HDTVÂ so it seems appropriate. Anyway, is Netflix the only real option here or are there other lesser known companies that are maybe even better?
Answer 1: Netflix is so damn good. Cheap, easy, great! I see more movies now than I would have renting from a local place. I can have them as long as I like, get good recommendations. Really a great value for $14 a month.
Answer 2: Stay away from intelliflix because they deliver quickly the first couple of weeks, then you get nothing but delays. Good luck if you try to cancel subscription: you get customer email after customer email, excuse after excuse and no cancellation, they are worthless.
netflix is your best bet.
Answer 3: It’s worth checking out Blockbuster if your mom has a store near her house. When I was a member (a couple years ago), the service/price was similar to Netflix, but Blockbuster gave two free in-store rentals a month.
Answer 4: We lost a Netflix DVD and my wife called to let them know. They were great. We were told, “don’t worry about it”. We were not charged.
Answer 5: West coast netflix was found to delay the delivery of DVDs if your return rate was quick (like get 3 dvds, return them very quick, they would hold the new DVDs in your queue for a few days), still a quality and A+ service I think, though
Answer 6: I’ve had netflix for several years and love it. Very fast delivery. Frankly, I hate Blockbuster, too. It was their crappy stores and endless lines that made me decide to go to Netflix to begin with. Support the company that made the idea work.
And, yeah, I’ve lost DVDs and as long as they don’t see a regular pattern of loss (read: you appear to be stealing them) they don’t charge you.
Answer 7: Blockbuster is the way to go. On top of it being the same price, you have no contract, a free first month, free in store coupons that work on anything in the store, and here in Colorado Springs they have been doing a test according to the guys at the store I go to and here you can bring in the envelope instead of mailing it back and get whatever in store movies you want for each envelope you bring in, plus they scan the movies so it is like they are already sent back and there is no time to wait in between. They said this should go national by Nov. 2nd. I hope that helps.
Guys, help me understand all of this. I am buying an HD capable TV in the very near future and am totally lost on all of this stuff. I currently have Direct TV w/ TiVo. Works great no problems at all. What will my options be when I get the new set?
Answer #1: I upgraded Direct TV TiVo to Direct TV DVR. I fell for Direct TV’s ‘free’ DVR since it cost nothing and provided a 100 GB HD which was 3 times the HD I already had. Big Mistake!
It is probably the worst electronic device ever assembled. It freezes, dropping shows already taped, doesn’t tape shows it was supposed to, is slow as sh!t, etc. etc, etc.
So I bit the bullet and took my old DirectTV TiVo in to get a larger HD (250GB) with 220 hours of space. Pure heaven!
Now most of you have HD DVR and that is the next step for me, but for those with reg. Direct TV, stay away from their DVR!
Answer #2: I upgraded a month or so ago from DirecTV’s standard def DVR to the new HD DVR you are talking about.
The standard def DVR definitely worked much better, it was basically flawless. The new HD unit definitely has software issues. It will miss or corrupt recordings probably about once a week for me which is a big pain in the butt. They seem to download software patches to it about once every two weeks so far. Performance has gotten better, but still nowhere near the original unit.
All that said, I am actually glad I made the switch. I have had a HD TV for awhile now and was waiting to make the switch to HD programming until they released a HD DVR that would pick up HD locals without an antenna. The difference between standard def and the HD is obviously pretty huge.
When this unit works (about 95% of the time) it is amazing; when it doesn’t it’s obviously annoying. I still have my old DVR sitting around and if push came to shove, I could switch back. Hopefully they will get all of the issues resolved in the next software fix or two in the coming weeks.
Answer #3: If you have an R10, it’s still a TiVo. Don’t let it go unless you want to give it to me. If it’s not TIVO then it’s an R15.
I had the R15 hooked up for less than 4 hours. It’s total crap. I disconnected it and re-hooked up my TiVo. I sent that POS back to DTV. Its horrible. I then bought a 3rd Directivo on Ebay. Next I’ll upgrade the Hard disks. DTV has a Major problem with their lack of TiVo. It’s a downgrade in technology. I even have an R15 in my garage, brand new in the box that DTV didn’t want back. If NFL sunday Ticket gets onto Cable, I’ll drop DTV.
Answer #4: I’ve had the DirecTV HD DVR for a couple of years now. It was slow as shyte until the recent software upgrade (which also enabled folders, which are great). It gets a little hinky now (dropped a couple of shows, failed to record others), but overall it’s a better piece of equipment. I’ll happily stick with it a while longer.
But I’d also say to the early adopters, you guys probably know it’s always like this with the first few generations of just about any sophisticated new technology. A year from now, the R15 may well be a different story. I’m sure they’re anxious to get their boxes into our houses and this kind of word of mouth should get them working pretty hard.
Answer #5: the R15 gave me a headache after 3-4 hours. I disconnected it and boxed it up, and reactivated my TiVo. My big fear is that DTV will cut off TiVo support and I’ll be stuck with their POS DVR. I think DTV signed a deal with TiVo this year to support the units for 3 more years. After that I guess everyone will have to make the switch to DirecTV new DVRs and receivers to receive HD. Hopefully they will have all the kinks worked out by then.
Answer #6:Â I’ve had the new DVR for 2 months, and have had no issues (knock on wood). I really like it, outside of the missing dual buffers. I ordered the HD TiVo unit and was pretty pissed they sent this one istead, but it’s been pretty good so far – specially since I’m too far from the TV tower and need this box to get local channels in HD.
However, because it’s missing the dual buffers I am not able to record two programs at once. I hate that. It sounds like they rushed it out and/or are hoping that because the HD universe is still relatively small, newcomers won’t know what they’re missing.
I want to buy an LCD TV but don’t know where to begin. Can someone give me some advice on what TV to buy and where to buy it?
Answer #1: Vizio 37†LCD TV. Got one 24 days ago and love it. Buy from Costco if you can. They have the best return policy. My TV cost $999.000. They have a 32″ for $699.00. If your TV breaks down 6 months from now, take it back and get a new one. You do have to have a membership, $50.00 for one year. I saw the same TV at Walmart for $1500.00. My son loves it, he has xbox 360 and he’s in love. Football is the best I have ever seen, OTA HD that is.
Answer #2: So you’ve decided on LCD over plasma? As best I can tell, the big issues are:
Plasma: Truer Black, Colors “jump” a bit more
LCD: Brighter overall picture, slightly sharper image, more glare-resistant
My wife and I picked up a 46″ LCD as opposed to a 50″ Plasma, largely because we liked the way it resisted glare (our family room has A LOT of light). Look at both side to side, and decide which picture you like better. It’s purely an issue of taste, you can’t go wrong if you buy a solid TV. Make sure it has 2 HDMI inputs if you plan on watching HDTV as well as playing next-gen video games and/or DVD’s. Honestly, the main way the cheaper sets seem to let you down in their inputs.
My cable keeps like skipping, kind of like a CD, the picture reloads and the sound skips. It’s really annoying. Has anyone faced anything like this? I have comcast digital cable.
Answer #1: Call your cable company and see if they can reset the box from their office.
Answer #2:Â Unplug your cable box, wait a few moments, then plug it back in. It will reset itself.
Answer #3: Sounds stupid but simply un-plugging and then plugging in my cable box solves most of the problems I have with my service. It’s how you “reboot” the box. It can help.
Answer #4: Sometimes taking out the cable card works. *shrug* Atleast you don’t have cablevision.
Answer #5: I had the same problem for the last few weeks in HD. Called Insight cable and they had no idea what I was talking about. Theye rebooted my box, and so far it has worked fine. I suggest calling and having them reboot. If that doesn’t work, you do it yourself by unplugging, etc…
Answer #6: Do Yourself a favor, get rid of cable and get a Dish.
Answer #7: You can also reboot by holding in the power button but the unplug the box is a better reboot. Fact is with Time Warner digital cable there are always problems off & on…but if they are constant then I’d recommend the reboot. You could also call them & they may be able to do something with your signal feed. I know when I had a problem with Dish Network they did something like boost my feed (they said something like that) and it helped.
What is the minimum acceptable Contrast Ratio to consider when purchasing a flat screen TV? Is there a point when there is no longer a benefit to an increase in ratio?
Answer #1: In the LCD vs. Plasma debate, this is where plasma wins out .. most LCD TVs have a contrast ratio of 1000 but plasma can have up to 10,000 – try to get a TV with highest contrast ratio you can.
Answer #2: It’s all about what type of screen you like. The very good plasmas will sport a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, but I just picked up an LCD screen with a 5000:1 ratio, and I actually like the way the screen displays better than the plasmas. LCD’s generally have lower contrast, but more sharpness. I’d stay away with any plasma below 10,000:1, however, mainly b/c it would be a sign to me that the plasma was a cheaper model.
Answer #3: I have a plasma with a 10k:1 contrast ratio and it *rocks*. I’ve got an LCD with a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and that isn’t bad either. I don’t think you can go really wrong with either, although if you’re in a sunny room, you definitely want a higher ratio. I’m still chomping at the bit for an SED set – those suckers are supposed to have a 100k:1 contrast ratio. I can only imagine that they’re going to burn images into our eyes.
Answer #4: According to a manufacturers rep anything over 1000:1 is “fuzzy mathâ€. He basically said if it is above 1000:1 they are using a “different†way of rating the ratios.
Answer #5: I’ve heard the opposite on brightness – instead of the high contrast plasma, I’ve heard the LCD’S are better in a very bright room. But all this is splitting hairs.