Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater VP150 question, and some ranting

First a quick question, then a small rant. (sorry if this question has already been asked)
Q: Should the 150 be set as a small or large speaker in setup? Personal taste?

R: How in the world did cables get so expensive. I had to skip out to a best buy, and pick one up at the last minute... I suspect all of the cable fanatics got everyone paranoid, and now the cable makers are victimizing the rest of us. I bought the expensive cable -- which will go right back to the store once my cheap cable is delivered. I can only imagine the markup the cable makers enjoy -- I guess they poor it all back into R&D. {grin}

As a side: I completed my theatre, walked up stairs to brag to my wife, and she said, "good, because your plasma TV just turned off and won't come back on" Dead as a door nail. Ouch! At the exact time I finished my theatre. I'm thinking of giving up this whole electronics habit. It's making me crazy!

Someone told me that BestBuy pays something like 3 bucks for a MonsterCable, the $20 variety. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, if it is, it's pretty crazy.

BB, set all speakers to "small" on your Yamaha, with an 80Hz crossover. On the rant, yes, cables and wires are the biggest scam in audio, with charlatans preying on the gullible.

hey, sucks about the TV. but what did you expect. they only last a couple years. stick with a good ole' tube tv

Where did you hear this? Please don't spread mis-infromation as it might be quoted by someone who doesn't know any better, which I suspect is your case.

ive heard from numerous people and places that the plasma displays only last a couple of years.

upon doing a search ive found a bunch of sites that suggest them lasting 20 years.

if i remember correctly i saw somewhere online where people were filing a class action lawsuit about plasma tv's that were only expected to last a couple of years. i could be wrong however. maybe this was about the Ipod. lol

Thanks Johnk, I'll try that. It's hard to believe these speakers can get any better. (i always worry about setting them to large and then blowing them)

I did a search on class action suits and plasmas and it appears you are dead wrong. And I ain't LOL. I know it's fun to post here and all, but you really do yourself and your readers a disservice when posting mis-information.

There has been a lot of mis-information about Plasmas. I would even suggest the most bogus information is about burn-in. People suggest that "dog tags" at the bottom, right of the screen cause burn-in... the whole thing got blown out of proportion. It's a bunch of BS. My unit probably blew a transformer, or a card from the power supply needs swapping out. Hey, that's why they call it the bleeding edge in technology. Thankfully, it appears that a lot of shops service these things. There are a series of circuit boards... swap out the problem board, send back -- replace with new -- a real science {grin}.

One thing's for sure, in High Def mode, in a bright lit room this thing sparkles. I can garantee, you will buy one, one day; In fact, one day you will not be able to buy a TV deeper than 3 inches.

Thanks for your post.

What model Plasma do you have? I have a Pio 503CMX that went south during the first year. It was a circuit board that the local shop replaced in less than 24 hours. They came to the house, picked it up, and brought it back fixed the next day. I was stunned.

Good luck.

let me guess. do you have the consumer panny w/ the dreaded shutdown problem?

wow, just made the change... THANKS! very noticalble especially the blending in the front.

i don't remember the model number... it's a pana. 50 HD.
What's the dreaded "shutdown" problem?

it's the panasonic 50... i forget the model... PT50PHd-50... something like that. I was surprised at how many people will service. I'm hoping it will be as painless as your experience, sometimes these things can linger.

Hi all,

Here are a few interesting points I've picked up over the years. No-one know how long some new display technologies will last under typical, casual day-to-day use in a home. But because CRT is a very old, "mature" technology, we do know quite a lot about those sets.

Direct-view CRT picture tubes last an average of 14 years. Some will go longer; others shorter. As phosphors age on the inside face of the tube--it's an on-going long-term process--the contrast and colors gradually become less vivid, but we don't notice until it becomes extreme because we look at it every day, and the changes are subtle over the long term.

Rear-projection CRTs (or CRT front projectors) have a much shorter life--an average of 7 years or less--because they burn very bright in order to throw a magnified image of reasonable brightness and contrast onto a big screen.

ABC news reports that its plasma flat panels monitors, left on 24 hours a day on its news sets, typically last about 6 years.

No-one know about DLP longevity. In theory, the chip should last a long time but we'll know better after a decade of consumer use. I don't have any data on LCD panels, whether direct-view or those in projectors. The Texas Instruments study is obviously biased, so I'd question the results, which suggested changes in color values on the panels and deterioration because of heat from the projector bulb.

Regards,