Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Flat panel TV help.

Well, let me suggest something just about as simple as a sound bar, but should sound a bit better. This little Onkyo HTX-22HDX sub/speaker package(built-in sub and speaker amp)is on sale at 20% off during Black Friday weekend. The refurb would run about $173 with free shipping, taking into account the 20% and $10 credit for registering for "Club Onkyo".

Don't know what your budget is but this is a good inexpensive start: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...em=130603314091

You can spend alot more if you can/want. I wonder when Axiom will get into the soundbar business?????

Time will tell.....I believe the sound bar idea was mentioned back when Axiom was looking or new ideas/direction for them to head into.

Why do people continue to cling to old information which even in its time was over exaggerated?

Early generation plasmas were listed as having "short" life spans because of their industrial use (they were not marketed for home users until the late 1990s). For example, a plasma screen in a store front window could be used as often as 24/7.
Of course they would only last a few years at this rate. [this is a simplification of the plasma application but demonstrates the overall point]

Stores use the same adverts for weeks before changing them which then sparked the second "myth" about plasma tv and burn in. The myth is that this phenomenon is unique to plasma tvs.

ALL tvs will burn in and image onto the visual screen if used in this manner!
ALL tvs will burn out if used this much!

Rating a present day plasma tv at 100,000 viewing hours equates to 34 years of viewing at 8 hours a day!
If you are watching 8 hours of that screen per day, you need help.
Incidentally, a store that uses a plasma 24/7 in its front window would have about 11 years of use, based on the 100,000 hours rating.

/end rant

I don't think i was posting any information, instead questions. The question was posed because of my not knowing the "true" half life of the noble gas's used in plasma's.. Since i have no experience with plasm's i was asking people more educated on the subject than myself. (notice the question marks)


So, I see no point for a rant on this subject. However, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

in the end, it is a rare plasma or lcd or whatever technology that will not last until it's replaced with a new one.

CRT's have the very same problem of image retention/burn-in.

Of course you have all heard the urban legend of the husband who had to eat a compromising Polaroid photo of himself & his secret lover and then died of a bowel blockage because the Polaroid paper wouldn't digest.....

Now that, my friend, is Image Retention!

Exactly, Chess, and to add to your rant, some years ago there was a study of the longevity of the LCD flat panels that run 24/7 in large airport terminals. The result was that based on home viewing by consumers (an average of 5 hours per day, which strikes me as watching way too much TV), LCD panels should last about 15 to 20 years. Keep in mind that video screen longevity--LCD and plasma-- is based on the degree to which the panels dim by 50% compared to a new set. The same phenomenon occurs with CRT sets, but the dimming of the image and loss of contrast is so gradual that most viewers don't notice until it becomes gross. I recall a CRT set of mine that was into its 14th year when it became obvious that the brightness and contrast had diminished.

While I'm in the rant mode, I'm weary of this exaggerated reverence for the Pioneer Kuro plasma sets. In all of my comparative viewing, including receptions by Pioneer, I would rate the Kuro sets as "quite good", but not equal in image quality to the plasma sets from Panasonic and Samsung, which provide really stunning images. I think the Kuro thing is a product of group-think, seeded by some reviewers. In my opinion, the Kuro sets were always overrated and overpriced.

End of my rant.

Cheers,
Alan

your opinion of the Kuro is interesting Alan. I think you are the first person in the audio video world that i have read to say that the Kuro was "overrated". I was reading reviews of the panasonic VT30 the other evening on Cnet, and the reviewer was saying it was "almost" as good as the Kuro, but not better.... I have only seen a Kuro a couple times; The display models at Best Buy when they were a current product. So my experience with the Kuro's is very limited...

But chess, I heard that the plasma leaks out and has to be refilled at least once a year.