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HDTV Expert Alfred Poor Tells You What to Buy and What Not to Buy (Video)
Alfred Poor's website is called HDTV Almanac. That's where he talks about the latest HDTV industry news and changes. He also writes about HDTVs and monitors for a variety of industry publications and does some marketing consulting for manufacturers in the field. In this 17 minute video, Alfred tells us what features we should look for in our next TV buy and which ones aren't worth spending extra money on. He also says that for a variety of non-technical reasons, you might want to consider buying your next TV between now and June -- and says you should think about getting a 3D TV even if there aren't many 3D TV shows you want to watch right now.
I have tested NVIDIA 3D technology with some games at it's awesome! The effect is even more real because you are actually interracting with the world. For example Left4Dead is great with 3D glasses. Now we just need more support from game developers.
Manufacturers really should get over their 3D complex. Sure, they spent a lot on it, R&D and Marketing, but it does more harm than whatever gimmick-value it provides...
Alfred Poor...says you should think about getting a 3D TV... .
Thank you summary, you just saved me 17 minutes by letting me know that Alfred Poor is a tool.
People are going to buy anyways. No one actually needs to tell consumers to consume. Supply attempts to meet demand.
Most new TV products, like all new products, attempt to come in with all the bells and whistles at a given price point; unless you are prepared to do the research yourself then you're like most people wanting an expert to break it down and allow us to make an informed decision. This does of course introduce another point of failure, the expert. Which expert to listen to?
At the end of the day, if you care for it that much, read user reviews, listen to experts, ask questions and consult your friends. After all, most people do not buy a new TV every year or two. Take a couple of days for a product that is supposed to be used for a good five years or more.
On the other hand, we can try to reduce everything with simplistic one liners...
Poor advice. There is no need for anyone to buy anything beyond a HDTV. This is all marketing BS delivered by a corporate-paid shill.
This guy must have bad eyes. I have a PS3 & 42" 1080p TV. Ours is probably 8-10 feet away depending on where you sit in our living room. I can easily tell the difference between a Blu-Ray and DVD. In fact, it's a tremendous difference in clarity.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
you need to buy a 3D TV for the most money even though there is little media for it and even though they will be a lot cheaper in a few years when or if there is more media just to be ready for the media. remember you won't be able to buy a 3D TV in a few years when the 3D media arrives so you have to buy it now just to be ready for the arrival
anyone remember maximum PC 15 years ago? they were saying the same thing. buy expensive crap before there is any media just to "be ready". like the hardware is not going to be cheaper when the media arrives. i see the same nonsense now about the upcoming 4K TV's
If you are going to post "advertorial" content SLASHDOT, at least mark it as such. I just lost some respect for this site.
When they figure out how to do 3D TV's which don't require that I wear clunkly glasses and keep my head perfectly level, I'll consider buying a 3D TV. Until then, the 42" LG flatscreen that I bought 5 years ago works perfectly well. It does 1080p, the picture is bright enough and clear enough, and it has 2 component video inputs and 3 HDMI, which is better than a lot of TV's on the market today.
For the foreseeable future, I don't see any reason to replace it unless it decides to shuffle off its mortal coil.
Here's my advice:
1: Current TV broken?
2: Yes? -> Buy one that suits your current needs. If it costs over $1000, reevaluate concept of "wants" and "needs". Buy it (you were going to anyway). GOTO 1.
3: No? -> Wait until it breaks. GOTO 1.
>People are going to buy anyways. No one actually needs to tell consumers to consume. Supply attempts to meet demand.
Many people would disagree with you. The US consumer confidence index, while in the rise, has been pretty damned low for the past few years. Unfortunately, the US economy is largely reliant on rampant consumerism. Lack of consumer confidence means consumers are less likely to spend money, less spending of money by consumers is bad for the US economy.
3D is a gimmick, just like it always has been up to this point. I'll invest in 3D when we're seeing true 3-dimensional holography without the need for special glasses, and it doesn't seem like that's going to be anytime soon...
Plus I always get headaches after a couple hours of watching 3D content, so I avoid it in the theater whenever I can. The only film I even care to see in 3D at this point is The Hobbit, and that's not so much because it's 3D in itself but because I've been watching the behind the scenes footage of their technical setup and am interested to see the difference in quality compared to the typical shit-tastic, fake 3D slapped on top of a 2D movie, Hollywood crap.
The problem isn't technological. I'll buy a 3DTV when they discover a way for 3D to actually be an important part of the story and to move the story (and my emotions) in ways that regular 2DTV cannot. So far, they have not been able to do it at the movie theaters so my expectation is that they will not be able to do this for quite some time.
"You might want to consider" is about the same as "If you're in the market" plus a little of "Take a moment and think about if your wife has been complaining about something with the TV."
If you are in the market, and especially if you are in the market and don't realize it, this is probably great advice. If you are not in the market, even the normally terrible summary doesn't tell you to buy one, only consider it.
I don't understand the knee-jerk "It works for me" replies to any 3D TV story. I'm interested, I don't have one yet, and having this guy's opinion gives me more info to base my decision on.
In other words, if your needs are fulfilled right now, you are very likely not the target audience.
I doubt very much he has his 50" TV on his lap.
Seriously, why do people find the fact that the eye's resolving power is measured in seconds of arc so difficult to comprehend? You need to know number of dots, screen size AND viewing distance to make any meaningful statements.
And that goes double for the "photographers" who think you need Z number of megapixels for an X x Y print.
There certainly are 4K displays now; they've been demonstrated for years. The problem is that we don't have a distribution system for them; the same was true for HDTV. We had the display resolutions (especially on computer monitors) long before we had a system to distribute broadcast content, or the infrastructure to create the content for that matter.
Alfred Poor
HDTV Almanac
My god guys, that is abstract. Let me explain how people in the real world buy a TV using myself as an example.
So last october ye olde magnavox 25-year old CRT in the living room started giving weird colors, seems the red gun is going out, and also its having some convergence problems, and occasionally some HV probs. The TV is dead! The TV is dead! Oh no the TV is dead! (or terminal, anyway) Off we go to Best Buy with a budget, and we spent what we budgeted. I was completely uninterested in the bells and whistles, all I wanted was a really big monitor with VGA and/or HDMI input from my mythtv box (most people would use a cablebox, eh, same difference) so I got a somewhat featureless TV that is larger than a feature-ful TV at the same price.
I did not bother trying to debate Keynesian economics with a wife going thru reality TV withdrawl. And frankly I also missed the women in bikinis suntanning on Survivor.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger