What is this Plasma thingy I just bought??

madmax · August 2004

So I go to my second job today and after work I stopped in at the "Great Indoors" and looked at their TV's. Let me say that I was very happy that my job picked up lunch today because I was trying to save money. Well, there was this plasma screen sitting in a cart, a floor model (or should I say a wall model) with a clearance tag on it. I knew they had it displayed for almost a year, started out at $13,999, dropped to $8900 after about 6 months and recently had a tag of $7999 but other than that I have no clue. The clearance tag said $4800 and after whining for awhile the lady called the manager and asked if he could drop it to $3000. Well, they dropped it to $3700 minus my discount and I walked out the door with $3590 on my credit card. Came with the stand, receiver, cables, manual, remote and hardware.

I hope I made a good decision here. This was purely an impulse buy, no research was done and absolutely no thought was given. I guess I was just a little tired when I took the plunge. I hope I didn't get snookered...

http://www.drprojector.com/itemdesc.asp?CartId=1-EVEREST-4088240EBBEB26&ic=PDP5030HD

I found it for as low as $5400 tonite on the internet but didn't read too much into the shipping, accessories or whatever. Did I do good??

madmax

Frank Z · August 2004

Nope, you got snookered big time. Pack it up, ship it to me and I'll see what I can get for it at the flea market next week-end. You can trust ol'Frankie-Boy!!

(Nice grab!!)

F1nut · August 2004

You don't have to ship it to Frank, just bring it here when you come over, I'll dump it for you.

madmax · August 2004

I'm thinking at this point that certain people should not be allowed to have credit cards. I got 12 months zero interest but even at that it will be $300 a month for the next 12 months. Have you ever done something silly and then woke up the next morning shaking wondering what the heck you did the day before? I've got a feeling that will be me at about 4:00 AM tomorrow morning. :eek:

madmax

So much for that CAT preamp I was thinking about, and oh yea, food...

madmax · August 2004

That was one consideration I did take into account. I stop there and look around every few weeks. Every time I've been in there they have a different display on and the rest of them off. Sometimes if the store is busy they have them all going though. (It was on a wall with about 12 really expensive displays on it). I figure it may have been on for about 6 to 8 hours per day for the past year. That is pretty close to normal home usage, maybe a more. I guess we will see. Any idea how long a display of this sort should last? I guess I'm more worried about transporting it home than actual use. They also offer a protection agreement for $750 for 3 years although I can buy that where I work for less should the need arise, at least for the first year. I'm going on the dumb luck path on this one.

madmax

brettw22 · August 2004

TV sets aren't very upgradeable per se, but plasmas are about the worst in that once the picture starts to dim (just like your computer screen will) it's dead. No changing the bulb, no replacing the power supply..it's just dead and you have to replace the entire thing.......

F1nut · August 2004

I don't know guys, he got a 14K TV for $3600.00. I'd call that a great deal any day of the year!

I think ya'll are jealous.

brettw22 · August 2004

Zip it sparky.....;)

I didn't say it wasn't a good deal.....but I'm a newbie ****.....I want to be the first one to power my things on......the first to hear the speakers....etc etc......

fgr41 · August 2004

madmax:

If you are worried about it, turn it over on Ebay and make a few grand. Then take that $ and put it into something you feel more comfortable with. I'm sure the store you got it from has some kind of return policey. If you cant find a buyer and still don't know if you should have done it, take it back.

I'm sure you could sell it for a good profit if ya wanted to.

brettw22 · August 2004

I'd imagine that those types of purchases lack packaging, and i wouldn't ever consider shipping a plasma like that..........no bueno.

madmax · August 2004

Thanks for all the input, even yours Bart.

I feel it was all from the heart and took it as such. well, I made the rounds to the local CC, BB and Sears to look at what was available. For $2K there were two new-name branded 42" plasmas but they were EDTV. Great for watching Mr Ed but pretty grainy. Not too bad though if you put enough distance between you and the display. The better higher definition 42" sets were nicer. They ranged from $3900 to about 5K. Not too shabby. The 50" ones started at $4200 for an incredibly ugly samsung to about 9K for the better ones. I would have been happy with the ones from about $6K on up. I notice they all have their niche. Some are optimized to produce a great pic with a low quality signal such as VCR, cable and air but are lacking in high def mode while others are great on high def but suck with a poor quality signal. After much searching on the internet I found that the Pioneer I chose is one of the latter. That is good with me because I'll use it primarily for DVD and in the future satelite. I have an older TV for the daily chatter box. So long as everything works I will be happy with the choice. Better $3590 than $6K to 9K. The other unknown is how well all the choices would work with a PC input. I'm pretty confident mine will work well as a monitor after reading the manual but none of the ones I looked at other than the $9K one actually specified it would work with the various computer outputs. Just hard to tell. I feel much better now. I also asked about the life of the different ones but the only info I got out of anyone was that either they mess up within a month or so or work as long as they are displayed.
madmax

dcarlson · August 2004

I usually get freaked out over larger purchases and had my biggest freak out last week when I got my house. Although I had 2 months before closing it still seemed like I had rushed to buy, it happened so quick. All's good now after 2 weeks of painting my butt off and being able to sit back and turn it up!!

I think you did well. A couple more days and couple of movies and you'll be laughing.

dorokusai · August 2004

You should just bust the screen and set it on fire.

Just kidding.

madmax · August 2004

Originally posted by dorokusai
You should just bust the screen and set it on fire.

FREE THE PLASMA! FREE THE PLASMA!

Oh yea, one other thing I noticed while shopping. The reason plasma is getting much cheaper (EX:$1999 for EDTV rather than $2700) is because the larger LCD versions are coming out at the older plasma prices. LCD is superior in pic quality.

madmax

ezc · August 2004

Madmax
What a deal!!! We never have deals like that here!

madmax · August 2004

Actually I looked up completed sales on ebay and found one guy who sold two of them for $2300 "buy it now" stating "used" condition only. The disturbing thing about the two that were sold was that no positive feedback was left. Certainly when I buy something that expensive off of ebay I always leave feedback. Oh well, at least at the great indoors I have a 1 yr warranty. I am happy with the price and feel that I will get several years out of it. I brought it home today but it will be tomorrow before I give it a good workout.
Wish me luck!
madmax

nadams · August 2004

"used" can also mean, "By the people who owned it before i forcibly removed it from their house" :rolleyes:

HBombToo · August 2004

Originally posted by F1nut
I don't know guys, he got a 14K TV for $3600.00. I'd call that a great deal any day of the year!

I think ya'll are jealous.

with that ratio I don't give a damn who turned it on first.
on the other hand,
the life cycle of a plasma screen is the only reason why I don't own 1.

Twin

TroyD · August 2004

What's the shelf life on one of those plasma screens? So freakin' what if it was a demo and left on 24/7 ??

Sounds like a GREAT deal max, good on ya. I am jealous!!

BDT

PolkThug · August 2004

Currently, you can watch the plasmas 8 hours a day for 5.13 - 6.84 years before the half life is reached. Then it will just be half as bright, but still useable.

The plasmas actually have a longer life than the bulbs that are in projection LCD's.

HBombToo · August 2004

you sure its not 5.12-6.83??? why is 2 years before decay begins sticking in my mind? I don't mind changing a bulb but how about the screen?

also they are very prone to burn from logo's or what not so its just to big of a risk for me at this time.

h

RuSsMaN · August 2004

You bought a TV for $3500?

Me? I'd grabbed a PAIR of these NEW, and still had $500 to spare.

Friggin TV, pffft.

Cheers,
Russ

TroyD · August 2004

Hey, Telemundo is Telemundo...right??

BDT

RuSsMaN · August 2004

On my 7 year old Panasonic 27" it is. Damn thing even has an S-Video input, cool huh?

Cheers,
Russ

George Grand · August 2004

I'll bet the Saturday morning cartoons will look awesome on that rig.

$3,500 for a tv, it needs to be installed at my home by Jenny McCarthy.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

madmax · August 2004

I'm still learning here. Half life is listed as 30K to 50K hours on all the sites I looked at. Some brands list as low as 25K hours. Standard CRT's are listed as 30K hours life. It is also said that some will burn in easily while other ones are very respectable.

If I take the lowest number, 25K hours, subtract the store hours of 3650 (which I actually believe is much less) I have 21,350 hours left. At 6 hours per day that would be 9.75 years.

I think the 5 or 6 hours quoted is for maybe 14 hours of use a day. I'll shoot myself before watching tv for that long.

BTW, Russman,
Your system is really cool. All you need now is a monitor sitting between the speakers...

madmax · August 2004

I experienced the plasma in my home tonite. To compare the 36" 4:3 CRT to the 50" widescreen plasma, I have to say, wow, I mean, uh, you know they say it is great, big, real, live, wow...
What I mean to say is Wow... Looking at the 36", well, it is really hard to do right now and it is looking pretty silly. I really didn't expect this. There is a huge difference between what these monitors look like in a big open store and what they look like in your home. Did I say wow? I hooked up one of my toshiba 3960 play toys and I am very impressed. Tomorrow when I get more time I will try the pioneer DV-47Ai which is touted as a GREAT video source. If it gets any better though I may have to install a toilet in the living room. I am very impressed at the moment in case you cannot tell. If this lasts for 5 or 6 years the new display will owe me nothing.
madmax

scottvamp · August 2004

Congrats Max - bet that baby looks almost as good as my 65";) .

madmax · August 2004

Originally posted by scottvamp
Congrats Max - bet that baby looks almost as good as my 65";) .

Scott, I hope you are experiencing the same thing. I am used to 3 different video options right now, 60" DLP front projector at my friends house, 80" three gun projection at my house and 36" CRT at my house. The plasma is clearly the winner.
To put them in order I have to put the DLP at #2 and the 3 gun projector at #3. It is old. The plasma has something special. I wish I could have afforded the largest LCD but not, maybe in my next life. I think the real future is LCD but they seem to have a slow change mode right now. (change when a camera is panning). I don't really care right now because the improvement over my old video is day and night. Years of audio improvement has taken precidence for years.

If your 3960 performs this well for you I think you will be very happy with it. Now I can actually test the component outputs!!!
madmax

F1nut · August 2004

"If it gets any better though I may have to install a toilet in the living room."

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Dr. Spec · September 2004

Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate.

What is this Plasma thingy I just bought??

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