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Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)

If you remember the chain of electronic stores called Incredible Universe you either have a great memory, you are a diehard geek or perhaps both. Since I still remember my first visit I think you can safely say I’m a geek. Especially since I’m far too old to have a great memory.

When they first opened there were lines of people waiting to get in much like the opening weekend of a Star Wars movie. Since I have never cared for Star Wars it was even more entertaining with shows performing continually on several stages. Yes it was much more than several football fields of electronics and to some degree a hint of future retailing which still hasn’t landed. The stores averaged 185,000 square feet and stocked over 85,000 items!

This was at a time when businesses were growing bigger and bigger and if you weren’t growing like weeds you were sure to die a sudden death. Their parent company was Tandy (Radio Shack) and much like the parent company they didn’t focus on pricing rather their philosophy was to sell everything ever produced. Unfortunately the entertainment value they threw in only increased their overhead and decreased your ability run in and run out with the latest gadget. Based on the sheer volume of their buildings and unworldly inventory they didn’t stand a chance.

Before long Tandy was so concerned with their cost the stores were closed and because of their massive size they were forced to sell them for pennies on the dollar. Which brings us to the topic of this post Fry’s.

If you haven’t been to Fry’s it’s hard to comprehend what you’ll find. They combine Incredible Universe, Best Buy, Heathkit and Starbucks into one gigantic location with a larger variety of merchandise than the others could ever hope to carry. Looking for a computer case? My guess is I saw four dozen the last time I looked. Need a power supply for it? I think they have more of them than cases.

Selection wise their home audio and video departments aren’t as inclusive as their computer related departments although I think it’s more from the fact those markets simple don’t have the same depth of products. They tend to carry almost every brand with a few exceptions such as Pioneer receivers or Blu-ray players.

As an example you can actually find a fairly priced HDMI cable for around $10 and if you’d like to spent more there will be at least a dozen other brands. Pricing is something they do very well. You’ll never find them higher than Best Buy and often you’ll find them considerably lower. Just yesterday I saw the new LG Blu-ray players regularly priced $50 less than at Best Buy. With the BD390 still being brand new. The new Sony BDP-S360 was $239 which comes in at $60 less than Best Buy and it’s not even on sale!

I tend to think of them as Walmart. Sure they have weekly sales and great ones at that however if you are looking for something and they have it you know you’ll be paying a reasonable price. Also the odds are pretty good they will have it on sale within 30-days so you’ll end up paying even less.

One area you certainly don’t want to miss is their Blu-ray disc department. Again their everyday pricing is lower than other retail locations and they compete with Amazon rather nicely but come Friday’s ad their prices get even better. In the last few weeks I have picked up Dark City, Tears of the Sun and From Hell for $9.99 each.

They also tend to offer great prices on close-out models especially TVs long before the other retailers. Of course there are a few things I wouldn’t mind seeing changed but overall all I can hope for is they continue to be successful. With so few retailers left we geeks need a place to shop and even if we have a Premier Reward Zone card from Best Buy it’s far too mainstream to really get lost in.

LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

Can you answer yes to the following…

• Your display’s resolution is 1080p?
• Your display supports 24fps?
• Your AV receiver decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD MA?
• You will be playing more Blu-ray than DVD movies?

If you answered yes to all four questions the best Blu-ray player doesn’t exist since everyone of them will perform almost identically. Sure you’ll read review after review going on about this or that and you’ll run across endless postings why one player is better than another. After doing A/B comparisons with roughly two dozen players I found the differences equivalent to the following.

• Skippy vs Jiff
• Cola-Cola vs Pepsi-Cola
• Titleist vs Nike

More than likely you have strong feelings about each of the above but there is no denying they are more similar than different. I’ll take Jiff, Cola-Cola and Nike but my choices are based on the little things. Which is exactly what you’ll need to do when deciding which Blu-ray player is best for you. A few of these include…

• Price
• Player’s DVD upscaling
• Player’s de-interlacing 
• Performance speed
• Disc or hard drive streaming
• Local network streaming
• Internet streaming services such as Amazon, Netflix and Pandora

That’s a big list of small things to consider but at least you can easily decide which of them are important to you which will reduce all of those best in the world players down to the one which is best for you. Here are our current recommendations based on a few of those little things.

• Samsung BD-P1600 – Plain Jane
• LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player – Streaming Warrior
• OPPO BDP-83 – Jack of All Trades with configureable analog audio output

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Yesterday in the mail I received advertising from Comcast, DirecTV and AT&T U-verse all claiming to offer the best service for the lowest price. Now it’s not unusual to receive one or two offers a day but when it hit three I was impressed by how much they missed me and wanted me back, the large sums of money they were willing to offer in rebates and the amount of equipment they were willing to offer and install for free.

For some unknown reason I always have to study each offer with a fine tooth comb searching for the true meaning of each asterisk. Sure it takes some time but I eventually figure out exactly why they aren’t the best service or even the lowest price. At least for my current needs. Outside of AT&T’s relatively new U-verse service I have used all of them for an extended period of time. Certainly long enough to know what I’d be in for should I decide to go in their direction.

For starters I don’t do movies on TV except for the extremely rare ocassion. Blu-ray was invented to enjoy movies and if it’s worth two hours of my time I’ll enjoy it all I can. Also outside of a few exceptions I don’t do SD on TV. Since HD was invented there really isn’t any reason to.

Outside of the Super Bowl I never watch anything live. I simply can’t sit through commercials as they too easily inform you just how boring what you are watching really is! I tend to instantly drift into something else if a commercial comes on and seldom make it back. Also who in their right mind is going take an hour to watch an hour show when it’s only 45 minutes tops.

I have been using TiVo for going on 10 years along with several other DVRs. Right now I use a TiVo HD for over-the-air channels. I also have a Dish VIP722. Which tells you exactly why all of the other providers want me back.

I currently subscribe to Dish Network for one simple reason. At the time I signed up they offered an all HD package. I refuse to pay for untold SD channels I won’t watch even if they are free. I also believe HD is a replacement for SD not a premium service. As such I feel you shouldn’t have to pay more to receive HD channels if they are available in SD and vice-versa.

I even believe it strongly enough that for a while all I was left with was OTA channels when Comcast took over my local cable company and my HD only package no longer fell through the cracks. With Dish Network I have HD Absolute (no longer offered) and it’s pretty much what the name suggests. If it was available in HD outside of the premium movie channels you got it. For some silly reason they throw in a few SD channels but I never remember which ones since I never watch them.

Which means for $29.95 a month you get every HD channel you’ll watch or at least the channels I want to watch. Oh and they charge $5.95 a month for the VIP722 HD DVR which isn’t TiVo but does have a few redeeming values. I have had this package for a year now and so far so good. There hasn’t been any new HD channels I care about. My biggest worry is what will happen when my two year contract runs out… will I be back to OTA only with my TiVo or will any of the companies realize TV is now HD. Quit trying to sell it as a separate package and offer it at a reasonable price. Currently they are only making Hulu, VUDU and everyone else that will replace them happen sooner rather than later.

Now if you have read all the way down to here or were somehow smart enough to skip over the above I’m going to list a few items that just might help in dealing with the companies in question. At least they have for me.

• DirecTV has the most HD channels and in most cases the best HD picture
• DirecTV will give you a service credit for virtually any reason
• Dish Network will never give you a service credit regardless of  the valid reason
• AT&T U-verse started out virtually featureless and is slowly catching up
• With FiOS you can’t go wrong
• Almost every company will pay all or a good portion of your contract cancellation fee to get you to switch services

The Bourne Trilogy (The Bourne Identity | The Bourne Supremacy | The Bourne Ultimatum) [Blu-ray]

Blu-ray enhanced audio and video allow more of the movie experience to come home. This holds true for even chick flicks though to really appreciate your home theater you need thrilling action, suspense, fist fights, guns and finally a great story to bring them all together. If it’s all combined into three great movies (we are still hoping for a fourth) all the better.

The Bourne Trilogy fits all of the above and as easily as the three movies become one experience it’s almost a shame not to experience then one after another. This brings us to the weekend. Invite a few friends over and get lost in Jason’s world. After all that’s why weekends and home theater were invented.

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Sony Bravia XBR KDL-55XBR8 55-Inch 1080p 120Hz Triluminos LED LCD HDTV

Most of the manufacturers have recently introduced LED-based LCD models with features being more similar than different. We happen to prefer the Sony models as they offer the deepest blacks, widest viewing angles and other advantages or perhaps better stated fewer weaknesses.

However taken as a class LED-based LCD models aren’t worth investing in at this time. Especially if you aren’t willing to do some serious research before purchasing your new pride and joy. Currently as superior as they can appear over your traditional LCD models many have numerous weaknesses that make them perform worse in several areas.

I’m sure after another generation or two these issues will go away just as the extreme premium one has to currently pay. Not to say today you won’t end up with a better looking picture but just like about the first generation of anything it’s best avoided. If cost isn’t an issue and you have your heart set on purchasing the latest and greatest here are a few points to keep in mind when considering this new breed of TV.

• Reduced viewing angles
• Ambient light reflections
• “Blooming” during high-contrast scenes
• Color uniformity
• Discoloration in large dark areas

Not every model suffers from all of the above but these are issues which don’t exist at all or if they do to a lesser degree on traditional LCD models. The one killer feature to look for is called “local dimming” This is what makes the previous unheard of high-contrast ratios possible and the very reason LED-based LCD models were invented.

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In the old days audio and video equipment were encased in black metal boxes and were tough enough they would scratch you long before you would them. Also like the 1908 Ford Model T they came in any color you wanted as long as it was black. Heck you could even stack them on top of each other.

Eventually marketing won out and silver components began standing out in the showroom just like TV sets being displayed in torch mode or dynamic as the marketing guys like to say. We could deal with silver but it was just a hint as to what was to come all for the worse we might add.

Shortly afterwards the accounting departments got involved and introduced the plastic faceplate. Sure in the beginning they tried to make it look like metal and a few attempts were even successful but before long they gave up even trying. At the same time they decided to reduce the size of the equipment whenever possible which resulted in losing the ability to stack them in many cases.

Now we are at the stage where the entire case is often made out of plastic and molded in so many different shapes and angles it would take a circus act to balance them on top of each other. Of course it’s also made of shiny black plastic which is guaranteed to have several scratches by the time it’s unpacked. Let’s see if I can cover all of these recent advances in technology.

• Plastic on equipment appears cheap
• Plastic cases resembles toys
• Shiny black plastic guarantees your equipment will never look new
• Odd shapes and angles don’t measure up

I’m sure there are marketing studies and cost reports to justify these recent changes but I’d like to suggest if you have to include a micro-fiber cleaning cloth with the TV to ensure the owner doesn’t scratch the cabinet you have gone too far! Let’s hope at a minimum shiny black plastic and funky shapes are a short fad. I’m sure plastic is here to stay but I will openly admit that given the chance I’ll pick high-quality looking equipment over the toy look every time and I’m more than willing to pay extra or even settle for a few less features.

eBay is valuable not because its stock is currently a good value (although it has been of late) rather because as enthusiasts we tend to get hit with the desire to upgrade on a regular basis. With a little insight and planning eBay can help us accomplish our desire without getting hit too hard. Before making a purchase take into account the life cycle of the product and where your purchase falls into it along with the possible demand for the item when you expect to sell it.

From experience we recommend buying an item as it’s released but never paying a premium for it. If possible follow the item before it’s released by reading press releases, attending trade shows, and reading initial reviews from actual owners via online forums. Doing the above will keep you ahead of the item’s cycle and help you get a feeling for its resell value.

Also take into account what features others may want whether they fit your situation or not and consider the model with the most name recognition based on what you are buying. Finally don’t hesitate to spend a little more if by doing so you will receive a better return “on your investment” when selling.

As much as eBay can help us in selling our equipment in many cases they won’t be beneficial in purchasing them. We highly recommend only buying new items from authorized dealers not the ones who often claim to be authorized. In most cases a quick visit to the manufacturer’s site or a call to their sales department will let you know whether you will be covered by a warranty. In most cases the advertised difference isn’t worth the risk and you might be pleasantly surprised how both authorized online and brick and mortar dealers will work with you to be more competitive.

We love low prices as much as the next guy but not the current trend where you get state-of-the-art features at unheard of prices only to find out its performance suffers from basic design and quality issues. Such as the Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-ray player which has an annoying habit of refusing to play and or locking up on the occasion movie.

Sure it plays most discs exceptionally but I’m not so sure your movie night guests will want to watch some old movie when Quantum of Solace refuses to play. Of course you could swap it for your kid’s PS3 which will play the movie without issue.

We also love bleeding-edge products but nowadays it appears they ship before the design specs are even completed. Of course products evolve over time and you can’t expect them to last forever. But how about lasting long enough to support their advertised features! Again we pick on the Pioneer player which has been waiting over six months to receive DTS-HD MA decoding via firmware.

We are all for surge protectors and highly recommend them. Although in most cases you are simply purchasing a power strip. Typical surge protectors use MOVs to suppress surges and as a result offer little or no actual protection to start with and over time surges above a nominal level degrade the MOVs to the point that they offer no protection at all. Since only a few of the more expensive surge protectors alert to the fact that their protection has expired we do not suggest relying on a MOV based surge protector to protect your equipment. Rather we recommend using a Series Mode based surge protector such as the Brick Wall PW8R15AUD.