Electronics turn-over tempting my LBYM

[UtahSkier]

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Originally Posted by JoeWras How do others deal with this forced obsolescence? Do you buy each new generation? Or do you "wait until it dies" like I do.

I stopped buying fancy and expensive audio equipment when I could no longer tell the difference between what I have and the new stuff.

Buying a new reciever will not improve your entertainment experience. I bet you cannot hear the difference between your current DD5.1 receiver and the newer, high resolution formats.

The new TV is a noticable benefit. So, you need good sources; Bluray DVD, Roku and cable box. You run the HDMI cables from each device into the back of the TV to get the high quality TV signal. The audio cables go into the current receiver.

Now switching sources is a hassle... so get a Harmony(logitech) remote and all is well... for the next decade or so.

PS. The ROKU may be redundant if you get a new DVD player.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by JoeWras What do you all do? And can someone give me an "attaboy" for not pushing the button yesterday on an unnecessary Newegg purchase? My friends, I came very close yesterday. But didn't. Today is another day. One more day and maybe the urge will go away.

Attaboy!! You know what you really want and have resisted the siren songs of Madison Avenue one more day. (Not so for me, see below)

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Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Yeah but.... Tomorrow we say goodbye to our not-broken 26" big ol' tv and hello to our new 55" skinny one.

Friday I say goodbye to the not-broken 19" tv in my home gym room, and hello to the new 55" replacement.

Prices have gone down so much that buying a new TV is almost irresistable! I had planned to get an even bigger one than 55", but the price on the 55" Panasonic dropped $400 on Amazon for about 3 hours and I was able to snag one during that window. I have never purchased a TV from Amazon so this will be a new experience.

Oh, and hey, I went to my cable TV provider to pick up another box for it, and ended up also getting my first DVR ever! They sure sock it to one with the $20 monthly fees for it, but life is short and I have some extra $$ right now so I might as well.

If the doom-and-gloomers are right and the stock market craters deeply and forever, along with runaway inflation, etc etc, I will cancel my cable entirely, return the box, and just rely on antennas. But meanwhile, let the good times roll. I have no desire for better audio or I would get that too.

[ratto]

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Originally Posted by Walt34 and I have a very nice Nikon D7000 and four lenses. Just before coming to this site I was looking at a D800 for $2800 + a lens for over $6k.

This is the telltale sign of stage I G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). It's not too late, still curable.

[ERhoosier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UtahSkier I stopped buying fancy and expensive audio equipment when I could no longer tell the difference between what I have and the new stuff. Buying a new reciever will not improve your entertainment experience. I bet you cannot hear the difference between your current DD5.1 receiver and the newer, high resolution formats. The new TV is a noticable benefit. So, you need good sources; Bluray DVD, Roku and cable box. You run the HDMI cables from each device into the back of the TV to get the high quality TV signal. The audio cables go into the current receiver. Now switching sources is a hassle... so get a Harmony(logitech) remote and all is well... for the next decade or so. PS. The ROKU may be redundant if you get a new DVD player.

+1
Upgrade for actual audio experience or functionality, not the industry hype. There are many who cherish the sound of their tube amps, virgin vinyl, etc.
And some electronic "upgrades" have just turned out to be dead-ends (remember 8-tracks & betamax video?).

[DeborahB]

Oh. this is a GREAT thread! Our 50" DLP TV is making a funny noise. My darling electrical engineer sweetie and I couldn't decide how much to put into an 8 year old TV that works perfectly fine. Finally decided to buy the parts (he can put it in) for $125 and see if it fixes it for a few or a couple more years, when TVs will be even cheaper. But it's been an entertaining couple of weeks.

The part came yesterday and tomorrow the plan is to try to fix it - and run to Costco to buy a replacement TV if this fails. It's the color wheel (or something like that) - he thinks. Anyhow that's the part (a new fan didn't fix it).

But it's a struggle to decide - it's a big TV and it works (worked?) and we've been happy with it for 8 years... we use it a lot to watch movies and Netflix streaming and all that jazz.

By the way, there is a term in the industry for how the nest of wires looks: my brother designs home theater systems and calls it the "wife acceptance factor". When he makes a presentation there is huge emphasis on easy remotes and minimal visible wires.

(Unfortunately he is 1500 miles away so I can't get him to help us).

But there is the lure of more toys - a Kindle, a tablet, ... stay tuned.

[JoeWras]

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Originally Posted by W2R Attaboy!! You know what you really want and have resisted the siren songs of Madison Avenue one more day. (Not so for me, see below) Friday I say goodbye to the not-broken 19" tv in my home gym room, and hello to the new 55" replacement. Prices have gone down so much that buying a new TV is almost irresistable! I had planned to get an even bigger one than 55", but the price on the 55" Panasonic dropped $400 on Amazon for about 3 hours and I was able to snag one during that window. I have never purchased a TV from Amazon so this will be a new experience.

OK, so what really started this for me was that I bought a 55" last year too, before my old 26" tube died. Same as you.

Very rare for me to get a new TV before the old one is literally smoking! But I also feel a bit forced into it. Many of the sports programs are now only in HD, so they letterbox on standard def on the old tube. I couldn't see the hockey puck.

I have to say, this 55" plasma is one of the best entertainment values I've experienced. MUCH more function and light years ahead of my 14 year old TV. It is only 720p, but looks fine to me. It was also very affordable. Last year's price was just over $500.

But, looking at that simple HDMI connection... well that got me thinking about pushing the upgrade farther. But I don't need it now. Sound at 5.1 is good enough for me. Picture is great. We don't have time for blu-ray yet. So we're good.

[Tyro]

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Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Yeah but.... Tomorrow we say goodbye to our not-broken 26" big ol' tv and hello to our new 55" skinny one.

Congrats -- I'm sure you'll love it as much as we're loving ours!

Tyro

[Tyro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Oh, and hey, I went to my cable TV provider to pick up another box for it, and ended up also getting my first DVR ever! They sure sock it to one with the $20 monthly fees for it, but life is short and I have some extra $$ right now so I might as well.

FWIW, you can buy a really nice one for less than a year's rental from the cable co. We haven't bothered with a DVR because most of the programming we'd use it for is available "on-demand" anyway. We just switched out the cable modem we've been paying them for (for one we bought), and while we were at it, swapped the cable box & remote for newer ones (no diff in rental cost). The new cable box wouldn't set up right, so they had to send a guy out, and while he was here, he replaced all our coax cables with new.

Tyro

[Walt34]

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Originally Posted by ratto This is the telltale sign of stage I G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). It's not too late, still curable.

I know, I know... Between that and finally (mostly) getting my head wrapped around Lightroom and Photoshop I can do better photography than I've ever done before, and even see some - admittedly not a lot - in magazines that I know I could do better.

But I still want the new gear. That's why I was thinking of renting it - perhaps that would cure the fever if I saw that it really wouldn't be that much of an improvement.

[Aruba50]

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Originally Posted by EvrClrx311 At the risk of becoming the little red voice on your left shoulder, I also caved recently. Our 10 year old receiver was working fine, but I hated that I had to unplug the HDMI cable running to the single slot on the back of our TV every time I wanted to switch between DVD, Cable, AppleTV. This is because the receiver was only audio, and didn't do any video output. So everything we use had to have audio cables as well as video straight to TV. A month ago I bought a $200 Sony receiver with 6 to 1 HDMI inputs to output. I love not having to bend down to pull those cords anymore, and also having just one remote instead of two... also the sound quality is drastically improved. A month later I'm still very happy I did it.

It may be too late for you but for the benefit of others there are HDMI switchers out there. You can plug multiple HDMI sources into it and it will route whichever one you select to a single output all done with a small remote control. The one I have also splits off the audio data from the selected source and outputs it in the form of digital (optical) audio out.

They are not too expensive. I forget what I paid but I think it was around $40-$50.

[Nodak]

The one addition I've made to my stereo is an internet tuner. There are thousands of very good stations from all over the world available.

[Bestwifeever]

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Originally Posted by W2R .... Friday I say goodbye to the not-broken 19" tv in my home gym room, and hello to the new 55" replacement. ... ...

The nice young men from the appliance store just left. The new TV has a giant crack in the 55" screen so is DOA but will decorate the room until the replacement comes (not sure why it has to stay here to be an exchange vs taking it which would trigger a refund and repurchase, but oh well). At least we can see that it nicely fits the room.

The warhorse 26" behemoth lives to broadcast another day.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by Bestwifeever The nice young men from the appliance store just left. The new TV has a giant crack in the 55" screen so is DOA but will decorate the room until the replacement comes (not sure why it has to stay here to be an exchange vs taking it which would trigger a refund and repurchase, but oh well). At least we can see that it nicely fits the room. The warhorse 26" behemoth lives to broadcast another day.

OH NO!! What a nightmare. At least they are not giving you any problems with the exchange.

Mine arrived in town, from Phoenix, at midday today. It is scheduled for delivery tomorrow morning.

[ls99]

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Originally Posted by Bestwifeever ... (not sure why it has to stay here to be an exchange vs taking it which would trigger a refund and repurchase, but oh well). At least we can see that it nicely fits the room. The warhorse 26" behemoth lives to broadcast another day.

'cause he did not have fork lift with him?

[aja8888]

I was going to upgrade a 20 year old Pioneer system until I had my hearing checked. I guess I'll spring for the $5000.00 hearing aids first....

[foxfirev5]

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Originally Posted by W2R OH NO!! What a nightmare. At least they are not giving you any problems with the exchange. Mine arrived in town, from Phoenix, at midday today. It is scheduled for delivery tomorrow morning.

Enjoy your new TV's. DW and I waited forever to replace our old color TV. To the point it was quite the joke with our kids bringing their families to see our retro entertainment area. We upgraded a few months ago since the new big TV was about the price we paid in the '80's for our last one.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by foxfirev5 Enjoy your new TV's. DW and I waited forever to replace our old color TV. To the point it was quite the joke with our kids bringing their families to see our retro entertainment area. We upgraded a few months ago since the new big TV was about the price we paid in the '80's for our last one.

Thank you! Hopefully mine isn't damaged like BestWifeEver's. With any luck, I should be enjoying it by noon tomorrow.

[RunningBum]

Echoing a lot of what has been said here, as long as you aren't on the bleeding edge, a lot of the electronics are pretty reasonably priced. Some things are bigger bang than others, so just upgrade what's important to you when it's at a price that doesn't make you cringe (much).

HD for both TV and movies is a big win for me. The thinner screen and less power consumption is a nice bonus, but the picture is the real deal. I can't really see much difference in BluRay over DVD other than it taking so much longer to load movies, so that's one I'd skip, at least for now. 3-D doesn't seem to be catching on so at least wait on that.

If you're happy with your sound, don't upgrade your sound system. I like mp3 for music because I can buy songs I like for 99 cents rather than an entire CD.

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by Walt34 I know, I know... Between that and finally (mostly) getting my head wrapped around Lightroom and Photoshop I can do better photography than I've ever done before, and even see some - admittedly not a lot - in magazines that I know I could do better. But I still want the new gear. That's why I was thinking of renting it - perhaps that would cure the fever if I saw that it really wouldn't be that much of an improvement.

Don't worry! I recently sprung for the new Canon EOS D6 - expensive but much less $$ than other full frame bodies. And I was replacing a really old generation Rebel Xi bought in 2005. I really should have replaced it years ago as the noise performance of digital cameras improved significantly 5+ years ago, and there I was still stuck with the noisy Xi. But, I guess, the "right" camera hadn't come along yet. I'm glad I held out for the D6.

And I agree - Lightroom, Photoshop - you can do some amazing stuff!

[Livefree]

I pulled the plug on Black Friday with a 60" Samsung that replaced a 36" Sony that weighed about 250 pounds. Also, replaced my Denon receiver that didn't have hdmi with a pioneer, and a new blue ray player.

What I like best is I can watch digital movies from a usb stick/drive from the tv or blue ray player