Size, I mean refresh, I mean...both I suppose...

With the work season in full swing posting to the ol' blog has taken a back seat to the responsibility of life.  With the holidays now in full swing at least one issue is front and center in my mind which lends to what I hope will be a faint smile across the faces of those who know us (read, me).

Travel with me back to a time before YB (b.yb).  It was a sad, lonely time.  I had tried freelance enough to know I didn't want to do it (what a foolish, young JD I was).  I had better things to do, like sleep.  But at some point I got bored with sleep and needed something else to do.  So aside from buying a motorcycle to ride on the weekends I also bought a TV, 21" of digital tube goodness if I remember the size correctly.  It was to watch the Super Bowl, alone, by myself, in my apartment...by myself.  I was all happy about the purchase.  Set it up, turned it on, and then realized my apartment was perfectly situated around radio/tv transmitters and the Navy to the point where all the broadcast signals cancelled each other out.  Eventually I bought a PS2 for the sole purpose of playing the lone game I owned, Spiderman 2, and watching Pixar movies over and over again.

This situation remained until after I met YB when we raided her parent's house and brought home a 40" Sony.  Now before you get all excited I have to say a couple things.  First, yes, it is (because we still have and use it) 40".  It's production year was around 2000 which means, it's rear projection, it is not easily transportable, at the time of manufacturing the bulb cost somewhere between $300 and $400.  Its max resolution?  480i.  HD by the strictest sense; but come on.  No.  Not HD at all.  And, as YB and I found our our first New Year's Eve after we were married, analogue.  Meaning no ABC's Rockin' New Year's Eve.  We scrambled to find an online stream.  It might have DVI and VGA inputs, multiple HD component as well, and a coax antennae, but no HDMI.  What does that mean in layman terms?  Nothing modern can be plugged into it.  When my soon-to-be in-laws sent a gift with which to buy a Blu-Ray player, I had to make sure it had the correct components to do so.  This TV, the 40" behemoth, is one of the highest contributors to our electric bill.  Our house actually dimmed when this thing turned on.

You can imagine the range of emotions when the original bulb blew.  I had prepared YB for that day and had money in the bank.  A new bulb, $300?  We can buy a new TV for that.  Finally, aside from the abysmal specs (or lack thereof), we would be rid of an electricity HOG.  I went online to do due diligence.  Had to check the price of the projector bulbs.  South of $30.  Yep, not happy that day.

Fast forward to Black Friday/Christmas sales of 2015 where consumer sanity always wins and retailers never try to upsell perceived need.

I finally talked YB into giving me a $300 budget for a new TV.  Finally, not that our electric bill hasn't astronomical because we honestly don't watch enough to make a difference, but for the love of all things energy efficient we would finally have a TV modern enough to not spin the meter faster.  We would have decent resolution when watching a Blu-Ray, we could easily hook our laptops up or get something attached to the network which could do the same.  And I know exactly what we need.  A 50" 1080p LED at 120Hz.  The price should be right in our budget's sweet spot.  Why?  Because of all those jokers out there who believe the hype thinking they need a 40" 4K screen (go ahead and sit three feet from your screen).

I scoured the Black Friday ads.  I scoured the Cyber Monday deals.  I scoured DealsPlus.  Then I scoured individual websites like Costco and Walmart, BestBuy even.  You know what I found?  I found lots of sales and lots of retailers that wanted to take my money and give me a product not worthy of that money.  I even found this product which was exactly what I wanted, for the price I wanted.  Glad I went home to check it out, because they call it 120Hz on the box, but nowhere in their documentation does it mention that function and a call to their customer service line revealed their max refresh rate was 100Hz.  What is that?  Do we live in England where that even makes sense?

I do have to take a few moments here to explain the logic of my desires.  There are technical reasons why I'm looking for a 50" LED screen being refreshed at 120Hz.  Our (myself and YB) viewing distance is generally between five and 10 feet putting us in the sweet spot of the 1080 resolution.  If we rent a Blu-Ray, we'll get the most out of it possible.  If we hook a laptop up to it with a downloaded movie from iTunes, we'll get the most out of.  LED is better than LCD and no one makes LCD screens anymore anyway (backlights are different).  And at a certain screen size, a refresh rate of 60Hz just doesn't cut it anymore.  I work in TV so I notice that kind of thing and I think that line is crossed at 40".  120Hz means the screen is refreshed twice as fast which means for faster action (anything more than a stationary talking head) you're (me) going to want it.  M- and D, if you're wondering, your screen barely registers on the chart I'll include at the bottom of the post.

So here I sit, sort of depressed.  It was supposed to have been my Christmas present.  There will be other sales, other years.  And I know, it's only a TV.  But I'm a responsible, adult techie who works in TV.  It's like D buying a car.  Heaven help you if he can't find what he knows he can find for the price he thinks is reasonable.

So look out stores and online sites.  JD and YB are due for a TV upgrade.  You're going to get some visits.  Look out customer hotlines, you're going to have informed questions being thrown at you.  I know when you're being unreasonable.  And trust me, telling me your max refresh rate of a screen in America is 100Hz is unreasonable, though not as unreasonable as a store associate telling me they don't have access to a particular TV's remote to allow the customer to look through the adjustment menus.

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