I was invited by fellow blogger and technologist Darren Barefoot to attend a media event at the local Future Shop. It was going to be a debate between two individuals concerning the future of HDTV. On one side of the panel was Leo Laporte, who you may know from his absurdly loud shirts and terrible parties. On the other side of the panel was Amber MacArthur, a CityNews International personality known for her Popnology segments and Webnation television program. Moderating the discussion was Tod Maffin of CBC.
They touched on a number of topics from expensive cables to mounting televisions over your fireplace, but most of this information is already common knowledge for any geeks in the audience. I guess the debate, much like Future Shop’s philosophy, is geared toward the ignorant mainstream consumer (as represented by Tod Maffin). Tod’s love for calibration tools arose as did Leo’s fascination with Halo 3. By and large, Leo defended the brilliance of plasma TVs whereas Amber showed her support for LCDs, particularly those by Samsung. Here are a few tidbits that they mentioned:
- LCDs are better in brightly lit rooms and as secondary “lifestyle” televisions; plasmas are superior in dimly lit rooms and for truer home theatre arrangements.
- Monster Cables are a rip off and you shouldn’t buy them unless you have a “long throw.”
- Look out for the development of 4K resolutions, providing a picture four times as detailed as 1080p HDTV, in 10-20 years. This represents 2000+ horizontal lines compared to the current 1000 lines.
- DLP is not dead. Instead, it’s shooting for the high-end, particularly with front projection. A nice DLP setup can get very pricey.
- Plasmas are better for gaming simply because of their superior refresh rates and contrast ratios. Just make sure you’re in a dim room.
- The best plasma TVs are made by “the two Ps”: Pioneer and Panasonic.
- Up-converting DVD players are worth the money, even if your TV does up-sampling too.
- How your HDTV handles lower resolution signals is just as important as how it handles high-definition content.
- Leo likes to talk (and dominate conversations) more than Amber.
Anyways, here are two videos that I took at the event. The first discusses LCD vs. plasma, response time, gaming, and resolutions. The second talks about which TV is better, expensive cables, and the death of boob tubes.
Probably the most notable attendee among the live audience (the debate was also streamed live onto the Internet) was local personality Buzz Bishop. You might know him from his technology column or from his DJ duties at Z95.3 95 Crave. He stayed pretty quiet and well behaved.
Thanks for coming to the event and the bloggage. Apparently video of the whole webcast will be available, I’ll see if I can hunt it down.
“ignorant mainstream consumer” .. nice choice of words. you have to realize, not everyone is obsessed with technology the way you may be.
there are foodies who may call you an “ignorant eater”, there are sommeliers who may call your palate “immature and unsophisticated”, there are music fans who may call your choice of listening “unsophisticated.”
instead of name calling, perhaps you should realize we all specialize in life. we pick different things to be good at, since it’s impossible to be good at everything.
so why don’t you take your passion for technology and help people understand and appreciate it instead of calling them names.
it’s a thought.
bz.
I didn’t mean for the word “ignorant” to be an insult to anyone. I’m fully aware of your point and that’s why I used the word “ignorant” rather than “stupid” or something along those lines. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge and the average consumer doesn’t know all that much about technology, just as the typical diner doesn’t know all that much about which wine would be complement their meal. (I fall into the latter category, by the way.)
i know the textbook definition of ignorance is someone who is unaware, but the culturally accepted definition borders on being an insult.
“Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. Ignorance is sometimes misinterpreted as a synonym of stupidity, and is as thus often taken as an insult.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorance
have a look at your sentence again. you could have made the same point just by saying “mainstream consumer.”
by adding the word “ignorant” you appear to be elevating yourself above these people and thereby appear to be putting them down.
really, the word “ignorant” is redundant and you can get your message across without insulting, or appearing to insult, anyone by leaving it out.
i’m just saying, that’s all …
Fair enough. At the same time, it’s almost ironic, because anyone who was in attendance or watching the discussion online probably had geek-like tendencies. It would be like going to a wine enthusiast convention and then having someone discuss the difference between red and white.
but that’s the point, they wanted ‘geeks’ there to spread the word to the great unwashed. yknow, people who have jobs and cant get to a future shop on their lunch break to discuss tvs