A "Poor" Rich TV buyer

I feel sorry for those who had spent thousands of dollars on a TV regardless it being LCD, LED, Plasma and ended up watching RM5 "backup" DVD or even Astro. The recent release of Astro Beyond had triggered a lot of consumers in the market changing to new full HD LCD, LED and Plasma. But without any technical knowledge or what so ever, they went to a electrical shops and did some survey, price compare, listen to the salesman talking a bunch of ; most of the time rubbish and spend on something they don't usually need to play their low quality picture.


Maybe not in West Malaysia, but I notice here in Kuching, there are a lot of uncles and aunties buying new tv but in the end, complain about why the quality isn't as great as what they see in the electrical shop. Most of us know, you can't expect your RM15K 50" LED to give you superb quality when you are only playing RM5 DVD, or even the 480 or 720P Astro channels. In the end, you are paying for something that you don't use. It's like buying a Ferrari in Kuching but no place to drive. No doubt some people are buying to show their "status" rather than to show the Picture Quality. I feel sorry for them again.

There is a simple trick most electrical stores are pulling it on consumers. They use Media players like Tvix and popcorn to stream the media to their displayed LCD, LED and Plasma. Most customers see the great PQ and expect to get the same quality once they replace their old CRT. You can call it a scam or lie, but that's the only way to sell your TV and I can't blame the sales person because they are only trying to earn a living and the customers are trying to buy a new TV.

A Simple Check List prior to buying your TV:

1. What source are you planning to feed to your tv? (astro, dvd, bluray, media from internet (mkv, m2ts, rmvb, avi)
2. What is your budget? (<3K, <5K, 10K, etc)
3. Environment you are using the tv ? (living rooms with lots of windows and reflection? or dedicated av room?)
4. Sitting distance between you and your tv? (some people are buying 50" and sit 20 feet away; should have got 40" and sit 8 feet away)

Next time, before your friends and family want to buy a tv, ask them what kind of source they are going to feed to their new tv first. If they said RM5 DVD or Astro, ask them to save the money and spend it on Sound System!