What is the best New TV deal for 2013?

Since I am getting the same questions about buying TV’s this holiday season, I decided to give everyone my personal choices and some quick tips.  Because the pricing is going to be all over the board this holiday season, what I will tell you is what I like, why I like it and how it compares.

One of the picture qualities I am hearing more and more about is the “soap opera effect”. I don’t have another name for it and I have seen it a couple of times now.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to “tune” or “calibrate” the TV so I am not 100% sure what causes it.  

Right now I have a Toshiba 50” which isn’t even on my radar but was a smoking cheap deal last year at Costco.  It will eventually move to my office and be replaced by a 70”.  I say eventually because things are changing so fast, and there is another remodeling project that will happen at the same time.

Something odd that has happened is the disappearance of Cinemawide TV and the appearance of 4K or UHD TV.  In order to watch a movie and see everything the same way as the theater, you need the Cinemawide Screen.  If you don’t get one, an 80” screen will have black bars at the top and bottom making it effectively a 75” screen.

You can of course stretch the picture to fill in the black bars, bet then you lose something.  You aren’t watching what the director so painstakingly created for you.  I was hoping Cinemawide screens would have done better,  Since TV is in 16:9 format and that is most of what people watch at home, that the 16:9 TV’s would be the most popular though.

Going Shopping:

If I were out today on Black Friday 2013 looking for a new TV, here are my thoughts:

I really like the Sharp Quatron 3D series for the 60” 70” and 80” screens.  All of the big stores have good prices on these units.  If you can make your room very dark, they have good black levels and excellent color saturation.

One of my tests is the movie “Men In Black”.  If the suits look grey or washed out in the night scenes it means the TV can’t keep up.  Sharp is the winner here for LCD and LED TV’s.  Plasmas are better, but at that size they are heavy and expensive if you can even find on.

The surprise value for me is Vizio.  In the past their picture quality was noticeably different then the Shart and Samsung.  Now Vizio looks very close to the Samsung and Vizio is a bit less expensive than the Samsung in many cases.

There is a low end Ultra HD brand, Seiki, that has a Ultra High Def or UHD 50” TV for under $1000.  The higher definition is cool if you sit very close to the TV and have good eyes, otherwise who cares.  At that price I have to wonder about black levels and color quality, so for now I am saying avoid it.  If they send me one to demo, I’ll let you know.

Sony of course always looks good, and there are some deals out there because they are now turning their focus on UHD/4K TVs.    Picture quality wise Sony is usually on par with Samsung and Vizio.  Sony’s electronics and cases are usually higher quality and a better finish which is why they usually cost more.

The last question is refresh rates.  All TV’s are 60hz unless they say otherwise.  If you are a gamer or serious movie buff, 60hz won’t cut it.  Your body is also running at 60hz so you subconsciously can see a bit of flicker in the screen.  60hz means the screen is refreshed 60 time every second.  Your eyes capture about 60 images every second.

For gaming, 120hz is the minimum, and 240hz is better.  For 3D, 120hz is also the minimum, and I haven’t seen a 60hz 3D TV yet.  Check the box.

For TV’s in guest rooms, kitchen or anywhere there is light most of the time, Go for the best deal.  I wouldn’t tell you to skip the $98 32” Black Friday Deal at WalMart for a quick Kitchen TV or kids room TV.

If you are thinking about using a TV as a second monitor, then get a better brand, and use one that is also a computer monitor maker like Samsung or Toshiba.  HDTV’s sometimes look funny as a computer monitor if you get a cheap one.

So that moves us to “smart tv’s”.  Personally I use Apple TV.  The interface for Netflix on Apple TV is better and I can run it through my stereo first.  The options with “Smart TV’s” are ok if you are going to use the TV speakers and nothing else.  Eventually I will buy a ReQuest Media Server with a Media Player.  ReQuest Media Players are hands down the best way to watch movies and online content.

I also like the ability to to put stuff on my TV from my iPad and iPhone.  If you have a Samsung Galaxy, then a Samsung TV makes a lot of sense. 

So there you have my favorite list, and you can adjust the order to fit your budget and whatever Black Friday deals you can find.

So there you have it, don’t worry about “Smart TV”, get Apple TV or even Google TV for now unless you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, and the summary is:

1 Buy a TV no bigger that the distance you sit from it.  If you are 6 feet away, don’t get anything bigger than 70”  60” would be the best for image quality at 6 feet.

2. Sharp Quatron with four colors is the best picture for non plasma

3. Sony, Samsung and Vizio if you get a smoking deal are all good.

4. TV’s under 40” go with the deals

5. If you get a big TV don’t forget the Monster HDTV tune up or some other home calibration kit.  That is money well spent.

Oh yeah and if you don't have a big enough truck, Amazon delivers.

The Windows “One Experience”, Is It?

So is the Windows “One Experience” a move forward or backwards?  After a serious look at the new computers, tablets and phones powered my Microsofts single minded operating system, I have to wonder if Gates needs to pull a jobs, and take over the helm again.

Steve Ballmer has clearly been a better choice for Microsoft that Gil Emilio was for Apple, but it might be time to rethink the plan.  By the way, I still own my Microsoft Stock.

So what is going on at Microsoft? 

Starting at the little end, I looked a the windows phones.  iOs 7 on the iPhone 4 was a deal killer.    My Windows 7 desktop PC died, and my wife's died about a week later.  Like any good writer, I went on vacation for inspiration.

The phones with the windows OS were great.  The Nokia with the 41 Mega pixel camera was a little odd shaped, but it did take some great photos.  The tile interface is pretty cool and the apps are great.   I could get used to the one view update on the tiles.

Moving up the totem pole I looked at several windows tablets.  I do like them much better than the Apple iPad even though I already had three iPads.  The tile interface again the winner.   Within minutes of picking it up, I was able to get it to do everything I wanted it to do, and that I use my iPad for.  As a home controller and interface this is a clear winner.  It even solved my issues with missing text messages on my cell while at home.  

Since going to iOS 7 on the iPads, I can’t leave my home controller running like a smart photo display.  For the first time since buying any Apple product, I need to ask for help.  That just isn’t happening, it violates rule number 5 which is “Buy no technology that requires support.”

I should probably put some of this into perspective.  I am on my 5th "smart house".  This one is quite a bit simpler than the fourth house and still way cooler and smarter than homes one through three.  In the past I spent as much as $9,000 for touch screen control of my home lighting and audio/video systems.  Now the iPad or Windows Tablet can do a better job for much less money.  Maestro by ReQuest is probably the best looking interface for any system period.

At this point Microsoft was on a roll, and we were creating a huge list.  By the way, I have the advantage of living near an Apple Store, Sony Store and Microsoft Store which are all in the same mall for technology shopping at its best (and most confusing).

Next was the Xbox 360.  During the review we started looking at the capability of the upcoming Xbox One.  The only feature it didn’t have was an HDMI extender, but the salesperson showed me two that work well, so I could hide my devices out of site.  Problem solved.  Microsoft still rolling.

The list was growing and I was eager to wait for an Xbox One so it was on to the desktops.  For years I have been running dual screens and multiple apps.  Most of the time running training or educational videos on one screen while working or writing on the other.  The first question I asked was, “Can I add a second screen?”

The salesperson was perplexed for the first time, and the answer appeared to be “no”.  The next question was attempting to use the screen to multi task and layer the windows, now called tiles.

After 15 minutes I gave up.  Sorry Mr. Balmer, rule number 5 is violated.  I can’t do what I want to do without help, and by the way, I have rule number 5 because only once in the last 25 years has anyone from any tech support ever been able to find the answer before I could.  Yes that was a Microsoft Engineer from Dallas and he was sharp.  

Since that day I have been watching to see if Microsoft figured it out, and so far I don’t see it.  Apple on the other hand with iOS 7 put just the right amount of multi-tasking in mobile while keeping the desktop environment practical, comfortable and very multi task friendly.  Then I discovered Parallels.  Left Screen Windows, Right Screen Mac.

The score right now:       

Apple - two iPhone 5’s, three iPad’s, two Mac Mini’s

Microsoft - One Copy of Windows Running on Parallels.

On the horizon, a 4K TV and a PS4?  Or a Sharp Aquos Quatron and Xbox One?  

Is Your Tech Guy Overselling IT?

#OfficeNetwork

How much technology do you really need in the office?  I am not talking about the stuff you see like your desktop computer, the tablet or your phone.  What I am talking about are web servers, mail servers, routers and hubs, and things you never see unless you are the IT guy.

Recently I spent some time with two different clients this month and was amazed at how much in house technology they had.  Both of these businesses have less than 15 employees full time in the office, and 10 employees out on the road.  Here are their setups starting from the wall to the desk:

Business 1 10 Users, 6 client interactions per day:
ATT UVerse Modem 15 Static IP Addresses
Juniper Router
-Microsoft Small Business Server - Required for software used in house
-Microsoft Exchange Server - Used for basic email functions
-Digital Tape Backup Drive - Used to Back Up Bothe Servers
10 Desktop PC's with 18" LCD Screens
All users have iPhones


Monthly IT average $3000

Business 2, 12 Users, 45 Client Interactions per day:
Time Warner Cable Modem - 50 Static IP addresses
Cisco Router
2 x Apple Airport
-Microsoft Exchange Server - Basic Email Functions
-Microsoft Small Business Server - Financial and Data Storage
-Specialty Server for software package
8 Desktop PC's with 20" screens
2 Desktop Macs
2 MacBooks
12 iPhones

Monthly IT average $2100

In both cases, I couldn't see any reason to have an in house server for email or basic functionality.  A network drive, sometimes called "Network Addressable Storage" or NAS drives, would have worked just fine.  The difference? About $3000 up front plus $500 a month in support.  Additionally neither needs the MS exchange server now that they have gone to the iPhone as the mobile platform.  Yes Exchange does a lot more, but they aren't using it.

The last monthly cost is the static IP addresses.  Business one needs it for a subscription service they have to purchase for each computer.  I am suspicious though that the vendor doesn't have an option for dynamic IP addresses.   The second business was hosting their website data on their server but not the website. It was a crazy system to support.  Additionally of the 50 static IP addresses only 5 were in use.

How would I set up businesses that size?  In fact just about any business can use this model if you have less than 20 desktop systems.  In fact now I see iPads with keyboards and proprietary apps and that whole setup is less than what I listed above.

Here is exactly what my two offices look like:

Verizon FiOS Router - WiFi off, set to Modem only Mode.
Apple Airport Extreme Router(s)
Netgear ReadyNAS Network Drive
Virtual Web Hosting with Email Service, 1and1 and GoDaddy are two good ones we support in our office.
Desktop PC or MAC as required.

This is exactly our setup, I don't use the Verizon FiOS Router for simplicity reasons, and in an all MAC business, you could use the Apple Time Capsule instead of the Netgear Ready NAS.  All of our email is stored on the servers at 1and1, as is our website.  We back them up to a DVD each month.  The NAS Drive is backed up weekly since that is where our customer records and financials are stored.

Western Digital even calls one option "mycloud", meaning you own it.  While I like virtual email and web hosting to save money, you should own your data in a physical sense.  That is why we use the NAS drive.  Our setup has all of the capability needed for both businesses and would have cost over $10,000 less.

Do you want to see your IT guy more often or do you want $10,000 or more in your bank account?