The FlatHDTV Blog

Buying a big-ticket item like an HDTV through the internet is a pretty scary prospect for most people. There are several anxiety issues: Will my stuff get damaged in shipping? What if I have to return it? Will I waste the better part of a day (or two) waiting for the delivery truck? And isn’t it crazy to send several thousand dollars into cyberspace, to someone who may or may not even be a real person?

Those are all reasonable fears. But, the last one is not as reasonable as it was back in the 90s. The rise of major online retailers like Amazon.com has raised online customer service standards to a level where the overall experience, though different, is in many ways better than the experience at your neighborhood electronics store. Let’s look at some of the concerns behind buying online:

• My HDTV may be damaged in shipping. It’s certainly possible. But the policy of Amazon and most other online retailers takes this into account, and gives you several ways to deal with it. With their standard shipping, the delivery person will typically help you take the set out of the box, wait for you to plug it in and see if there is any shipping damage. If there is, it’s a no-brainer- the set goes back and you get a replacement immediately.
• The set may be damaged in a way that is not immediately obvious. Even if you don’t notice anything wrong with the set right away, you can still send it back for a replacement within 30 days, and Amazon will pay for the shipping. And when you think about it, this problem is equally likely when buying from a physical store: the set had to be shipped to the store in the first place, and the store is certainly not going to test every unit for every kind of defect. That means you’re the “test pilot” whether you buy from Circuit City or Amazon.
• I will have to wait all day for the delivery truck. Yeah, this one’s annoying. But fighting traffic and hanging around in a big-box electronics store for several hours can be infinitely frustrating as well.
• It’s easier to talk a salesperson into a lower price. If you’re a genius at haggling low prices out of retail sales managers, you might enjoy the buying process more at a physical store. Unfortunately, while most salespeople can be talked into matching the price you found down the street, they will rarely match the best price you can find online. Beating the other neighborhood stores is one thing, but beating every store on the internet is quite another. And to top it off, Amazon will actually give you a rebate on your purchase if the price of your HDTV goes down within 30 days after your purchase.
• It’s hard to trust a faceless online merchant. Given the speed with which the world is changing, that’s understandable. The best way to get around this one is to start spending more time online, do your research, interact with real people in chat rooms, read industry newsletters, and so on. Once you become aware of the potential pitfalls and the ways to safeguard against them, buying online will feel as natural as putting money in the bank.

For more information on buying HDTV sets online, please visit FlatHDTV.net, a website dedicated to helping you make a wise and informed purchase.

Learning the ropes in the brave new world of HDTV can be overwhelming at times, especially if reading acronym after acronym makes your head spin. Get a new HD-DVR for your LCD DTV, turn your HP into an HTPC, and then once you’ve learned to download WVGA from your ISP you’ll wonder why you ever watched MTV on your RCA.

One of the most important new terms, though, is HDMI. It refers to a new type of cable and stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface. The concept behind HDMI is really simple: instead of having different kinds of cables to connect between your TV, computer, DVD player and what have you, just use one type of cable that’s capable of doing it all. It comes down to the bigger-fire-hose theory: with ever increasing TV screen resolutions, high definition movie players, and growing popularity of downloading huge files over the internet, demand has increased for high capacity cables, and so the cost has come down low enough that it makes little sense to buy anything smaller.

HDMI cables replace the following: coaxial cable (the stiff, round wire with one pin coming out of the end connector), DVI cables (the ones with a trapezoidal end jack, with about 15 pins, that is often used for a computer monitor), composite and component cables (the familiar old red and green, or white and yellow cable pairs that TVs have used for decades), and many many more. They are not part of every device yet, though, so adapters will still have to be used for several years to come when connecting an HDMI port to a non-HDMI port. To see pictures of these connectors check this article: connecting your computer to your HDTV.

And even though HDMI is the most powerful cable in consumer electronics, there is still something better- future versions of HDMI. The standard right now is called HDMI 1.0, and it is capable of handling the most advanced HDTV technology (1080p, 120Hz, Blu-Ray) that you can buy right now. Just around the corner is a new standard called HDMI 1.3 that should handle the next generation of HDTVs, whether they can play 2560×1600 resolution, super enhanced audio, 3-D movies, or even smell-o-vision. Getting a 1.0 cable is fine for now, though, because they are cheap and can handle just about anything.