Just the other day I had a customer walk through the door with some questions about HDMI cables. Now HDMI can be confusing to begin with, but what was even more confusing was where he went first to try get his questions answered. He went to one of the Big Buy stores. Surprisingly enough he took the time to talk to 3 different “sales associates“ before giving up and leaving. He then stumbled upon our store by accident seeing the sign on his way down the road. The scary part is that I know most of you reading this are now shaking your head and going “yeah that keeps happening to me too“.

Really, so why do you keep going to the Big Buy store for answers?

Now the fact that this particular client was completely unable to find anyone at the Big Buy location that knew anything about HDMI was not a surprise to us. The big surprise to me is that he went there in the first place! Why did he go there? Why do any of you go there? Can anyone reading this article remember a time that they went to a Big Buy type of store looking for help and knowledge and left having had a positive experience?

I have been in the Audio / Video Industry now for 30 years yes I am that old.

30 years this means that I have been in this industry for at least 12 years longer than the “Sales Associate” you just spoke to at the Big Buy has been alive! Is it any wonder that these guys and gals are not very knowledgeable? It is not really their fault they may be very interested in the Audio and Video gear; I am sure that is why they went and got a job in the store in the first place.

There is just not enough training available, and the turn over is so high that the chances of you finding a smart, competent associate who cares is really incredibly low. Our staff has been around for a very long time. Our turn over is un-believably low. We have experience with the very best gear that is out there, and we know how to maximize the gear in your home to get the most out of it.

People are surprised to know that we still do a lot of car audio / video systems; we have been doing them for 28 years now. Here again we have a bit of an edge. Our head Car Technician has been with us for 23 years! 23 Years! Tom has worked on cars that most of the guys at the Big Buy have never even seen in person. Who do you want to work on your baby the guy that has always wanted to work on a new Mercedes; or the guy that has done so many that they are old hat to him now?

This is starting to look like a bit of a rant so let me go ahead and come to my point.

If you want to learn about something that you are not familiar with you should always seek out the most experienced people in your area to ask. I will never understand why so many people will go to the Big Buy store, buy something without shopping around and then be surprised when it does not perform the way they hoped it would. This is a self fulfilling prophecy. You went and asked a bunch of questions about a TV from a guy that knew less than you, bought what he recommended and surprise, surprise you are now disappointed by the outcome! Many of these associates have never even seen gear of the quality and performance that we deal with every day, how can they possibly give you good advice?

The next portion of this rant is even more direct.

At many of the Big Buy type of stores in your area the sales associates are paid on commission or spiffs. What this means is that they will be paid handsomely to sell what the management wants sold and paid little or nothing if they sell the wrong thing. Hmmmm, you mean that guy in the logoed shirt might not have your very best interests at heart when he tells you which TV is the best? At Ask the Advisors we pay our guys to be here they get paid the same no matter what you buy. And guess what else; because we do not spend all of our money advertising; we need you to come back over and over again, and send all your friends in to see us. This only happens if we match you with gear that blows away your expectations! It is in our best interest to always sell you what is in your best interest what a concept. This is something we call The Ask the Advisors Win-Win relationship. The other bit of good news is that you will not pay any more to shop with us! Really, we guarantee our prices so you can come to a place where you will get knowledgeable help, the very best installations and get a great price as well.

Finally let’s talk about having your gear installed and set up.

This can in many cases be the most important part of the process; the gear has become increasingly sophisticated and proper set-up is key to great performance. Here again it should be a no brainer. We have a large number of technicians with an amazing amount of experience with the gear we sell ready to do your installation. Some companies that sell you installation services do not do any of the work at all. How would it feel to buy a new TV and wall bracket, and then have a van with a name you have never heard of show up at your door and tell you they are the install company that was contracted to do the work? Plus what about service after the sale; we have service available 24/7 just a telephone call away.

So the next time you are considering Audio / Video / Car Audio etc. stop in at Ask the Advisors and try us out. I absolutely guarantee you an experience so much better than your last experience at the Big Buy store that you will in fact come back again and again and send all of your friends in as well.

Ask Ron About Wire

[contact-form]

We get a ton of questions about “Wire” at Ask the Advisors,

and there is a lot of confusion out there regarding wire so here will be some facts from the world according to Ron regarding wire.

One of the most interesting questions we get a lot is “does wire actually make a difference?” This is one of the easiest questions to answer in the entire Audio / Video industry. Of course it does! If you think about this for even a moment you will realize that wire has to make a difference. First consider that ALL of the Audio and Video information has to travel through not one, but several wires getting from your source, to your control, through your amplification and finally out to your speakers. Wire is also very likely to be the only passive element in your system; it is not powered or amplified and has no controls of any kind on it. So if you think about it; the only thing wire can actually do is screw things up! It does not have the ability to fix things does it?

So based on this very simple hypothesis, wire has to make a difference.

The only problem is that according to my theory wire has to make a difference; and the only difference it can make is to make things worse! So when you are buying wire what you are really doing is trying to buy wires that screw things up less. I imagine you have never thought about wire quite like this before have you?

So let’s take my hypothesis and go one step further shall we?

If we agree that wire, as a passive element in our system, and one that every single bit of Audio and Video that we are going to see and hear will have to run through, can really only be counted on to screw things up; will better wire make a difference? Again the answer is of course! A better designed wire will transfer our sacred information with less errors, it will screw things up less. Wow what a backwards sounding goal that is! But it really is not, it is just that the industry has advertised and sold wire as a way to fix things and as a way to make things better for so long that looking at it the other way just seems… well…. odd.

So now that we have turned the wire industry on its head lets go on to the next step.

“Will I be able to see and or hear improvements if I buy better wire?” An adamant yes once again. You see when you get better wires, you do screw the signal up less, and that means you get real visible and audible improvements. There is no if, and, or but to this sentence; better cabling equals better picture and sound. In some cases the improvement for the dollar spent can be one of the best bargains in the A/V Industry. Just think about it, you have a very good pair of speakers and a great amp at home and they are hooked together through some scrap of lamp chord you found in the garage. You stop in here at Ask the Advisors, we ask you a few questions about your setup and recommend a new pair of speaker wires from Straightwire or Transparent Audio and away you go. You will indeed hear a marked improvement, or you will bring the wire back for a full refund. How simple is that?

The next part of our discussion now should be about balance.

You would not be likely to buy a Porsche and go get re-treaded tires to drive around on any more than you would buy a used Escort and put high performance track tires on it. Wire and cable decisions like so many things are about balance. You cannot make a bad system a lot better by putting incredible wire on it, there is no way to fix a bad signal with cables. The opposite is also true; you should not buy great gear and then scrimp on the interconnects and speaker wires, that is like driving the Porsche on re-treads. So where does this balance fall? I have always used a very simple calculator to see where we should be; you should spend between 10% and 20% of what you spent on your system on the cables and wires to connect it all together. So if you are spending $5,000.00 on your gear plan to spend $500.00 to $1,000.00 on the wires. This will almost always put you in a good place, making sure the wires are good enough to match the gear, and not having the wires be overkill.

We are so sure that the improvement will be noticeable and of value to you that we absolutely guarantee it. If you do not hear or see the improvements in the cabling we recommend to you…just bring them back and get a full refund. We cannot be any clearer on the importance, or make it any easier for you to decide whether it is worth your money.

Ask Ron About Wire

[contact-form]

There are at least 3 reasons to have a good home theater line conditioner: Surge Protection, Improved Picture/Sound (line filtering), and Power On Sequencing. Do not assume your picture or sound cannot be improved over it’s current state!

Panamax products WILL protect your system, and they are guaranteed by Panamax to do so. Power Protection and Surge Suppression should not be taken lightly! There are all sorts of claims out there about various technologies being better or worse for surge protection. In reality, proper surge protection is a little more complex than that. No one technology should be considered the best for all circumstances. The Panamax surge protection devices we sell are proven products, with a long history of successful protection, even if you need lightning surge protection. Panamax Surge Suppressors carry a protected equipment warranty. In other words, they are *guaranteed* to protect by the manufacturer! No hype and fancy talk, just real surge protection with proven technologies, even home theater surge protection. Power protectors use a hybrid technology, combining the best technologies for the ultimate in protection. This gives you the best surge protector available!

We are a trained dealer of Panamax products. The surge protector products sold for home theater need to be carefully hooked up, improper hookup is bad for your equipment and voids your warranty. Please contact us after you purchase your items so we can help you to properly hook up your equipment. We have found approximately 1 out of 3 people hook up their equipment improperly, putting them at increased risk to suffer damage.

Reasons why surge protector products are better:

WARRANTY

Panamax warrants their units and the equipment connected to them, if you buy from an authorized dealer. While this may seem like a minor concern according to some web sites, think about it. If they were not confident their equipment works, they would not warrant connected equipment. But they do. Also, with over 3 million sold, clearly, they wouldn’t be selling them any more if they did not work as they would be paying more and more claims every year as the installed base grew.

HYBRID DESIGN

Panamax Power surge protectors use a hybrid design, using various technologies which when combined offer the best possible surge protection. If you are thinking series mode protector, think again, they use a coil, and coils pass voltage through during prolonged surges.

PROTECTION FOR ALL PATHS

No surge protection technology can possibly work unless all signal paths coming into and out of your system are protected. Some competing brands actually sell units that have AC only protection! They are useless unless you protect all paths.

RESPONSE TIME

Panamax surge proectors have a response time of less than 1 nanosecond. This is critical in protecting from surges! If you have a UPS or are considering one, please note that most of them provide a 5NS response time, this is NOT good. Also, a question to ask if you are considering a UPS is does it protect all the signal paths? Also, please be aware that UPSs add LOTS of noise to an audio/video system, you will greatly reduce the quality of your system with a UPS.

PROTECTION and “Series Mode”

What about series mode surge protection? Series mode protection by itself is good, but has some weaknesses. One major weakness is that common mode impulses generated by in house surges or other types of surges are unprotected by a series mode surge protector, bet they didn’t tell you that. Or, maybe they said they do not occur or are not large enough to cause any damage? The UL1449 spec they like to quote *requires* a common mode surge test, why would they have the test if it was not important? Panamax Power surge protectors protect against common mode surges. Also, series mode proponents claim that other protectors have short lifetimes, while theirs does not. The manufacturer of the components used for AC protection rates their product as having a lifetime of 500 years if you had a direct hit by lightning on your power feed once per year (IEEE 500 amp test pulse). Or, you could easily handle 100,000 100 amp surges. Another claim is that Panamax Power surge protectors shunt all surges to ground. Not so! Surges are diverted to neutral and ground, making all 3 phases have the same potential, meaning no downstream damage, unlike the claims. Also, they claim that mode 2 protectors inflate by massive factors the ground reference, we can direct you to sources in the power industry that says this can happen without any mode 2 protector, the case is vastly overstated, and since they do not protect against those types of surges… Series mode protectors really do NOT pass the UL1449 rating as that requires passing the mode 2 protection test, it is part of the UL1449 spec. They get out of it by not having any surge protection except for hot-neutral, and therefore there is nothing to test, all semantics. Which means other types of surges are *completely* unprotected. Ask them what happens during a prolonged surge, as in 10 seconds, or minutes say during a storm. Also, if the surge exceeds their rated capacity, any coil design gets overloaded, and overloaded coils pass through the voltage. If they tell you you cannot possibly get a surge in excess of 6,000 volts, wrong again. Finally, most of the ones we’ve seen do NOT guarantee they will protect your system, Panamax does!

You can also get additional information from the Panamax Surge Protection.

This is a great article by www.powersystemsdirect.com/

Ask Ron About Panamax Surge Protection

Panamax Model numbers: M5400-PMM, M5300-PM, M5100-PM, M4300-PM, M7500-PRO, M1500-UPS-PFP, M5510-PRO, M5500-EX, M5400-EX, M5300-EX, M5100-EX, M4300-EX, M4400-20A, RM-8, ML4200, M4315-PRO, M4320-PRO, M8-HT-PRO, M8-HT, M10-HT-PRO, MFP-400, MFP-300, PM8-HT, P8-AV, MIP-15A-EX, MIP-20-EX, M4-EX, M4T-EX, M8C-EX, M8DBS-EX, M8-EX, M8T-EX, M8C-PRO, M8HC-PRO, MFP500-EX, PM8C-EX, PM8DBS-EX, PM8T-EX, PM8-EX, PM8-GAV, B1500, MB850, MB1000, MIW-POWERKIT-PRO, MIW-XT , MIW-SURGE, MIW-POWER-PRO-PFP, MIW-POWER-PRO, MIW-DUAL SIGNAL BAY, MIW-5RCA, MIW-DATA, MIW-SVIDEO, MIW-VGA, MIW-POWERKIT-TL, MIW-POWERKIT-MOB, MIW-POWER-3BAY, MIW-B&O, MIW-POWER, MOD-AT2, MOD-AT4, MOD-AT8110, MOD-CAT5, MOD-DBSTV, MOD-DT4, MOD-SPKP, MOD-UTP, M7500CRD-IP, D10-PFP, M2, M2A20, M2AV, M2T, M2SUB, GPP8005, SEP-200, M2DF, BEZ7500-PRO-S, BEZ4300-EX, BEZ5100-EX, BEZ5300-EX, BEZ5400-EX, BEZ5500-EX, BEZ5510-PRO-S monster cable, panamax m4300pm, panamax m4300pm, Panamax MX5102

When you are looking at hiring a low voltage firm, be sure to ask what process that company uses to complete projects and see it in place and working.

Discovery

Our initial consultation with you will define your wants, needs and objectives. Bring a copy of your floorplans either hard copy or electronic file, preferably to leave with us, so that we can better lay out the different systems. If you are remodeling your existing home, an on-site walk through is in order. From this meeting, our team will draft a scope of work within in your budget and system requirements.

Design & Proposal

After the scope of work has been defined we progress to a contracted design phase. Here we will design your system and generate a custom proposal that will detail the products, pricing and labor.

Engineering Schematics

Along with the design and proposal, we will engineer your system. All the equipment connections are mapped out and rack diagrams are produced in order for our technicians to successfully assemble all the equipment. This may also include wiring locations on your floorplans.

Equipment Procurement

Since our systems are custom, we order equipment for each project individually. This phase can sometimes take up to 30 days depending on manufacturer lead times, so be patient – it’s worth it!

Rough-in Wiring

This phase is done after the electrician has finished wiring. All the necessary wiring for speakers, keypads, touch-screens, phone, data, television, security and more are installed throughout the home. All of this is based on the custom plan developed in the earlier steps.

Assembly, Testing, Burn In & Programming

After your equipment arrives in our facility, we will “rack the gear”, which includes assembly into equipment racks and install interconnects. Your system will also be programmed, tested and burned in to ensure it is operational before it is installed in you home. This is a critical step in the process that takes time – all in our house, not yours!

Trim

After your home has been sheet rocked and painted, we install all the trim plates, speakers, in-wall touchpanels, distribution panels; finishing up all the things that go in the walls.

Final Installation

During the final installation phase, we will bring your racked equipment, table top touchpanels, free standing speakers, televisions, acoustic treatments, to your home. On-site programming and calibration will also be completed. Final testing will be done which includes the control of integrated systems like HVAC, pumps, sprinklers, and motorized shades.

Before you start drilling holes, take a look at these five important considerations:

Location

Sure, that 50-inch plasma will look awesome mounted over the fireplace mantle, but will you be able to see it from the couch without squinting or injuring your neck? Finding a great spot for your flat panel set – one that’s a good height and at the proper viewing distance – is often a balance between aesthetics and practicality. For optimum viewing, the center of the screen should be right about eye level from the primary viewing position. So in a family room, for instance, you will want the center of the screen at eye level as you sit on your favorite spot on the sofa. If this doesn’t quite fit your room design, try positioning the bottom of the screen at eye level. This compromise only requires you to look up slightly as you sit on the sofa, and it may actually provide additional visibility from a nearby room.

Power

Sleek and beautiful, many of today’s flat panel displays could be the centerpiece of a room’s decor even if never turned on. But since you will be using this high-definition wall candy for entertainment too, you’re going to have to plug it in. The question is, where? Unless you’re lucky enough to have an electrical outlet behind the TV’s mounting location, you need to decide how you’ll power your set. One popular, low-cost option is cable management “racetracks.” These paint-able, thin plastic strips attach directly to your wall to conceal any number of power and signal cables. A major benefit of these systems is the ability to easily run new cables as you add or swap out components. However, for the cleanest, custom-installed look, you will want a power outlet and A/V connections “hardwired” directly behind your set. And don’t forget about protection. Standard surge protectors or power strips are typically too large for such installations, so consider a specially designed “flat panel TV” surge protector that’s slim enough to squeeze behind your wall-mounted digital television.

Connectivity

With the television now the centerpiece of today’s digital lifestyle, having quick and easy access to its inputs is key. Almost all portable digital devices, from digital cameras to laptops, can connect to your TV. If you mount the TV above the fireplace, will you be able to quickly, easily and safely plug-and-play these types of devices when you want to? Work with your installer to plan how you will add additional source components or plug-and-play portable devices as you wish. For maximum connectivity and ease of use, consider using an A/V receiver to “switch” between sources. In this setup, all of your sources – such as your cable box, DVD player, game console, and digital camera – connect to the A/V receiver and a single output runs to the TV. Aside from providing good quality audio and surround sound decoding (you’ll need speakers!), this setup is preferred because it lets you leave the TV on one input and use the A/V receiver to select which source you will watch. It sure beats flipping through the inputs on the TV.

Mounts

Wall mounts come in all shapes, sizes and capacities. Choosing the right mount can be confusing. First, make sure both your TV and the mount comply with the VESA-standard mounting holes. Almost all flat panel displays do. Second, choose a style. For the family room, you may want a mount that allows some vertical tilt, particularly if you’re mounting it a little higher than eye level. This can help you fine-tune the viewing angle and minimize glare from windows or lights. Alternatively, you may want a “low profile” mount to keep the set as close to the wall as possible. For a bedroom or master bathroom, you’ll probably want a swiveling or extending mount that will allow you to turn, swing or position the TV in multiple positions depending on where you are in the room. For kitchens, under-cabinet mounts let the screen fold up out of sight when you’re not using it. Finally, choose a mount that can support the size and weight of your set.

Sound

Great audio is a key part of the home A/V experience. (It’s the first letter for heaven’s sake!) Yet audio is often an after thought. If you’re going to tune into HDTV broadcasts, immerse yourself in a DVD movie or choose your own adventure with one of your favorite video game titles, you absolutely need to think about audio. Don’t miss out on these formats’ high-fidelity surround sound by using your TV’s built-in speakers. So what does this have to do with where and how you mount your flat panel TV? Consider what connections and space you will need to include surround sound now or in the future. For example, have you left room on either side and above or below the screen for speakers?

Article Source: CEA

Keywords: flat sceen tv

It has come to my attention on an almost daily basis here in the store that there is a lot of confusion about a few of the terms Television manufacturers like to use to describe their displays; so I am going to try to de-mystify a few of the big ones right now. I think the biggest area of confusion at the moment is in the types of LCD displays being sold so let’s start there.

There are 5 main types of LCD displays to be aware of.

CCFL Backlight LCD

This is the traditional LCD display which uses (for lack of a better term) fluorescent tubes of some type as the light source. These have been around the longest, use the most energy and as a rule would now be considered the lowest performing of the types available. The main reason to look at this type of display will probably be cost. These should be the least expensive of the 5 types I am going to discuss here. The only place where this will not hold true is in the very largest sizes. So far I am not aware of anyone making anything larger than about 55″ which uses any of the other forms of backlight. So if you are shopping 60″ and above a CCFL display is probably in your future if you are looking for a set that is 55″ and smaller, keep reading.

Edge Light White LED Backlight LCD

This is the next step in LCD display lighting. The primary advantages are that the LED’s provide a very long life light source and the set can be extremely thin in fact the Samsung sets that are built this way are only 1.2″ thick! These sets are also more energy efficient than the previously mentioned CCFL sets. The downside to these sets is that they do not have the best uniformity of light. Because all of the light comes from the edges of the screen and are dispersed via some sort of diffraction system they can have darker or lighter areas in the picture. This is the display of choice when thickness is your main concern because these are going to be the thinnest displays you will see.

Full Array or Full Panel White LED Backlight LCD

This type of display also uses LED’s for the light but in this case the LED’s are placed directly behind the LCD panel and are distributed all across the back of the panel. This type of set gives you all of the advantages of LCD very white light for better color accuracy, extremely low energy usage, extremely long life of the light source, and because the LED’s are across the entire panel they have excellent light uniformity. Believe it or not, even though these have many more LCD’s than an edge lighted design; they are more energy efficient because the LED’s can be run at a lower level. In fact the Sharp 52″ Full Array LCD display uses and average of about 105 watts or about the same amount of energy as an incandescent light bulb. This is the display for great color and for the Green among you because of its’ extreme energy efficiency.

Full Array or Full Panel White LED Backlight LCD with Local Dimming

This is really the same as the display just covered in number 3 with one big difference. Local Dimming control means that these sets can turn the LED arrays on and off independently in different areas of the display. This allows the display to have better black levels and handle locally bright areas even better. Just think about watching a movie with a lot of action in very dark situations and the advantages of this type of display will become apparent. This is going to be the best performing of all of the White LED displays, and will be the most costly because of the extra control needed to handle the local dimming.

Full Array or Full Panel Tri-Luminous LED Backlight LCD w/Local Dimming

Wow, what a mouthful that is. This is the best of everything with all of the picture and performance enhancements mentioned above plus instead of White LED’s it uses Red-Green and Blue LED’s. So we have local dimming, energy efficiency, and with 3 color LED’s we have the very best in color levels and accuracy. This will be the most expensive of all of the LCD display types because it requires the most sophisticated control system. This will be the LCD display panel for the most discriminating TV buyer.

Please remember this is an overview and I am not trying to cover every aspect of every design from every manufacturer it is just a primer of the main types of displays you will hear people discussing. Plus if for some reason you do accidentally go to one of the Big Buy stores after reading this you will probably already know more than the helpful part time high school student that will be there to try to ignore you until you give up and buy something. And remember, we guarantee our TV prices so you can come to Ask the Advisors, talk to someone who knows what they are talking about, get good advice on what display fits your needs, buy it at the same price as the “discount store” and not have to deal with the hassles associated with buying at a Big Buy type of store….. Ron

Ask Ron About LCD Televisions

[contact-form]
Keywords: flat sceen tv,