What can we expect from 2013 Panasonic Plasmas? - Page 28

Originally Posted by RandyWalters 

This kind of thinking is the reason why so many brick-and-mortar stores are in distress, and why CE companies aren't making money.

Originally Posted by dad0118 

It is going to be a sad day when these B&M stores close up shop and we have nowhere to preview these TVs before buying.

Originally Posted by hodges69 

The above is the exact reason B&M stores are closing left and right....see it at Best Buy or H.H.Gregg....buy it online...

Originally Posted by dad0118 

Charging sales tax for most online orders (which will happen eventaully after all the Nexus issues get worked out) will help somewhat, but like Randy said, online stores will always be able to undercut B&M due to overhead.

Originally Posted by jh901 

Well, this quote nearly brought me to tears! I feel so, so sorry for CE companies now and the guilt is just killing me. Where do I make a donation?

C'mon, guys. As consumers, we advocate for our own rational self-interest. And when CE companies do the same, then an agreement is reached (a purchase). MSRP is for suckers. Does it have to be that way? How much of what comprises MSRP is margin to cover the cost of replacing "dead on arrivals", etc? How much of it is importation this or that and shipping or logistical ineffeciencies. I'm not paying for that. And I get a one year warranty? Really. One year. Thanks.

Originally Posted by jh901 

Well, this quote nearly brought me to tears! I feel so, so sorry for CE companies now and the guilt is just killing me. Where do I make a donation?

C'mon, guys. As consumers, we advocate for our own rational self-interest. And when CE companies do the same, then an agreement is reached (a purchase). MSRP is for suckers. Does it have to be that way? How much of what comprises MSRP is margin to cover the cost of replacing "dead on arrivals", etc? How much of it is importation this or that and shipping or logistical ineffeciencies. I'm not paying for that. And I get a one year warranty? Really. One year. Thanks.

Originally Posted by SaviorMachine 

What does CE mean in this context?
I'm confused. Unless I've misunderstood--do tell me if I have--I frequently read the experts' advisement that you can't get a good idea of what a TV looks like in a brick and mortar store, especially when that TV is a plasma, since they jack up the cell light and contrast to self-destructive levels in order to compete with adjacent LCDs. I'm a newbie to display stuff, but it sounds very similar to the audio experts' advisement that you can't really demo speakers at a big box retailer's warehouse showroom (something I've definitely experienced firsthand).
But, isn't that how competition works in a capitalist system? I don't mean to get all political, just asking if it's supposed to be any other way. Maybe it's a failure of my imagination, but I thought that the producer or vendor that appeals best to the customer, gets the business. The producer or vendor that doesn't evolve to meet the challenge of a changing marketplace, goes out of business. Nokia, BlackBerry (née RIM), Circuit City, et al. Frankly, I don't miss Blockbuster, not even a little. Do you?
You're so right about this. I bought my first plasma from a big box retailer, and when I brought it home and found that it had a shattered screen, this blue-and-yellow retailer's handling of the problem was appalling; their policy seemed to come from a time when they had no real competition, and like the cable monopolies, they never considered actually making the customer glad to do business with them. So I bought my next, more expensive plasma from the online jungle-river retailer, who have demonstrated time and time again that they completely understand how to make a customer fiercely loyal. This is even though I paid tax on the second TV. As it happens, I paid substantially less, even with tax included, than I would have paid at the blue-and-yellow. Should I have opted to pay more, for the same product, with worse policies? Would any of you guys have done that? Maybe so. Mind you, I think a lot of you have more income than I do; if I buy a new TV, it's because I planned and scrimped for months to do so. However, prices notwithstanding, I think it's sensible and proper for consumers to give more business to those companies that have more consumer-friendly policies. Are we supposed to subsidize those organizations that already profit off us, when they casually slap us in the face in exchange for our patronage?

I won't mourn the demise of the blue-and-yellow business, not even a little, because their policies, customer service and selection are all hugely inferior to those of their competitors. The rise of their business accompanied the demise of their now-defunct competitors. This is how it works, as far as I can tell.

Originally Posted by winston9332 

Texas recently - july 1 2012 - began charging sales tax on all amazon purchases. Coupled with bestbuy getting more competitive with most amazon prices, i have found myself consciously trying to buy local and support local employment/infrastructure.

Originally Posted by rogo 

Amazon is also charging sales tax in California as of November.

And yet Amazon's Q4 sales were up 22% over the year before, with sales tax being charged in Texas and California.

Go figure.

Originally Posted by rogo 

Amazon is also charging sales tax in California as of November.

And yet Amazon's Q4 sales were up 22% over the year before, with sales tax being charged in Texas and California.

Go figure.

Originally Posted by Speakerphile 

Sorry you had to go through that experience. Unfortunately, retailers have been forced to be skeptical in situations like these. If they aren't, they get taken advantage of. They could build it into the price, but then people would complain that prices are too high. The fact of the matter is, going through this with Amazon probably wouldn't have been a great experience either.

As far as the ability to deduce picture quality in a show-room. Seeing the TV next to others is a HUGE indicator of overall quality. Sure, the TV is not in an ideal environment, but it's far better than trying to get an idea of quality by looking at a web page.

Originally Posted by rogo 

Amazon is also charging sales tax in California as of November.

And yet Amazon's Q4 sales were up 22% over the year before, with sales tax being charged in Texas and California.

Go figure.

Originally Posted by SaviorMachine 

Well, this is awkward. Still, I'm game. The issue with the B&M wasn't skepticism; it was that, according to them, because I'd purchased the set from their online... system, even though I'd retrieved the set from their store, they couldn't do an exchange; according to them, these were two different inventories (???) Yes, despite my retrieval of the set from the storage at the back of their store. So I was supposed to wait a week for them to refund my bank account, then re-purchase a different unit. Sorry, that's awful. Wasn't it supposed to be a good move, buying it online and picking it up at the store? In fact it was nothing but a penalty. You can't do that, refuse to do an exchange on a perfectly non-functional product, because the consumer took your advice to buy online for extra convenience.

It gets better. That second plasma, bought from the online retailer: believe it or not, and I'm not making this up, so you can believe it, it also arrived with a shattered screen. No, I'm not making that up. The delivery guy confirmed it with me as we opened it; I refused it and sent it back. I called the online retailer, and they had another set delivered to the local large package carrier by the next morning (it's on its way to my home presently). No, they didn't do anything ridiculous like make me wait for the broken set to get back to them. They knew how awful that could (and should) make any consumer feel.

Now, in both cases, the retailer sold me damaged goods. I hope you see the difference between the approaches used when both retailers encountered problem transactions; and I hope you see why the online retailer will get a lot more of my business, and the B&M, none at all.

Originally Posted by Speakerphile 

Well, your post was misleading at best. Maybe try telling the entire story next time. Or maybe even something that comes close to resembling what actually happened.

You are right about your experience though. That would definitely suck. This situations are different though. Had you accepted delivery, they would have had to wait to receive the TV back. Am a little curious about the reason for not letting you exchange though. What model TV was this and was it a model that they carried normally in-store? Was this recent?

Originally Posted by yamvmax 

Where are the MODS????? Guys, can we get back on topic? This is a Panasonic thread, Not a B&M vs. Online retailer thread.

Originally Posted by rahzel 

9.5G Kuro measures ~0.0001fL... if anyone expects the ZT60 to match that, they're delusional.

D-Nice probably said that he expects it to measure below 0.0022fL, because that's what the VT50 measures. My guess is the ZT60 will measure between 0.0008 - 0.0015, but I wouldn't be surprised if it matched a 9G Kuro (0.0005 for reference).

Originally Posted by winston9332 

Read this; you're a bit off on your assertion:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/30/amazon-salestax-idUSL1E9CH7QQ20130130

Originally Posted by Mirheldt 

Wondering If there will be a HEVC (H.265) codec support, atleast with ZT, VT lines.

Originally Posted by dsmith901 

So now the question has to be asked, can anyone other than Superman see the difference between .0001 and .0005? Or are we arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Originally Posted by dsmith901 


So now the question has to be asked, can anyone other than Superman see the difference between .0001 and .0005? Or are we arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Originally Posted by boe 

Sure, just as many people can tell you the difference between wines with just one sip, or the difference between an original and a forgery with a glance and the difference between so many things.

Originally Posted by rogo 

So, I don't really know what the limit is on human detection of minimum luminance except that humans can clearly detect absolute blackness. So if the screen could do black, that would be a good thing. And if it could do that black and also preserve all shadow detail, that would also be a good thing.

Yes, all of this is on pretty significant diminishing returns. When I turn the room lights down, my VT50 -- which doesn't do a true black -- is hard to distinguish from the bezel. And the shadow detail is pretty good, too.

I think it could be a bit better, but I'm not sure how much better.

Originally Posted by vinnie97 

*It goes without saying that there could be no bias lighting in a room in order to detect that difference, but given a scene with enough low lighting (and a dark enough room where the pupils have fully adjusted), who's to say it couldn't be detected?

Originally Posted by dsmith901 

So now the question has to be asked, can anyone other than Superman see the difference between .0001 and .0005? Or are we arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Originally Posted by barth2k 

does anyone watch tv in a pitch black room? Isn't that really hard on the eyes? I always have some bit of lighting in the room, and even then people ask what are you a vampire?