~Official Olevia 747i/742i owners thread - Page 85

You know, you're right. In this forum/thread we sometimes get caught up with the contrast ratios, pixels, frame interpolation, etc. when these are just tools at our disposal to enjoy what we bought these HDTV's and high-def/standard-def devices for: pleasure. Aural, visual, family (when people/friends watch along us)... we want to experience pleasure without thinking about the obstacles (banding, bad delivery men, price, etc.) standing between us and losing ourselves into our favorite movies, shows, videogames, etc. I went out of my way to get an Olevia 747i not because I own stock in Teranex (makers of the HQV Realta) but because I freaking love to watch contestants win money on gameshows aired on GSN ("Match Game," "Tic Tac Dough," etc.) and CBS ("Price Is Right"). I love to watch little-seen independent foreign films on DVD (i.e. Criterion stuff) along with my dumb-but-fun studio blockbusters. I love South American soccer. Guess what? All these stuff is in standard definition, so to get to the pleasure of seeing/hearing/experiencing these great content (in addition to the new stuff I'm finding in high-def) I got the HDTV that served my needs better.

That's why I bought the Olevia 747i after 12 long, grueling and almost soul-crushing months of hanging around this site. The single most memorable experience I've had watching the 747i in the 14 months since I've owned one was watching Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" on HD-DVD a couple of months ago. I know and love this movie to death (seen it dozens of times on TV and special theatrical screenings) but to finally see it with a 2.1 surround set-up at home on a screen bigger than the 27" I was used to (from a 4K transfer of the original 35mm negative) made me cry at certain moments. I was puzzled at my tears and then I realized they were tears of joy at the perfection of the moment: perfect movie, perfect set-up (for my needs and budget), perfect state of mind (I'm more mature now than when I last saw "2001" so I was able to 'get it' more than before), etc. Its that true moment of utter joy movie buffs always look for but rarely find when they can say to themselves (or their loved one's if they share the hobby) 'it doesn't get better than this.'

The tools that led to my state of mind at that moment were the 747i, the HD-DVD player/movie and the cables connecting each component to each other. The collective result of these working together was the 'emotional response of watching a projected film' that sheldon1 talked about.

TV that they have sent me is a refurbished one.

Initially when I reported the problem, I asked them if they will send me a new TV or refurbished TV. I even told them if they are not going to send me a new TV , I still have time to sent back to Target (90 day return policy). They told me that they will send me a new one.

But when I saw the tv that they have sent to me is a refurbished one. There is no plastic cover on the screen and I an clearly see back side the panel boards are not properly set . I could see the screws color is gone. usually they are in back color coated.

I called them immediately asked them about the tv. Then the representative said , if the TV stops working with in 45 days they will send a new tv, other wise they will send a refurbished one. I asked them to review their notes that they have told me that they will send a new tv. customer representative apologized and hung-up.

On 15th my 90 days period is over,so now I can'/t return it to Target.

I am stuck with a refurbished tv after paying seventeen hundred dollars.

I strongly recommend to stay away from this company.

Keep at them!!! Or go to Target's top person. Meet with them today or tomorrow and show them the paper trail and evidence of your efforts. This isn't right. Somebody should listen. You're not being difficult the set died, period. And you bought a new TV!

This is a rather exciting and interesting response to my post because 2001 is my all time favorite film! I was really happy to see a new 2 disc standard release of 2001 on the shelves the other day but had no idea it was out on HD-DVD - Very cool.

"2001" is out on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray (same encode), looks/sounds excellent:

Thanks for that.
Can't wait! But gotta get a PS3 first for Blu-ray.

Here is some info from a canadian board that may be of help to you

I have had a number of concerns regarding the Olevia warranty and especially after reading some of the conflicting information on this and other sites. I decided to contact Olevia myself and get a definitive answer, by sending them the serial number of the still unopened 747i sitting in my family room. Within 3 hours, a customer service rep had called my house and then my office number to speak to me personally, rather than responding by e-mail with a canned response.

This fellow, Dean Hunter, from the "Process Team" at Olevia Customer Service, advised me my concerns were "escalated" to his attention, as he is THE authority on Olevia warranty issues in Canada. He advised me that there is a valid warranty for manufacturer defects (and not customer abuse...obvisously some legalease here) in Canada and that there was even authorized Olevia on-site warranty service, if it was required. He advised me that there are a number of authorized service dealers in the Toronto area (6 of them) and even more in Montreal. There are also service dealers in Ottawa and even Thunder Bay ( I don't know about the rest of Canada). If I lived within a serviceable distance to one of these locations (and I do) I am eligible for on-site service if necessary. In addition, if the TV has to be returned to Olevia, the customer pays no shipping charges there or back. Also, if a TV has to be returned, a customer can choose to have an expedited process, where a credit card is authorized for an amount equivalent to the cost of a new set (not actually charged, just authorized, ie: money available), and a set is sent to the customer. Customer then sends back the defective TV and when the set is received and found to be defective, the credit card authorization is reversed.

I advised Dean that he should be reading these forums and he advised me that I could post his name here and on other forums and give out his office telephone number at 909-348-6339 if other prospective Canadian customers had warranty concerns.

I am much more confident in my Olevia purchase and will now open the box, but I should tell you, I'm still not 100% certain of the company's future, so I bought the TigerDirect 2 year extended warranty for piece of mind. Where else can you purchase a 47" LCD with great SD and HD picture quality (father in law set his up today...picture is just like all of you have seen here in this thread) with a 3 year warranty for $1444 CDN (1200 for TV and 244 for extended warranty)?

I hope this info has helped some of you.

While you're at it, don't forget a few cool games

Couldn't agree more dad1153. We had another HDTV set before, but due to lack of proper inputs, it was just a TV.
747i has become the center of entertainment in our family and my kids and myself and the boss are all having fun playing games, watching movies, watching cooking programs on Food-HD (those dishes look fabulous in HD).
I love this set

Thanks for that reassuring post. I'm in Canada as well.
I hope HDMI_13 has some luck in this regard.

HDMI_13 that really is quite a shame, and I'm sorry to hear about your crappy experience with this TV and their support. It happens to everyone at some point in time, and it happens with all companies. I've had terrible experiences with lots of popular brands and their customer support (Sony, Samsung, and Microsoft to name a few), but I'll still buy their products in the future. Anyways, good luck with getting an exchange or whatever, and if you fight with Olevia support long enough (if you really feel like putting the time into it) I'm sure you can get them to send you a NEW tv and not refurbished.

Oh and sheldon, I absolutely agree about kingdom of heaven. My friend has it on bluray with his sony xbr (not sure if its a xbr2 or xbr4), and he let me borrow it so I could see it on my tv because of how amazing it looked on his... and it most certainly looked better and more vivid on my 747i. Kingdom of Heaven has to be one of the most beautiful films for seeing the true potential of a tv, the scenes are absolutely amazing, and the movie itself is vastly underrated.

You know what's funny about this? I've yet to acutually watch the film!
I refused to watch it until I got a big screen. It was the first thing I put in on setting up the 747i and quickly discovered it's potential as a test DVD, as I sampled the chapters and realized it's range and dynamic cinematography.

So do I. It's an itch that I'm about ready to scratch. I need a set for my living room and with the $100 Tiger credit, the temptation is almost too much to bare. Especially now since the set went back down to $1099.

How would you say the 747i compares to an 46" XBR2?

^^^ It's an inch bigger, which is always better! Seriously though, the XBR2 doesn't have PIP options galore like the 747i, its blacks are a little better (tons of customization/adjustment features on the XBR2 which are numerical), its speakers aren't as loud/powerful as the 747i's (but sound pretty good since they're front mounted) and its performance with SD is much, much inferior compared to the 747i. Even the CNET review mentions something I discovered when I was test-driving an XBR2 at stores: SD material (DVD's, OTA, etc.) looks washed-out and soft compared to the 747i's superior detail. A good 1080p source will look fine on the XBR2 but much more detailed on the 747i (thank Realta HQV for its superior SD/HD performance versus Sony's inner circuitry) and both sets stand out because of the glass embedded into the panel's design (which is a little more sexy on the XBR2).

Bottom line: the XBR2 was OK for its time but overall the 747i is the better set. Then again, I'm a biased 747i owning SOB so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Guess thats what it looks like inside or menu.

The price jumped up because they offered free shipping last weekend. I wouldn't be surprised to see the lower price and free shipping within the next month with the 747h coming around June.

I'd never heard of Olevia before today and I'm currently slogging through this monstrous thread. So far, the 747i sounds like 1080p's best kept secret

I have a few questions about PC use. My monitor is the only display in the house and I use it for everything. Obviously gaming and movies will be spectacular on the 747i, but how is text? Is 47" too big (ie, too few pixels/inch) for web browsing and ebooks at a distance of 5-6 feet? Also, has anyone played older PC games that don't support widescreen on this tv? I'm currently using a 24" Samsung 245BW that won't do 4:3 with nVidia cards and it's driving me nuts. I'll probably be connecting with a DVI-HDMI cable if that makes a difference.

How much do you think the 747h is going to cost out of the gate? Anybody? I'm wondering if I should wait or use my Tiger bucks on another one of these.

anyone know how to enable and disable PIP?

Finally located my camera in a box in the garage so here's a few pics. You can see the Pioneer Blu-Ray drive in the computer next to the set in the first pic. I got the Omnimount on Craigslist. It's solid. The pics show it flat against the wall and extended. The last pic is me in 747 heaven watching the Preakness. Big Brown goin away.

what's the banana looking thing on top of the set ?????????????? nice pic with the feet kicking back ........................

It's a samurai sword ??????????????? How much , I helped a friend on his , He bought the wmd60 from target 360 bones , and it's solid . It sticks out like almost 2' from the wall extended , nice set up .................

I got lucky and found the UCL-X mount for $125 and the Infinity speakers for $145 on Craiglist. You can get the internal PC Blu-Ray drive for $160 now too. The whole system, 747i, Blu-Ray, mount and speakers cost me $1,550. You can hardly get a Sony set alone for that .... and this setup will blow your socks off.

Yeah, and Rivman, you can see the Harmony 550 you recommended, you were right it is a bitchin' remote once you figure out how to get the best out of it.

Haha, I'll go do that. I'll try to squeeze my $100 back from them.

It shouldn't be any problem even though the price is back up to 1199 hopefully...

That's a sweet setup.

How many screws does the Omnimount have going into the back of the TV? I got a LevelMount at Sam's that is rated up to 200lbs., and the mount arms and connection to the wall are both rock solid. But the four screws that go into the TV make me a bit nervous. Can those four little things support the weight of this beast?

How about anyone else who has their 747i wall mounted - which mount do you have and how many screws actually go into the TV?

Keep pressing the view button on the Olevia remote. That should cycle you through the different views.

It's actually back DOWN to 1099 on Tiger Direct. I'm not sure how that's going to work out. Good luck.

That makes me feel a little better. I just was a little concerned entrusting this 140 lb. beast to four, half inch long screws.

Thud2, I see you had a picture of Downtown Tampa at night, do you live in the Tampa Bay area?

I'm up in Citrus Park area of North Tampa. I have been close to pulling the trigger on this TV. I currently have a 30" westinghouse lcd i bought like 3 some years ago.. Can't wait to get a bigger tv.

I am considering this tv, or a 55" Hitachi 720p Plasma refurbished for $899 shipped. I am leaning towards the LCD as like you I have my PC hooked up to the TV, and I think the 1080p lcd will be much better for PC than a plasma.

Did you get this set at the South Tampa CompUSA? I went there and the morons didn't even have this out on display as I wanted to inspect the picture and build quality. They wouldnt get one out for display, with this stupidity, no wonder they went bankrupt once already. probably not long before the 2nd time. How is the build quality? I am actually glad this TV weighs a lot as this normally conveys good quality, like AV receivers.

I like your set-up, I have been looking for a good wireless keyboard and mouse set-up, what do you have and what is the range on those? I normally am about 6-8 ft from TV.

Hi everyone! I was hoping someone could confirm a few things before I place my order tonight/tomorrow for the 747i. This 747i looks awesome. I'm exhausted after reading 85 pages all day for which I'm appreciative of your posting efforts:

My setup:

DirecTV HD Box Model HR20 (receiver without DVR) has 480i 480p 720p 1080i choices via button on front of STB.

OPPO 970H up-convert DVD player

Questions:

Is it true that If I place the DirecTV HR20 STB on 480i that the Realta HQV will transform all the SD channels to a higher resolution making them look better?

If so what happens when I change the channel to a HD station? Will it use the chip HQV chip in that instance too or do I have to reset the HR20 box back to 1080i to enjoy the HD station in its glory?

If the 747i makes all SD stations and most DVD players 480i output really good like I saw with the (CARS movie in this thread somewhere) and HD like is there any reason I should keep the OPPO 970H upconvert player? If not I'll give it to the dear friend in need below to complement the TV below.

I'm giving my TV away below to a dear friend in need which is a 51" CRT RP Hitachi which I really love and am replacing with 747i. I built/made the furniture below but I don't like how deep it is with the 2ft depth. I'm thinking 1 ft. of depth against the wall with this unit will be nicer with the 747i. Thanks in advance for any help.... Joe