As photograhers, which type of TV do you want/own?

[seakayaker1]

Plasma 52" screen, football games are fantastic, DVR records them and can cut out the commercials and then there are movies . . . . .

[scottgee1]

Originally Posted by fotomeow

Well, I just bit the bullet and ordered a Panasonic plasma that was on sale at a great price at a local dealer. Should be interesting to pop my SD card straight into the TV for some 50" images! TV will be here later this week.

OK! Please let us know how you like it!

[telemetre]

Have a CRT television, but I don't use it a lot.

[Trius]

re: cables ... I buy all my cables (not just AV, but Ethernet and USB as well) from Monoprice.com ... all have been at least very good quality, if not excellent, and the prices are good. I may have had one suspect cable, but at the price paid, it was no issue.

[fotomeow]

Originally Posted by MartinP

Ooooo!!! I'm not a gent

I should perhaps have put a smiley after the "instead of doing stuff" bit. I did not mean that anyone watches tv for seven hours a day (or whatever time there is after working, sleeping, bathing etc). For any sane person watching tv and having a life are not mutually exclusive, but it is an activity that takes time out of the already full day. Grading contact-sheets and watching X-Men 97 are probably not best done simultaneously.

The last option on the ballot was "None of the above, why?" - I read this as implying that a photographer is somehow expected to have a television. Why might that be? I was expecting possible answers with reasons including a big tv giving the most cinema-like view to well crafted cinematography, for example. Or some cable-channel with darkroom or digital programming, that sort of thing. But no-one has come up with a reason why photographers specifically would appreciate television in general, though there have been some interesting observations on the technical side of things.

I'll willingly accept that I am weird and anti-social in not watching tv, as I have misinterpreted the whole question.

Thanks for your clarification. Perhaps I should've added more weight to the possibility of misinterpretations.
On my side, I was not trying to imply that fotogs should or would have a TV. On the contrary, I tried to give the "no TV" folks an avenue to say why they they dont. And I was trying to focus on those fotogs that IF they have TV, what do they have and why.

[thirtyfivefifty]

Don't really watch TV, unless it's out in front of me, but I were to buy one, I'd consider my purposes, and pick one that's pleasing, non distracting. Something that focuses your attention on what's being played rather than the TV itself.

[fotomeow]

Originally Posted by thirtyfivefifty

Don't really watch TV, unless it's out in front of me, but I were to buy one, I'd consider my purposes, and pick one that's pleasing, non distracting. Something that focuses your attention on what's being played rather than the TV itself.

exactly. one of the challenges is to find a TV or any other electronic device that "blends in" to my/our environment. I think thats one of the hallmarks of a good tv/device, is that it does not hold the room hostage, and only brings attention to itself when being used.

[Phil_F_NM]

Back in the mid-80s, lightning struck our house in Colorado and killed our television. Actually caused a small electrical fire right behind the tube. We went for 7 years without a TV aside from a portable 13" black and white set that was usually only tuned to something with reliable weather. After a TV reappeared years later, myself and my younger brother never really took to watching it, preferring instead to ride our bicycles or go out and get in some kind of trouble outdoors.

These days TV is my computer, which I usually don't have network speed to support or more often, the real life drama that occurs within the framelines of my camera. The live view of my X100 is pretty close as well.

Phil Forrest

[ottluuk]

I haven't had a TV set for years. For the occasional movie night I just borrow a beamer to plug into the laptop. White wall, lights off, audio through the regular stereo system (NAD+B&W)... works great for me (but obviously won't work if you have a TV habit).

[DougFord]

Originally Posted by fotomeow

exactly. one of the challenges is to find a TV or any other electronic device that "blends in" to my/our environment. I think thats one of the hallmarks of a good tv/device, is that it does not hold the room hostage, and only brings attention to itself when being used.

...yeah man, my sony kvxbr910 really ties the room together...

[DNG]

2 LCDs
42", 32"

[Trius]

Originally Posted by DougFord

...yeah man, my sony kvxbr910 really ties the room together...

well, yeah, that's just your opinion, man ...

[NickTrop]

I enjoy movies. I don't watch much TV at all. Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Horror, and The Walking Dead are all the series TV I've watched regularly in the last 15 years? My old standard def tube TV is good enough for this. It still works, works just fine, and I can't see pitching it into a landfill which would cause unnecessary polition and be wasteful imo. I'll get a flat screen when my standard def dies only because at such time that's all that's available.

Movies, however, are another matter. I watch movies on a portable 11" DVD player I've had for years using headphones. The size of the screen doesn't matter. What matters is the level of distraction. With an 11" screen a foot away from your eyeballs, in a quiet room (often a coffee shop) with headphones the outside world is truly blocked out.

This is the closed method imo for emulating the movie theater experience in my experience... the size of the screen has nothing to do with it at all... it's the degree to which you can block out the world around you and focus your attention on only the film

[CK Dexter Haven]

Originally Posted by Michiel Fokkema

I think a CRT still looks way better then any of those flat things. Like film still looks way better then digital.

No, sir.
Plasma. Gorgeous. And, i'm sensitive to such things.

I'm always astounded by people who "don't watch tv." Of course, it's my constant companion because i have no outside life.... No wife or kids. Even my cat died two years ago.... So i loves my tv. It's the only voice in the apartment. [Is anyone else crying right now?]

You have to hunt, but there is a significant amount of quality programming out there. Game of Thrones, for one thing. Best writing on tv, and the production is insane. Think of how involved the Lord of the Rings trilogy was a few years ago. This is of higher quality, and they do it 10 times a season. It's nuts. Other good stuff: The Killing and Mad Men. And, if you have Netflix, there are some really good British crime dramas. LUTHER was great. I'm now involved with Wire in the Blood. Now Netflix has a great hospital comedy: Green Wing. And, a Scottish dramedy called The Book Group.

And, of course, Sports, Sports, Sports. The Formula 1 season is in full swing....

[Dwig]

"None of the above" since I don't own a TV. What very little entertainment and news video I do watch I watch on my computer, which has an LCD monitor.

[victoriapio]

Had Sony and Panasonic wide screen CRTs and they were nice but both died on me. Went to an LG plasma 46" and love it. I think it was on sale at Best Buy for about $589. Dark rooms are best for plasma. Plasma is "film like" and this is coming from a digital still shooter. I like watching movies, soccer games and various documentary channels.

[Trius]

Speaking of sports ... One reason I bought the Panasonic 50" plasma was better representation of the hottest game on ice. Now I can see the puck from the back of the room, no smearing/lag, etc. Go Leafs Go!

[fotomeow]

Originally Posted by victoriapio

Had Sony and Panasonic wide screen CRTs and they were nice but both died on me. Went to an LG plasma 46" and love it. I think it was on sale at Best Buy for about $589. Dark rooms are best for plasma. Plasma is "film like" and this is coming from a digital still shooter. I like watching movies, soccer games and various documentary channels.

Thats really interesting how some folks feel that CRTs are more film-like, while some folks feel plasma is more film-like.

I really dont know which camp I am in.
However, I can say that after watching some Blu Ray DVDs, it looked so real, it almost looked fake!
Weird.

[narsuitus]

No Plasma
No LCD
No LED
No cable
No satellite

Netflix DVDs on my laptop
Internet via a very slow AT&T telephone modem
TV shows via a “digital antenna” on a cathode ray TV tube

However, I am very tempted to build a state-of-the art TV room to watch the last season of “Breaking Bad.”

[scottgee1]

Originally Posted by narsuitus

However, I am very tempted to build a state-of-the art TV room to watch the last season of “Breaking Bad.”

IMO, that show is extraordinary enough to justify the cost.

[Roger Hicks]

Originally Posted by fotomeow

. . . On the contrary, I tried to give the "no TV" folks an avenue to say why they they dont. . . . .

Why would I?

Well, OK: for when even the really dull threads on RFF are not mindless enough...

Cheers,

R.

[michaelbialecki]

I haven't had a TV in 15 years, and don't plan on getting one anytime soon...though I do like to watch movies on my laptop.... I have been back in the states for the last month and I have been surrounded by big, flat screen TV's and it's cool to watch movies on them and I like the fact that my parents have Netflix on one of their TV's.....but to be honest, the only reason that I have been watching TV/movies is because the people (friends/family) I am with watch TV.

In Bangkok, I listen to NPR and other various news/media on my computer and I read the news online every morning , so I don't feel like I am missing out on much.....

I know I am in the minority here because I assume most people have TV's, and that's fine, they are just not for me....

cheers, michael

[willie_901]

I used to have a very nice TV. But one weekend a while back Elvis got really pissed off and shot it.

[sepiareverb]

COuldn't tell you what I have. It's flat and matte, made by Samsung and about 5 years old. I don't really pay attention to it. The remote is pretty good. I watch Netflix streaming (90%) and DVDs (some Ray maybe, but I don;t know) on it thru a Vizio which has about the worst remote control ever invented for anything. Nearly un-useable.

These replaced a Panasonic Tube TV/VCR combo and a string of extremely cheap DVD players I used over the last 20 years. The Pansonic was repaired about five times. Once broadcast TV disappeared from my area (when it all went digital only one of the stations upgraded the only transmitters which serviced my location) I had some converter for a time, but it didn;t work very well at all- we went from some snow on analog TV to a few image bearing pixels in an otherwise blue screen, or just a blue screen.

[flip]

TV? Don't have one.
For some reason, whenever I read thread titles here such as this or asking what other non-camera products I consume, I feel like I am being market-researched. (no offense intended to OP as I presume that's not the goal).

That may be why I don't have a TV. :-)