The state of today's electronics?

TV, radio repair makes a comeback as people tire of tossing broken electronics

Local shop near my home.

Story here: video and pics

http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/07...eople_tire_of_tossing_broken_electronics.html

http://bcove.me/e7yrbso9

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No one knows what high end is anymore.
I mean, people pay a fortune for products that fail quickly too.
Just because something is expensive or "high end", doesnt mean it is reliable, long lasting quality !
These days, it's risky on anything you buy !
I'll stick to my vintage stuff where we know it was made with pride, quality parts and lead in solder. lol

Every single statement here is not true, outside of some expensive gear that might fail out of the box, but that happens with any American brand. 2 or 3 might fail out of the box for every 100 that don't. Vintage stuff can sound good too but it won't: play a current format, have video/audio adjustments, have HDMI, do bitstream or bluetooth, have a warranty, etc.

Oppo, THE best blu ray player in the market, is made in China. Denon's latest theater receivers, in fact good luck buying a tv not made in China. Sad but true, I'm sure everyone has several items made in China whether they know it or not. I buy domestic when possible, but China makes some crappy stuff but some very good stuff too.
 
I have two Panasonic BD players. The oldest being roughly 7 years, still works, no problem. The other, new several months ago, works fine too. In some regards, like load speed, works better (faster) than the older one.
 
It would be interesting to see if it was even possible to duplicate that thing with say late 1970s discreet component technology. I bet it would perform worse, cost a ton more, and be about 3x the size that it is.

A modern Blu Ray player has more computing power than all the super computers of the 1970s combined. You couldn't have built one for any price.

The early BD players were substantial, but they were also expensive, and took forever to just turn on, not to mention the time to load a disc. Modern BD players are disappointingly flimsy. Part of it is because almost everything fits on one chip. Another problem is that most of the analog outputs they used to have are banned by the BD license. There's no need for a big case when you only have a HDMI output.
 
I just recently bought a six year old tv, was told not to touch the patina or it would affect the value considerably.
 
My guess is the OP just got a bad unit. I'm sure this is not the norm for Panasonic, or any other popular brand. And it certainly has nothing to do with it's light weight, or construction.

You don't have to buy a new Oppo or Pioneer Elite to get good quality. I just bought a New Sony Blue Ray/DVD/CD ect 4K 3D player w/wi-fi, netflix, web browsing that is performing very well thank you. It too is very light, and no doubt looks much like yours. This unit loads in an instant and aside from being a tad clunky, it feels solid and quite while playing.

My biggest complaint is connectivity. With modern TV's and HT set-ups it's not an issue, but with my vintage stereo receiver, I need an analog input, which this Sony BDP does not have. Fortunately my TV has an analog audio output. But that means to play CD's I have to have the TV on, and use it's cheap DAC. It does sound pretty good though.

There is a big misconception that quality can be seen and felt. My denon 1500II CDP weighed over 20 lbs and inside looks 100x better than my $80 Apex DVD Player. In the end the Apex player outlasted the denon, and performed flawlessly thank you. The Denon, has always had issues with the drawer, and finally failed after a short time. All it takes is one tiny part, one bad connection or solder joint, no matter how big and heavy the unit is, or how much it cost, to bring it to it's knee's.
 
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Your can buy a brand new Panasonic blue ray player for $69. It will deliver a state of the art 1080P picture with 3d capability. It will also wirelessly connect you to dozens of streaming media services and includes a full feature remote. The value is hard to argue with.
 
Love these films!

Not needed for The Iron Horse, Broken Blossoms and Sunrise. ;-)
Three wonderful silent movies directed by three great directors. I've seen all three and I'm thinking of buying Sunrise on blu ray. Tom, not sure there's many others besides you and I who have seen even one of these, much less all.

I just bought Chaplin's Mutuals on blu ray. They are great! I haven't seen them look this good ever.
 
I just bought Chaplin's Mutuals on blu ray. They are great! I haven't seen them look this good ever.

Yes, those silent pictures can look great. I watched The Big Parade the other day on TCM-HD and it looked so clear and vibrant I almost plotzed.
 
Ces 2006

The CES 2006 show is an opportunity for manufacturers to unveil their next-generation platinum lounge that plays media Blu-Ray or HD-DVD . Thus, Pioneer introduced its Platinum Blu-Ray salon, the Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1. A plate that can read BD-ROM up to 50GB and will be able to display videos in a maximum resolution of 1920x1080. With an Ethernet connection, it can be connected to PC to play some video files.This board will also have an HDMI port and will be able to play WMA / MP3 / LPCM audio stream. Compatible DTS-HD and Dolby Digital, platinum scheduled for June will be priced at ... $1,800 USD!

For its part, Toshiba has finally announced the arrival of its HD-DVD decks to the United States, the Toshiba HD-XA1 and HD-A1. Scheduled for March, the two plates will be offered to the respective prices of 499 and USD 799, enough to give a headache to the Blu-Ray format.

I settled for my Sony Playstation 3 for $499 and it still performs flawless today. :thmbsp:
 

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Sony Blu-Ray 3D

Last Christmas season i did break down and bought me a Sony smart BDP-S780 w/wifi for $79.00 2 day sale. :thmbsp:
 
You get what you pay for.

You want quality buy an Oppo. You want a temporary, bandaid, throwaway solution keep on buying cut price big box equipment.

It's like vacuum cleaners. Walmart wants you to spend $100 a year on a new vacuum cleaner every year because the ones they sell you only last about that long. Dyson wants you to spend $400 once. And as you tell your friends and family how great and reliable that $400 Dyson is they'll buy one too.

You get what you pay for.
 
Early intro to Blu-Ray

Some early Blu-Ray players seem to perform a bit longer then some newer models. I've known people who already gone thru 2-3 Blu-Ray players and i have a few older ones and still operating fine like a nice glass of wine.:thmbsp:






I'm missing the point of 2006 information. What is the relevance?
 
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