In this season of greed and avarice it seems that everybody is making lists of what they want for Christmas. In the true spirit of this commercial season who am I to buck the trend? So here it is, my list of what I would ask for if there was anybody with enough money to indulge my fantasies.
BD Player
The Sony Blue Ray format has won the war. However regretable that was we are now stuck with the significantly more expensive format. This of course makes both the players and disks more expensive so that less will be sold and those who do buy them will have less money to buy the less important things such as food and decorations.
None the less a BD player is on the top of my list of “things I really cannot afford and will probably not get” gifts this Christmas. High def video and audio is definitely the way of the future. I saw some high def at the Sony shop the other day and believe me – it was very impressive.
Both Samsung and Sony make a BD V2 player for under $500. One should not be too greedy.
Hi Def TV
My old Toshi is rather dated these days. The blacks are rather greyish, only 720p (only!) and a measerly 37″. Actually it is a rather nice TV and is adequate for our needs but one can wish.
This item has to go to the new 200 Hz 1080p Sony 50″ TV. They seemed to have licked all of the outstanding issues with regards to contrast ratio, rapid movement, black level etc. Of course the new display is required for HDCP (copy protected media on the BD).
Receiver
As with the TV, once you get the player you then need a receiver/amp to decode the high def audio. On DVD the surround audio is comperssed to fit into the old format. It is pretty good as far as it goes but it does have limitations and even with my tired old ears I can hear the difference. I have to say that having good quality speakers and reproductiove elements does somewhat spoil you.
There are a number of high quality receivers on the market at around the $1,500 to $2,000 mark that are more than adequate.
7.1 Speakers
Once you have the above then it really is necessary to fill out the system with the two extra speakers. So two more speakers to match the existing system will do the trick.
Tablet Computer
The tablet ia much underrated form factor. I love my tablet and I often use it as a slate. I occasionally get a slight soreness in my wrist and the different arm movements involved help relieve this. In addition it is extremely convinient to use when watching TV and wanting to look up some reference from a documentary for instance.
The one serious issue is the inadequate video processor and it could be about 1k lighter. The problem being that it is rare to find decent video in a tabletr, given that most of them are oriented towards buusiness users and the embeded video is standard on business machines.
So Santa – if tou are reading this you know where to deliver them.