Christina and I have never had a really nice TV. We grew up with the TVs that had to be adjusted with big blocky buttons that often stuck, or dials that had to be aligned with the sun and the moon to actually pick up a signal while being adjusted with pliers and an aluminum foil antenna. While those days are long gone for many, there are still some who watch TV under such circumstances or - gasp - don’t own a TV. We never really got caught up with the current mainstream technology either, let alone next-generation stuff.

Over the past few months, Christina and I have talked about getting a new TV. Not just a new one, but I really nice one. We wanted a TV that would last. Our mentality was, `if we’re gonna get a nice one, let’s get a nice one that will last into the future.` After some heavy duty online shopping with the expert advice of Eriq, we ended up not getting one after all.

That is, until last weekend.

Christina was looking through the newspaper ads for deals on school supplies for Sierra. We don’t shop at Bi-Mart, but their ad had a good deal on a flat-screen TV. I don’t remember which TV it was but I believe it was a very reasonable $1600. I was almost sold right there - I just had to go to Bi-Mart to check it out for myself and I would’ve surely bought it. Well, thanks for the modern wonder that is radio advertising, Christina remembered Video Only’s tagline - “Shop around, just make sure you visit Video Only - if you don’t, you’ll be sorry.” With that in mind, I headed up to Video Only on SE 82nd and Sunnyside in Clackamas. Finding my way into the parking lot proved challenging as I wasn’t sure where to turn into it, but that turned out to be the only hassle out of the adventure.

I headed into the store not quite knowing what to expect, as I had never been to Video Only before. Upon walking in, I made an immediate right and started checking out the DLP models… in a partial attempt to avoid the sales people standing around the center of the store like vultures, waiting for their next prey. (OK, that’s an exaggeration. I’m tryin’ to tell a story here!)

Only a minute or so went by before I was greeted by Chris, who ended up being the best salesman I’ve ever worked with. He asked me if I was shopping for a new toy; thus, the focus of my trip was brought to light. I advised Chris about the ad I saw for Bi-Mart’s TV, which he advised that Video Only used to carry but they’d already liquidated their inventory of that set once it was discontinued some months ago. I wasn’t sure initially if he was just saying that as a sales tactic, to make me think less of Bi-Mart for selling a discontinued item, but after Chris and I talked geek shop some more I knew he was someone I could trust.

We looked at a couple of sets before I looked down the row and laid my eyes on the prize - a beautiful display of brightness and clarity not matched by the models around it. This JVC high definition 52″ LCoS was a thing of beauty. The asking price? A mere $1849. Yikes - that’s a pretty penny. But man o man, what a sweet TV. And the TV stand - a $200 value - was included, further sweetening the deal.

After drooling, staring, and comparing for a good 15 minutes or so, Chris made an offer too good to be true. I don’t even know if I should share it… but I will: $1600 for the TV and stand. So, let’s sum this up - I’d save $200 by getting the stand for free… plus $249 off the retail price… all for the simple task of referring people to him. Uh… yeah. I think I can do that.

Christina wasn’t with me, so I took the TV specs home and showed ‘em to her. She didn’t really know what she was looking at other than that it was 52″ and high definition. Through pure luck, we ended up trading vehicles for the day so I had Christina’s aunt’s truck - the perfect vehicle for transporting a brand new TV. With relatively little effort, I convinced Christina to go back to Video Only with me.

We walked in and I showed her the TV. She became scared. It was a great TV to be sure, but she didn’t fully understand what all of it meant. LCoS, DLP, plasma, LCD… what’s the difference? Without getting into the technical mumbo jumbo, we compared some more. We compared it against other LCoS and this JVC represented, by far, the best looking contrast. Of course the store was showcasing a high definition channel, so we asked what a regular cable channel looked like. To be honest we weren’t thrilled but, compared to the other TVs, it was apparent that the issue lied with the poor quality of the standard cable signal rather than with the TV itself.

Chris surprised me - he left Christina and I alone for a few minutes to allow ourselves to decide what we wanted to do. I remember watching other salesmen in the store being more “sales-y”, but not Chris - he wanted to connect us with the right product for us, and I really appreciated that.

About four hours later, Christina and I had finished putting the TV stand together (assembly required, of course) and had mounted our glorious new unit onto it. We called Sierra into the room to check it out - telling her we wanted to show her a balloon. She asked, “Is it a big balloon?”

I laughed and replied, “Yeah, it’s a big one.”

I can honestly say that we would’ve been sorry had we gone anywhere besides Video Only; specifically, Chris was excellent in both his stand-offish sales tactic and product knowledge.

We’ve had the TV for over a week now, and we have no regrets. The level of clarity provided is nothing short of amazing. The built-in speakers are powerful for in-set speakers and produce a very rich bass. Putting the stand together was easy enough and, since it weighs just over 90 pounds, the TV was easy to mount.

The bulb for the set does take some time to warm up - about 30 seconds - and some time to cool off - about a minute. Despite the slow on/off times, I actually consider this an upside to the unit; if it turned on or off too quickly, it could drastically reduce the life of the bulb. When it comes time to replace the bulb, this unit has a very convenient access door on the side (unlike other units where the bulb is buried in the backside).

The picture quality on this unit is, as I said, amazing. We watched both The Matrix and Robots on DVD and they looked spectacular. The audio on The Matrix fluctuated drastically between speaking and action scenes, but I believe that’s a fault of the DVD and not of the TV. Gamecube games, despite not being as powerful or pretty as Xbox 360 (or even Xbox) games, look better than ever.

We really haven’t found any negatives with the TV yet, aside from the lack of picture-in-picture… which doesn’t concern us at all.

Check out the technical specifications.

 
My Experience: 10/10 - Love it.