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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review January 11, 2008 / 4 Shevat 5768

Big boob tube

By Greg Crosby


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Bigger is better. At least that was the message delivered by Panasonic president, Toshihiro Sakamoto at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sakamoto revealed Panasonic's plans for the future of consumer electronics which included the world's largest flat screen TV - a 150-inch plasma set measuring 11 feet by 7 feet. Yes, I said 150 inch. That would be like nine 50 inch TVs grouped together. Now THAT is big screen television!


"Can you imagine sitting at home watching the Olympics on this baby?" Mr. Sakamoto joked to the crowd. While Sakamoto didn't rule out home use of the giant, he said the new television would be primarily marketed to a commercial audience. He said Panasonic's new line (including thinner 1 inch models) would hit the market next year but didn't announce a specific release date for the 150 inch giant. No price was given either. You know what they say, if you gotta ask …


Panasonic has been working with hundreds of families to determine how they use their home entertainment systems. Mr. Sakamoto announced that new lines of Panasonic TVs will come with built in SD memory card slots, typically found in digital cameras, so that all photos a person takes with their camera can be easily shown on a TV. He also announced that the company will be releasing a new high-definition camcorder that saves information to an SD card, so that HD videos can also be watched on a new Panasonic TV.


I don't think my wife would let me buy a 150 inch television, even if I could afford it. My wife would raise the roof, or rather; she wouldn't raise the roof, which is what we'd have to do to get the thing into the house. My den isn't large enough. Our entire home isn't large enough. Maybe if I set it up in the yard…nah, I don't think so - they don't make extension cords that long.


Coincidently, we were browsing at new TVs just the other day. Our current set is about 12 or 13 years old and has been having its share of "senior moments" lately. Besides being much heavier and more cumbersome than the new thin models, the sound quality is getting progressively worse. Where once we were able to listen to it at a level of about 24 to 28, we now need to crank it up to around 35 to 40, sometimes much higher than that depending on the stations. Also, the color has become faded and murky. The contrast is off, and the sharpness just isn't what it once was.


Come to think of it, my television is kind of like me - I suffer from all the same symptoms. Fortunately my wife hasn't been out shopping for a new husband yet - at least not that I know of.


For those of you who have not ventured into an electronics store of late, let me tell you that the whole procedure of picking out a new television has gotten more complicated than the Middle East peace process. There's HDTV, there's rear projection, there's LCD, there's plasma, there's 4:3 ratio, there's 19:9 ratio, there are lines of resolution - 720 or 1080, and then there is 1080i and 1080p. There is HDMI and HDMI 1.3. There are low resolution bands, there are high resolution bands. Pixels. Florescent tubes. Contrast ratio. 60Hz and 120Hz frame rate. Do you watch in a darkened room or a highly lit room? Do you want it to be a "home theater" or a work station? What kind of components will you want to plug into it? And what about speakers? Is your DVD player compatible? And your receiver?


In the good old days my mom and dad just had to decide what size screen they wanted (or could afford) and if the cabinet was to be cherry wood or walnut stained. Period. They didn't have to be electronic wizards or computer geeks to buy a television. All they needed to know was which wall the TV would be placed at in relation to where the couch was facing.


Things are different now. Now I need to attend classes at Cal Tech before I can make an intelligent choice. The fear of buying the "wrong" TV tears at my guts and grips my throat in a choke hold. The thought of spending a lot of money on this thing only to discover in a couple of months that I bought the "wrong" TV is a bit disconcerting, to say the least.


I know I have to research the web sites and electronic reviews. I have to compare prices. I have to figure out which model and manufacturer offers us the best value for what we spend. I need to read consumer feedback and look at repair charts. I have to discern which brand is the best and of the best brands, which can we really afford. Yes, I need to do research.


But how I wish I could just go with the cherry wood cabinet.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.

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© 2006, Greg Crosby

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