Mi 5X 4K TV

Recently my Samsung TV which I bought in 2012 went bust. The panel started cracking and showed patches. It was a 3D TV and the service person said the panel had to be changed and it will cot 40 K and it is better to go for a new TV. The sad thing is we don't have 3D TVs in the market any more. All my bluray 3Ds will go waste.

When I started to research for new TV I could see there was no one place where we can get genuine information. Amazon and Flipkart many times specifications are incorrect for ex they mention 2 HDMI ports while the brand website might mention 3 HDMI ports. Many times they don't mention if the HDMI is 2.1 or 1.0 or 2.0. Again only if we know so many variations exists we can buy the right thing. No single place provides this information.

If you take visuals there are Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR 10+, HLG etc and in audio you have Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, Dolby Atmos, DTS - X etc. From operating system point of view we have Android with its 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, Tizen, WebOS etc. From ports point of view we have ARC, eARC, Optical digitial out etc.

I agree it is good to have choice but as a consumer it is difficult to make the choice. 

My old Samsung TV was good in all front but it costed me a lot and at the time of buying I was not aware of the features it had. Having used to that I didn't want to miss out on the vital features.

I noticed there were so many reviewers available in youtube even in Tamil but they focus on some fancy stuffs rather than on essentials. Also these guys are biased while a group says Mi is the best there is another one who says Sony is the best and Mi is worst. Even there are reviews where they call Samsung and LG as subpar.

The retailers are in different mode Vasanth & co supports Samsung while Croma store supports Sony. To buy a Sony you have to pay lot of premium. Again having owned Sony products it will cost you more but will not offer some critical feature.

For a novice buyer everything will look similar but only when you try to use each feature we will learn what is not supported and what is.

I found Mi 5X series having Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, it had eARC support and 2.1 HDMI support. It also supported DTS - HD. This was the only TV which had all these features and cost at least 30 K lesser compared to branded ones. 

Yes it doesn't have two way bluetooth support or ambient mode. Also the "nits" may not be as good as a TV which costs as bomb but nowdays lifetime of a TV is 3 to 4 years. I feel it is not worth to shell out a lot unless you have lot of surplus.

I am happy with the purchase and you do research your stuff before you buy yours.

Affair with cable

 My affair with Cable is an on and off one. I prefer to watch movies or programs without any ad interruptions. Our Tamil channels are notorious with advertisements. Especially Raj and Vijay can kill you with advertisements. Also the time I get to spend on TV has reduced considerably over the years. Another factor is if I spend time on Cable my DVD and Bluray collection remains untouched. The final nail was the new TRAI rule which increased the cost to a new high.

Earlier I had Tata Sky and their cost was high and even to look at issues in their service they will charge you. You will be charged just for the visit. I discontinued Tata Sky and remained Cable free for almost an year. Then I heard SCV cable provides almost all HD channels for a low cost. I switched to SCV and everything was going file till TRAI interfered with their illogical rule. I discontinued again.

I almost forgot how watching cable felt until I was admitted in hospital for few days where I had the opportunity of watching cable. This made me to take the service again in Dec 2019. After few months I felt the channels just repeat content and I really didn't have time for Cable in my life and discontinued it.

Now during the quarantine I saw people passionately enjoying programs in Cable which again made me regret my decision to discontinue cable. Again I have installed Cable against my family's objection.

I have not watched it continuously for 30 minutes since installing. Should see how long this will last. 

His Masters Voice

I heard through my friend and today read it in papers that HMV is planning to close its operations. HMV has always been synonymous with DVDs for me. When I was there in UK not a weekend passes without me visiting this beautiful store.

HMV along with Virgin Megastore used to be my two favorite shops. Virgin actually scored above HMV as it beat HMV in price but HMV always remained a symbol of music and movies.

Sometime back I heard Virgin Megastore closed its doors in UK and now HMV is following the same footsteps. Yes this was something expected as the online market is gaining popularity when compared to the traditional shops. But online shopping can never replace the pleasure of browsing through 1000s of physical discs and finally selecting something which you have been wishing for a long time. Now with HMV closing its doors thats the last nail on such a feeling. The future generation will never get to experience the feeling. When we realize HMVs famous logo, especially the faithful dog will soon be going into oblivion it is really painful.

Advertisements

Click here to read about boring advts.

Here is a list of some advertisements which made us longing for more

1) The first one that comes into my mind is the 7 up ads with the kool cartoon character
2) The vicks vaporub which will show people watching movie and a guy in the crowd will have nasal congestion and the hero in the movie will turn to look at him. Once he uses vicks inhaler hero will continue with dialogue
3) Minnaladikum venmai - Old Rin advertisement. Ivar satai enatha vida velupa
4) Old Pepsi advertisement with tag - Let the magic begin
5) Another pepsi advertisement where our Sachin and Ganguly? will fight for a Pepsi and Azhar will have it
6) Kingfisher - olalalala la la lei
7) Sila vishayame viseshame - Cadburys dairy milk
8) I forgot the product of this advt where one girl will call for someone using her hand and one old man will think she is calling her and come near her to find out she was infact calling someone behind him.

Sucking Advts

There are some advts which we dislike the first time they are telecasted and there are some which we start dislike from second watching.

Here are few advts I dislike

All Shampoo advts (sunsilk,head & shlder, clinic plus etc)
All washing powder & Soap advts (surf, ariel, henkel)
Many of the Clothing advts (bharani txtiles, saravana stores, jeyachandran stores etc)
Many of health drinks advts (Horlicks, Complan etc)
All toilet cleaner advts
All Jewel shop advts (Saravana, Balu etc)
Some of Toothpaste advts (Pepsodent, some Colgate advts)

In the next post let us see some advts which are a treat to watch.