{"id":2191,"date":"2022-12-08T18:08:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T00:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=2191"},"modified":"2022-12-13T00:13:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T06:13:45","slug":"2191","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=2191","title":{"rendered":"Cardboard Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Digging around in my attic\u2019s electronics graveyard, I came across the box from my now long gone (but still much loved) first HD TV \u2026 A Hitachi CMP5000WXU 50\u201d plasma. It came to me in a rather odd way as this tech was still fairly rare in 2003.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s actually a commercial Pioneer unit made for TV stations, just re-labeled for Hitachi as they had zero ability to make anything remotely like this at that time. I found a pro dealer in the Seattle area that had a few for less than the $11,999 suggested price, for \u201conly\u201d $7500 plus the cost of the mandatory input card ($800) that allows VCR’s and other devices to be shown on to it. FYI, converted to today’s dollar value, that’s over $13,500. Bear in mind, the exact same model with Pioneer\u2019s name on it was even more expensive. The box in which it was shipped, by today\u2019s standards, was overkill in the extreme as these things were hard to get and fragile compared to today\u2019s LCD\/LED models. You could safely put six modern flat screen LCDs in it, side by side. Also due to the rarity, they air shipped it to me. Bear in mind, it weighed a little south of a VW due to the sheer amount of glass and the amount of electronics. Well, it sure seemed that much when I tried to pick it up. The cabinet in the media room had to be hacked up to fit this giant screen in the given space of the previous 36\u201d CRT TV.<\/p>\n

When fired up the picture was amazing, as I\u2019d never seen such a sharp and clear image outside of experimental units at the CES shows. Of course, the only thing I could watch in HD at that time was PBS, starting at 8pm showing nature films. But people would come to my home to be blown away by the stunning picture, even if the main attraction was squirrels, insects and the occasional story about the US Postal Service. However even a regular DVD looked totally different compared to CRT TV\u2019s \u2026 I actually found myself going back and watching videos I\u2019d seen a hundred times \u2026 I wasn\u2019t disappointed. It was like watching them for the first time. I seriously didn\u2019t know how much I had missed by watching traditional low-def TV\u2019s.<\/p>\n

There were some things that weren\u2019t expected \u2026 first, vertigo \u2026 it became EXTREMELY disorienting because the picture quality was that<\/em> good. I\u2019ve only owned the world\u2019s best cathode-ray tube (CRT)<\/a> TV\u2019s up to that point for 20+years, but plasma TV’s are simply a different level of sharpness and detail. Second, the heat it generated could actually heat the room during winter. I still wonder how much it cost me in electricity.<\/p>\n

This January, I\u2019ll be at the (still crippled by the China virus) 2023 CES in Las Vegas. I\u2019ll see the latest 8K sets far larger than the size of an RV, but I still remember looking back in wonder at that very first HD set. In complete sincerity, I\u2019d still love to have one now. Even though it\u2019s only a 720p set, it evokes fond memories like your first car, a crazed run down an Olympic bobsled track or sailing down the Grand canal in Venice. That\u2019s how profound it was for me.<\/p>\n

I was conversing with a friend about this, and posed the question: I can now buy a 65\u201d 4K flat-screen smart TV, less than half an inch thick, that is so efficient it can almost run on batteries, in a Walmart Christmas sale for $199 \u2026 Why isn\u2019t that happening with cars?<\/p>\n

The next time I see Musk \u2026 I\u2019ll ask him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Digging around in my attic\u2019s electronics graveyard, I came across the box from my now long gone (but still much loved) first HD TV \u2026 A Hitachi CMP5000WXU 50\u201d plasma. It came to me in a rather odd way as this tech was still fairly rare in 2003.               […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2191"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2218,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions\/2218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}