3D TV

Samsung 3D TV a sight to behold but where's the content?

I watch my television programs on a Commodore 1084 CRT-monitor of 1988 vintage. It has a crisp, high-contrast coloured picture which suits my small lounge-room. (It is attached to a 1980s vintage Yamaha AV-amplifier - which is also connected to an LG VCR, a Sharp VCR/DVD-player, a second el-cheapo DSE DVD player, a National radio-cassette player, this PC, a Sanyo HD digital set-top box, and 4 hi-fi speakers.) I like to tell people I don't own a television set!

This doesn't mean though that I don't have a keen interest in the evolution of television technology.

From a very early age I have enjoyed wandering into the TV departments of large stores and gazing critically at the screens around me. (When I was tiny this consisted of wandering into Kelly Brothers in Morwell and looking at the grand new colour tellys.) Nowadays I look critically at all sizes of LCD and plasma televisions - being critical of blurry pictures or digital artefacts or poor contrast - well aware of course that all these TVs are connected to one DVD or Blu-Ray player or television aerial and that their screens are adjusted for the harsh light of the store rather than the more subtle light of home.

For many years the TVs have been too large to be practical for me (a 28-32in widescreen is the largest size suitable for my room) - and the prices have been laughable!

"$4000 for a TV when most of the shows are crap? Get bloody real!"

But now the prices are getting low enough that I might be tempted in a year or two.

So last week I was reading about Samsung's new 3D televisions. They were described by one journalist as "surprisingly affordable" but at $2899 for a 40in TV I beg to differ.

Truth-be-told I love  3D imagery! I have some cyan-red anaglyph glasses and have downloaded images from the internet, I have experimented with 3D photography, I have sat in darkened theatres and thrilled to "The Creature from the Black Lagoon," "It Came From Outer Space," "Dial M for Murder", "House of Wax" and more recently "Avatar" and the new "Alice in Wonderland." At other times I have gazed in silent awe at laser-lit holograms.

Would I want a 3D television? Yes-and-no. 3D images on TV would be really cool - but I don't think any of the 3D TVs which are likely to appear in the near future are good enough.

Their screens are too big for my small room, their prices are absurdly high, and I don't think the technology is good enough yet.

I read about the glasses you have to wear with their active shutters, which need recharging, and which cost $120 each! This is a joke! Such glasses, USB-powered, would work fine for PC-gamers sitting close to a 28in screen - but for a family sofa-experience they are ridiculous. Too expensive. Too easy to break by accidently sitting on. Bound to need recharging at the most inconvenient times. They strike me as an immature technology.

In a few years they might develop a version of the 3D TV which will work with the passive circularly-polarized glasses we use for Real3D movies. This would be an improvement.

(Ideally I'd like something holographic, or something with computer-synthesized-holography - but I suspect that is some decades away.)

Would I get a 3D TV? If I'm looking for a TV in a few years and a 3D model with a 32in screen which works with my Real3D glasses and costs less than $800 is available - then yes. Until then - nope!

House Prices

It was in June 2006 that I moved into this place in Springvale, and for the first time in my life had a mortgage instead of a rental agreement.

It is a modest two-bedroom flat, smaller than the one I was renting in Malvern, but I have been able to squeeze everything in - and I am happy here.

Wasn't easy getting the mortgage. My credit union turned me down - they didn't like all my short term contract jobs. ING came to the party.

I inherited some money from mum, I cashed in a life assurance policy which I'd been contributing to for 18 years and with the first home buyers' grant was able to raise just under half the amount I needed.

The place was cheap, $150,000, but it is in good condition, and the location is okay.

My mortgage payments are the same as the rent I was paying - so I know I can budget for it.

In short - I've been very very lucky.

I have crossed the fence and become a home-buyer after being a renter for over twenty years.

How do I feel after making the transition? In a word - "relieved."

(In the last valuation my place was valued at $180,000 or so. This terrifies me. If I'd been house-hunting in 2009 instead of 2006 I'd have needed to borrow an extra $30,000. My mortgage repayments would have been 37.5% bigger. This would be more than I could afford. I'd got a modestly-priced place in the very last year when it would be possible for me!)

There is an ideological battle going on in Melbourne at the moment. A battle between those who are renting and watch as the escalating house prices put the dream of home-ownership seemingly forever out-of-reach - and those who already own a house (or houses) and allegedly rejoice in the escalating value of their assets.

I do not rejoice! I hate these escalating house prices. My flat is a home and not an asset - it only becomes dollars if I sell it. I might (once I've paid off this place) want to move to another slightly bigger place, but with price increases this becomes much harder! Instead of having to loan an extra $30,000 (as an example) I'd have to loan an extra $50,000 or $60,000 or more to get that slightly bigger place. Even a slightly bigger place may be unaffordable.

I don't give a stuff if house prices fall - as long as I can afford my mortgage payments I'll be happy to stay here. (And I'm too sensible to take out huge loans to purchase property assets.)

I want house prices to be lower. I don't want so many people to be under financial stress to rent or buy a roof over their heads. I don't want destitute people living in the streets - I want them to have rooms or apartments where they can be comfortable. (And as a regular reader of "The Big Issue" I don't hold with any of this nonsense about people wanting to be homeless!)

How did a necessity of life (shelter) get to be so damned expensive?  We have the know-how and the technology to make cheap modular housing. There are places where we can build. What's stopping us?

Grumbling

It seems I have only been writing in here when I feel the need to complain about something.

Not a good look.

In truth I have a head which fills with wonderous thoughts, and only sometimes do I slip across into crossness.

Each day I read other blogs and find them filled with wry observations, poetical descriptions, and political comments, and - just sometimes - wonder whether I could write like that.

Sure I can easily find something to write about everyday, but I cannot blog at work (it seems inappropriate) and at home I have so many other things to fill my time.

* It may simply be that since this blog was created as a TAFE project, I have never given much thought to what I want to share with the world.*