The whining continues...

So in the previous post I complained about Spirit air and promised to complain about Netflix.  Here's that issue:

My family seemingly has always been proud TV viewers.  I recall being a child that my nickname seemed to be 'Remote Control', as I was the one tasked with changing the channel.  Thank God there was only about five channels and channel surfing wasn't yet in vogue.

Even without a remote control, our TV was fairly glorious back then.  I don't recall the size, but it was big, it had a beautiful wooden case, and even had the full VHW channel dial.

But back then, that was about all there was to having a good television.  Have it big, have it in a good looking case, and ensuring that you could get all the different channels.  Ever so slowly as the television landscape evolved, we've added more and more accessories.  The first was the VCR.  I remember those heady days when VHS had beaten back the superior Betamax foe.  It was a Christmas gift from Grandpa and we suddenly added 'going to the Video Rental store' to our lexicon.

A few years later we added a cable box.  Our previous versions of cable had always come in just fine on the Tele.  This new box though gave us the opportunity for more channels (at an increased cost) and the ability to get Pay Per View.  Can you say Wrestlemania!?

For several decades, that's what remained of our television system.  A TV (they got bigger and bigger), a video viewing device (a couple different VCRs that eventually changed into DVD players), and a cable box (that got bigger and more complex).  That streak ended in 2007.

Several months after my father passed away we decided to enter into the new Television reality.  We changed out our 32 inch flat CRT television (in it's glorious wooden frame), for a 50 inch HD plasma television.  While the TV cost $2500, we still didn't get a 'top of the line' version.  It was only 720p vs the much more expensive 1080i or 1080p.  We went that way because nothing was supporting the 1080 standard.  Yes there was Bluray, but it was still in a dog fight with HD-DVD for the standard king crown.

As we were upping the ante on the visual side we also decided to take advantage of the audio side.  We added a home theater system for that beautiful 5.1 sound.  And that is where my conundrum continues to live.  You see we bought the best system we could find at the time and that was a Panasonic Television along with a Panasonic Home Theater.

Now with most television / home theater systems you have to manually turn on each component.  If we had just gotten different brands that would have been the case.  But Panasonic had a built in system that when the television turned on, it automatically turned on the home theater and tuned it to the correct input.  As we were using the cable box remote that didn't acknowledge the home theater this was ideal and really no different from a methodology view point as before.  You simply click the 'all on' button on the remote and it turned on the cable box and television.  Through the Panasonic magic the television kicked the home theater on and switched it to the television input.

Easy Peasy.

Time marched on, as did technology.  The cable boxes changed and supposedly improved, and Bluray won it's prize fight.  A few years later when our DVD based home theater system went on the fritz, we replaced it with a Bluray based home theater system.  From Panasonic.  Like before it shook hands with the TV and took it's commands like a champ.  It also added in a new feature... it connected to the internet and allowed us to stream Netflix.

Our first experience with streaming Netflix was a disappointment.  We were expecting the ability to stream the same 'new to DVD' releases as we were getting through the mail.  Umm... no.  They only had old television series and old movies.  I would have paid to keep it as I liked the idea of binge watching old movies and television series, but I had yet to get a job and therefore had no money to chip in.  So we canceled the streaming service.

Fast forward another couple years and a couple things worked together.  Last year we watched the Netflix series 'House of Cards' when it was out on DVD/Bluray.  We enjoyed it and were looking forward to the second season.  This summer when we signed up for Netflix (we get it in the summer when there isn't' as much good television on), we took advantage of the free month of streaming and watched 'House of Cards' season two before it was out on DVD/Bluray.

While we had the streaming service, I started to watch other things.  In particular I got into 'Mad Men'.  God I love that show.  I even cued up several shows that I had missed, but wanted to watch like 'Breaking Bad' and 'American Horror Story'.

Now for the occasional/rare streaming, our Bluray home theater system worked fine.  But it was S L O W.  Not just booting up, but moving through the menus.  You would press the down arrow to select the next show and it would literally take 2 or 3 seconds for the menu to reflect your change.  Moving from it's boot up screen to starting the next episode of 'Mad Men' or 'House of Cards' took an agonizingly long time (between 2 and 3 minutes.

I knew there were better options out there like Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku... but they would have to be hooked up via HDMI.  Our television only had two HDMI slots.  One for the cable box, and one for the home theater.  Yes, I could hook up some system through other means (component cables, composite cables...), but if I'm going to get HD quality, then I need an HD hook up.

So for the moment, I didn't see a need to get new equipment.  Then Xfinity stepped in.  We had recently upgraded to the X1 system and got a free upgrade to our modem.  The new modem promised the same television and telephone service, but included an increase to our internet connection.  And it lived up to that promise.  Our internet went from a very fast 35Mbit download to 120Mbit. !!!

It also included a built in Wifi router.  Previously we had been using a Netgear router to spread the WiFi love around the house.  The new modem/router while fast, was also a pain to set up.  It didn't seem to have a way to turn off the WiFi and was impossible to set up with our old WiFi router.  I should say that I didn't set up the new system and instead relied on my brother (a bigger tech geek than I).  So while I don't have firsthand knowlege of how difficult it was, I trust my brother on it.

So you may be asking, what's the problem?  Well it seems the new WiFi router doesn't like our Home Theater system.  They connect and handshake just fine, but the home theater system has no access to the internet.  Seriously... I can put in the password and connect to the router, but no internet.  No Netflix.

The easiest solution would be to either forego Netflix, or hook it up in a non HD way.  But I have money now, and while money can't buy happiness it CAN buy technology that gives happiness.  The big blocking point is the television... all I need is an extra HDMI slot.  So I went shopping for a new Television.

I figured it would be worth it on more than one front.  Not only would we get the added HDMI slot, but we would also step up to 1080p.  I wouldn't even need to step up to a 'top of the line' television.  Now a-days that means an UltraHD 4K television (that nothing yet supports), or 3D (I can't see in 3D anyway and no one in hour house wants to watch television with extra glasses), or some exotic material (OLED).

So I searched around and found a great buy.  A Vizio E550I-B2.  It cost just under $700, was five inches bigger than our Panasonic, was 1080p, 120 Hz, included smart features like Netflix (YAY!), and got amazing reviews.  CNet even included it as one of the 'Best' TVs for 2014.  The next 'best' TV on the list cost $1500.  So while I hemmed and hawed for several hours, I eventually went out and purchased this new beautiful beast.

Hooking it up was.... well it was a royal pain in the ass.  The cable box worked as expected, but hooking it up to the Home Theater just didn't work.  I could get the sound to come out, but the home theater would have to be manually turned on and switched over to the televisions input.

After a couple hours I did a major face palm.  This wasn't a Panasonic television and therefore wouldn't handshake with the home theater system.

A quick aside... if this were me and me alone this wouldn't be a problem.  Technically everything works fine.  All that's been lost is a quick turn on of the home theater and switching it to the correct input.  As is, I use a univeral remote that could be programmed to do just that.

But I'm not alone.  There's Mom to consider.  Technically she sits in front of the TV more than I do.  And she doesn't like change.  That's not to say that she can't get used to something new, she just doesn't like to do it.  I convinced her to upgrade to the Xfinity X1 system a few months back and while its most certainly 'better' than the previous cable box, it is amazingly different.  Even changing to the previous channel is different now.  She's still getting used to that.

If I leave this as is, her experience of sitting down to enjoy some television will change.  No longer will she pick up the cable remote, hit the 'on' button, and enjoy watching television.  I did program her remote to turn on the new TV, but in addition to that step she'll have to pick up the home theater remote (which rarely gets used outside of watching the occasional Bluray), hit it's on button, wait for it to boot up (about 5 seconds), then switch the input over to the television.  THEN she can start flipping through the channels.

While I desperately want a good Netflix experience for myself, I want a good 'normal' television experience for my Mom.  In fact I want her experience to be good MORE than I want Netflix.

So I'm in a conundrum.  This TV will not work for us.  I'm left with several options;

• I can return the Vizio and hook up our old but still good enough television.  
• I could then either get a Roku 2, hook it up in a SD way, and get less than desirable Netflix, or just forego Netflix all together.
• I can return the Vizio and exchange it for a Panasonic television.
• I looked it up and the newer Panasonics still will handshake with the home theater.  

My initial thought was to use the latter option.  Sure, the Panasonic televisions don't rate as high as the Vizio, but they aren't BAD.  The picture quality would be both better and worse... better in that it's 1080p vs 720p, but worse in that Panasonic LCD televisions don't have the 'black' quality of their plasmas.  That's why the Vizio has been rated and reviews so highly... it DOES match plasma black levels.  

Then the other bug hit me... almost all of the Panasonic televisions come with only two HDMI ports.  Getting one of those would be useless as it wouldn't solve the original Netflix issue.  Even if the television was smart and had Netflix capability, it would probably be less than satisfactory.  The Vizio's Netflix ability is faster than our home theater... but not by a lot.  Even if we didn't have our current home theater issue, I'd still be going out to get a Roku 3 on Monday.  So I NEED the television to have at least 3 HDMI ports.  

There is one Panasonic that includes three HDMI ports.  It's their new 'high end' mid range television this year.  It's 1080p, 240Hz, Smart, and includes 3 HDMI ports.   It also costs just over $1000 (On sale at best buy.  It's standard price is $1399).  

DAMN IT!  I originally only wanted to spend $500 on a new television but let myself 'stretch' up to the $700 Vizio only because it was that good.  Now that I've tasted victory I don't want to give up on it and go back to the old system, but it means spending $500 MORE than I wanted and still probably buying a Roku 3.  

GRrrr

So that's where I"m at.  I'm already in for a penny ($700), and by this time next week I'll probably be in for a pound ($1000).  I'll either update this post or leave a comment when I make the move.

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Update 8/12/14

In the end, I went for the far more responsible route.  I returned the Vizio and hooked up our old Panasonic.  There were several reasons I went this way.

• The experience for Mom is the same as it was.  No change or 'new system to turn on the TV' needed.
• The Vizio was not 'better' than that Panasonic.  Yes, it was bigger, but a 10% increase (50 inch to 55 inch) is hardly noticeable.  It had better resolution (1080p vs 720p), but the contrast and color quality of LED/LCD just can't match the plasma.  
• The Vizio did have 'smart' features, but over the wireless it still had hiccups and had to buffer Netflix over and over, leaving me with little hope that a Roku or other streaming device would improve the situation. 
• I had already stretched what I wanted to pay.  Just because I was in for a 'penny' didn't mean I needed to be in for a pound.  Returning it got my 'penny' back. 

This of course left me back in the original situation.  No Netflix.  I half heatedly looked again for a way to fix the home theater wireless problem and found only more evidence that it was a finicky bastard and had little hope of it ever connecting to our new wireless router.  

Dee mentioned an HDMI splitter, but sadly the 'easy' ones won't work.  From what I could see there are two options:  1) An automatic model that 'senses' what device is on and allows it to go through.  2) through a physical switch or remote control you change the input to the device you want.   Well.... option 1 won't work as the Xfinity X1 cable box is always on.  Seriously, the thing never turns off (until it invariable crashes).  When it was installed I programmed it's "on/off" function to my universal remote but it still won't turn off.  The splitter won't work on the home theater box either as the TV 'pings' through the HDMI port to contorl t he home theater... a splitter in the way would screw that up (and leave me in the same position as the new TV).   The second option... well it wouldn't be easy or smooth, but it's a possibility.  

Instead of researching more on the splitter, I did what I should have done in the first place.  I asked my brother for help.  He had taken an hour or so while I was at work one day and tried to fix the wireless hook up and had no luck whatsoever... but he did recall that the home theater has a physical LAN port.   So by drilling a couple holes and running a 25ft LAN cable, we now have Netflix through the home theater back.  

Am I happy about that?  Yes and no.  Yes, I'm happy because I get to continue to watch Breaking Bad and mom gets to enjoy streaming movies (we watched Oldboy just last night).  Yes, I'm happy because we fixed a problem without spending a dime (after loaning Best Buy $700 for a few days).  No, I'm not happy because I spent two days and countless hours trying to fix a problem by using money instead of my (and my brother's) brain.  I had hoped that a new TV would be significantly better than our 7 year old box, but it just isn't.  

So we'll just call this whole experience "Calvin's Folly" and try to chalk it up to expanded experience.  Maybe one day I'll try a splitter and see if I can get a 'better' netflix experience through a dedicated streaming box, but I'll be wary of changing Moms experience.  Right now she hits one button on the home theater remote to get to netflix.... adding a switcher will require a physical trip to the TV or another remote before using netflix.