DVD News Now
January 27th, 2010 by ihnwaqicifafChoosing an LCD TV can be really confusing. There are so many things to consider when purchasing an LCD TV, everything from price to size to the retailer. I have spent several hours in the past few months shopping for the perfect LCD TV and have learned a lot. I hope these tips will help you find the perfect LCD TV for your home.
Cost: This should be the first thing you consider when buying an LCD TV. Buying an LCD TV can be really expensive. The budget you set aside for an LCD TV will determine how big the screen size is. You should be prepared to spend at least $300.
Screen Size: After you’ve considered how much you want to spend, you need to decide how big of a LCD TV you want. It’s important to consider how big the room, you will be placing the LCD TV in, is. You may have the money to buy a 52 inch LCD TV, but will it look right in the room you are placing it in? If you are too close the picture won’t look as good as it did in the store.
Speakers: When you do a search for LCD TVs, you may be bombarded with LCD monitors that can be used as TVs. When you see the price, you may get excited because they are much cheaper than other LCD TVs that size. But, these do not have speakers. You will have to buy speakers in order to use this LCD monitor as an LCD TV. Also make sure regular LCD TVs have speakers, some don’t. Another thing to consider is where the speakers are located on the TV. If the screen size is 26”, but has speakers are on the sides you will need to consider this because this will make the LCD TV considerably bigger. Will the LCD TV fit in that area you have chosen?
Widescreen or Regular: This is yet another thing to consider when purchasing an LCD TV. A regular LCD TV will be square in shape. I have noticed that the widescreen LCD TVs look bigger than the regular LCD TVs, even though they have the same screen size. I highly suggest going with a widescreen LCD TV.
HDTV: Is the LCD TV equipped with HDTV? This is really important to consider. In this day and time more and more DVD players, DVDs, and television programs are being made to take advantage of this new technology. Please note that you must purchase a HDTV tuner in order to receive HD input, unless the TV says that it has a built-in tuner.
Where to Purchase: This can be really confusing. Most department stores now offer LCD TVs, but do the people working there know anything about them? In most cases, no. I suggest purchasing your LCD TV from a store that deals mostly in electronics. There will people there who can help you and will be able to answer the questions you may have. If you are confident and know exactly what you want you can go online to EBay and search for a good deal.
Repairs: Does the retailer, you purchased your LCD TV from, offer repair services on the electronics that they sell? This is always important to consider because something could happen.
Warranties: Does the manufacturer offer a warranty? Some manufacturers go above and beyond to make sure you are happy with your purchase, going so far as to replace the LCD TV, should something go wrong.
Comparison Shop: Don’t pick up a sales paper and rush off to the nearest store to purchase your LCD TV without looking around at other prices. Just because it’s on sale at one store, doesn’t mean that’s the cheapest price available.
Failing Prices: There was a news article, not to long ago, that spoke about how the prices of LCD TVs was going to start falling and the reason was, manufacturers had expected a lot of people to buy these LCD TVs for various sporting events and they didn’t. Long story short, manufacturers are expected to start dropping prices. If you can hold off until Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) you are bound to see much better prices in anticipation of the holidays.
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There is an unlikely new player in the British film industry with ambitions to change the world of entertainment. Tesco, the supermarket giant, has moved into movie mogul territory this weekend with the launch of a multi-million-pound production arm poised to make films of books by a slew of bestselling authors.
The first release from the Tesco studio will be Paris Connections, a tweaked Jackie Collins tale being shot on location in Paris early next month. Set in the glamorous world of fashion shows and rival couturiers, it tells of investigative journalist Madison Castelli's efforts to uncover the truth behind a series of murders of Size Zero models.
Directed by Harley Cokliss and starring Anthony Delon, it will go straight to DVD after a number of cinema preview screenings. The film will then be sold exclusively in Tesco stores and has been specially adapted by Collins for the chain from her 1999 bestselling murder mystery LA Connections.
“Jackie has rewritten the book for us, which is fantastic, because we thought Paris would be the most glamorous location to film in. But all the other stories we are adapting are closely based on existing books,” said Ileen Maisel, of Amber Entertainment, the production company making the films in collaboration with Tesco. Next in line for production are titles by Dick Francis, Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman and Judy Blume.
“We are able to involve the writers at every stage, even with the casting decisions. And Tesco sells an enormous amount of books, of course; so for an author to have his DVDs on the shelf alongside his books and to sell them simultaneously sounds like a very good thing,” said Maisel.
The American-born producer, formerly a top executive at New Line Cinema, has produced a number of big-budget films, including the screen adaptation of Pullman's novel Northern Lights. She is now in Paris with her colleague Lawrence Elman, choosing locations that already include the Paris Opera and a pleasure cruiser on the Seine.
“Ileen has been working with high-profile authors for a long time,” said Elman, a former television producer. “Normally when an author works with a film-maker, they just sign on the dotted line and then shake hands, before they are told, 'Thank you very much. See you at the premiere.' Instead, we have offered them a partnership and it is very enticing for them.”
For Tesco, the appeal of the deal was the roster of big-name writers that Amber could deliver. “We liked Amber's idea because it brings us authors who are ideal for this,” said Rob Salter, Tesco's entertainment director. “It had to be a project that needed no explanation. When you say 'Jackie Collins', it doesn't need any explanation. The fact they had a number of people they could sign up who are among the best-known authors out there was obviously a big thing.”
Tesco describe the multi-million-pound deal with Amber as one that “makes the most of what each company does best”, with the film company in charge of production and Tesco running the marketing.
The shift into film production is part of Tesco's effort to make the most of its growing influence as a retailer of mainstream books and home entertainment.
Salter explains that the deal with Amber is part of a project to make Tesco's entertainment brand more potent: “A deal such as this means we can work on projects much earlier and have involvement while the film is being made. An exclusive title is a great driver to bring people to our stores anyway, but if we are involved in the film from the start we can involve our customers much earlier. We can run a competition to take people out to the set in Paris, for example, and we can set up blogs about the shooting process and run interviews with the stars and with Jackie Collins.”
Editorially, Salter assures fans of the work of Francis, Pullman and Collins et al that there is no direction from the supermarket chain about the content of the screenplay. “Apart from telling the film-makers what I don't want to see in Tesco, then there is no interference in the subject matter. Of course, I don't want anything too risqué. Nothing that would be 18-rated and that would not sit well on our shelves.
“Other than that, though, there is no editorial involvement from us. We have been sent a script of the first film, so we know the story. That's it.”
Tesco has already dipped its toe into the film industry in a deal struck with the Miramax production company over the 2009 Zac Efron film, Me and Orson Welles, which gave Tesco exclusive DVD sales rights, and in another Christmas deal with Dreamworks, giving it sole rights to sell the animated short film Merry Madagascar.
“The Madagascar Christmas DVD, promoted in the way we did, sold four times as many copies as it would have done if it was on the shelf with all the other DVDs we sell at Christmas. Our choice of the books for these new films is based on what we feel our customers would find most interesting,” said Salter.
The volume of books sold is not dented by rival DVD sales on the opposite aisle, according to research carried out by Amber Entertainment. “In fact, the opposite is true,” said Maisel. “People buy books when they have seen the film. When the public saw a film of the children's book Inkheart, which did not do as well in the cinema as had been hoped, the book still went into the children's bestsellers list after the film came out.”
The Jacqueline Wilson title The Worry Website will be filmed in Britain, as will the selected Dick Francis thriller. A screenplay of the revered American children's author Judy Blume's 1981 novel, Tiger Eyes, is also in development, as is one of the novels from Pullman's Sally Lockhart children's adventure series.
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