Sunday 24 April 2011

Today's Review: The Descriptions On The Box Of The TV At Work


We got a new TV delivered at work. 32", full HD, £250. Not bad. But upon closer examination, I'm not sure how well I can sell it.

First of all, though the box states that the TV is a "32 Class", the measurements right next to it say that it's 31.5". Right. Good start. I know, I know, most TVs that state 32" are a little bit less, but why not just make up the extra half an inch? I'm probably nitpicking, but let's continue. We can see that we have an LCD TV. Apparently it's wide. Not widescreen, just wide. The screen might be really narrow, but at least we know the unit itself is wide.

Okay, I'm still nitpicking, but now we get to the really stupid part. Look at that picture. Wow, a motorbike is coming out of the TV. Awesome. That makes me wanna buy it so bad. But wait, there's small print. "Screen shot is simulated". Dammit, there won't really be bikes coming out of my TV? I'll pass thanks. But actually, who in the hell would believe that bikes would come out of their screen? And out of those people how many people would complain to such an extent that they need to put a warning on the box? I'll tell you who, exactly the kinds of people that would require clarification of whether the screen is wide or just the TV. That kind of person is an idiot.

But let's continue.


Wow, look at all those cool specifications. The first one says 3D! Maybe there will be bikes flying at my face. Oh wait, no, it's just technical jargon for stuff that ordinary people don't care about, 3D deinterlacing and the like. Actually, pretty much all of these are technical jargon that I couldn't really care less about, Pulldown, response time, doing a Google on them reveals long articles that I don't want to read when it could be summed up with "It's well good innit". Is there something about technical jargon that mightily impresses people enough for them to buy something, based on stuff that they know nothing about? The information could be there for the discerning audio-visual nerd, but there's no need to plaster it so obviously on the box. If someone's looking for these things, they can probably find the info elsewhere, not next to a picture and caption that are clearly designed to be explained to utter morons. 

I suppose it's nice to cover all the bases, and hey, TVs are in big boxes, you've gotta find something to plaster all over it. But people should really be watching to see if what they're writing is either a clearly obvious observation or something that people won't care too much about. But hey, I'm probably completely wrong and should really care more about what's in the box I sit in front of every day.

My rating: 2/5

No comments:

Post a Comment