Thinking of buying an LCD television set? Wait no longer: The price plunge is over. After years of accelerating decline, prices for consumer LCD TVs — especially those smaller than 32 inches — have hit bottom, industry insiders say.

That’s because the price of wholesale LCD flat panels — the display component of your TV set — has recently reached its lowest point and rebounded, according to numbers released by market data research firm iSuppli. When a TV’s most expensive single component starts getting more expensive, you can kiss retail price cuts goodbye.

I bought Wendy a big-screen TV, a 37-inch Toshiba, for Mother’s Day.

Before she sent the computer to me, Sue took it to a local repair house, one of those “Geek Squad” type outfits. Their diagnosis: she needed a new motherboard, about $600!

It doesn’t surprise me to learn that Sue’s experience — a simple problem misdiagnosed — happens all the time. Here’s a news report from California, in which a reporter breaks a PC by disconnecting the hard drive. He just pulls loose one connector. This disables the computer, and it should be easy for any repairman to diagnose and fix. The reporter took the computer to several local repair houses to see whether it could be repaired. Several were able to fix the problem, but two couldn’t even find it, and wanted hundreds of dollars to repair components that weren’t even broken. (Caution: the audio and video are out of sync, so don’t try to watch, just listen to the report):

It was just one unplugged connector!

This was posted at YouTube under the headline “Computer Repair Fraud”, but it doesn’t sound to me like fraud as much as incompetence. Or, to quote Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” Then again, these people are supposed to be professionals, and perhaps such astounding incompetence in that role equates to fraud.

First of all the obvious: this new iPod is sleeker and lighter than my first one. It weighs less and is only about half the thickness of my first one. Its display is larger and brighter than the old iPod, and of course the new iPod has a beautiful color display. The main reason I chose the 60GB version of the new iPod is because my old 20GB iPod just didn’t have enough capacity to contain my entire record collection. I have about 30GB of music, most of which was ripped from my CDs, the rest of which came from download services like Rhapsody and iTunes. With the old iPod I had to select what music to sync to the iPod, and what not to. With the larger capacity iPod, I don’t have to choose; I can simply take all my music with me.

Things I like, in no particular order:

• I like the way the iPod can be used while plugged in, after ejecting it from the desktop. The old iPod couldn’t be used until it was actually unplugged from the computer. The advantage to the way the new iPod works is that you can charge the iPod off the computer while using it at the same time. That wasn’t possible with my 2nd-generation pod.
• As a corollary to the above, I like the way the backlight comes on when the update (sync) is finished.
• I like the display of album art alongside the album title, and I like the “big art” display, ratings display, and the lyrics display.
• I like being able to rate songs from the iPod, and to build on-the-go playlists.
• I like the way the iPod comes on when you take it off hold. (Although it doesn’t always do this, and I haven’t figured out why. Perhaps it only occurs when you have a song or video paused.)
• I like the little plastic slider on the headset. Slide it to the earphones, and it reduces tangles when the cord is rolled up and tucked into a pocket or backpack. It doesn’t 100% eliminate tangles, but it makes them much less likely.
• I like it that the hard drive seems quieter and seems to run cooler than the hard drive in my older iPod.
• I like the way the iPod remembers what was playing, even after the iPod had been put into sleep mode. The old iPod would forget what it was playing in sleep mode.
• I like the nice touches in the on-screen displays when videos are playing. For example the volume control display is slightly transparent, and when it disappears it fades away. These touches are also visible when the TV output is turned on.
• I like being able to edit the top menu.

In contrast to all the niceties of the iPod, it also has some irritations.

• I don’t like the user interface; it isn’t as easy to use as the old iPod’s, and in some respects is downright confusing. For example, there are Settings menus for audio playback, for video playback and for photo slideshows, but these menus are in different places. The menu that controls settings for audio playback are in the top Settings menu, but the menu that controls video settings are under the Video menu, and the menu that controls photo settings are under the Photos menu. I think it makes sense to have the video and photo settings where they are, but then why not move the audio settings so they’re under the Music menu? Probably to keep things where they used to be, but I get confused at one kind of setting being at one level, and another kind of setting being at a different level. To add more confusion, some of the Video settings also affect Photos – this fact might argue for putting all settings under one top-level menu.
• I don’t like the lack of nested playlists (playlist folders). iTunes has nested playlists, but when synced to the iPod, the playlists aren’t nested. I make a lot of playlists, and I like being able to use folders on iTunes to organize them. I wish the iPod preserved the folders for playlists.
• I don’t like it that Sound Check is ineffective on video playback. I bought a few old music videos from the iTunes Music Store, and found that some are significantly louder than others. Turning on Sound Check doesn’t equalize the volume.
• I don’t like the cube transition when viewing slideshows on a TV. It’s jerky and unattractive.
• I don’t like the iPod’s speed, or lack of it. Slideshow and video startup is extremely slow.
• I hate not having the wired remote any more. I liked being able to tuck the iPod into my backpack, route the earphone cable through the backpack’s little earphone hole, and control the iPod with the wired remote. This was especially handy when flying with the iPod because I could use it and control it while keeping it safely in my backpack. The new wireless remote doesn’t work without the dock, and I don’t see carrying a dock around in my backpack.
• Oh, by the way, I don’t like the cost of the Apple accessories, and I don’t see why an A/C adapter can’t be included with a $300 or $400 gadget.
• I’m going to save my biggest iPod gripe for its own post. It’s a minor problem, but one that causes me almost daily irritation, and it’s been there since the first generation iPod. (No, I’m not talking about Digital Rights Management here.)

Rather than buy Apple’s overpriced dock, I bought a less expensive Memorex dock at Fry’s. It came with all the things you get when you buy Apple’s dock, plus some: a USB cable, a FireWire cable (the dock I bought was intended for an earlier generation of iPod), an audio line-out cable, and an A/C adapter.

I did buy Apple’s overpriced A/V cable, so I could display videos and photos on a TV. The cable is pretty, but pretty doesn’t justify paying $20 for a $5 cable. If I’d been sure that another brand of cable would work, I’d have bought something else.

I’ve heard people complain that the quality of iPod video playback on a TV can’t possibly be any good. To be sure, 320×240 pixel video doesn’t look nearly as good as a DVD’s 740×480 pixels, and the limited bitrate of the playback causes some artifacts on some types of scenes that can be slightly distracting. On the other hand, the quality of iPod video playback looks as good as VHS videotape, and we all rented and enjoyed a zillion of those before DVDs came along, didn’t we?

Wendy and I have downloaded and watched a few videos from the iTunes Music Store. We used the store to catch episodes of Lost and Battlestar Galactica that we missed last week, and we downloaded and watched a free episode of Monk. In the Lost and Battlestar videos, we did notice occasional video artifacts, but we were so absorbed in the shows that a few video glitches just didn’t matter.

In summary, although I have a few complaints about the new iPod, I love it and there’s no way I’ll ever go back to my old one. (No, kids, you can’t have it. To get something cook like an iPod you have to earn your own.) And I recommend the iPod to anyone who wants to be able to take a lot of music on the go.

Thanks again, Wendy!

Oh, and why hasn’t last night’s episode of Lost shown up at the iTunes Music Store yet? We missed it last night, and are dying to know what happened. (Anybody who spills the beans is banned from this web site for all eternity!)

By the way, if you ever need to disassemble something with lots of really tiny screws, get yourself a Craftsman #0 Phillips-head screwdriver. It’s got a handle big enough to get a grip on for those screws that are really torqued down tight, and also a head that’s machined fine enough to fit very small screws (look at how tiny those in the front row are). The only problem is that it’s got a wide shaft that may not be able to reach some recessed screws; for these you will need a jeweler’s screwdriver. I only had to use my jeweler’s screwdrivers once in dissassambling my crappy JVC camcorder; for the other 154 or so, the Craftsman #0 did just fine.

What does the iPod® have to do with your life?

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Making your life…

Sunday, January 8 Innovative
Sunday, January 15 Simple
Sunday, January 22 Small
Sunday, January 29 Synchronized

Sundays at 8:30, 10:00, and 11:30 a.m.

Bring the family. They’ll enjoy the fun.

What do you want to bet they won’t be listening to Black Sabbath?

So what to do with it? Anyone who knew me as a child will tell you that I love to take things apart to see what’s inside. When I wrote earlier that I had taken my camera apart to try to correct its problem, what I really meant was that I loosened enough screws to be able to separate a few of its major subassemblies. After I had ordered my new camcorder, I decided it was time to truly disassemble the old one. I took apart everything that could be taken apart without bending metal or breaking plastic. I unscrewed every screw. I disconnected every connector. I left no gear enmeshed with its neighbor.

By the way, anyone out there care to hazard a guess as to how many little, tiny screws it takes to hold together a camcorder? I’ve counted them, and it’s a bunch. Take your best guess, post it in the comments, and I’ll reveal the answer tomorrow.

And now, on to the junk:

So I’ve given up. Last night I called Crutchfield and ordered myself a new camcorder, a Canon this time. I’ve been so impressed with the quality of our Canon digital camera that it was easy to choose a Canon camcorder. I’ve also had good luck with Sony equipment, but the low-end Sony cameras didn’t have the A/V input capability that I require so I can digitize my old VHS movies and record football games.

I ordered the Canon ZR100 Mini DV camcorder. It’s a basic model, but it has everything I need. It has some features that the old JVC camera didn’t, like a color viewfinder. It lacks the JVC’s digital still capture feature and remote control, but I never used the still capture feature, and only rarely used the remote control. I won’t miss either. These days you can get a very good camcorder for very little money; in fact, it seems that the higher end models add very little over the low end models except stuff that I don’t need and wouldn’t use if I had.

So I spent the tiny year-end bonus that USA gave me on a new camera. I got a decent deal from Crutchfield: $279 for the camera, plus free shipping and a free camera bag. I got an extra $20 off because I referred Leigh Ann to them when she bought Christopher’s camcorder (or was it Jennifer’s?). I probably could have found the camera for less, but I happen to love Crutchfield’s service and their no-questions-asked return policy. For me it’s worth a few dollars to deal with a company I know and trust.

The Canon camera should show up here by Friday. The JVC camera is now a pile of parts on a box on my floor, and I’m wondering what to do with it… Sledgehammer? Blowtorch? Vise? Any suggestions?