Thread: The Specsploitation Game and How to Beat It

I'm starting this thread to throw some light on the marketing gimmicks of companies to fool the consumers into buying their product... In this age of advertising, a normal human is easily attracted to newly launched products... In reality, the product features and specs that vendors and retailers push aren't necessarily the ones that really count...

In this post, I'll start with most widely touted spec of HDTV- Contrast Ratio
Contrast ratio is measurement of the difference between the brightest white and the darkest black that the set can produce... Theoretically, the higher the contrast ratio, the more detailed and more realistic a high-def set's resulting image will be...

But contrast ratio has been turned into a marketing gimmick, with numbers of 15,000 to 1, or 50,000 to 1, or more - hyped in ads... Herez wot you should know :
Contrast ratios are not measured consistently among the companies... More tellingly, companies don't have to specify how they came up with their ultrahigh number...

That aside, a superhigh contrast ratio means very little for actual TV viewing... Studies have shown that unless you are watching your TV in a completely dark room, you won't be able to detect the difference between a set with a modest contrast ratio (of, say, 5000 to 1) and the one with a stratospheric rating...

I hope this thread will elaborate on other hyped-specs of different products... After all, selecting something that is far more than we need, or is inadequate for the task, is a sure way to bring on buyer's remorse...

Excellent post, itsmemad.

LCD TV manufacturers are advertising rediculously high contrast ratio like 50,000:1. But this is not native contrast ratio - this is dynamic contrast ratio. Search wiki on more details for this.

Another gimmick is advertising power in PMPO (Peak Music Power Output). Now anyone who has studied electronic amplifiers will know that power of the amplifier is expressed in RMS (Root Mean Square) Watts.

The term PMPO has never been defined in any standard but it is often taken to be the sum of some sort of peak power for each amplifier in a system. Different manufacturers use different definitions, so that the ratio of PMPO to continuous power output varies widely; it is not possible to convert from one to the other. Peak power is twice the sine wave power, so, for example, a 5 channel system using amplifiers which can output 10 watts for a few milliseconds with an unspecified percentage for distortion would be specified as '100 watts PMPO'. Sometimes, an extra factor is applied to get an even higher figure. The term PMPO is considered misleading and meaningless by audio professionals.

And I have observed that even the RMS term is misused/misquoted. What companies do is they claim some PMPO and then they divide the PMPO by 6 to quote RMS.

Last Rakshabandhan day, I gifted my sister with a Sony 1000W RMS 5.1 home threater system. Now I also have a Onkyo/Bose HT system that is rated at 90Wx3 (Front+Center) and 50Wx2 (Rear) bringing the total to 370W RMS. Whereas I could play the Sony to full volume, I cannot play my system at more than half the volume and even 50% volume is extremely loud and unbearable.

Thanks J4X...

Though I haven't studied electronics... I knew about importance of RMS over PMPO... What is news to me is that companies are now misusing RMS too... We have to be very careful now...

With those speakers... You can rock the world man...

I have posted pictures of my HT system here: http://www.indiabroadband.net/home-a...nt-system.html (Bose Lifestyle 48 DVD Entertainment System)

Speaker are Bose Acoustimass AM10 Series II. They look something like this (though the pic is of Series III system):

@J4X---->> Awesome....

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Hello friends,

Are you ready to treat yourself to a new Television set? HDTVs – Whether plasma, LCD, or rear-projection are easy to use, but many retailers just hype them with confusing and often incomprehensible sales jargon... Lets decode what it all means -

Contrast Ratio – I've already explained technical things about this in my 1st post... But still I'll like to add few more lines to it... Trust your eyes first... and look to the numbers second... Manufacturers crank up the contrast on their LCD TVs so that the images will look brighter under the showroom lights... Try adjusting the image at the store to get a better sense of how the picture will look at home...

Refresh Rate/Response Time – These numbers show up occasionally... And they are useful if you play videogames & watch fast-action programs like F1 Races... Shopping for a Plasma TV? Move along: Neither of these specs will come into play... As Plasma TV is fast enough to handle the content... When it comes to the LCD sets, look for low Response Time... These days we rarely see a response time above 10 milliseconds... Refresh Rates, measured in Hertz (Hz), matter for LCDs too... A high refresh rate translates into less screen blurring... An HDTV with 120 Hz refresh rate should handle the fast moving action...

Resolution – If you plan to buy a Blu-ray player, get a 1080p set; that spec means the TV will display 1920 by 1080 lines of resolution which also corresponds with the maximum resolution of Blu-ray Disc... No Blu-ray? Then just about any HDTV that supports both 1080i and 720p (1280 by 720 lines of resolution) content will do... All current models have one of these two resolutions... The “p” stands for “progressive scan”, which produces superior images than interlaced video (“i” in the 1080i specification)...

Screen Size – To determine the ideal TV for your home, multiply screen size (in inches) by 2; the result is the optimum viewing distance for the set... Thus, the viewing sweet spot for a 52 incher is 104 inches (8.5 feet) away... Lack the space? Get a smaller TV or a Bigger room!!!

HDTV Specs that matter -


Any HDTV

• Screen size appropriate to your viewing space.
• 1080p resolution on sets with 40+ inch screens.
• Contrast Ratio. But trust your vision first.

If taking a high-quality photo you possibly can is what you care all about, you should opt for a Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera... But when you carry an item all around the day, you soon realize the value of light weight and compact size... Then you might opt for a point-and-shoot/ Digi-cam... Herez what to look for in a DSLR or a Digi...
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Megapixels - The most hyped and misunderstood camera spec is megapixels count... The pitch you'll get is that more megapixels results in better photos... But 5 megapixels is enough to create a sharp 11-by-14-inch print... A higher megapixel comes in handy if you need to crop and zoom in a certain section of the photo... But unless you are planning to print movie-sized posters, a 14.5 megapixels is overkill...

Optical zoom - Ignore vendor's spec for digital zoom and focus instead on optical zoom... Digital zoom crops the image you see in your viewfinder and expands it full-frame, reducing the quality of the resulting image. Optical zoom uses the lens to magnify the subject, resulting in crystal clear shot. But the higher the optical zoom, the more important optical image stabilization becomes; if you zoom in tight, very slight movement will blur your shot... Most digi-cams have optical zoom of 3X or 4X... For anything higher than that, you'll need optical image stabilization...

Manual Focus - Manual focus is a great option for digital cameras to offer, and all DSLRs have it... Very-low-end cameras frequently omit manual focussing or permit only stepped focussing, forcing you to choose only from preset distances or scene modes... These days, more DSLR cameras are offering point-and-shoot like features, such as autofocus and scene modes to lure casual users... Casual photographers who are looking for more functionality may be better off opting for an upper-end digi cam with a high optical zoom and a host of manual settings than splurging on a DSLR...

Exposure Settings - Many digi cams offer apperture and shutter priority modes, which let you fine-tune the exposure settings for certain situations... Look for a camera with high shutter speeds if you plan on capturing fast moving action... Such as cars racing by or atheletes running... Try to find a camera with a low aperture, such as f2.8, if you wanna take shots in dark environments without using a flash...

Viewfinders - A big, beautiful LCD display is handy, but its also a huge energy drain... Ask if you can adjust the screen's brightness and whether you can toggle it off... Old school or not, having an optical veiwfinder along with LCD can be a tremendous advantage when you are trying to prolong a camera's battery life...

Optical Image Stabilization - With image stabilization, as with zoom, optical wins out over digital big time... Cuz it physically shiftsthe image sensor to counteract movement, optical image stabilization does a much better job of capturing a clear shot... Digital stabilization simply adjusts the image's pixels or the camera's shutter speed in an effort to create a less blurry shot... In any case, a tripod can save the day...

The Camera Specs that matter -

Digital Camera

• Optical Zoom, not Digital
• 6 megapixels is aplenty
• Optical image stabilization
• High ISO for low light
• Fast shutter speed

Digital SLR

• 10X Optical zoom
• 8+ megapixels
• Optical image stabilization
• RAW file support
• Wide-angle/macro lens

P.S.- Please rate the thread... Posts about specs of any product/gadget are invited...

Whether you are looking for a lightweight device to handle low-demand Web browsing and document writing or a desktop replacement, the perfect notebook for you is out there somewhere... But try to get what you want at the outset: Laptops are trickier than desktop PCs to upgrade...

Battery life - Notebook battery life continues to improve--especially in the ultraportable category--but the times that manufacturers quote tend to be inflated by being measured under optimum conditions, with the power-draining wi-fi turned off and often with the extended-life battery (which usually costs extra)... The results depend on which of a multitude of components are sucking power under the hood... Check the fine print to learn whether the notebook was tested with the standard battery...

CPU - Vendors stick an Intel (or AMD) logo on a laptop, cite a speed, and leave it at that... Rarely do they acknowledge that laptops with low-end CPUs can barely get out of first gear running Vista... Beware of processors that run at less than 2 GHz...

GPU - Most laptops rely on basic integrated graphics chips... That's not an ideal component for playing recent 3D games... or running high-end graphics programs... To handle those capabilities, look for a laptop with a discrete nVidia or ATI graphics chip... But the extra graphics power comes with a catch: Laptops with discrete chips tend to be larger and heavier...

RAM - Even though a laptop's RAM is relatively easy to upgrade, you should still buy as much memory as you can at the outset. Most laptops have two RAM slots, and it's not uncommon for a machine configured with 2GB of memory to have a 1GB module in each available slot. But if you start with this configuration, upgrading to 4GB of RAM later on means paying for two completely new RAM sticks. By opting for a generous quantity of RAM from the get-go, you won't need to spend money down the line on upgrading your sticks...

Weight - Ads often omit "little" things from the laptop's declared weight--like the battery and power supply, which you'll likely carry with you when you go mobile... Before you buy, ask what the total weight of the product is with these critical accessories included...

Screen - Though it certainly is important, screen size tells you nothing about how well you will be able to read text... Ask about the laptop's native resolution--and see it for yourself... And while you're at it, test the screen coating, too... The very thing that makes images pop on the screen can make it unusable in broad daylight... Some laptop screens bounce reflections like a mirror, which can make them very difficult to use outdoors... LED-backlit screens provide greater brightness, though they do increase the price...

Laptop Specs that matter

UltraPortable

• CPU - Atleast 1.7 GHz.

• RAM - 2 GB

• Weight - Under 1.5 KG

• Screen Size - 13.3 inches or less

• Long battery life

Desktop Replacement

• Centrino 2 CPU(Santa Rosa platform)

• Dedicated GPU (nVidea or ATI)

• Atleast 200 GB hdd running at 5400 rpm or faster

• DVD Writer

Centrino 2 (Montevina Platform)

@ harsham05 Thanks for correction...