Also on my "do not buy list" is any product who's tech support dept. is in India.

I've absolutely had it with talking with Rajif (AKA Roger), from New Delhi to help me figure out the firewall on my router.

Yes, D-Link, this means you.

That's the party line with any manufacturer... they have to sell what's available for them to sell to keep the doors open. I will say that I was impressed how quickly they stepped up and replaced that dog.

Also, *most* of your contacts at the distributors do not have first hand experience with hanging panels, so you have to take the advice with a grain of salt.


I have heard that there will be discrete commands in 2Q '06...

Integra gets a an excellent in my books.

Extreme control ability(IR and 232), rear IR jack in AND out,selectable triggers, reliable(the new models don't lose the programing when the power goes out!),3 year warranty,and it isn't whored out on e-bay!

I agree that Sharp and Samsung are the worst when it comes to control.

Excellent: AMX, ADA, AutoPatch, RGB Spectrum, Denon (Excellent build quality and very smart techs..IF you ever need them) RDL-everything they make is great. TOA

Good: Xantech- Very good at most things and their gadgets are a huge help most of the time. Sony Displays (Upper End) do as claimed and easy to control (Tech Support...Ha!)

Bad: Almost every distributor on the planet. Xantech- Quality control is non existent anymore so I have to preconfigure everything to test first.

Worst Design Ever: HDMI Connectors

The Good;

Bay Audio; Good product line. Small company, always available to help advise on their speaker installs and engineering.

ADA; Good stuff too. Again, small company, available to answer my questions and help with their products.

It's nice to know the principles on a first name basis too.

Peerless PLA-1 mounts.
Many Chief mounts
Middle Atlantic stuff
Integra is starting to look good
Fuji plasmas
Bryston
Boehlender Graebner

The Bad;

C*C, a wire distributor
No Sony tech support.
Linksys
Just about any CATV or DSS box; either discretes, heat, or lock up issues
Vizio, no discretes, picture yech; Costco electronics in general

The Ugly;

Auton lifts
Panasonic tech support

Great post Rick, good to know.

Great thread QQQ.

Here here, excellent thread.

Based on control, performance, saleabilty, availability, etc:

Excellent; Marantz, AudioPro, Liberty, Fujitsu plasma

Good; Opus, Imerge, URC, Rako

Bad; Panasonic and Sharp LCD, Sky satellite receivers

I'm sure I'll think of others.....

What if we actually listed models numbers of devices that we know for a fact have discrete IR, RS232 and devices that are toads. THis would be a big help. I realize that it is impossible to have a list in place for every model ever made, but a small list that has some kind of focus on what we are trying to do would be great. If you what to list the model brand and type of device, I wouldn't mind putting them into an excell spreadsheet, and posting it on the web.

MIke

Here's an issue to consider thoughtfully. Remember the source.

This is about products, right? Should there be a seperate list for distributors? If the consensus is as I interpret it, those names should be kept from the public view, right?

As 2nd Rick said in an earlier post, and he spoke for me, we really don't need more homeowners and hobbyists calling distributors.

Finally, are you supporting companies you don't like because you think there are no alternatives? Reward good behavior and dis-incent bad behavior....

A couple more off of the top of my head

Good

Middle Atlantic - Fantastic tech support.

Toshiba CCTV - Very good tech support

UStec - I can always get right through to get my questions answered

Bad

All satellite providers

Pretty much all mainstream video manufacturers

HP Computer/peripheral support - You have to wait 30 minutes to log into a chat session with a tech only to not have your question answered.

I hear you loud and clear Fred, and I agree. Let's keep this thread about products, guys. There are other places to air our grievances about specific Distys - this would be an inappropriate one.

My .02

Norm

Great job, Rick. And yes, the U3 and U3T are VERY quick and easy to use. I keep them in stock.

Panasonic KXT624 & now 824 telephone systems. Factory support is a joke and most of these systems alwasy have an issue of one kind or another. So, while the hardware "looks" nice and the build quality "appears" to be good, the systems usually have issuesand bugs - and getting those issues resolved is ususally very difficult.

I feel so strongly about this that if I have any issue with the next system I install, I am "done" with Panasonic phone systems forever (perhaps phone systems in general).

great post...

Excellent all around products

Denon, in five plus years, i had my first issue this week with the 986s Receiver . They take care of it nice and quick. All discrete and 232 on most models, great dvd players also.

Fujitsu - great panel one of the nicest displays ive ever seen, discrete and 232

Vidikron - the other great looking panel with discrete and 232, havent yet used their projo's.

i second all chief mounting brackets, with peerless as a close second.

Good products -

LG - makes an OK plasma, great IR codeset, looks OK though, not great.

JVC - hdila, it would have been inthe excellent category if it had an ir input in the back, they look awesome.

Elan - use it day in and day out, but there is soooo many thing that could be better, centrallized programming from the head end, lcd feedback keypads, ethernet control and downloadability, all these things could make soo much of a difference. They do have outstanding tech support, and a well programmed and connected system is pretty rock solid. it just takes 2 or 3 little black boxes to get there.

Not Good -

Optoma - i had a bad time this week with one of their dlp projectors, one of the cheaper units. i think it was the h57 , no discrete control, odd style of 232 port, the lamp blew during calibration, they say they dont take back anything, they can only repair, so we had to buy another unit , and next day it. discrete input commands however it scrolled through every input before it would sync up. it did look great for the price though. i was very dissapointed , maybe i will try them again with a higher end model.

Audio Access - i mean come on what is it 1992 lets get an up to date system, i guess they recently did but too late. we would still deal with them if they updated about 3 or 4 years ago.

Samsung DLPs - look FUGLY, good look with discrete, some times yes, and sometimes no. one day a 50" has discretes, next time its a different model looks the same but no discretes.

wow long post im done.
felt good to rant.

Ian

Execellent:
Parasound: (particulary the"Z" series) great serial control & tech support.
Knox Video: Also great serial control & tech support.
Bohlender Graebener: "Z" series speakers rock and are somewhat protected.
Gotta think abour the Good and Bad.