Ntro’s Official Opinion

I’ve been planning a home theater system for the media room (aka The Bonus Room) for quite some time, and I now have almost all of the components I have planned for:

• Denon AVR-2105 receiver (Pictures: Back Front)
• Philips DVP-642 DVD/Divx/MPEG/MP3/pretty much anything that will fit on a DVD-R or CD-R player
• InFocus 4805 DLP projector
• 4 Cerwin Vega V-5M bookshelf speakers
• 2 Cerwin Vega V-15F 3-way floor standing speakers
• 1 Cerwin Vega V-5C center channel speaker
• 1 Cerwin Vega V-12S 12″ powered subwoofer

The speakers are on backorder and haven’t actually arrived yet, and we don’t have a ceiling mount or screen for the projector, just a blank white wall and a card table. Has that stopped us from enjoying it? Of course not.

The original plan was to purchase everything at once, paint the room, buy furniture, and have everything set up before we started actually using it. But, a deal for the projector came along on Woot! that I couldn’t resist, and as soon as it arrived we wanted to “try it out.” That put a bit of a kink in our plans of “doing it right.”

The projector, DVD player, and crappy speakers hijacked from my wife’s computer are all sitting on a table in the back of the room, wires all tangled up and surge protector suspended between the table and wall. Not the elegant setup I was hoping for, but it’s good enough to watch old episodes of Smallville.

Oh, yea, one more thing. “Light control” quickly became an issue, and instead of buying/making curtains, we tacked bath towels on the wall to cover the windows. Pathetic, I know. I’d provide pictures, but I’m pretty sure my wife would have a heart attack (Disclaimer: my wife had nothing to do with the towels. It was all ubu’s idea).

I found myself in the market for an MP3 player, and decided on the Rio Carbon. Here is the article that convinced me. It’s 5GB, which didn’t seem like very much at first, but after I loaded it up with everything I wanted to carry around with me I still had two point something gigs free, so I guess it will do.

Now for the interesting part. I bought this little toy at CompUSA during lunch last week, and the guy at the counter asked if I wanted the purchase protection or warranty or whatever. Usually I immediately refuse, but this time I listened to his little presentation. Apparently CompUSA has followed Best Buy’s lead in their new warranty policy, and transformed it into something useful and attractive.

Here’s the deal: On a $199 purchase (minus $20 mail-in-rebate, but I never count on those things) such as this one, the new plan is $17. Like a normal purchase protection plan it covers damage to the unit, et cetera, but this one has an added benefit. Any time in the next twelve months, I have the opportunity to bring the device back, sans receipt, sans packaging, with only my identification, and tell the customer service guy I’d like a credit for the original purchase price. He gives me a gift card for $199, and I go pick out whatever I want. So, effectively, a year from now I’ll be able to sell my old fashioned MP3 player for $3 more than I paid for it, an appreciation which is unheard of in the world of useless technology.

I’m looking forward to my free 2006 version of the Rio Carbon, maybe it’ll have 20 GB and Ogg Vorbis support.