Talking TVs with Hisense and giving to Margaret for her nursing home songs!

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I was God's mate. I spoke to you on the Tuesday. Thursday afternoon there's this lovely courier

man at me back door with a parcel for me. All I know is, within 24 hours mate, you had

that sorted after five weeks of hell, raising hell. Mate, I can't thank you enough.

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Well there we are folks. We're halfway through the year. It's official.

It's crazy to think that we are a week into July already. Isn't that insane?

But there it is. The calendar doesn't lie. We're a week into July. I've got a very busy week coming

up. I'm actually doing a lot of driving this week including family. I've got a big day recording

with Phoenix tomorrow as always and we are doubling down at the moment because we're trying

to bank enough movie and EV shows to make sure that we can get, cover off my little

break at the end of the year with a family in America after the E for an Apple event.

Anyway, that's that aside. So I can't tell you why yet but on Thursday I'll be on the Today Show

talking from a very remote regional area. So I've got to drive there on Wednesday night.

So after I finish recording and editing these this week's shows I've got to get in the car.

Luckily I've got a big care EV9 GT on loan so I will take that from Fennec and he'll take the van

that I've got and I'll drive to the country and then straight after the live cross I'm going to

drive to Canberra where I'm going to talk to the MG Club of Canberra about electric cars because

my uncle who passed away a few months ago was a longtime member of the MG Club and he asked me

to come and talk to them about EV so I'm fulfilling a commitment to my late uncle to talk to his

mates about electric cars. So I'm going to drive down to Canberra do that. I'll drive back Friday

Thursday night. I will get a bit of work done on Friday. Geez I've got the dentist as well. What a

shocker and then on Friday afternoon I'm driving to Young with my kids for just we'll get there

that night. We'll spend a day seeing the great nieces and nephews or great niece and great nephew

because Victoria really wants to see them and get cuddles and then I'll drive back on Saturday

night. So I haven't done the calculation yet but I'm tipping it's going to be I reckon a couple

of thousand k's driving fully electric and to very remote areas too so it's going to be a fascinating

week for me electric car driving wise. Anyway that's that's just my week. This week on the

EFTM podcast we're going to follow up with Margaret who had been making songs for elderly

residents at an aged care home where her husband is a resident and it's just a beautiful story

and we've managed to dip into the hip pocket and buy some things to make sure she can

do exactly what she wanted to do for those residents so looking forward to catching up with her.

Damien's on the line ready to talk about deals for or we should not say deals well it's deals but

a little bit of a loophole what's the other loophole a potential trap for people switching

nbn carriers so Damien's a very savvy shopper and buyer so we'll get that from him but most

importantly we're going to talk to Chris Mayer from Hisense. Now Chris is I think their national

training manager would be his title at Hisense and I've known Chris for many years and he is and I'm

not saying this because they're a great company and they're great supporters of EFTM or for any

other reason he is just an absolute guru when it comes to knowledge on TVs so he knows the TV

market very well so I thought we'd double down and triple confirm our understanding of RGB and also

I want to talk to you about just generally backlighting on TVs so I've done a and Trev explains on this

on YouTube and TikTok with include some of the what you're about to hear from Chris so it's a

fascinating kind of thought process about you know what is backlighting on a TV but just generally

Chris is a very savvy and knowledgeable man who knows and loves his TV so who better to have a chat

with to bring us up to speed on the world of TVs in 2026 speaking of the world in 2026 I mean I'm

still processing the idea that PlayStation won't sell disc games anymore and it doesn't worry me

but the more I've been thinking about this the more I'm kind of sad for the future generations

like the generation being born today so my great niece and great nephew for example

little here you go and Leah they'll never know a compact disc they'll never know a PlayStation

disc they'll never know a cassette they'll never know a DVD so they won't know physical ownership

of things and that's fascinating to me and I also think that the game decision on Sony for gaming

just eliminates the second hand market there's people that don't want to spend 150 bucks on a

game but they happen to spend 50 or 60 after someone else has finished with it they go and buy it

from the gamesman or eb games or wherever it might be and they enjoy the game and maybe they then

take it back and someone else buys it for 30 now the publishers annoyed because they only got the

original 120 and they didn't get a cut of the 60 and the 30 that's ridiculous that's like forward

saying they're filthy they're not getting a cut of a falcon being sold on the second hand market

today stupid but the other challenge is is the concern that retailers big retailers like Target

or Big W who might sell computer game discs right now will continue to sell them because

if there's only a physical packet with a download code in it are people going to bother with that

and if they don't and they that area gets smaller and smaller and disappears from retail

is the only price you can pay whatever's listed on the PlayStation store because that takes away

competition but most importantly does Xbox follow and do the same thing

that's going to be really really interesting anyway we shall find out we shall see all that to come

anyway let's get on with your calls on the eftm podcast

tech cars lifestyle this is the eftm podcast with trev along you can text trev now thanks to

vodafone on 047657657 taking your calls love to hear from you margaret's on the line get a

hello trev again she's back we got you and I don't think we haven't we haven't caught up

since you tested the speaker have we no so we spoke a few weeks ago you've been you've been

visiting your husband in in aged care and at the same time going around and visiting other

other residents there and writing songs using AI about their lives and we wanted to come up with

the solution so I spoke to the people at laser and they I think they sent me a radio and I thought

no no you can send it to Margaret so they sent you I don't know what they sent you but they

sent me like a look like a boombox a cassette boombox um I have 50 little speakers no well

hang on we haven't got to that yet the first one like I'm just talking about the test and the trial

that you did right yeah the first one what was the first one that they sent you a larger version

right so it was a little speaker okay cool yes and so it worked that you were able to put a song

on a usb drive plug it into the speaker and just basically hit play yes that's what they've been

doing all morning here and then you sent me a text message again and said this is perfect

it's great but now I need 50 of them yes and Margaret I couldn't be bothered mucking around so

I simply lot you said you need 50 speakers and 50 you know usb drives and sticks yeah and so I

looked on officeworks I looked on a few different places and storage is expensive these days because

of AI but I found I found a little like a 10 pack on amazon of what looked like frankly cheap usb

drives but I assume the songs are quite small and a couple of megabytes maybe so I figured you

wouldn't need a large amount of space and I ordered on amazon 50 usb drives and you must have

thought that was a weird parcel to receive on your doorstep it was a bit but I had your name

on it didn't you because that's the thing if I received an amazon parcel with someone else's

name it'd be weird but it had your name on it didn't it it did yes thank you so much and then I

spoke to laser about what they had sent you and they said they don't have any stock of the one

that they had sent you I said because I need 50 and then they they sent me a link to one and they

were I'm gonna say I think they were $25 each and I said can you do a bloke a

bloody favour and give me a better deal and in fact weirdly what they did was reduce the price

publicly on their website to $10 and so I went okay well I'll just buy them here so I bought

50 I had them shipped to your house it how big was the parcel because I wondered I wondered

how big the delivery would be and then it got taken to your local supermarket or somewhere

went to the local chemist and luckily I didn't have to pick them up because I was

certain certain kilo boxes so I had helped to get them in the car which was good how big is 50

speakers um I feel the boot of your car or what no no no they're about three well I'm going

in feet four feet by one and a half right okay so so is the 24 hour box I thought that was the

simplest thing to do was just get them to you because you're doing a wonderful thing for all

those people thank you so have you started downloading all the songs onto drives and

how's it going as they've made quite a few people happy this morning giving them their

speakers they've been playing them one after the other in the activity room and one lady's been

following it up and down the corridor hugging me all the time oh he's so happy I know well that's

lovely 33 33 so far 33 done what other staff think do you think they think it's a bit weird

all these songs they're hearing now no they don't think that they're weird they're very excited for

the residents it says you know otherwise they don't do an awful lot every day yeah and tell me

about because I'd never thought about putting a piece of music we're let alone your own song

on a usb drive and plugging into a speaker is it is it something they can do without you as in

press play or how's that part of it um they have to put the usb into the speaker and just press

the button but the staff you know can do that if they visit them okay so others others know how to

use and it's not complex so the staff are because I did worry I thought what if we're creating drama

for the staff they're like oh geez now I have to learn how to do this but it's easy to do right

yeah easy and some of them can do it themselves yep yep and the other ones um they'll get help

and if you tested what happens if you put multiple songs on one can it just just play through them

yeah I put two on I've got husband and wife here a couple of them so I'll put both songs on and they

play one after the other oh lovely have you run into any children or grandchildren of residents that

have have got this happening no not yet no that'd be a fascinating thing because they'd be like

what happened here where did this speaker come from well they have to as I said they're all in

one room at the moment with you see I'm resident so um when they get visitors they'll get a big

surprise lovely lovely it's a little surprise but it's it is lovely they're so excited well you're

doing a wonderful thing it's just a nice little cheer smile emotion

for them to have when they get to hear that song how's your husband oh he's actually sitting in

the room with me it's not great today okay well he you know what he'd love what you're doing I think

without any question he'd think it's wonderful what you're doing with your time you know he's nodding

that means he can hear you he he would be so proud that you're you're not just coming to see him

every day but you're seeing other people and you're making other people's lives better

and those simple little things it's so powerful well I I can't you know thank you enough because

I couldn't do it without you they're just amazing these little speaker bosses well um they're just

speakers um that was an easy thing for me to do and I appreciate laser giving me a discount and I'm

glad we got them to you nice and quickly and um and I'm just it fills me with joy to know that

those residents are enjoying those songs that you're creating for them thank you no we're just

doing a little thing for some people that's all I'm trying to do and you're doing it well Margaret

good on you well hopefully they're happy keep in touch okay all right Trevor thank you very much

good on you Margaret lovely to hear from you okay bye cheers no worries at all um yeah I mean

Margaret's text was something simple like it worked and now I need 50 of them and I thought

I must have asked what have I created a monster here or what um and I did the numbers and I thought

look I mean if we were buying 60 I don't know um really expensive speakers or whatever it might be

um that that would be that'd be crazy to be it'd be a lot but look laser make great products

they're affordable um they were probably running through a new generation of these speakers so

they were happy to do the discount and they were just simple little very small kind of

uh my fist size I guess uh portable speakers um that meant that they um that she could plug them in

and go and I just got the I didn't buy sand disc USB drives I bought them on amazon I think it cost

$900 for 50 speakers and USB sticks I think we've got a good deal folks so that's our little EFTM family

um donation to what um wonderful efforts Margaret is making for those residents out there in that

aged care facility so joy has been brought to them and I think Margaret too so wonderful stuff and

thank you to everyone for listening because if this wasn't a fun show to do I wouldn't be able

to do fun things like that um yeah wonderful stuff Margaret

helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years the EFTM podcast with travel on

great happy company and I'd love to hear from you if you've got a tech question

you want my help buying something new I'd love to help you out 047657657 send me a text

we'll get you on the show anytime you want so either a text or a whatsapp we'll get you on

the show and we'll have a chat about what's troubling you or what you're looking for in

the world of tech around you we have talked tv's a fair bit in the last month or so because it's

tv season um and that's kind of escalated because of the end of financial year sales so over the

last few weeks so we're now in the new financial year and it's it's still a complex world of televisions

I weirdly feel like it's at its peak of complexity because we've got so many new technologies

it's kind of going back to when we were moving on from plasma and moving into different spaces and

so it's exciting it's exciting that there is so much out there and if you've if you've checked out

the EFTM buyers guide the witch tv to buy page there's 183 tv's this year from different brands

and so it's a lot to look through um one of the people I trust and respect most in this space

because he genuinely possesses knowledge that I don't think anyone else in the industry actually

has is Chris Mayer from Hisense and he's back from a honeymoon and right into the honeymoon

phase of tv's Chris great to have you on the show mate thank you so much for having me really

appreciate it mate I genuinely mean that when we talk tv's I feel like you are just talking about

something you're passionate about we could have the same conversation about Dungeons and Dragons

I'm sure but um let's just focus on tv's because it is an interesting year isn't it it's it's like

we've we've got a new a new life has has been given to the tv world because of new technologies

like RGB yeah it's so true I think you know for for for you me for the whole industry you know

this is this is such an exciting time right like it has been probably a good 678 years

since we've had such a fundamental shift in technology and you know I think you know for

people like myself that have been educating on the tv space within you know the retail sector

for for Hisense purchase so it's my my ninth year now um you know it you end up having to sort of

tell the same story a lot of different ways so it is really exciting for us to have a

genuinely new tech to talk about it's a really good point you make your job is to educate

essentially from Hisense headquarters down um of course you get you get the joy of talking to

people like me at a product launch when you're when you're announcing new things you're trying

to explain it to us but then there's the the retail staff who whose job is to be a guide for

the buyers in store you've got to tell them in a nutshell what what a technology is in a nutshell

what's new in this television and that that's a really fascinating challenge

but it's it becomes exciting when you've got something new is that is that where you found

it this year with rgb oh absolutely i mean people are you know so keen to understand the technology

and i think you know there's there's always opportunities there's always i guess confusions

whenever a new technology comes in people want to uh you know frame it in a certain way they want

to get their story across every brand is going to have different ways they want to explain the

technology i like to and i think you know over the years that we've been speaking i like to make

sure that you know it really has to come down to well what's the customer actually going to get

at the end of the day and i think you know when customers are going into store and they're thinking

about what they should purchase they need to think about what sort of problems am i trying to solve

rather than what sort of you know obscure you know computer science degree technologies do i need

to get and i think this technology that's come in that we've been talking about this rgb technology

for Australian viewers is just an absolute no-brainer i can't think of a single negative when

it comes to Australian customers in in getting this technology in their home and and let's go

back to basics even though my listeners have definitely heard me and other brands talk about

rgb how does chris mayer from hycense describe rgb when you're at a family dinner party and you're

you know elderly auntie's like what do you mean rgb uh Jesus like they're in the room with me right

now you know for me um i usually and if you'll allow me i usually will describe mini led um

because i think it actually really helps uh as a as a basis as to why rgb exists and so i think a

really big thing that i like to explain is the way that we've lit tv's for so many years now is

we'll have a light source at the back of the tv a good tv is going to be a mini led which means

that we have hundreds of light sources they're all pointing straight towards you and they're set

up in a grid and what we've been doing is we will light the tv by having maybe a blue light

that's covered in some sort of coating and it goes through a whole bunch of layers quantum dance all

this complicated stuff and what you get at the end is a bright white line and that's what we've

been trying to do for you know the last 910 years is we get a bright white light and then what

we do is we close it down to the red to the green to the blue to the mixture of colors that you want

to see whereas rgb completely flips that and this is why it's such a cool technology instead of going

all the way up to white and then cutting it down to what you need which is costly which creates

bright blooming areas on your screen which can ruin the image what we do with this technology

is we say well you want red i'm just going to turn red on and that's it we just turn on the

color that you actually need to see so i think of it as an additive rather than a

subtractive destructive and what that means for the customer is colors are going to be exactly

as they're meant to be 100% cinema color accuracy and also we're saving electricity because we're

not wasting energy trying to get up to a white and then bring it back down which is awesome like

this is it's better blacks it's better brightness it's better color and it actually costs less to

run once you've got it which is crazy do you think it's important for people to understand

actually just what a tv is like i look at it and i go okay hang on a minute um let's let's look at a

tv from the side and and cut it you know do a cross section i think people understand a cross

section and you go okay so on the front you've got what you think is the tv but actually that's

multiple layers and and the the layer at the back in a in a good mini led tv as you say is light

in the past the light was still the back layer but it was kind of projected in from the side

but there was light the light is the basis of it and then in front of that are as you mentioned

there's layers that might do different things so a quantum dot layer is about refining the light

in a certain way to to achieve certain things that might be color and then there's the actual lcd

panel which is the thing that kind of opens and shut little shutters to show whether or not there's

a picture here and what color it needs to be but see the lcd panel means nothing without the light

does it 100 i mean if you if you've ever had an old school game boy and i know we both like this

if you ever had an old school game boy it doesn't matter what that lcd panel is trying to do if there's

no light and you know back when those systems were first made they didn't have a backlight and so you

had to buy lights that you would project onto the top of them so you could even see anything so you're

exactly right if i have an lcd panel that is essentially redundant it actually doesn't matter

unless i can send light effectively to it and that's really what rgb what mini led what oled

what all these technologies are at their core is backlights that they're lighting solutions

and then you really you know we've actually solved the lcd panel has been

solved for years now how we open and close it and how we show the colors that has an advance

because we're able to create the right number of pixels so we got to 4k and and even more in some

some brands um we've we've we're achieving the right clarity and and speed of it happening so

it's able to do amazing things to keep up with whatever is being shown that panel is fine and

back you know i guess 10 years ago we were calling them lcd led TVs or led lcd's because it was it

was a way of describing what light source was being used to to show us that lcd and so what

what you're effectively saying is by using rgb we can remove some layers between the backlight

and the lcd that means that we're getting more power efficient but most importantly a more

color accurate picture that's exactly right i mean think of it like uh something being pure

and the more you start to filter it the more you start to add to it the more you start to

obscure it it's going to make it less and less refined right so with us if we're starting from

pure red and then we don't go through all these extra layers and we just go essentially straight

to the lcd at that point we started with red we ended with red you saw red that's it that's

all it needs to be and previously you know we had to do all these extra filter rings and these

extra things because the color we were starting with just wasn't accurate enough and so companies

like isense have done such an amazing job of creating these you know color master filters and

these amazing systems that kind of trick the light into getting to the color it needs to be

but now we've made a technology where we literally don't even need to do that anymore

and i think that's what makes it exciting and as you say because there's no filtering there's no

extra processes it's cheaper to run which is that's a big thing the challenge for the industry

for retailers and for the poor consumer is there's a lot of rgb and that's great it means that it

must be the good thing because everyone's gone hang on a minute we've got to get into this right

and i don't want you to talk about another brand because you're here to talk about hysense but

in the sense that you are aware that there's a bigger market out there how do you pitch

that people choose hysense rgb that's a very good question you know we've been thinking about this

a lot and you know one thing i would say you know if you're going for a like a purist approach of

how it appeals to this i'd say look we were first to market we actually created this technology

and we were the first to bring it to a consumer product that could actually be

used in a house which is something we're really really proud of but if i'm being

pragmatic that actually doesn't matter let's be very honest i mean i love that we've done that

i love that we're first to market what i think consumers should really think about is okay rgb

is fantastic you're getting 100 color accuracy you're getting a certain brighten list level you're

getting all these things right most brands are going to be offering some version of that i think

what you should then look at is okay if the top thing that i'm looking for is sold which is rgb

then what i now need to look at is what about all of the sub things that are going to improve

this tv experience and i think that's where hysense offers you know something that actually backs up

the rgb experience if i'm buying you know a ur9 for example which is our you know higher end

rgb tv i want to make sure that i'm buying something that's actually got a bit of staying power

and so you know you start looking at the standards that it supports you start looking at the other

things that support that technology it doesn't matter if i have rgb if it doesn't support dobby

vision for example like that's kind of crazy do you know what i mean like these are the sort of

consumer i kind of think about it the same way i like to approach going to a car dealership you

know i know you know a lot about cars i know a little bit about cars but when i walk into a car

dealership i want to make sure that i don't look like an idiot when i talk to the car dealership

person so as a consumer it behooves me to just learn a little bit i don't expect customers to

learn everything because to be honest when i speak to salespeople in store they still don't know

everything you know this is something that they still don't they can't there's too many things

to their defense in any sense um they got a lot of products and they got a lot of products they're

very rarely a tv specialist these days so they could be asked about a tv a phone a laptop or a

speaker so they have to know the top end and so it's kind of so thinking about dobby vision or

iMac certification or you know the the sound that comes built into the tv you know you've got some

pretty impressive sound in in in a range of your tv the car equivalent is like saying look i

i i it has to have apple carplay because that's how i interact but am i okay with it being wireless

or not you know i compromised on my car i when i don't need to be wireless i'm happy to plug my

phone in because i wanted that car um that'd be like i'm not a movie buff so maybe i don't need

dobby vision or i watch movies almost exclusively i must have iMac certification and dobby vision

so that that's it's it's a list of credentials i guess that that come alongside it i would give

you another one and that that is you know clear free you know reflections in australia

are such a big thing and i think that you know weighing that up as a feature is a critical one

as well yeah 100 i mean this is this is exactly right so knowing that we have a range of manufacturers

that have followed high sense you know as the creators of the technology to to you know it's

humbling for us to see that you know we're a brand that i think many years ago people would have said

oh you know they're just copying the tech that's out there we haven't been there for you know five

six years now you know we've been leading this space for such a long time and

being the people that actually created this technology that everyone's now doing like that's

something to be really proud of but exactly as you say now you need to look for the other things

that haven't been solved universally across all of those product offerings and as you say you know

with the example with android auto you know when we look at the tv it's like for me personally like

i i will not buy a tv unless it has all of the standards covered and future standards you know

big thing for me is i'm we look at the average turnover rate of the main tv in a house and you

know the stats are still sitting at about 56 years is that about right you know that the

person's going to buy that tv they expect to hold that tv and enjoy that tv for 56 years so

for us you know we're really proud that we were one of the launch partners with dobby vision two

let alone dobby vision and i know and i won't ever mention other competitors when we talk but i know

there's other brands that are offering rgb offerings that don't even have dobby vision one

and for me you know you say if you don't like movies you don't have to worry about it but

it's not really true right like dobby vision is on essentially 80% of the content that you're

going to be watching so for me like that's a really big thing and knowing that i've got a standard

that's actually supported moving forward is massive and to your point about glare that is

such a such a big one you know being able to have a tv in a room without having to close down

every single blinds you know we live in australia we've got this beautiful you know these long long

days with so much sun coming into the house um and the way my house is configured i've got two

full windows before um right where my tv is and so i don't want to close down the blinds every

time i watch tv um and so i don't because i've got a nice sense tv what do you think of the

or how do you describe the the buying decision around just tv backlighting technology today

because as i said it used to be there was well if we go back to plasma days it's evolved a lot

since then and i thought it was simplifying but then now we've added kind of rgb

so we we've got o-lead we got rgb mini led and then there's obviously still i don't even know what

we do we just call it lcd um because it's not really the right example because everything's in

lcd so what do you describe everything that's not mini led is that just edge lit like how do we

because there's there's a there's a lot of tv's and and the thing is they hit the value

end of the market chris and that's that's the area where i worry about people thinking they're

getting something that they're not you know what i mean yeah yeah i think that the i think you've

hit the nail on the head interestingly we're now in a market where if customers come in and they

are looking for a high end tv then the information that's laid out in front of them is actually

incredibly clear they know they're going to be looking for either an o-leads or an rgb tv they

should know the standards that they're looking for they they should understand whether it's

anti-glare or not and they don't be able to see those things represented pretty clearly in in

information you know high sense you know one of the things and one of the reasons why i've i've

stated this company for so long is that we are really really transparent with our information

and it is quite interesting as you go down the range and we go okay well i'm going to look at the

entry-level offerings by most brands and it does get as you just kind of hit the nail on

it gets a bit more confusing because now we're not saying mini led now we're not saying

really anything we know it's an lcd tv is it direct lit is it edge lit how many lights make it

up and what what is what does it actually do for me and so you're very clear here at high sense

you know every single one of our tv's except for the canvas tv which we very clearly say

is a direct lit tv and for your listeners directly it means that it's lit from behind

facing towards the viewer that is by far i think the industry has agreed the de facto

way that you should light a tv in edge lighting is essentially lighting from the side using

mirror systems it's kind of cheating a backlight system and it was good when it was invented

about 70 million years ago but really it's not something that consumers should be with the

amount of choice that you just highlighted that they can have they shouldn't be walking home with

an edge lit tv unless it's a specialty product like a canvas or a frame or any of those products where

that is actually designed to be able to go down to five percent brightness it's designed to have

art pictures on it like that's it's solving a different problem but for the average viewer

they really should be working out with at least a direct but how do we know though that's my

challenge as i've been looking into this is to go the as you mentioned at the top end there's just

so many specs listed it's great it's got hdr this dolby vision that whatever the thing is

but at the lower end whether it's um by choice or just and i'm not going to say neglect because

it's not neglect it's just that i don't think it's seen as important and again we talked about

retailers with no disrespect to them i'm not even sure they would know the answer if you ask them is

this edge lit or directly if you're talking about a you know $700 tv i'm not sure the retail

store staff shouldn't even know that is there a way of knowing

other than pulling it apart that's a good question i mean look uh you know my company

has an r&d facility so we can rip open any tv and have a look at it i'm sure you know you have

the facility to sometimes do that too but for the average customer i think what i would suggest is

if you know that you can't know then you should only buy brands at that price point where you

know the answer and i think it's as clear as that if i can't confidently say whether that tv

is running inferior technology or not and the company itself won't tell me then i think the

clear choice is just don't buy that product and and switch to a product in that price bands do

you know what i mean that is brilliant that is a great way of looking at it because as a as someone

who's trying to be informed and and i'll be honest with you chris i have tried to be informed on this

i have read so many spec sheets and i fully don't know and i'm lucky i've got access to people who

i can sit down and i did i did say to someone um you know edgelit versus directlit and they were

like no we're all directlit i'm like thank you um but but that's not a conversation

every consumer can have because they don't have that person access to them so the simple message is

if you want to the best picture it needs to be backlit so that means that the

lights as you say are on the back of the tv pointing forward to you and shining through

the lcd panel and whatever else is there to give you the best brightness contrast picture

and bright everything color you want that is possible from that technology rgb being the the

most superior of those standard lcd technologies that's right if you can't determine or it says

edgelit which is great if they're if they're saying that in the specs you need to know that

you're buying edgelit likely at a price point and that's fine if that's the reason it is edgelit

totally cool um and as you said edgelit was the great thing when it came out and you

know probably five years ago we were still like that's still cool um because we haven't really

democratized the backlight technology maybe maybe for more than five but the fact is if you don't

know the answer then go with an answer that you can give which is in your case high sense

everything but the canvas is directly 100 and this is this is a big thing you know one of the

things that i've really loved and you know you've seen similar things where you know back when i was

a salesperson in retail stores that's where i started my career back when i was in the stores

selling products myself you know i my biggest thing and i and i'm sure not all sales people

like this but my biggest thing was if i can get the customer the exact right product for them

then i'm probably going to see that customer again and so that's the attitude that i had

and so i would always spend time with them asking all of these sort of qualifying questions and i

think if consumers want to protect themselves they should pre-qualify themselves about well

what is it that i actually want out of this tv and i know it seems a little silly sometimes

you know and it's interesting i was just talking to my now wife and it's really lovely to be able

and to her for one of her really close friends is a great example because it's just happened a

few days ago one of her really close friends says hey chris works at high sense can that can

can he help me get a bit of a discount on the tv and i said yep absolutely no worries could you

give me any more than just that sentence because it's not enough information we have a whole range

of tv's i said you know let's say i have a price range what sort of rooms are going in all those

sorts of things right and you know my lovely wife was like oh just you know just achieve tv and i'm

like no i'm like no can you please ask her um just one of the questions

that i asked you and she did and of course the answer wasn't i just i don't want to achieve tv

the answer was i have this really light field room um could you recommend tv that works in that

because my current one doesn't and that narrows down the list to something

that's likely going to have claire free exactly it's interesting because one of the questions

and people listening to this know for well when i take talk back from people and they ask i've

want to buy a new tv um and first question is what's your budget second question is is often

what do you watch um yeah because sometimes uh it's it's a specific app and it it's got

capabilities or compatibilities sometimes it's a type of content um and that matters and then

you talk about placement of the tv there's so much to know and i think that you know the the

conversation about edge versus um directly it is nerdy as all heck but i just want people to

understand that if it looks too good to be true maybe that's why maybe maybe you maybe you are

on a budget and you do want a sub 1500 dollar tv or sub thousand dollar tv and that's cool there's

some great tvs at that price point um but you just need to understand if the jargon looks like

you're getting something that's comparable to something that's far more expensive is it really

comparable yeah i think that's reasonable and i think we've kind of you know in through this

discussion today we've kind of uncovered that actually the the lower you go down in the price

bands the more at risk you are of um stumbling across uh let's say a technology landmine where

it appears to be something else right and so i think you know i would be so confident in saying

that you know the entire industry agrees that direct lit is superior to edge lit that if you

have a choice in that price band that you're operating in and it can be directly just get the

direct lit like i don't think that you even need to educate yourself on what it is or how it works

i think we were just it's just one of those de facto like we actually know that the answer is

there um but there's other questions that i think you should uh as a consumer i guess be asking um

and if you want to sort of get past the bamboozling that the salesperson might do because that's

another layer right you know these salespeople i would say i speak to lovely salespeople all the

time and most of them um are looking to get the customer into a really good tv but every now and

then you're going to speak to someone that may not know that much about tv's and might just be

directing you to a margin rich product so as a as a customer um i think the biggest one is the

first question that i read a little sort of question that you should ask because if the salesperson

says it's got really good motion it's 4k that's every tv does that now essentially it's very

hard not to get a 4k it's very hard not to do that you know like if you go into a store on the

salesperson it's got the netflix app oh wow man i tell you what this one's got so much netflix uh

it's got all of the netflix you know those sorts of things you seem to be a little careful right

so i say if someone says you know it's got motion it's got 4k um it's got netflix you're like beyond

4k in motion what actually makes this tv picture better than the one right next to it you know

just throw that question back at the salesperson and say well okay cool that's great uh i can see

that it does that beyond that what else does it do what else is it actually going to do for me

as a customer i think it's a really important question to be asking right um and yeah there's

so many things i think the other thing that you need to look at as well is you know one thing that

Hisense has done is we've extended down pretty much throughout the whole range all the way down

to our u6 and that derby la audio tuning and i know other brands um to give them credit also have

you know some sort of audio tuning as well on on most of their products but at the end of the day

our research has shown that most customers when they buy their tv they don't consent at the purchase

point um overwhelmingly and so we've done a lot of effort to make sure that you know if you're

buying one of our rgbt is the sound coming out of it is actually pretty phenomenal you're getting

you know 4.1.2 audio channels like it's doing side firing up firing front firing it's got dedicated

subwoofer like it's it's very very good but if you are in that sort of budget space um you know

that's one of the first things that drops off on the tv is yes cool it might be directly but then

the sound might be just two channel with no sub um and it's going to be pretty new when you get it

home so either get a tv that's got good sounds or consider investing in a in a soundbar as well

it's a sort of match with that good advice mate it's uh it's a wild and crazy ride you're on but

you've uh you're in your i reckon you're in your best year this is a fun year to be in tv's mate

oh my god it's amazing yeah i mean it is it's so cool to look at an rgbtv next to um a previous

generation tv just because it the color is so rich it's just can i give you one nerdy example of

what really got me excited about rgbtv if you'll allow me um so i got back from my trip i hadn't

played video games for six weeks because i was a good husband and we actually went out and did

adventure holiday things and you know we didn't look at a lot of tv so i missed them i longed for

them uh and so when i got back i actually bought on my xbox series x i bought the uh the new uh

james one game double a seven first light right uh and because it's a newer game and because my tv

is an rgb right now and because it supports dobby vision um i was able to dial the brightness up on

this game from its base setting of 250 to a thousand and the glare coming off the rocks with the sun

hitting in was actually like like i was outside uh and it was the first time i played a video game

where the technology of the tv kept up fully with the video game and i was able to get this

like visceral weird otherworldly experience of this brightness feeling like i was outside and

it just made the game feel so immersive and that's kind of what's on offer with rgbt i think you know

you and i would agree that it's very difficult to buy a bad tv now you know tv's uh

all pretty pretty good they're all pretty good like you can go into a store you can throw a rocket

at tv please don't do that but you're going to get a tv uh but i think it's that the experience

you're looking for and what are you actually valuing and that for me was like okay now i

know i can't have any other tv now that i've had that it's actually the little things these days

that are going to make a difference 100 percent 100 percent well mate i can't wait to catch up

i'm sure we will soon and hopefully more people are a little more educated about tv's of 2026

and uh and the high sense range as a result of this chat mate amazing super appreciate it

you're listening to the eftm podcast

you can text trev now thanks to Vodafone on 0477657657

great happy company damien's on the like of a damien hey mate how are you made pretty good

you've got some advice for people yeah mate so last week tangerine mobiles sent out an email to

everyone because that their price rise are going up so i'm with tangerine or i was with tangerine

because of the whole takeover of buddy telco so you were originally buddy telco and then tangerine

bought essentially ozzie's low low revenue user base through buddy and so they didn't keep the

buddy brand they're just converting it all to tangerine did they that's correct that's correct

okay wow and then they announced they sent me an email last week and this this will make sense

why i'm telling people this one as well saying there's a price rise of the first of july

and i think i messaged you and i messaged the group and i said to everyone hey price rise coming

everyone's like churn and i said yeah i'm going to don't worry so anyway i looked at when their

terms and conditions and they say no refund if you like for for pro-radering of a month okay

then i look back i said oh when does my month start they sent that email the day my month had

kicked in so so the day my internet started was for this month is the day they kicked in

so i went looking around i found superloop and i email i rang tangerine i said hang on this is not

competition fair you should have sent this email there's a price rise on the first of july giving

people 30 days and competition rights to shop around so i won't be paying the $99 and they said

oh no no no as it put me through to your next person so they put me through to someone else

and i explained they said no you're not paying until the 8th of july i said you don't understand

put me so they put me through and escalated to the third person they understood what i was saying

because i said you know a competition act they didn't give me the rights to look and i waited

and they said no we understand so they said as soon as you cancel with us as soon as you sign up

the other people let us know and we'll waive that $99 fee and they waived it and it's all done

right but that if you hadn't have rung they would have charged you for the month and you

basically would have paid for two telcos for one month exactly right so the $30 a month i'm

saving with superloop would have been eaten up in fees for $99 with with tangerine and your

advice is you need to call and push through the uh customer escalations team yep because if they

because they legally have to give you generally 30 days with a price rise before anything happens

and they tried to send the email the day that the that my my invoice was coming out and mate it's

dodgy's hell and it's funny because it rang a bell with me i'm thinking why have i heard this story

before and there's a guy on tiktok i don't know if you're on tiktok but no mate legit

comes up in my feed all the time because he's mate i don't know he hope he's got a day job

that's paying him well but he just rips apart consumer fraud basically yeah um his name's

simon berry if anyone's on tiktok it's it's berry b e double r y berry the facts is his username right

and so i first caught up in his uh any stuff because he's smashing adrian patelli and the whole

you know uh balance of of legality around you know promotional scams and the idea that you know

you don't know how many people are in the running to win a prize even though you're an entrant in

the prize you know you're you're buying you're buying tickets you're not really buying membership

and all that kind of stuff now he's also exposed things like hoites for you know adding on uh ticket

charges to the end and they've you're not not advising it up front and he reads the a triple c

rules and puts them on the screen it's brilliant and he's done this story on on superloop cancellations

so looks well that wasn't superloop but that was that's tan drain but superloop had the same thing

i'm guessing that's where i'd seen this concept right and so i can't believe that it's not like

that more than one telco even had that policy well they legally if they if they'd sent out the email

the first of june and i missed it then that's that's on me but they didn't send it out to give me enough

time to to shop around first before cancelling my contract then that was the whole thing so i don't

know how many other people have within this month have probably cancelled or moved after seeing it

but just saying i've got to pay the $99 it's crazy yeah so it's firstly it's a word of warning

if you're about to churn uh check the uh you know check the terms from your existing provider and

make sure that if it's caught up in this kind of thing you either need to churn on a certain date

or you need to make sure that you can waive the uh the 30 day cancellation notice and secondly frankly

i'm not i'm not a fan of being with a company that does that no so and and and the other thing

was is i put on the on the man cave they gave me a code so and i think one person signed up

after i put that code up because i joined superloop because i got a deal for $69 or $79

$79 for 1000 speed for the first six months so trying to help out the man cave as well though

they gave me a code i put on there and someone added it so referral system so giddy up i mean

there's a few companies with that ozzy's ozzy's got referrals but um yeah mate shop around and know

your rights sounds like the plan and by the way uh and i haven't i haven't reread it or looked at it

but the summer berry goes into quite great detail about whether or not what we're talking about is

actually allowed under Australian consumer law under the a triple c regulations so there's a chance

that what they're doing is actually not allowed and i wouldn't i wouldn't mind betting that there's

not a kate what do they call it um class action but uh a bit of a swath of people that have to

go hang on a minute we're going to go for refunds here who over the years have been charged these

kind of cancellation fees yes well don't forget well also tendering mobile introduced a one percent

surcharge on credit cards where buddy didn't and then say that and they're fine facts when you

when they until the first credit card fee came out i went oh why is it 99.99 a month now when is

that stop happening remember they've got a stop over this year i thought it might have been july

yeah you know what i can't wait for that you know when people go you're going to pay more is it yeah

i'd rather know what i'm paying up front than even if it is an extra 20 cents i know it's 20 cents

straight away yeah also if your business can't absorb one percent then i'm not sure i mean for

a cafe i'll get it but for large organizations if prices go up and they blame that that's a g

up yeah anyway there you go thanks legend i'll get let you get back to doing some hard work oh

mate it's always hard work end of financial year go go go cheers mate see ya good to talk uh here

i caught up with damien literally on the 30th of june i know you're probably hearing this much later

than that but dude was hustling like when he answered my call hustling i love it it was so

exciting it was i was like being in the office with him and it was hustling in sales very cool

but yes buy beware and contract beware just just check the cancellation terms of your telco

especially your nbn telco before you switch and churn to someone for a better deal

helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years the eft and podcast with travel on

thank you folks great to have you listening i appreciate it i appreciate you downloading

i appreciate you engaging in the show if you've got a tech question i'd love to hear from i'd love

to help you i'd love to talk to you uh it doesn't have to be a question it can just be a statement

or a conversation you want to have um o4 double 7657657 thanks to

vodafone send us a text and we'll uh happily get you on the show producer rob will be in touch

and that's what exactly what we'll do so uh yeah look forward to hearing from you folks um the

eft map is oof so close to being released again for ios a new version which streamlines the whole

process of um signing up for the for the comps and entering the comps but right now if you've got

the eft map it doesn't matter if you've got the old one or the new one um we've got two sets of jbl

live beam for true wireless headphones to give away two sets so there's going to be two winners

they're 250 bucks each next week you need an smart home security pack um i think the week

after that i haven't put it in the app yet but i think the week after that i'm going to give away

some lego some of the um lego smart plate then we got a unit in dash dash view dash cam so cool

and we got two winners in that one i think um unit in dash view dash cam um

was i gave away a voucher to jb high five couple of weeks ago and the person that won that bought

a unit in dash cam i thought that was so cool that was really really cool uh we got some cool

prizes coming up including in august sometime a big brand new rgbtv i'm not going to say anymore

because it's not in the app yet terms conditions have not been published relax but we've done

pretty well we've had competitions every week uh this week this year um and that will continue

and ramp up until the magazine comes out and there's one or two things going to happen when the

magazine comes out either we'll have a great bunch of weekly prizes published in the magazine

but available continually through the app or there'll be one massive prize and that purely

depends on how the next month and a half goes cashflow wise if if everyone pays their bills

i have set aside a enormous chunk of cash uh in the marketing budget um to go towards something

that i'd be i'd love to give away but if it becomes stressful i shall not

anyway uh that's enough let's wrap it up ear from me soon get in touch and in the

eftm app you can click ask triv and just ask me a question there folks it's that easy see you guys

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