Chapter 1
A few years ago I decided, “I should get a 4k television.” So, back then in those times, I looked around for a while. Found a guy an hour or so away who agreed to sell me his 2017 Samsung Q7F for $200. I drove the hour or so and purchased it from him for $200.
Long story short, as these things sometimes go, it was ‘too good to be true’. And I’m not just talking about the 2017 Samsung Q7F’s frankly lackluster local-dimming support, no…
You see, turns out this particular 2017 Samsung Q7F would reboot itself sometimes. Sometimes every 5 or 10 minutes, etc. My workaround solution became using my trusty 1080p Apple TV because if the TV rebooted no problem, the box mostly doesn’t care, just wait 10 seconds, etc. But sometimes, my friends, it was too much. The stress and the strain of multi boot loop cycles, the silent bargaining between man and machine, the pure anxiety of trying to get through an entire screening in the 2017 Samsung Q7F’s native 4k media file browser application was too much.
A number of weeks ago it made it all the way through a 4k rip of Vertigo with no reboots. Tbh, the suspense and morbid anticipation of this particular a/v scenario, would I have to renavigate the network share’s file structure? would I have to descend once again into the Bluetooth Audio Device List to manually delete and re-pair the small speaker I rest directly on my chest?, was very fitting. It was that very night that I myself made a pact with…myself, “I should get a different 4k television.”
I draft, and then post, a clear FB Marketplace listing describing my Samsung Q7F and its faults in detail. “PLEASE READ ENTIRE LISTING,” I implored; “PLEASE DO NOT MESSAGE ‘IS THIS AVAILABLE?’,” I pleaded, on deaf ears. ~50 oblivious inquiries later, it remained unsold. As the FB Marketplace listing sits, I decide to attempt DIY, to fix it myself. Ah, the ‘Tape Fix’, so simple, so elegant - I say to myself as I watch half a dozen vague and poorly-shot Youtube tutorials. To be brief: I seemingly fully break the TV during this process.
So now, the time has come, I put the 2017 Samsung Q7F on the curb with a big handwritten note reading, “FREE - NEEDS REPAIRS”.
Maybe half an hour later, I’m walking from the bathroom to the kitchen and notice, through the back windows, my weird upstairs neighbor who often yells insane abusive things at his wife, carrying a familiar large black plastic rectangle up the staircase. Well, my friends, there is a little secret that our neighbor Doug here is unaware of, that we can share together apart from him…computer? enhance:
the 2017 Samsung Q7F, even in perfect operating condition, requires the presence of its proprietary Samsung OneConnect set-top box and the matching proprietary Samsung OneConnect fiber-optic interconnect cable to function at all. Both of which I retained for myself and did not mention in the large handwritten note that accompanied the display itself on the curb. Take that, Doug. Shortly thereafter I sold these two items on eBay for a Buy-It-Now price of $250.
Chapter 2
Now, newly rich, I begin to plan my future. So begins again the familiar cyclic ritual, refreshing Marketplace and OfferUp and Craigslist. Last Thursday 8/3/23 evening, I come across a listing that seems promising. Over the course of a few hours, my new friend James and I arrange a meeting for the next afternoon.
So, that very next day, after a few dog-related errand stops, I set out for James’ home. We’ll get there by way of…the open road.
Here now a little over an hour outside of inner-loop Houston, a beautiful day. Just like Bono was talking about. Not a cloud in the sky. The wide open range of the central Texas countryside. Space to think. To breathe.
Roll ‘em down and let that blue sky in.
…
never mind. Not stepping foot outside of our deadly rolling fridge into this now basically uninhabitable wasteland until arrival. I saw one of those bank thermometer signs say 109.
Foot down for about 3 hours total now and we’re getting close to our destination in the commuter outskirts of Austin.
Hmm. Ok. Big Ice Cream. Tempting. Slightly Suggestive. Let’s continue on, we have business to attend.
Wait a second? Some kind of factory direct deal? Employee smuggling? No this is just a funny diversion, I just happened to drive past the Samsung factory on the way and my brother used to work here so I turned into the driveway for 3 seconds and took this pic for him. You may notice a tiny security guard in this image. IRL, this security guard made very animated motions instructing me to proceed to her and then roll down my window. I did this and she sternly said, “Sir! There are no photographs allowed on campus!”…I reply, “oh…I’m just gonna turn around here” I point one foot away Security Guard’s reply, “Don’t ever do it again!” You know what? I probably won’t. Fair enough.
Shortly, we arrive in James’ housing subdivision in Round Rock.
Quickly meet and inspect and make the absolute smallest of talk for 30 seconds before hitching up and riding back out for home. Traffic is already heating up. God bless all these poor souls stuck on 35 every day. Package is secured.
What, another, different giant ice cream? Huh. Let’s get out of this here town.
Well, 3 and a half hours later, back home. The mission was a resounding success.
James sold me his 2020 55” LG CX OLED television for $275 (+~$35 in standard octane fuel). Thanks James, wish you had lived closer, but those are the breaks. This lowly screen addicted a/v degenerate has to take the deals as they come. Has about 5000 hours on it. Upon initial glances and seller assurance, and later further color-sweep independent verification, no noticeable burn-in.
In tribute to our collective new age of affordable direct-pixel illumination, the even greater promises of its futures, and its eventual perfection in the elusive grail of true MicroLED, I watched De Palma’s passionate love letter to peak-electronics Mission Impossible (1996) last night. Looks great.
Chapter 3
Additional motivation for this purchase: there have been strides in correcting WRGB OLED performance in the various state of the art CRT filters, over the past few months. More to come on that later.
