Don't Buy Insignia

[Rand{CLR}]

So, being utterly unable to convince my wife that two components is always, always better than one when it comes to A/V, she buys a 32" Insignia HDTV/Blu-Ray Combo (she wants to cut down on visible wires from a proposed wall mount, like the ONE extra wire joining the 3-4 that will have to be there will matter--and she doesn't want me to put them in the walls).

Finally had time to play with it tonight, test it before I drill in for the wall mount.

The blu-ray player doesn't read discs.

The in-screen keyboard to set up the built-in wi-fi? Doesn't have the ? symbol. My WEP2 uses one strategic ? symbol.

I called Insignia to find out how to make a ? in case you could do so, and they told me their tvs don't have special signals, and--get this--I should change my wi-fi passcodes to all numerical.

Idiots.

So I immediately told him we will be returning this thing rather than exchanging it for one with a working player, and that much of the reason why was because it was absurd that I would have to make my wireless network much less secure just to accommodate them not having perhaps the most simple of all punctuation marks as an option. He's going to pass that along, for all the good it'll do.

Avoid on principle.

-Rand

P.S. Big part of why the wife wanted that TV is that she won't play Wii Fit in my man cave. She already bought a brand new black Wii for herself. It bothers me like crazy knowing there's a second, utterly unused Wii in the house.

[Duke{CLR}]

P.S. Big part of why the wife wanted that TV is that she won't play Wii Fit in my man cave. She already bought a brand new black Wii for herself. It bothers me like crazy knowing there's a second, utterly unused Wii in the house.

Lol change you pass code riiiiight... I hope you find a better unit but I don't see the problem with keeping the wifey out of the man cave and in case one breaks you have a backup, two Wiis are better then one.

[Apache Warrior]

Seperate components are always better. If you had had the TV for a few years and a component failed you would be out everything.
Are you going to buy seperate components now?
Apache

[Rand{CLR}]

No; she still refuses. She's telling me she'll just sit here and wait for another all-in-one that does what she wants it to do.

Which is stupid, because they don't even make that many combo units nowadays. There's like 4 in the 32" range, and the other brands are $300 more. It's cheaper to buy two name brand components separately, much better in terms of quality, and better in terms of utility.

All because she doesn't want one extra cord in the tight bundle on the wall.

-Rand

[Apache Warrior]

You could always offer to cut the Sheetrock, place them behind the wall and put new Sheetrock on the wall.
Apache

[Rand{CLR}]

I did.

"I don't want to do anything that would affect the resale value."

We're not going to be in a position to sell for years, and that room will have to be painted a neutral color before showings.

-Rand

[juneau]

Combo = FAIL!!!!!!!!

Can't say i've ever heard of Insignia before. I also can't remember the last time i saw a combo from one of the major manufacturers.

Doesn't she know how twitchy Bluray players can be when it comes to new movies and firmware? Hell, even major players like Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony all have issues with getting new firmwares out quickly so i imagine that a brand i've never heard of will probably be even worse when it comes to supporting their products..... and from what you told us about their customer service i think i'm probably right.

Ask her why she doesn't have hairdryers and straighteners etc as all in one.

[Duke{CLR}]

Rand aren't there kits that allow you to plug your devices in and run only one set to the TV? Certain hotels I stay at have them.

You could remove the baseboard there and use that as an entrance point and the hole you would need for the exit wouldn't be any worse from the holes that were made from wall mount. If done neatly i think it would increase the value if anything.

In any case I feel your pain, living with two women who have no clue on how this stuff works but have very specific desires can be crazy making.

[Caddys83]

Combo = FAIL!!!!!!!!

Can't say i've ever heard of Insignia before. I also can't remember the last time i saw a combo from one of the major manufacturers.

Doesn't she know how twitchy Bluray players can be when it comes to new movies and firmware? Hell, even major players like Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony all have issues with getting new firmwares out quickly so i imagine that a brand i've never heard of will probably be even worse when it comes to supporting their products..... and from what you told us about their customer service i think i'm probably right.

Ask her why she doesn't have hairdryers and straighteners etc as all in one.

Insignia is a Best Buy thing.

[Devilguns]

They sell kits that go over the wall to run the wires if you don't want to run them in the wall. You can paint it to match the wall. It's a good option if you do not want obtrusive looking wires. Insignia is a Bestbuy brand. I avoid it because of their lack of support. I got burnt on a set of blue tooth headphones from them.

[WalkinTarget]

Insignia is the Best Buy house brand. I bought an Insignia Pilot 8gb MP3 player from them 2 years ago. It at the time was a better MP3 player than the Ipod, offering Bluetooth when Apple did not on their product.

It also died about a year ago, or so I thought. I don't throw away anything, so I go tired of looking at it and ordered a new battery for it, hoping to fix it. That didn't do the trick, but it turns out the SCREEN was shot, but it still functions fine as an MP3 player, albeit with no visual cue what is playing.

I remember dropping it onto a carpeted floor when it failed, so a google search led me to find that the screens are in fact VERY sensitive to drops, even on carpeted surfaces.

Rather than make a replaceable screen via a plastic contact pad off of the ribbon cable, its soldered onto the PCB which makes it impossible to fix as well. Not going to be buying Insignia any more after researching it.

[Rand{CLR}]

She doesn't want one of those paintable wall masks either.

Puts her in this inconsistent realm where she's going to have visible wires, at least 3 of them between coax, power cord, and Wii cable. The addition of an HDMI cable for a separate Blu-Ray player won't make that look visibly larger from more than 6 inches away if they're bundled and tied, but NO, that's just too much visible cable.

Women.

Duke, I'll have to look into that kind of device. Maybe Crutchfield has something. Could be a hotel-specific sort of device, like those awesome tube tv arm mounts with gigundo security bolts from the 80s and 90s.

-Rand

[mapes]

As everyone has mentioned combo units suck... Show your wife this thread. Second point you mentioned your going to have to paint the wall anyways right? Get a 1.5 inch hole saw drill bit and drill two holes. One behind the TV one behind where the components are. Save the drywall sections. Use a coat hanger to route the wires. When it comes time to move go to Home Depot and buy some expandable foam. Spray foam into the wall. The stuff is really sticky. Press the wall cut outs back in. Wait till it dry's and spackle and then paint. No prob.....

[Duke{CLR}]

Would something like this help?

Command Communications 5 Port Smart Switch for HDMI Devices (COMM-HDSW-501R)

[Rand{CLR}]

Unfortunately, nope. The Wii doesn't use HDMI and neither would the coax from the cable box.

She's just going to return the tv and the wall mount tomorrow and "wait until what I want comes out." Sigh.

At least I decided to test the tv before drilling the holes for the wall mount.

-Rand