War On Terrorism and The Economy

[George Bellefontaine]

Has the events of recent weeks affected your decision to upgrade your HT ? The economy does seem to be stalling here in Canada, and possibly in the US, so I was just wondering if we in the HT community are also part of that stall. Personally, I do not have plans for an upgrade for at least another year or two, as long as my projector holds out, but I certainly wouldn't let this terrorist thing affect any decision I may have had in the short haul. Letting those ...holes affect our economy is a little victory to them, so I hope all of you go ahead with any buying plans you may have had.




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[Markj]

Well it seems my family is doing its patriotic part. End of September I updated my CB II to include DTS. My wife bought a coffee table and lamp costing ~ $3000. And if we decide on a new car or anything else we will do it. The tax rebate went towards the upgrade of the CB to the CB II. Maybe it is my patriotic duty to get that projector now. Terrorist will not stop me from doing what I feel is in the best interest of my family.

I do pray for the protection of all people every day and hope that the bombing of Afghan can cease.

[rlabarge]

I can tell you that the events of September 11, 2001 have had an extremely negative effect on the sales of DVD-Video titles. Normally September, October and November are very active months for shipping DVD titles to retailers. Early September was just fine, but all orders stopped after September 11th, and we received a number of cancellations for orders placed just before the attacks.

We started to see some orders from our retail customers in early October, and hopefully things will start to pick up a bit. However I think the 4th quarter of 2001 is going to be extremely poor for anyone involved in selling products to consumers.

By the way this did not just affect orders in the US. We had cancellations from retailers all over the world.

It is amazing how much damage 19 terrorists can do to the world's economy.




Ralph LaBarge
Managing Partner, Alpha DVD
Author, "DVD Authoring & Production"
rlabarge@alphadvd.com

[John Kotches]

In that respect Ralph, the attack was highly successful. Welcome to collateral damage

I've been doing my personal part to shore up a weakening economy, but I can't do it myself

I am concerned about a few manufacturers I've spoken with recently. I am not mentioning names, but some of them are scuffling due to a drop in demand.

Regards,




---
Editor, PC/Home Theater
Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
My Home Theater
NEC LT-150 specific page.

[John Holmes]

George,

Mine wound have halted regardless because I'm Broke!




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[Burke Strickland]

Since I had already "helped the economy" in the past year with purchases of new power amps, pre/pro, center speaker, external phono stage, TV monitor for OSD, touchscreen remote, upgraded speaker wire and interconnects, and power conditioners, (and that's not including what I had already upgraded the year before -- main speakers, two turntables and cartridges, HT furniture and racks, 300+1 DVD-jukebox player, professional CD recorder) I'm afraid I'm having to "sit it out" right now. But I'm still working and paying taxes, if that counts for anything... :>)

Burke

[P-Dub]

I wouldn't say that those acts have affected my upgrade plans in anyway. I had dreams and desires to upgrade to a RPTV, but space is an issue as well as funds. Ultimately a FPTV is what I would like, so I'd rather save for that. I did get some new racks to store my CD's and existing components.

In the mean time, my couch is expected to come in at the end of this month, I also have a single matching chair as well. DVD titles are being bought. Titles that I have been wating for are being release and snapped up. Might even need a new DVD rack. I'm getting into golf as a hobby, so a set of clubs plus the natural accessories will be purchased in the near future.

If anything, I'm more inclined to make purchases in these times as who knows when my time is up. No sense in not enjoying life.

[Lex]

Well, yesterday, I ordered 1000 worth of materials for CAT, a good bit of which I hope are made in the USA. Today, I got 3 orders, 1 yesterday, and 1 the day before. So, the "Help me to help you" thing seems to be working for me. I spend it, and my customers are spending it sending it back.

Fact is, I didn't even have 1400. So, I did part of that on confidence in both the economy and CAT.
Actually, since last Friday, I have spent 1400 I think. Going to buy a monitor tonight I think. Then it's time for some serious CAT work. I am slammed! I also traded cables for a new computer, and he purchased all the parts for that, and I purchased the parts for my cables.

Nothing has changed in my personal financial situation, but from CAT's perspective, the economy looks good. But it's just one small company. Small steps, small steps. We can recover, but it's going to take some time.

Lex

[Ken McDaniel]

The greatest casualty in my HT life since the terrorist attack has been my time. One of the pleasures I have taken in this hobby is the interaction with everyone here at the Guide. Unfortunately for myself, what was already a busy year of training and deployments has increased to an insane pace. I'm sorry to say that my online forum time has dropped to near zero.

I honostly think the last time I fired up my HT was about 3 weeks ago. Now the TV and coffee maker are the only things fired up between trips to and from the field.

On a positive note, I received my copy of Star Wars Episode I in the mail. I forgot about the pre-order I placed a couple of months back. It was a nice surprise.

I've promised the family that we'd sit down and watch it between training exercises.




Ken

[Lex]

Ken, I suspected that you have been very busy. Hang in there man, I am sure this thing will get better soon, at least I hope so.

We will be here, and take care of business in your absense. Just come when you can.

Doug

[JonMarsh]

Well, the economy and it's affect on the personal spending habits will continue to be a big topic once everyone gets past the shock of September's events- of course, there will be more events, it seems, but the economy is personal to everyone.

I'm in one of the high tech chip companies that has been fairly hard hit, and because of German emplyment laws, most of the 15% total layoffs are coming in the international devisions. I'm in a group of what used to be five, is currently three, and will probably be two by the end of November. Did I mention that the business in our sector isn't declinging, and so we're tryint to figure out how to cope with the reduced resources... so much for "intelligent reallocation of personnel resources" (that's probably another Dilbertism.

Well, I've had some money put aside that I new I would get this fall, and so, though I know my income is actually going to drop 20-25% this coming year (assuming I make the next cut) (no pay increases, and the incentivised portion of compensation will simply be cut), I've decided that you have to live life while you can, at least to some extent.

So, it's Xmas in Casa de Marsh today: three new SACD's, three new DVD's (TPM plus TFE Superbit, plus Truth about Cats and Dogs, *NOT* Cats and Dogs), a pile of Eton drivers, and oodles of crossover parts. There's gonna be a lot of serious speaker building between now and Xmas.

Oh, and some computer bits, too, inlcuding a new sound card, HD, registered version of newest PowerStrip 3, and got my install of Cineplayer 4 running. Plays "Mission to Mars", which ATI DVD 4.1 wouldn't read. This may be the best software player available, now. More opinions to come with further viewing.

This and my Ayre Amp this month are likely to be the limits of my "extra" contibutions to the economy in the near future, given circumstances.

But I'm alive, healthy, and working for now, so I don't really figure I have anything to complain about.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[pf]

My feeling is the attack's effect on the economy will hit every sector hard esp the non-essentials HiFi, HT included. On the other hand when folks are scarced enough to prefer staying home, what else besides spending time & $$$ on ones' HT & HiFi. Btw, they also expect birthrates to go up.

As usual, I am always trying hard to keep up my share of stimulating the economy. Just ask Doug. Hey, where's Trevor?

PF

[weapon_x]

Someone has to keep the economy going so I'm spending more than i can make on dvds. lol. Dang superbits.

So this is where you guys hang out. No wonder the traffic in a certain forum that I frequently lurk out is now less than before.

Nice job Lexman!

[George Bellefontaine]

Welcome aboard,Weapon_x
Hope you will post often. And since, like a lot of us, you are into dvds and going broke, I hope you will join some dvd discussions at DVD Director.
Regards,
George




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