We’d like to thank Joe, Ron, and the rest at NESDA of Ohio for the gracious mentions in the latest issue of “The Speaker” about our “PARTners in Excellence” Award and our high-quality images!

Keep up the great content!

26%*

*The rise in global TV unit shipments compared to Q2 of 2009, according to a new global TV study released by The NPD Group’s DisplaySearch.

It’s been awhile since I’ve covered developments in TV technology and manufacturing — mainly because I became weary of all the 3D clamor and giant blue creatures — but LG just announced the release of two new prototypes worth noting.

The first is an 180-inch(!) plasma prototype. It would be the world’s largest plasma TV. LG didn’t divulge many details in their PR about the TV, but don’t clear an entire wall in your house for this monster anytime soon.

LG’s second prototype is a space-saver’s dream: 0.11-inch thick, 31-inch, 3D OLED TV (see image). For a shocking reference, that thickness is equivalent to a stack of about 29 pieces of paper! However, for people that can sacrifice some “space,” LG recently showcased LCD TVs that are a bulky 0.35-inch thick, come in larger sizes, and are hitting retail shelves (albeit in Germany and Korea) next month.

Name: Faye

Position at ShopJimmy: Customer Service Rep

One sentence job description: Do my best to help everyone I can!

Favorite LCD breakage story: A lady called saying her TV wasn’t anchored to the wall properly and it fell off breaking the screen….ouch.

TV model in your living room: None

Family: Large and very loving

Hobbies: Weight lifting, the great outdoors, reading

Favorite restaurant: Spice Thai

Go-to Pandora station: A bit of everything.

Beverage of choice: V8-Splash, water, Malibu Rum

In-flight reading material: Forensic thrillers

Sports team(s) you root for: Go Vikings!

Three things you’d bring to a deserted island: Water, books, my dog

On a web dating service, you’d describe yourself as: Not single anymore.

You can find me on…

Yesterday was the first time I actually enjoyed 3D TV and wished I had one.

LG had two displays: active 3D and passive 3D.

Active is what we have all seen at Best Buy with the $200 glasses (see image). I feel like that is cool, but it gives me a headache after a while because of the constant flicker from the shutters (they said some people see that, some don’t). However, then we watched a passive 3D TV and it was amazing. They glasses weren’t powered, so there was no shuttering and it looked sweet.

I think active 3D is supposed to be the cooler technology because you can view it from any angle and it still looks right; I didn’t try passive 3D at an angle, but I think you have to be more in front of the TV.

I just thought I’d share what I learned about 3D. Yesterday was the first time I thought the technology could possibly take off…

If you haven’t already, check out NESDA’s photo gallery (where I pulled these pictures) of NPSC 2010 in Nashville!

Jimmy receiving NESDA’s “PARTners in Excellence” Award!

Adam chatting with a convention attendee at the SJ booth.

The SJ crew receiving NESDA’s “Industry Angel” Award.

Jimmy posing for pictures with fellow award recipients.

What’s your funniest TV repair story? Click on this post to share your story in the comments section.

We’re looking forward to reading them!

Our sale last week was so popular that we decided to revive it another week! Again, just enter the code “SJ2day” during the checkout process (on orders with a subtotal over $100) to receive 20% off your order (August 19th and 20th only)!

I suppose us Minnesotans like to extend anything summer-related for as long as possible. Enjoy, friends!

Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies Corp., wrote a very insightful article on monitor and HDTV display myths. He argues that manufacturers and marketing teams are cooking-up bold claims and exaggerations about their products’ specs, from contrast ratios to color gamuts. Dr. Soneira writes:

Not only are displays getting more complicated and harder to understand, but the competition between manufacturers has gotten so brutal that marketing gimmicks—ploys that exploit the average consumer’s technical ignorance—are playing an increasing role in driving sales. The goal of this article is to point out and explain some of the most important myths, misconceptions, and misunderstandings about display technology. Much of what you’re going to read is like the classic tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes. What you’ve been told about the latest and greatest thing really isn’t there, or better, or meaningful, or even visible.

For those of you who love TVs and gadgets as much as we do, this lengthy article from Maximum PC is worth your time. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to watch TV on my “infinite contrast ratio,” 120Hz, I-was-duped-into-spending-more-money HDTV.

Our good friend John at Preher-Tech Electronics Repair in Oregon (soon to be Seattle!) posted some great tutorials for those do-it-yourself, handy people out there (see: not me). I thought I’d post a few on our site, as we get a lot of calls with basic repair questions. For more TV repair videos and information from John, check out his YouTube channel and blog!

This post is courtesy of Justin, one of our Sales Reps and debatably the funniest employee at ShopJimmy.

Another year of NPSC is in the books! Just wanted to post a little something to thank everyone who we met with last week in Nashville. First of all, a big thanks needs to go out to everyone at NESDA. All of us from ShopJimmy truly enjoyed our time and even though it was pushing 100 degrees the whole week, we will take away plenty of great memories. From myself and Will golfing on Tuesday and sweating through our clothes, to Jimmy receiving an award for 2010 “PARTners in Excellence”, to Adam enjoying his time with Dave, Doug and Jon at the Jack Daniels tour….we all will never forget our time in Nashville. Also, thanks to all of our current wonderful customers for the time spent in meetings and at our booth; we look forward to many more years of business and friendships. To all of the new customers that we met, we are confident that choosing ShopJimmy as your parts supplier will be a very wise decision. Just give us a chance to prove it and we will do everything we can to help your business succeed. Remember, if you ever need anything we are just a phone call away and would love to hear from you! Hope to see all of you next July in Indy!

This morning during the PNF breakfast, we were honored by NESDA as one of three “PARTners in Excellence” winners! This marks the second year in a row that we’ve received this prestigious award, and it means a great deal to us coming from our industry peers and friends.

The award’s purpose is to “honor exemplary service parts distributors who are truly partners to the independent product service industry.” It also serves to “recognize and show appreciation for continuing, professional, and exemplary distribution of parts and services to the independent product service industry.”

We wanted to thank everyone at NESDA for this meaningful recognition, especially Leo Cloutier and Dave Thomas. We’d also like to thank our industry peers, customers, and friends who nominated and cast votes on our behalf. While it’s great knowing that our hard work and dedication to this industry hasn’t gone unnoticed, this award doesn’t deter from our singular, driving goal of the complete satisfaction of all of our customers. It was and remains our passion, whether it is here in the US or soon-to-be in the UK and Europe.

Thank you again!

Nate is our Parts Manager and resident cat lover. He knows TV parts. Need an answer to a parts problem? Email him at nathan@shopjimmy.com

I’ve spent a few weeks researching and entering parts for Shopjimmy UK now and must say it is different in a few ways.

1) Scarts. It looks about as ugly as it sounds. This big, ugly cable gives small children nightmares. Thankfully, manufacturers have come to their senses and are phasing it out in favor of HDMI. Nonetheless, there is usually still two gigantic connectors found on the AV/Main Boards on the majority of sets

2) Part numbers. I was worried that I’d be frantic to find part lists for all these strange models, however rarely do we need to. Some brands like Toshiba are still very cryptic with their numbers. But LG, Panasonic, Sony, and Philips have been very generous with their part numbers. All you need do is simply take a glance at the board to see what it is. Simple and easy.

3) Authorized dealers… non-existent? Most of the companies seem to keep their distribution of spare parts well contained. I haven’t seen an all “encompassing” distributor who can provide parts and information for multiple brands. If you think it’s hard to find parts in America, get a taste of this place.

4) No light beer. I know the current trend in America is to see how much you can make your water taste like beer. 64 calorie beers in the UK would be an eye dropper full of most brands. I usually don’t mind either way, and my new favorite is called Hobgoblin by one of the local breweries.

5) Summer lasts one week, maybe two. All the locals tell me that the sun won’t return until next year. Frank tells me it looks like it’s about to rain more than once a day. I packed one sweater thinking it was summer, but have needed it almost every day.

6) Recycling is huge! The recycling bin in the apartment fills up faster than the garbage… mostly because of all the Diet Coke cans. But everything goes into that box.

Twin Cities Business, one of Minnesota’s premier business publications, profiled each of Ernst & Young’s 2010 Upper Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year winners for the cover story of their August issue! Click here to read their take on the prestigious award, and then click here to read their profile of Jimmy.

While subscribers of Twin Cities Business have received their copy of the August issue, look for it to hit shelves at Barnes & Nobel or Borders sometime this week!

On behalf of everyone here at ShopJimmy, including Jimmy (of course!), we’d like to thank Twin Cities Business for the recognition and great feature!