Friday, May 11, 2007

TV Shopping


I know, I know - in a world of global warming, prolonge wars, rampant racism and worldwide famine, the least of my worries should be television shopping.
But here we are.
I remember about 6 years ago getting the 'new TV' itch, counting up my hard earned Roger's Video money and purchasing a 27" behemoth. At that time, my only options were base color, size and whether or not I wanted to include some crappy factory reject VCR.
Easy. Simple. Cheap.
Now - not so much.
A funny thing happens when you have to spend a lot of money in a short amount of time...you get used it. So - after moving expenses, plane tickets and new clothes I've now got a new tv on the brain and about a zillion or so options to wade through.
Plasma, LCD, Projection, DLP, LLD, Super VCD, LOL, Mononeucleotic HD Scan Progressive Plexi-form Neuromax 3000, etc.
Try asking a best buy employee which one is best and, low and behold, it's the $1800 model they just got in last week. Lo and behold - I don't have 1800 to spend and no one has yet to convince me that I SHOULD spend nearly 2 grand on a product most admit WILL FAIL in 5 years.
Seriously, its like the designed each new tv with one feature that will blow out, fade or rip in 5 years time. Damn you consumers! Damn you for buying into this and making my enjoyment of big screen videogaming that much more expensive and complicated.
Add on the fact that I'll have to subscribe to an HD service,purchase HD cables and replace my internal organs with HD-ready parts, what was once a simple quest for a bigger picture has become and entire living room renovation.
Sigh.
Though I guess if this was the only thing I could think to bitch about, things could be a lot worse.
In the meantime - opinions? Suggestions? Donations?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I've been won over by HD. I wasn't convinced that it would really be that different, but once you get used to HDTV, it is really hard to watch a normal one again. YOu can see the blades of grass moving in the wind while you watch a football game, or the poorly covered pimple on an actor in a made for TV movie.

As for suggestions - size depends on how far you're going to sit from it. We have a 27" widescreen and that is plenty big enough. Note on widescreens, hardly any stations come in widescreen, so you'll have to zoom which distorts the picture and cuts off the same as a regular one. Maybe hold off on the widescreen. LCD is pretty cool, but ours is a tube TV (flatscreen) and it works just fine. Plasma is expensive and they say needs to be replaced at least every 10 years because the colours fade - so I'd stay away from that until you're confident you can fork out that type of money with that frequency.

HD cables - we bought the Best Buy ones for over $100. Then we saw the Walmart ones for about 30. Learn from our failures.

Most TVs you can get HD Rogers package for free for 6 months - especially if it is at Best Buy. Just ask about it. We're with Rogers (and we have the recordable box so you can set each show you want to record - love it - can't imagine why we were ever home at a specific time to watch a show.

Anyways, let me know the dates for the psychic get-together. I think we can pull together enough people for the thing, so give me a date that you're in town and are free to do this - and make sure your mom wants to. Then we'll book her for the day and make a party out of it. Let me know.

Anonymous said...

I suggest painting your living room walls white and learning some intricate shaddow puppetry techniques. Hours of fun for the whole family!

Creative Freakin' Genius said...

I suggest finding some rich old broad with one foot in the grave, marrying her, assisting her down the stairs and then taking HER tv....