PeaceBang's Television Dies, R.I.P.
Not that I'm a big TV watcher, but I was looking forward to collapsing on the couch and watching a DVD tonight.
Trouble is, I turned on the TV a few minutes ago and it made a sound like it was being throttled with a garotte, and although I could get sound just fine, no picture at all. It started hissing when I changed channels and sounded for all the world like it might blow up, so I unplugged the thing. Minutes later when I tried again, it started screaming and sounded like it was DEFINITELY going to blow up. Not only have I unplugged it, it would be spending the night in the garage if I could lift it.
I just went to Amazon.com to take first looks at what's out there and I find that I am obviously waaaay back in the 20th century when it comes to tellies. What's in the name of Regis Philbin is plasma TV? What's HDTV, and should I bother caring? What's a flat-screen TV, and why would I want to spend $3000 on one when I can get a perfectly good regular old television for about ten times less than that?
I am an Unfrozen Caveman Television Viewer! Your ways confuse me! Please advise!
Trouble is, I turned on the TV a few minutes ago and it made a sound like it was being throttled with a garotte, and although I could get sound just fine, no picture at all. It started hissing when I changed channels and sounded for all the world like it might blow up, so I unplugged the thing. Minutes later when I tried again, it started screaming and sounded like it was DEFINITELY going to blow up. Not only have I unplugged it, it would be spending the night in the garage if I could lift it.
I just went to Amazon.com to take first looks at what's out there and I find that I am obviously waaaay back in the 20th century when it comes to tellies. What's in the name of Regis Philbin is plasma TV? What's HDTV, and should I bother caring? What's a flat-screen TV, and why would I want to spend $3000 on one when I can get a perfectly good regular old television for about ten times less than that?
I am an Unfrozen Caveman Television Viewer! Your ways confuse me! Please advise!
posted by PeaceBang at 6:13 PM
9 Comments:
my husband is dying for a flat screen plasma! i, personally, am not. unfortunately, it is the way things are heading. tube tv's are almost out of production, or so i hear. hdtv is mostly an advantage if you watch a lot of animal planet/national geographic, or if you like sports. it's more "life like". blah blah blah. i can barely tell the difference - not that we have hd, but we have friends who do. i am holding out til the last minute for a huge flat screen - hello tv, goodbye living room ambiance!
Go to Target. Get the next-cheapest one. Color, small, works fine, costs not much, has a remote, will work with whatever VCR and DVD player you get or have. And won't uglify your living room or wherever you keep it since it is not a huge monster. End of story.
Then you can find out about all that riduculous expensive high tech tv which is pleasant but mostly we don't need.
Now -- should I watch Law & Order reruns while correcting my students' papers on the Council of Nicea or is that heresy? ;-)
Caroline
What is it, an illness going around? Mine just died, too.
Cheap way: go to a tv repair shop. Ask if they have any tvs that haven't been picked up. Ask the cost. Should be extremely low.
Expensive way: we got a plasma screen rather than an LCD because plasma is better if you won't necessarily be looking at it "straight on." We have friends over a lot for movies, and are set up in a round. Smallest plasma is usually 40 or 42". We went to Best Buy, doing the lovely 0% interest for 3 years. I don't care if I'm a bleeping billionaire, that's free money. (Just make sure you don't miss a payment.)
If you give a mouse a cookie ... well, if you want High Def tv, you also have to have a high def signal, so we upgraded our service to that. No big deal, since it was 9.95 a month, but we received an instant $200 rebate on the price of the tv for doing so.
If you want to hang your tv on the wall (yay, floor space!), you have to buy a kit to do so.
If you already have tivo, you'll have to upgrade your DVR to a high def DVR. You may have to upgrade your dish, as well.
Back to that first option ... after buying the used tv, use a coat hanger to bring in the reception.
My, that option is sounding good.
Ours died last year the week before Christmas. We went to Circuit City in Braintree and bought the second-cheapest old-fashioned tube color TV in the appropriate size. They're ridiculously cheap compared to 5 or 10 years ago because the new flat-panel models will eventually replace them. But we figured, by the time the industry converges on a new technological standard we will have enjoyed the one we just bought for 3 to 5 years. Then we will be able to buy a better whiz-bang unit than anything that's available today, with all the most up-to-date widgets on it, for less than what the new ones cost now.
Then again, I'm Scottish and hate spending money frivolously. To me there's more satisfaction in a bargain than in a cool new possession. Not everybody feels the same way.
We just got a Magnavox 20" flat screen (not flat panel - still a big box, but a better picture) at Target for around $120 and it's fabulous. Good color, adjustable sound, all kinds of places to plug in gadgets, and it worked immediately. Highly recommended.
Here's my advice about a new TV. Let it be known that yours has died, and let one of your parishioners who is looking for an excuse to buy a new 42" plasma flat screen give you their old one! In the meantime, try living without it for awhile. You may discover it's a blessing in disguise.
Sorry, can't help you. Never watch TV, don't even have a TV, so I'm with Eclectic Cleric part way.
My mother gave me my television with the stern admonition, "You need to watch more TV." When you live alone and tend to workaholism and compulsive reading and writing, doing without a TV isn't a virtue. Being hyper-verbal means that it's a good thing for me to switch my brain to visual, storytelling mode for a few hours a week. I watch precisely one show on a regular basis: "Project Runway."
The rest of the time is DVD's, and I get many sermon illustrations from the movies.
I would have liked to have tuned in for some 9/11 retrospectives today.
Sometimes shunning the TV is a mistake.
But anyway, I would just get a tv comparable to the one you replaced. If you liked it just fine, why upgrade? I'm a bit of a cinephile, and yet I still have the same 27 inch Proscan (part of RCA) tv that I bought a little over six years ago. It works great. No need to buy anything new. I hope it doesn't die. I spent $350 on it then so I still want to get another year out of it to make it worth the cost ($50 a year seems reasonable to me).
Don't bother with HDTV. If you only watch one tv show it's not worth it at all. Same with flat panel.
I will eventually upgrade (probably) to a projector with pull down film screen, but not until I've redone the kitchen floor, had my yard landscaped, some painting done, etc. TVs are expensive!
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