TV purchasing suggestions needed

[Laura's Babies]

Well, my 15+ year old TV has decided it wants to reprogram itself all the time now and I am needing to get another one. It is the main TV in the living room and actually the only one I have hooked up in my house. I am needing to get another one and with all the choices out here, I have not got a clue as to what to get!

In todays market with all these choices, how do you choose? I will just be using it for TV, no games or stuff. I watch DVD's on the computer so it don't need to be a super TV with all kinds of fancy, complicated stuff.

[Hellow]

LCD TV! Thoes things rock!

[sweetpatata6]

I agree with Reggie, Plasma's go out with in a couple of years. LCDs are the way to go!!

[Sirrahsim]

I love my Sony WEGA Trinitron. It is big and heavy but MUCH less expensive than the fancier LCD or Plasma TVs that have an unknown shelf-life. The picture is crystal clear and the speakers give off really good quality sound.
Here it is on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KV-27FS120-Trinitron-WEGA-Screen/dp/B00006HMD8

[Karen]

We have a Sony HDTV and love it - just go to one of the stores, like Best Buy or Circuit City, and see which one's picture and aspect ratio appeals most to you.

[theterrierman]

If you can't afford plasma or LCD, try to get a tube TV with a perfectly flat screen. It's easier on the eyes, with less glare. RCA and Sony make them. Right now, I've got a 20" RCA like that and love it. Very nice picture.

[RICHARD]

RCA make great TVs.

I was looking at a flat screen bells and whistle model.....

With the money for a FS plasma, I bought a flat tube model, a DVD/CD/Photo CD, surround sound player and had money left over for cat food, beer and popcorn!

Happy shopping!


PS
The surround sound unit is great! you can see movies, play music and look at your photo DVDs....and it cost me about 100 dollars!

[Logan]

Laura if you are like me, you don't care about all the bells and whistles. You want to see the programs you like, when you can, and have it on a large enough screen to suffice. I am appalled at the number of televisions we have in this house. :o Actually, there is one in every room, except the bathrooms. That is scary! :eek:

TV sets are so expensive these days with all the fancy stuff. I could care less about HDTV or those widescreen televisions, but I am different than most people!

Good luck, my friend.

Logan

[Freedom]

Make a list of what is important to you.

Do you have the TV inset in an entertainment center so space will dectate size? Then mark down the dimensions.

Do you use cable (believe it or not, not everyone does!) If so you want it cable ready.

ALL TV stations must broadcast in HD by . . . I think it is 2009. Unless you are going to buy another set, make sure you get one that is HD. The HD picture on a non-HD TV will drive you nuts.

How far away is your seating from your TV? That will have an impact on what size you need.

Then go check out Consumer Reports at the library.

CR also has a TV buying guide on line, see here:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/tvs/index.htm

When we needed to get a new TV last August, I knew Dad needed a larger screen to see everything. But my TV is inset in an entertainment center. To get the largest screen possible, I wanted a model with the speakers ON THE BOTTOM, not on the sides. We got the Sharp Aquos LCD and LOVE it! And I use cable and subscribe to their HD service.

Good luck!

[carole]

We just purchased a sony Wega also about six months ago, and it is great, the sound is awesome, took us a while to get used to that, having had one that did not have the stereo sound, we paid $699 nz dollars with matching cabinet for it, and we are thrilled with our purchase, 29 inch.

[Laura's Babies]

I do have to consider the hole in my entertainment center for the size. I don't need anything any bigger due to the size of my living room also. I went and looked at them in Wal Mart yesterday and they have a RCA that I liked. This old one is a RCA and it has moved with me everywhere, even though it is real large and had never given me a hint of a problem and only recently did I realize just how OLD the thing is! I would really like to get one that I can handle by myself or otherwise, if I buy it and bring it home, I have no clue, when or how I could get it in the house and set up. This old one is so big and heavy.. I will have a problem getting it out and what to do with it, where to put it when the new one gets here?

This RCA at Wal Mart is a 26 inch, flat screen HDTV for around $500. What else caught my eye was a the analog, 26 inch WITH built in DVD & VCR for right around $200-$300. I couldn't get over how cheap!! (Boy! Would that free up a lot of space in the entertainment center!)

I guess how much I have to co pay on the MRI Friday will determine which one I get or I may just decide to wait until I make one more trip out to get it.

Like I said, I don't need fancy or all those complicated bells and whistles that only make it harder to use. I want to be able to just plug it in and watch it!!!

[Cinder & Smoke]

What else caught my eye was a the analog, 26 inch
WITH built in DVD & VCR for right around $200-$300.


:eek:

AVOID those "combination TV and Other Things" units!!

A basic TV is a somewhat well designed and maintenance-FREE device these days;
but mixing in a DVD and a VCR - both of which are loaded with "Moving Parts" -
is almost asking for a breakdown at some point in time! :(

And it's a LOT easier to "fix" a VCR if it doesn't have a TV Set "wrapped around it"!

;)

[Hellow]

I do have to consider the hole in my entertainment center for the size. I don't need anything any bigger due to the size of my living room also. I went and looked at them in Wal Mart yesterday and they have a RCA that I liked. This old one is a RCA and it has moved with me everywhere, even though it is real large and had never given me a hint of a problem and only recently did I realize just how OLD the thing is! I would really like to get one that I can handle by myself or otherwise, if I buy it and bring it home, I have no clue, when or how I could get it in the house and set up. This old one is so big and heavy.. I will have a problem getting it out and what to do with it, where to put it when the new one gets here?

This RCA at Wal Mart is a 26 inch, flat screen HDTV for around $500. What else caught my eye was a the analog, 26 inch WITH built in DVD & VCR for right around $200-$300. I couldn't get over how cheap!! (Boy! Would that free up a lot of space in the entertainment center!)

I guess how much I have to co pay on the MRI Friday will determine which one I get or I may just decide to wait until I make one more trip out to get it.

Like I said, I don't need fancy or all those complicated bells and whistles that only make it harder to use. I want to be able to just plug it in and watch it!!!

Well, if you just want to plug in and watch, then you might as well forget about lcd or plasma.Thoes things require some configueration, at least from my experience.

[RICHARD]

http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Technology-HDTVi-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B0001FV36E


BTW,

You can get HDTV reception with a plain old antenna.

In a few years there will no longer be any TV broadcast in analog..Everything will be digital.


--------

My RCA has two neat features that I like.....One is an on screen 'note pad' and calendar!

You can type little reminders that pop up when you turn on the TV...the other nice features are an programmable on and off time, closed captions and
a favorite channel list


MY old RCA I bought for 250 dollars twenty years ago -

That was with no features. I paid less than that for the new one! With more bells and whistles that I even use.

[Freedom]

This old one is so big and heavy.. I will have a problem getting it out and what to do with it, where to put it when the new one gets here?

Each city is different, make a quick call to City Hall.

Here, we have to go buy a $10 orange sticker. That covers the work for dismantling it and properly disposing of the screen. They take your address when you buy the sticker. You put the item on the front lawn with the sticker clearly visible and within 2 or 3 days POOF it is gone.

Of course, if you put is out on the front lawn the night before trash collection, it may disappear with NO sticker on it, he he he. Did that with 2 old lawn mowers last week. SO glad to be rid of them!

[Freedom]

Analog TV's will be out of date in 20 months.

You will need to buy a converter to continue to use them.

http://www.projo.com/business/content/BZ_RABBITEARS_06-25-07_5R5U55Q.30c7ba7.html

TV antennas: The end is near

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, June 25, 2007

By JACQUES STEINBERG

The New York Times

A converter box, right, will be needed by February 2009 for owners of old TVs and antennas so that they can watch television programming. Viewers having cable or satellite providers should not have any trouble.

NYT / Nicole Bengiveno Nicole Bengiveno

At midnight on Feb. 17, 2009, the rabbit ears and the rooftop antennas that still guide TV signals into nearly one of every five U.S. homes will be rendered useless — unless they are tethered to a new device, including two versions unveiled this month, that the government will spend as much as $80 a household to help families buy.

The V-shaped rabbit ears, which have stood sentry in some living rooms and dens since the early 1950s, risk going the way of the eight-track tape player or Betamax in 20 months because that is when local TV stations will cease sending their signals over the analog airwaves, and instead begin transmitting their programming exclusively over the more modern digital spectrum.

The change, set in motion by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission in the mid-1990s, is being made at least partly to give viewers a better-quality picture and to make it easier for stations to broadcast in high definition.

“The moment coming is the end of something that has been around for 60 years — conventional television — and it has been a wonderful era,” said Richard E. Wiley, a former chairman of the FCC who led a government advisory panel on what was then known as “advanced television” from 1987 to 1995.

“With that ending will come this new digital world, this much greater world,” Wiley said, “but many people aren’t yet ready or haven’t gotten the word.”

Those families still using antennas on their roofs or atop their sets to watch David Letterman or Desperate Housewives — nearly 20 million homes, according to government figures — will eventually be unable to see their favorite programs, at least not without a digital-ready television or a converter that will translate the new signals for old TVs and their antennas. (Those viewers who already get their television from satellite or cable providers are not expected to have much disruption.)

That is where the government vouchers come in.

This month, the National Association of Broadcasters, the powerful trade lobby representing the nation’s TV networks and stations, lifted the curtain on two prototypes for those basic, digital converters — one made by LG, the other by Thomson and distributed under the RCA brand — that will start appearing in electronic and department stores in January, at an expected cost of $50 to $70.

To ensure that viewers’ uninterrupted access to free, over-the-air television does not pose a financial hardship, a government agency — the National Telecommunications and Information Administration — will issue $40 gift cards to consumers who want to buy the converters so they are not left behind when TV as we have always known it goes dark in early 2009.

Beginning in January, consumers may apply for up to two coupons each, for a total of $80. (More information on the program is available at an FCC Web site, www.dtv.gov, or the broadcasters’ site at www.dtvanswers.com.)

All told, the government has set aside $1.5 billion to help viewers pay for the converters, although it expects to recoup that cost — and more — by later auctioning off the portion of the broadcast spectrum being vacated by the TV stations.

While some of the unused spectrum will be given to public safety agencies such as police and fire departments — because those frequencies are useful at passing through buildings and walls — much of it will be bought by cellular and other wireless companies seeking to expand their services.

The legislation establishing the $40 coupons was passed by Congress in late 2005, with the support of telecommunications and software companies, at least some of which expected to either manufacture the digital converters or to bid for the older frequencies being returned by the stations.

Consumer groups, however, have expressed concern that some families will have neither the means to buy the converters nor the savvy to successfully obtain the vouchers.

The broadcasters’ association says it is embarking on a public service campaign intended to ensure that viewers know they have to update their equipment or risk losing their TV access.

When the value of the advertising time being donated by the stations is taken into account, the broadcasters estimate the value of their awareness campaign at $100 million.

“Our number-one goal,” said Shermaze Ingram, a spokeswoman for the broadcasters’ association, “is that no one loses TV reception because of a lack of information.”

[Laura's Babies]

Interesting article. I knew this was coming in the not so far away future and was wondering what people were going to do. Maybe that is why this TV decided it has finally outlived it's day and went bonkers on me.

I am going to go with the HDTV flat TV so it will be easier for me to handle alone, just waiting to see what this shoulder of mine is going to cost me and when I can go back to work before I get it. I have Mama's little portable to watch until then.

I am surprised to read the government is going to pass out vouchers for those who can't afford to buy the converters but glad to see they are. So many can not afford unexpected things like that and TV's are a very important thing to have with this wacky weather everybody has been having everywhere.

Freedom... This old TV is so big and heavy that that is the problem. I will have to have someone else, probably 2 people take this thing out to where ever I need it to go. I'd put it on freecycle for someone who is repair savay but they advise not letting anyone know where you live and it is to big to fit in my car to take anywhere... :rolleyes: