Too Many TV Choices
For people who don’t watch all that much television, we have far too many TVs in our house. There’s one in our family room, another in the kitchen, a third in our bedroom and a fourth upstairs in the guest room (although it’s not hooked up to cable). We have two others that are in our storage room where they’ve been for three years now… you know, just in case all four of the others break down. Both of those are so small I’d need a new eye prescription to watch them.
With the exception of our family room TV, the sets are all close to 10 years old. Our bedroom set is actually quite a bit older than that, having been one of the few things my husband’s ex-wife didn’t get in their divorce. No doubt that explains his attachment to the massive, heat-emitting thing despite its flickering screen.
Unfortunately for VH, that bedroom TV set is on its last legs. Yesterday, it started flickering and humming. This morning it stopped displaying images altogether, remaining completely black even though the audio is fine.
It’s time for a new one, but I’m overwhelmed by all of the choices these days. Should we get a direct view TV or a flat-panel one? LCD or plasma? Would we hang it on the wall or get a plasma stand, or would I have to allow my husband to finally retrieve that gargantuan entertainment set I banished to our storage room? Should we look into rear- or front-projection? Do we go with HDTV capable or HDTV ready, and since when did “capable” and “ready” stop meaning the same thing?
Is it just me, or does it seem to you like these are an awful lot of choices to make just so I can complain that there’s nothing good to watch on TV?
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I think I am simply going to wait until the dust settles and I can go back to buying a TV where my choices are simply size…and I don’t have to look at Plasma vs LCD vs CRT, or what 1600:1 is compared to 1280×1024 vs all the other crap numbers there are…I don’t have the patience to sort through all the crap.
I hate the expansion of choice. I want a TV to look at shows. I want a watch to tell the time. I want a mobile phone to call the emergency/breakdown services. All those extras? Shove em. If I want a camera I’ll buy a camera. If I want a beeper I’ll become a character in The Wire. If I want LCD I’ll move to 1979 and become a hippie. Choice is all very well, but what happened to the right to choose not to have all the crap they want to offload on you, hmm?
In the exact same boat. And I think I have been putting it off for longer than you. HD-capable TV’s are older models that will require a separate tuner or upgrade to properly display the image. In about 18 months, all over the air signals will be broadcast in HD (just something to think about). You’ll need to be hooked up to cable or a dish to continue receiving programming (they will do the down-converting). But HD is the current gold standard of TV. Your real choices are 720p and 1080p (higher being more resolution. 1080p will become the broadcast standard in short order and stay there for a very long time. You can still watch 1080p on a 720p TV, you just will not be able to see *all* of the quality. It will still be pretty darn stunning, though. I’m going to use Amex points to buy the best 1080p 42″ TV I can get. It will likely be an LCD or DLP flavor and I’m pretty sure the LCD will win.
Go out and look at them *before* you buy!