My 14 year-old tv is going downhill (color is bleeding, the volume and the power buttons don’t work with the remote control anymore!!!, and the dvd player I just bought doesn’t plug into it), so, it’s time to buy a new one.
I’m not too picky and don’t need anything ‘top of the line’, but I was wondering if anyone had some recommendations for me. Here are my requirements:
must allow my satellite dish receiver and my dvd player to plug into it;
should be a bit bigger than the 19" tv I currently have, but exterior dimensions no bigger than 27 1/2" wide X 24 1/2" tall (so it will fit into my existing entertainment cabinet thingy;
should be reasonably priced.
If you have a Circuit City in Thous Craniloa you could visit them & check cause a tv is one of those things you should see in person. But you can order them online too.
HDTV is just around the corner pricewise are you ready for it?
Thanks, handy. I’m planning on going to Circuit City (yes, we have them in south carolina), also I figured on looking at Best Buy, and, though I hate to admit it, I’ll probably check out Wal-Mart, too. But I’m hoping some techno-phile doper can save me some time and just tell me what make/model to get. I’m hoping I can find something for around $200 or so.
About HDTV–when that signal becomes mandatory (in, what, something like 2006), does that mean my ‘new’ tv won’t work anymore?
Many people recommended Toshiba to us when we bought our TV about five years ago. No complaints so far. When we bought it at Montgomery Wards, the salesguy tried to sell us the extended warranty. Hah! If the TV outlasts the store you bought it from, you’re doing pretty good, huh? Ours is a 27", which I consider to be a pretty good size (the set measures 25.5" wide x 24" tall).
Oh, and HDTV was supposedly just around the corner then, too. I wouldn’t worry too much about it (especially since you only want to spend $200.) The way I understood it, once the signal becomes mandatory, you’ll be able to buy a converter for your existing TV.
I’ll second the Toshiba recommendation. We have two. One is older, one is newer and they are both great. Sliceguy has a retail job at a place that sells televisions (among other things) so he’s fairly knowledgable.
Tamex, we get the extended warranties, but only because with his discount, they are approximately $3 and I think the corporate gods come down and beat you if you’re an employee and don’t buy one. I’ve only every heard one story of someone buying the extended warranty and it being useful.
We spent $4 and did the Consumer Report thing on line. Best four bucks I ever spent. Then we went on line to see who had our choice for the least amount of money and waiting. We ended up at circuit city. As I mentioned in the other TV thread, we are thrilled with our choice.
I second the Consumer Reports recommendation. We check Consumer Reports for any item we need to purchase. If you have a library close, they usually have the entire monthly and yearly guides available in the reference section. We were given an online subscription for a Christmas gift and use that instead of going to the library all the time.
Here is a list of the top seven 27” TVs from Consumer Reports.
The Toshiba and first Sony ranked Excellent of Very Good in 3 out of four categories. The rest ranked 2 out of 4 Excellent or Very Good and 2 out of 4 Good.