Flat-Screen TV Prices Finally Come Down

AP ^ | 08/15/05 | GREG SANDOVAL

[Larry Lucido]

LOL! Sure thing.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I finally got it. It took 4 hours of tedious work. Symantec's instructions are full of dead ends and no prompts.

[SweetCaroline]

*

[the Deejay]

Just six yrs. old?

Wow! They're just getting broken in. LOL

[Terpfen]

Who needs TV shows? Bring on the HD video games!

[1Old Pro]

We even switched from DISH satellite to COMCAST Cable because cable offfered many more HD channels.

Yea, I like DISh and cannot get cable. I am impressed with some of the rear projection flat screen HDTV LCD's. I think Sony;'s is in the low 2,000's now.

[goldstategop]

Most people will pay extra for white glove service. A technician will set it up at home to the customer's preferences. After that, its human nature to get used to the way it looks once its tuned to one's liking. Once flat-screen prices drop to rock bottom, its listed premium services like this that the stores will look to make up the difference.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[6SJ7]

The old DuMont still works fine. Just needs a new vacuum tube.

Hey. Did someone say 'tube'?

[Modernman]

So, is it true plasma TVs only last a couple years (or, at least, very few hours when compared to CRTs and/or LCDs)?

All of the salesmen I talked to at high-end stores said that the picture on the flat-screen plasmas is still not as good as the LCD.

We ended up getting the Sony Grand WEGA 60" Widescreen Digital-Cable-Ready Rear-Projection LCD HDTV for around $3800. A little pricey, granted, but you can't beat the picture, IMO.

[jmq]

"Just in time to watch the Chiefs, huh? :0)"

It wouldn't be to watch the Royals.........

[goldstategop]

I couldn't remove corrupt Norton from the Add/Control panel. Fortunately, Symantec provided a free tool that lets you uninstall Norton with a one button click. The strange thing is if you reinstall it, you don't have to download everything all over again. Apparently, the uninstall tool preserves your DAT files.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[ozzymandus]

Back in the real world, "regular" TVs are dirt cheap, like $200 for a 27" screen.

[Moral Hazard]

"So, is it true plasma TVs only last a couple years (or, at least, very few hours when compared to CRTs and/or LCDs)?"

Plasmas are susceptible to burn in and fading. If you're careful about burn in and don't mind the brightness fading somewhat it'll likely last you several years.

The good news is that even if you buy a new plasma and it becomes unwatchable after 3 years or so you can probably replace it with a plasma with 50%+ more screen area and a longer lifespan for half the price.

[SampleMan]

I don't think that's Murphy's Law, but the economic law of Capitalism.

[The South Texan]

I just bought a 22 inch HDTV LCD for my bedroom and I looked at Sony, Toshiba, Zentih, JVC, etc and ended up with a Samsung from the evil Sam's Club for $799. Samsung used to be considered "cheap" electornics as far as quality, but this set had the best picture and sound of the brands listed about. Samsung has really improved it's quality. Now if we could get more HDTV programing , that would be great.

[Moral Hazard]

"Whenever I check out the HDTVs at Circuit City or Best Buy, I am always stunned at how random the picture quality is from one model to the next. And there is little correlation between price/brand name and picture quality."

This probably has more to do with the failure of the Circuit City and Best Buy employees to set things up properly than anything else.

[RedwineisJesus]

"""Of course, I found it online for around $2500 shipped."""

Visiting the new factory outlets in Washington State, the Seattle Factory Outlets, we happened upon a Sony store. This wetted our appetite for a brand spanking new flat panel TV set, but upon finding out that ALL the stuff there was marked "REFURBISHED" we gave up on the idea.

Is it true that most electronics sold online come with a sticker "RE-REFURBISHED"?

[Puddleglum]

Ping to myself for browsing later - my TV just fried itself last night.

[kevkrom]

General tip to anyone buying a big-screen TV -- invest an extra $15 or so to get a DVD with commercial-grade test patterns (like "Sound and Vision Home Theater Tune-Up") so you can calibrate your picture to match the room you put it in. By default, most TVs are shipped with settings that look good in a brightly-lit showroom, but may not look good in your place.

The particular DVD I mentioned goes through a lot of general set-up stuff, but the real reason to get it are the test-patterns (and instructions) that allow you to set the brightness, sharpness, contrast, tint, etc. for your room. It also has test tones for stereo system setup.

[LanPB01]

Circuit City has a really nice Samsung "thin" model (it uses a tube, but it's one-third thinner than normal tubes) on sale this week.