Get your TV sets now.

Not a problem. All of the "brand name" products such as Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and a number of others are all made in Mexico and shipped into Canada and the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Act. It's only the marginal products with "house" brand names made for Wal-Mart and other big dirt-ball box stores. Oh, and of course the famous Chinese brands which don't come to mind at the moment.

My TV is crapping out; it hardly made it through this years Stanley cup.
Since TV is inescapably evil, I endevour to spend the least amount as possible on a new idiot box.
I have my eye on a new Electrohome, or if I'm feeling rich a 27" Daiwa. I was going to put it off til next year but it looks like I won't have the luxury.

Mike,

My 10 year old 20" Sony is also on its last legs -- sceen goes black every now and again. So I'm in the market too. The idea of a stereo tv is quite novel Since $3K is silly money for a LCD, I'm eyeing a Samsung widescreen 26" HDTV ($700). Then again I might just buy another cheap Sony.

Dan

Dan,

Now that Buffy's off the air there's little reason to have a TV. But if you are going to replace your aging Sony, I'd suggest going a little more upscale than the 26-inch widescreen Samsung. All the budget Samsung HDTVs I've seen are only marginally better than a good regular TV, which must have taken deliberately shitty engineering since HDTV is so much high res than conventional TV.

It's not like you have to spend a fortune either. For only a few hundred more you can get an HDTV that's a huge improvement over conventional TV. I can't remember the model numbers, but both Sony and Toshiba make a respectable 30-inch widescreen HDTV for about a grand, either of which are as far above the Samsung as Buffy is above Enterprise.

Keep in mind, though, that most of the advantage of HDTV comes if you feed the set an HD signal. Cable and off-the-air broadcasts won't look that much better than with conventional TV.

Joe

Joe,

I'd say 90% of my TV time is with DVD, which do their best with EDTV or better. Are there any good quality w/s HDTVs that are smaller than 30"? My Tosh DVD player has progressive scan so it would be nice to take advantage of that 'spose.

cheers,

Dan

Dan,

I think the smallest CRT widescreen HDTVs that Sony and Toshiba make are their 30-inch models, so if you want a 26-incher you may have to get a Samsung -- or one of those expensive LCD TVs.

Joe

Mike

I have one word for you: Loewe.

TV will still be evil, but you will enjoy what you watch much, much more. Your eyes will thank you for it, your brain will thank you for it. Even a set as good as a loewe will not distract you from life, good books, music - unless you would have gone there anyway.

Never again a cheap shitty television.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike Sae:
I endevour to spend the least amount as possible on a new idiot box

...

I have my eye on a new Electrohome, or if I'm feeling rich a 27" Daiwa.

---

A contradiction, surely? If you want to spend as little as possible, buy something broken from Ebay, no more than 5 years old, and have it repaired by a local shop. TV sets go for absurdly low prices on Ebay, but if you buy something that's described as broken, you're paying peanuts. TV sets can usually be repaired for very little money.

quote:

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Originally posted by Markus Sauer:
TV sets go for absurdly low prices on Ebay, but if you buy something that's described as broken, you're paying peanuts. TV sets can usually be repaired for very little money.

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My former TV, a 32" RCA purchased 10 years ago for the relatively good price of $700US, required two major repairs of roughly $200US each. In one case, they scratched the tube while moving it, so they waived the fee. A year ago it started degrading again, so I gave it to a friend with the caveat that it would likely need repairs "soon". They've been lucky so far, and haven't been seriously inconvenienced by its glitches.

With this in mind, I doubt that I could be enticed to buy a broken one from ebay.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

Rico,

quote:

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Never again a cheap shitty television.

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In version 3.0 of the FEP scale, you lose 75 FEPs of your overall score if your TV costs more than any single component in your hi-fi. I can't remember how you fared the last time, but I'm worried that you now fall into the middle earth range of scores.

Joe

quote:

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My 10 year old 20" Sony is also on its last legs

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My 16 year old 21" Philips is still working nicely. The only problem is that one of the (few) TV-channels I can receive have begun transmitting in widescreen, makes the girls look a bit to slim for my taste

JohanR

Joe

well I had forgotten that. No, it didn't cost more than any component of my hifi - apart from the mana rack. Does that count? Or should I buy soundstages

Well ok, come to think of it, if I count the tuna or the tapedeck, I'm busted. OTOH, the TV is in a separate room, not part of the hifi system at all. Would this be mitigating circumstances?

Should I give it all away (the pursuit of FEP's) and buy back my Sting records?



Rico - SM/Mullet Audio