Friday, January 4, 2013

Batten down the hatches!

All hands on deck for kleenex duty! That time has come. Other than that, I don't propose to bore you with the details.

I've been pouring hot tea down my throat. After work I went to Teavana and got the mix that Susi served us. It's just as yummy here. Then some corn chipolte soup that was just perfect for what I wanted.

The other errand I did was to buy a small heater for under my desk in the study. This room has always been cold, and after writing a while my feet end up very cold, even wearing warm slippers and resting on a lamb fleece. Maybe it's just my metabolism slowly failing. Used to be I was warm all the time.

On the way to the heater display I had to walk past this.

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And
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Can you make out the pricing? $400 and $420! These just happen to be the first HD TV's I happened to see since I started the quest of researching TV stuff. I almost bought one of them, then realized I was too feeble to carry it out to the car, and there's no way I'd be able to figure out how to set it up. To say nothing of having a Christmas tree in the way for another day.

In my brain, it wasn't all that long ago (10 years) that these would have cost north of $8000. I did the math on a calculator, twice. The current price is 5% of the price then. Good thing my financial investments aren't following the same curve. I've never heard of these manufacturers, and they're sold in Canadian Tire. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, but it does give me a price benchmark.

No wonder some people at work were considering these a disposable good. Maybe if I wait a little longer one will show up in my bag of granola. Or one of my neighbors will force their old one on me, sort of like how I got my first TV forced on me.

Any hints on where to go for a new TV? Or does it matter any more? Best Buy, Costco, Canadian Tire, they're all the same now? I also need something to play Blue Ray DVD's, for the short time they'll be around, and our current DVD library. Something to store things I stream from the net. A TV that talks to me wireless router directly, or another box that manages all that. Decisions decisions. No doubt I'll end up with a zillion remotes, and need a course to use them.

Not something to think about with a head full of

Now to carry on with the dream sequence, I'm in the space for that.

8 comments:

  1. We've had Sony products and like them immensely... bought our first flatscreen 3 1/2 yrs ago and it's still going strong in the office... of course my husband had to upgrade to a 3D TV (I have no idea why since we have yet to actually watch it in 3D mode... seriously, isn't that what outdoors is for?). But yeah, Sony. Good product so far. From Future Shop (My techie husband is a loyal customer unfortunately)

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    1. There used to be Sony stores in the malls, but I haven't seen one for a while. Not that I look around much when I'm in hell. I've no plans to go for 3D. I'm pretty sure that would give me a headache.

      Part of the problem is that you can't tell who made it from the label on the front. Our current TV says Zenith, a respected name from the dark ages of electronics, i.e., my childhood, but in fact LG owns the brand and made the TV.

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  2. A disposable society, Keith! It astounds me, but I won't go there today ;) We've had our plasma for almost 10 years (getting worried) - it replaced the 21" Sears 1989 model that was still going strong, but we chose not to move it when we came out east. Good luck with the TV shopping (no advice here - I rely on The Husband for those kind of purchases). Oh, have you considered Kijiji if you're thinking used?

    And feel better soon :)

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    1. When my grandma died we were cleaning out her room at the nursing home. My uncle picks up this small TV, 12 or 14 inches and tells me my dad had given this to her when she moved into the home, so it was mine now, he guessed, since my dad had died previously. At this time computer monitors were bigger. There's a fun story about buying a VCR player that goes with it. There are days I love tormenting salespeople.

      We figure this plasma could go on forever if left there. It's just as likely that if we decided to move it downstairs that we would stress something and it wouldn't start in the new location. Besides, I already have an old computer to watch DVD's on while I do spin training.

      This morning is bad. But I think once I'm vertical a little while I'll start to feel better.

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  3. We have a few tvs in our house now, in various locations. There was a time I could never see a good reason to have more then one. Usually for electronics, we check out a bunch of reviews and then either wait for what we want to go on sale, or get one that has good reviews that is already on sale.

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    1. I was like that too, figuring you can only watch one TV at a time. Then I realized there have been times when Linda has been watching something on the main one, and I'm watching something else on one of the computers. We toured a show home once where every room had a TV and a web cam. The idea was an upgrade to the intercom system. Every room. Think about that for a moment. In my world, a house that needs an intercom is too big.

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  4. The sickness has invaded our house too. J and A are both snotty and coughing. They better keep it to themselves!

    We bought our LCD about 5 years ago- Samsung at Visions. We had 1 issue covered under warranty. I'm hoping it lasts for another 10 years. We only have 1 TV- once we finish te basement we will put one down there too. We aren't big TV watchers though.

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    1. They won't. Our plasma actually had two service visits covered under warranty. One was a simple issue that was a known thing for that model. The other was a whole new board, and would have cost about 20% of the new price, and about half of the replacement cost.

      We don't watch TV at all, just shows and movies via DVD. I'm willing to explore the on line world.

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