Since moving to our new house a couple of years ago, our 10 year old 27” Zenith has looked conspicuously small in the 4’x4’ TV niche above the fireplace. I haven’t been too concerned about it for the most part because with HDTV and HD-DVD coming in the near future I have decided to be patient, let the dust from the format wars settle and wait for the price to drop on new products. Well, the HD format wars continue and big HDTV’s are still a little too steep for my budget.
So, upon celebration of my 15 th wedding anniversary, my wife suggested that we buy a new TV that the whole family can enjoy. Only a great woman that would suggest a new TV for an anniversary gift – I just love her. And who am I to argue with that kind of logic, although I think part of the motivation is to get our son and his friends out of our bedroom. Right now our second TV is in the master bedroom which also doubles as the gaming system for our kids and their friends. A new TV means that the gaming system can go into the play room resulting in a little less traffic in our bedroom.
Now back to that TV. Being in the business, I know a bit about TV but things are changing pretty rapidly right now. After some research, I quickly realized that what I really wanted was way out of my budget so I would need to settle for something less. Video projectors were interesting as well as RP DLP but those were both out of the budget and hard to justify.
Then I really started to think about it. Do I really want or need HDTV? Sure it’s cool but it would require an additional investment in gear and subscription services to really take advantage. In addition, the content is still really limited so I would be paying a premium for something that isn’t that important to me. What I really needed was a bigger screen with a better picture. With this in mind, I began my research and determined that something in the 35” range would fit the space perfectly and be much easier on the budget. Finally, when I had my choices narrowed down, I received an email from one of our suppliers. They had an open box Toshiba 35AF44 for a smoking deal. So I snapped it up and will be installing it this weekend.
HDTV will have to wait a couple more years but I still have my killer Aperion Audio home theater with Power Towers, 12” Sub, and VACC so the picture will be great, the sound will be fantastic and I am going to have a really great football season.
Go Ducks!
