Last week’s poll asked if you were still wearing watches or you had caught up with 2012 and dropped them like the useless pieces of jewelry they are. Unbelievably, only a small majority of respondents don’t wear watches and quite a few people still hold on to an outdated and unnecessary custom of telling time. Few people tell time by the sun, why are you still doing something that is outdated? Weirdos ;-)
This week’s poll comes as I impatiently await Black Friday fliers for the various stores getting their holiday inventory ready for the season. We bought new TVs back in 2004 just as flat screens were becoming prolific and CRTs were at near fire sale prices. Because of that, the fact that we just don’t watch all that much TV to begin with, and price, we have resisted upgrading to something newer. However, with prices for TVs the size which will work best in our living room dropping to ~$200, I am in the market for one and I’m willing to sit outside for hours to pay that price to get something bigger than I believe $200 will fetch on any other day.
While we mostly just watch Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon streaming video and I don’t much care if they’re in HD or not which could cause problems on a larger screen, I do enjoy watching football in HD. The Wife, not being a football fan, sees no benefit to this at all and looks at me with The Eye when I bring it up. Bleh.
What about you? What kind of TV do you have? When did you upgrade? Do you plan to upgrade to flat screens soon now that the prices are so low? Any reasons other than football and movies I can convince The Wife with (electricity costs to help appease the Budget Nazi still alive and well inside of her?) Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and vote on the sidebar and then comment on below as I’d love to hear what you have to say.
After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
Dakota Complaints Map
Dakota Inmate Dashboard
Loading ...
November 4th, 2012 at 9:11 am
See how weird you feel next time you at the park and someone asks if anyone knows what time it is, and I can just say “around 2″, and a few minutes later after folks get their watch uncovered or fish their phone out of their pocket they can say it’s 1:56. Who’s weird then?
I have one CRT in the garage I use to hook up to an old PC running as a NAS on my home network. My first non CRT tv purchased, and really first material expense on a television was in 2006 when I purchased a 56″ Samsung DLP that I still am using today(replaced the bulb 2x so far). Everything before that was garage sale or hand me down from family and friends.
Both of my kids have purchased their own flat panels and do streaming only, though my youngest has a Leaf OTA antenna and can get all the channels from his 3rd floor Eagan Apartment.
I use a Roku for streaming myself, picked up for free from Dish when they got in a pissing match with AMC. I have a sling box too, which my oldest uses to watch some stuff that isn’t available on the stream. (my kids took the xbox and playstations when they moved out)
The main difference with the flat panels is that they support an HD signal. HD is materially better to watch, even at small screen sizes than standard def. My wife thought there was no big deal until we got another TV that was HD. Then she was like why didn’t we get this sooner. Power use is perhaps a wash between a 42″ LCD and a 26″ inch tube. Powering all those transistors takes power, plus they draw power when just sitting there due to the soft power switches. Both my kids have that stuff on power strips and shut it off to save the power.
All that said, I’ve never got a new tv until the one I currently have has died. There is always something better out there but I like to use them all up before buying new TV’s, so I’m not sure I can help on the sales pitch. Maybe the up side is newer tvs don’t last as long. I could have my DLP last forever as parts are easy to user service. LCD or Plasma flat panels not so much.
November 4th, 2012 at 10:19 am
You should have a radio button for: Both
Like mikeh, I also have a now-obsolete-but-still-relevant 61″ Samsung DLP; only mine has an LED light source and does not use bulbs (the LED modules can still go bad, but after 4 years, nothing has failed). I agree with Mikeh’s comments about DIY servicing as there are several places on the net where you purchase parts, along with online guides on how to get it done. The only thing this set doesn’t offer is native 3D support (It has some other 3D standard that never took off). But you know what? I could care less about 3D and I think a lot of other people think that way too. I really don’t want to put on a pair of glasses to watch a movie, now I’m sure it’s great, but my wife gets headaches and nausea from watching 3D movies anyway, so not even a consideration for me in the future. It uses about 75 watts of AC power when turned on IIRC.
I still have a 32″ 1080i Sony Wega in the living room upstairs that still works fine though you get the upper and lower black bars on high def because it’s still a traditional 4:3 TV and that how you get true aspect ratio for hi-def sources. The advantage this set has compared to plasma or LCD/LED is that it has (near)true blacks and color accuracy.
But that’s all in the rearview mirror now. I would look at LED’s over LCD’s or plasma as they use the least power of the above choices, but Plasma is still king in PQ and the cost is a lot more competitive these days but uses the most power and it can suffer from “burn in” but modern plasmas have taken that into account now so it is less of an issue than in the past.
November 4th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Just like most other stuff, when our 10 year-old basic TV craps out, we’ll buy an inexpensive one that has few bells and whistles but that will last us another 10+ years. I don’t care all that much about the TV.
November 4th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Thanks for reminding me to move back an hour on my watch. I love my watch and can’t imagine not regularly wearing one. Old is my TV vote. I wait until things break before I get a new one. It’s called being cheap. :)
November 4th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I owned a really old TV. Is that the CRT TV? Not sure. I bought it in 1986 – and until I got rid of it, had the paperwork for it. It started taking a long time to warm up – static and no picture for about half an hour and then it was fine. Then it quit getting a picture, but I could get sound. Anyway, I whined to my parents about it and my father decided he needed to get a larger flat screen TV after seeing the one my uncle had, so I got his old one. I would have bought a flat screen, but getting a free hand-me-down was even better! And I love it! I wouldn’t buy one of those projection types, I have heard too many bad things. But, I would absolutely buy a flat screen.
November 4th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Looks like I’m the first to respond with “I’m too advanced to own a TV,” though it’s too bad that response sounds so smug. I’d get a TV if it were something we watched. We had one along with full cable, but full cable became basic, which became an antenna, and when the antenna quit working we just never replaced it. Eventually we gave the TV away. I think we still have a small CRT TV that I got back in college tucked away in a closet somewhere, but I’d have to dig it out to confirm.
I’d like a newer flat screen HD TV and full cable for the occasional sports game, but it’s not worth the cost when I can get them on my laptop anyway. I’m sure I’ll get one at some point when we want to be able to watch movies as a family without gathering around the 17-inch laptop display (and when the kids are old enough that I have a little more confidence they wont’ destroy it). For now, I’m happy rolling with the laptop for any media needs.
November 4th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Joey, usually people who don’t own a TV are quite smug about it. That’s why I chose to word it that way.
November 4th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I’ve had a Samsung 32″ LCD TV for a little over seven years now. I paid a lot for it by modern standards; it was purchased with wedding gift money and you could buy the same thing now for far, far less than what it cost at the time. It still works fine and I don’t see myself replacing it until it breaks, at which point I’ll get another flatscreen if it is smaller than what I have now (CRTs take up too much space).
November 4th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
I bought a flatscreen last June. The first TV I ever paid money for. People just kept giving me their old TVs until that time. I bought it mostly because I didn’t want to move the huge ass other TV and found a group home that would take it from me for their residents.
Previous to this TV, I used Roku, but this TV has the internet built in. It is amazing. One remote and I get TV, netflix, amazon and hulu. The only thing I miss on my Roku is Al Jazeera because the cable package I get doesn’t have a single news station. It does have about 12 home shopping networks though.
I did get HD. I’m not sure you can even buy a new tv that isn’t HD. I also got one that was 120HZ. Basically it was explained that if you want any sports or play video games you want more HZs or the TV won’t keep up with what is going on. Now, I don’t watch sports or play video games, but I MIGHT want to one day.
November 4th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
We bought our current TV back in 1991, so that tells you everything you need to know. That I’m the kind of person who drove a 20-plus year Volvo for years. With window cranks. When my daughter was about 10 we were driving her and her friend to some event, and I asked the friend in the backseat to roll up her window. Dead silence for a few seconds, then…”Umm…How do I get it to go up?” She’d never, of course, seen anything but auto window controls.
Prior to that, I had an old b&w portable with a bent hanger for an antennae that I’d haul out periodically. Bought it for $5 at a yard sale in the early 80s. I’m clearly not an early adapter when it comes to television.
We’ll probably be getting a flatscreen around the time transmission ceases. Or maybe not even then, because I don’t think we’ve even turned the thing on for however many weeks. We stream whatever we watch.
November 4th, 2012 at 9:29 pm
Nurd52,
An LED TV is an LCD TV. It’s called that because they started replacing the fluorescent tubes they were using for backlighting in TV (and computers) with LED panels. Provides a more consistent light source.
I currently have a Samsung 50″ DLP. Replaced a 26″ tube TV (boy was that hard to get rid of…) I only have basic cable (because Comcast ‘bundles’ basic cable for the same price as high speed Internet without basic), but often tend to watch via the antenna feed (rabbit ears) because the signal is better. Comcast recompresses the signal too much to save on bandwidth.
Oh, and I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my HDTV. Loads of flexibility for what I want to run on my TV.
I’d like to replace it with an LCD/LED TV, but it’s low on my priority list. Unless the bulb dies again. Then I’ll pick up a new one.
November 5th, 2012 at 7:58 am
We have 3 TVs in our house for 2 people that can watch them. One is a very old one in our bedroom, not even a flat screen on the fat TV, it’s a bubble screen. We plan on upgrading that TV via Black Friday like you. Our bedroom is large enough for a sleeping area and a sitting area and now that we’re on the raising children express, we want a place where we can be just the two of us and watch the news together :) Or, you know, Wheel of Fortune ::old:: Or play some mario on the Wii we have in our bedroom. ::pretendingnottobeold::
November 5th, 2012 at 8:10 am
GJB:
LED is the current “flavor” of an LCD I guess, though you could argue that the 2 products are different because of the backlighting technology and lower power consumption of the LED.
I thought there was supposed to be OLED sets on sale by now, which will blow LC/ED’s out of the water with stunning color and incredibly thin panels (Almost like wallpaper).
Maybe the $5-10K price point is too much for the market now.
November 5th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
I am amazed that many people still have standard definition televisions. Please don’t invite me over to your house to watch the game unless you let me bring my own television.
Bill, I never had you pegged as a Black Friday rube. You do realize that in order to get in on one of the dirt cheap deals on that morning, that you will pretty much need to show up on Thanksgiving morning, if not the Wednesday night before to maybe have a shot at one of the 6 televisions that they are actually going to sell at that price, don’t you? Heck, some stores people are starting to camp out a week or two before that day in recent years.
You’d be better off hanging out on Amazon all day on Black Friday and hope to get lucky when they put your television of choice on special for the 30 second window you need to get one ordered.
November 5th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
lefty, I have traditionally done shit online instead of waiting in line. I was being somewhat dramatic with wanting to wait in line, outside, to get a shot at these but I have waited from 4:30 AM on to do it before.
November 5th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
LCD. Sold the old tube one back in 2004, I believe? My dad pulled his back out while trying to help us move it to the garage for the sale. It was bought by an Amish family – the irony.
Our neighbor is trying to sell and the professional stager did a walk through. The first thing she said to do was to ditch the old CRT tv sets (she has 4, I think) and replace with either flat screen ones, or just get rid of them altogether. Potential buyers listed that as a turn off (pun intended).
Who knew?
November 5th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
I bought an 32″ LCD about 4 years ago for about $500 when some newscast told rubes like me that LCDs wouldn’t get much cheaper due to high demand from the chinese market. It’s a nice HD Samsung with very little bells and whistles. About 5 months later, the same TV dropped to about $350 and I about blew a vein. Now, I could probably get a nicer, bigger TV for less than what I spent 4 years ago. That shit is why I hardly ever buy anything that costs over $100. I’m paralyzed by the possibility of getting royally hosed.
November 5th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
I just bought a new plasma TV to replace a non-dead Sony LCD Projector TV. The new plasma costs approximately $28 a year to run. I think I can afford that. I do have an older tube TV in a guest room, but since it’s incredibly rare ainhave a guest, I’ve never felt the need to replace that one.
Anyone want to buy a used 55″ Sony LCD projector TV? New bulb last year…
November 5th, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Constance I have to say my husbands 2011 Ford 150 has crank windows!! Yes you read that right, 2011 as in new. Poor guy, this is about the most basic truck you can find, but hey – it was new!
November 5th, 2012 at 7:57 pm
I love crank windows. They never freeze shut or crap out when it gets too cold.
November 5th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
I have a Samsung Widescreen HD CRT that was purchased new in 2006. A very rare combo anymore. At the time, the flat panels were relatively new, and the price on the CRT TV was a few hundred bucks lower. It still works fine, with a touch of distortion on the edges of the screen. Glad we chose to get the HD widescreen at the time (you could still get a traditional, non HD CRT then…).
November 7th, 2012 at 10:17 am
It really comes down to how important picture quality is to you; plasma displays are still the king when it comes to color accuracy, black levels and motion blur. Sports in general look the best on a plasma, especially if you have an OTA antenna. You can get a decent plasma at a fairly low price now, and they are much more energy efficient than they used to be.
I have 2 of them, and there is no way anyone could convince me to go any other route, until maybe OLEDs drop in price.
November 7th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Best Buy Ad leaked. Have fun waiting in line, buddy!
http://bfads.net/Ad/Best-Buy-2012
November 7th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Saw it this morning. Bring me food in line. Thanks.
November 7th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
I’ll grab you a gyro order from Ramadan and a Steak Challenge from Steak America. You should be able to get in line tomorrow and you’ll have enough food to last you.
November 7th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
p.s. apparently Walmart will start their door busters at 9pm on Thursday. Rumor has it, some other major retailers are following suit…hint hint…may have their name on a building called ” ” center.
That add really indicates the true value of stuff. A 40 LCD tv is the same price as a 7inch tablet, and some no name tablet is only $10 less.
November 8th, 2012 at 8:25 am
I grew up with a 27″ console TV in my house. Black and white. My parents didn’t get a color TV until about 1987. I used to have to slap the side of that thing from time to time to get the static and lines to clear.
He didn’t want to get a new TV until the old one was dead’r'n dead.
We’ve had one TV in our house for a long time. Our TV was a CRT until two years ago when we upgraded for some reason, don’t remember why, probably had something to do with a kid going to college and wanting our tv or someting lame.
BUT-
Since upgrading, I still find myself, every now and again marvelling at how great the picture is in HD. We now have three. A brand newish 48″ upstairs. A three year old 48″ in the basement. That one was shot with an airsoft gun my a mystry shooter a few years ago and has a dot in the middle of the screen. Super annoying. And we ahve one at the lake, which was a Black Fridy purchase last year.
November 8th, 2012 at 11:10 am
Bill, believe it or not, Pawn America has some really reasonably priced TVs with cosmetic issues (scratches, etc). I had never been in PA before ( I was there buying my son a new scientific calculator- to replace his $$ Target-bought one, stolen by a budding high school felon.. f-youverymuch) and was surprised at how many TVs there were for sale. I assume they work and if you don’t care too much about cosmetics it might be a good deal. Let’s hope they’re not stolen.
Just a thought.
November 8th, 2012 at 11:12 am
ks,
I looked on their website earlier today at both their BV and Bloomington locations and found TVs that were just as expensive as I could get new at Walmart or WorstBuy. Do they not show their entire inventory online?
November 8th, 2012 at 11:55 am
That might be the case – I had looked at calculators online and saw one that would work for him, went in and they had even a few more in the case than they had listed online. I’m not sure how often the website is updated.
However, the price of new TVs has come down so much in recent years that the cost might be about the same. Good luck!
November 8th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
There’s a new store by Carbonne’s and the Spice Cafe in Lakeville called “No Box TV” or something like that, and they had a sign up before opening talking about them selling open box, reconditioned, etc. May be a good place to find a deal.
November 8th, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Greg, thanks. I was going to check them out too as well as: http://www.openboxtvs.com/
November 9th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Looking at the openbox site they list a lot of TV’s as “Out of stock” and there’s no way to filter on that.
It also looks like no cash refund, just store credit and a 5% upcharge to use a credit card. Oh and there is a 25% re-stocking fee as well if you decide the TV isn’t for you.
No info on warranties either so I wouldn’t make a special trip to SLP for this.
November 9th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
http://www.noboxtvs.com/
This is a different store/website than you posted.
November 19th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
LED TV ordered today. It arrives tomorrow. Yay for Amazon Prime.