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Goodbye, Dangerous TV Setup!

To quickly recap: I mentioned in a previous post that due to the possible danger to my soon-to-be toddler daughter, I wanted to get rid of my TV setup. I had seen quite a few articles in the news lately about analog sets toppling over on small children, so I wanted a lighter TV. The setup we had is shown in the photo at the left.

In my hunt for a new TV, I didn't want to get just the cheapest I could find. I wanted to shop smart, but I have to say, all of the info out there about today's TVs made my brain hurt. I am neither a gamer nor someone who uses their TV as a huge computer monitor. I'm just a TV watcher. I need a decent picture and sound. That's it.

That said, I decided to focus on just a handful of things:
I wanted a 32-inch LED. LED, according to what I've read, works best in a variety of lighting, which is what we have in our living room throughout the day.

  • I wanted 1080p. I didn't start out with this requirement. I don't really care that much about 720p vs. 1080p; however, I couldn't find any information that definitively said that any particular 720p TV can "scale down" a 1080p broadcast. (That is, in the unlikely event that the majority of broadcasts are in 1080p one day. From what I've read, it seems unlikely anytime soon, so the less-costly 720p probably would've been fine. This is probably an area in which I didn't "shop smart," but the thought that we would have to replace the set in say, two years just didn't sit well with me.)
  • I wanted an Energy Star qualified unit. This typically costs more, but not so much that I don't think the extra expense is worth it, especially if we can get the money back through electricity savings.
  • I wanted a familiar brand with consistently high ratings. Normally, I'm not a sucker for name brands, but I wanted to be able to read reviews, and unfamiliar brands don't come with a lot of reviews. For instance, I saw a Sansui 32-inch TV on Walmart's website that has one good rating. That's it. Nothing else. Walmart has other Sansui TVs on its site, but again, there are few reviews, and even fewer from people who have had their set for more than a couple of months. So, I went online to see what people said about the Sansui brand overall. I found a comment in Yahoo Answers in which someone said that reviews can't be found because the TV isn't good, the manufacturer knows it, so it doesn't release samples for review. I'm not sure I buy into that, but I still opted for a familiar brand for my own peace of mind. I don't mind being one of the first to try out a little-known brand, as long as I can afford to replace the item later. 

After months of looking, I decided to get a Samsung. It costs a little more than I had planned to spend, but not as much as some of the others I've seen. I can't wait to try it out. Hopefully, my particular set isn't the one lemon in the bunch.
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