Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tackling the Electricity Bill

I got our latest electricity bill this past week. It went up. Again. I don't understand why. It's been a mild winter, so we haven't used the heater as much as last year. Plus, I've made a few small changes that I had hoped would add up to even a slight savings: I've cut down on the time the TV has been on. I haven't been perfect about it, though, because I still turn it on to watch something, decide to work on something else at the same time, then after an hour or so, I realize I'm not watching the TV at all. Wasted electricity. I've unplugged my alarm clock. When we first brought our daughter home, her pediatrician recommended we feed her every two hours for the first week or so. After the first night of pushing an awkward combination of buttons and waiting for the alarm time to advance every couple of hours, I realized it was tons easier to just punch the time into my cellphone alarm. I kept the bedside clock until about two weeks ago. I also unpl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Home Improvements

I've taken a week off in September to finish some home improvement projects that have been in progress for far too long. My challenge between now and then will be to both set aside and earn enough to buy the supplies without having to charge anything. Our biggest expense will be paint. We've got to paint our living room ceiling, living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom to have our home "finished." Hopefully we'll be able to get that far with it, but my fear is we'll need longer than a week to complete it all because several walls need to be repaired in places first. I've got a freelance project in progress right now that will give us the bulk of what we'll need, but I don't think it will cover everything. Plus, I have to make sure I don't spend any of it between now and then on "wants."
Post a Comment
Read more

Walmart Cards

On Thursday last week, I made a hasty trip through Walmart to pick up items I can't buy at Aldi when I noticed a sign that said using a Walmart card at the Murphy Oil gas stations could net a 15 cents a gallon savings. Because I was breezing through the store on my way to drop my daughter off at daycare before I had to head to work, I just made a mental note to do a little more looking into it later. Well, I finally had the chance. The 15 cents a gallon saving lasts through Christmas Eve, and it's good only on a Walmart prepaid debit card or credit card. If the 15 cents a gallon were permanent, I'd consider getting the prepaid debit card. Because it's only temporary though, I've decided to try loading up Walmart gift cards instead, which gives a 10 cents a gallon savings at Murphy stations through Dec. 24. Hopefully, I'll make the time to fit it into my schedule because my car doesn't get the greatest gas mileage, and 10 cents a gallon could come in ha...
Post a Comment
Read more