The TV dilemma | The Family

We went to the store again and found a great price again and did not buy again. Sigh….. I do not know whether to be glad we did not buy or not. There was only one of the less expensive one and i know it will not be there when we go back.

The dilemma is this: Soon, from 6 months to 6 years, depending on who is predicting, all television signals will be digital. If i got an analog television new, which is what i can afford, i would be buying old technology right before the shift to the new. The television i was looking at has HDMI input, but i am not sure if it is for DVD’s and the like or if it would also change the digital television signal to analog. If it did not, i would have to buy a box to do that. I do not want another thing to plug wires into and if you consider the $100 or so that i would be spending on the box, the analog tv price goes up. Do i really want to spend $400 plus a possible $100 for old technology? or should we just get the digital tv and be done with it. There was a well rated Sony digital tv, flat screen, tube type (not thin) on sale for $625. It’s regular price is close to $800. Of course by the time we’ll go back to buy it, it will not be on sale.

Add, also, the price of updating our antenna, no matter which television we get, and the cable to go from antenna to tv. I think an antenna will run us about $130 and the cable, who knows.

So give me input. I cannot easily buy the higher priced one and would have to have to wait till it is on a good sale again anyway, so guess i have time to think. I do not actually need a television. I am moving my little sewing room tv in the living room tomorrow. The big television rolls and jerks around so much i can’t watch it. Even catching it out of the corner of my eye is not good. I need to replace my little one too. The VCR no longer works and it will not accept the signal from an exterior VCR or DVD. When i am sewing during the day I need to be able to watch something besides what is in tv. Maybe i will use the little one somewhere else.

3 comments

I think you should get a TV. Get what you can afford now. What you have is not working. It is probably doing all sorts of damage to your brains.

Technology’s not going to shift overnight. Yes, it will all be digital, but look at how fast that transition has gone so far. You guys are watching basic network TV, and those stations will probably be among the last to make a full switch (not sending analog).

If you have made it as far as you have with this lousy TV, then being on the cutting edge – or even close enough to see the edge – isn’t your main priority.

Get what you can afford that works. Just get it, and let technology figure itself out. TVs arent’ like computers, it isn’t going to be obsolete next year no matter what you get.

I agree with Ramona. You guys know you lusted over that tv chris and i have. That TV is…gosh…well i have had it since 2001 and it’s doing just fine. technology is not going to shift over night. i found this one at Sams for about 2-300 buckers. and i agree…they can’t turn it off over night…and the major city news stations and probably pbs will be the last to go. they are too many analog tvs out there and it would leave to many people w/o any sort of news or early warning device. so just get something in the budget. don’t fret over it being top of the line, flat screen insaneness. just be sure you can plug your antenae in it and go. oh oh and please (this is a request from me, chris, and any potential future spawn): get one that you can enable closed captioning for the hearing impared so we can mute it on luke and save our hearing.

and it’s rolling now???? oh gawd. that is terrible.

I have moved my little tv into the livingroom and it is sooooo much better. Yes it is small, but the picture is so clear and bright, and it stays still!!! My little tv does have problems. The vcr part has completely stopped working, and because the signal from an external vcr or dvd player is fed in thru the vcr, i cannot use an external unit either. I have thought about just getting another smallish tv, something between what i have and the 27″ one i was looking at. Then when we get a big one for the livingroom, i will have a television that i can play tapes and dvds on in the sewing room and the little one… who knows… bedroom, shop, give it away…. put it in the shop ans see what it would cost to fix the vcr…. Only problem with that plan is that if i get something big enough that we can tolerate it, we will have it in the livingroom forever.

Sometimes i lean toward gritting my teeth and forking over the money to get a no frills digital tv because we are looking at keeping it for 15 or 20 years and i know the technology is going to change in that length of time. I have not decided for sure yet. Still soaking on it. I do appreciate the input.

Ramona October 3, 2005 at 6:14 pm

I think you should get a TV. Get what you can afford now. What you have is not working. It is probably doing all sorts of damage to your brains.

Technology’s not going to shift overnight. Yes, it will all be digital, but look at how fast that transition has gone so far. You guys are watching basic network TV, and those stations will probably be among the last to make a full switch (not sending analog).

If you have made it as far as you have with this lousy TV, then being on the cutting edge – or even close enough to see the edge – isn’t your main priority.

Get what you can afford that works. Just get it, and let technology figure itself out. TVs arent’ like computers, it isn’t going to be obsolete next year no matter what you get.
christina October 5, 2005 at 6:48 am

I agree with Ramona. You guys know you lusted over that tv chris and i have. That TV is…gosh…well i have had it since 2001 and it’s doing just fine. technology is not going to shift over night. i found this one at Sams for about 2-300 buckers. and i agree…they can’t turn it off over night…and the major city news stations and probably pbs will be the last to go. they are too many analog tvs out there and it would leave to many people w/o any sort of news or early warning device. so just get something in the budget. don’t fret over it being top of the line, flat screen insaneness. just be sure you can plug your antenae in it and go. oh oh and please (this is a request from me, chris, and any potential future spawn): get one that you can enable closed captioning for the hearing impared so we can mute it on luke and save our hearing.

and it’s rolling now???? oh gawd. that is terrible.
Nelia October 5, 2005 at 3:46 pm

I have moved my little tv into the livingroom and it is sooooo much better. Yes it is small, but the picture is so clear and bright, and it stays still!!! My little tv does have problems. The vcr part has completely stopped working, and because the signal from an external vcr or dvd player is fed in thru the vcr, i cannot use an external unit either. I have thought about just getting another smallish tv, something between what i have and the 27″ one i was looking at. Then when we get a big one for the livingroom, i will have a television that i can play tapes and dvds on in the sewing room and the little one… who knows… bedroom, shop, give it away…. put it in the shop ans see what it would cost to fix the vcr…. Only problem with that plan is that if i get something big enough that we can tolerate it, we will have it in the livingroom forever.

Sometimes i lean toward gritting my teeth and forking over the money to get a no frills digital tv because we are looking at keeping it for 15 or 20 years and i know the technology is going to change in that length of time. I have not decided for sure yet. Still soaking on it. I do appreciate the input.