Third Millennium TVs

This past week has found the family entering the twenty-first century in terms of television: that’s right, we now are finally switching from CRT to LCD. Starting a few weeks ago, two of our TVs started their death throws.  Our kitchen set would randomly turn itself off (often less than ten minutes after turning on) and would usually refuse to turn back on for hours at times.  Very VERY frustrating.  Our main TV in the family room…well, it’s been quirky for over a year, now, but it started doing things like strobing and stuff.  Not good.

Since we are television addicts—I can’t remember a time when a TV wasn’t a fixture in our lives—this meant that I needed to sacrifice this month’s budget and get new sets.  Let me tell ya, finding a 15″ ATSC set of reasonable quality isn’t the easiest thing in the world.  In fact, I had to settle for a refurbished model of a well-reviewed set. As for the 32″ (no…I didn’t go too nuts here)…I probably got a better set than we really need, but I’ve learned that quality does tend to make a difference, and with future add-ons in mind (Blu-Ray <hint><hint>), I figured that it was better to look forward than to try to find a false economy.

As I type this, I’m watching the Olympics in HD…it’s gorgeous.  Once I modify our entertainment center so that it fits our room better, I think I’ll be ecstatic.

Even though I look at LCD screens on my desktop and laptop computers, it’s weird to be looking at that really sharp flat screen after more than four decades of staring at those phosphor-lined tubes of glass. It’s a little different being able to actually read the information on the id tags that people are wearing at the Olympics.