Consumer impaired

I have a minor conundrum, that sounds so much like yuppy horseshit that I hate to write about it. I wish all my dilemmas were this trivial.

We have a television, and we love to watch movies and play video games and sometimes, yes, even watch television. Usually Food TV or Spongebob so you can tell what kind of video connoisseurs we are.

Gee, I’m tossing the big words around today, eh?

Anyway.

Here’s the deal: the TV we now have is awesome, and also? very large. As in it’s a honkin’ big CRT thing. And (I don’t want to be ungrateful) it was free because my parents had it and replaced it with something else so they brought it down here. When I say ‘very large’ I mean that working as a team, two grown men almost injured themselves bringing it into the house.

But there’s nothing wrong with it except that sometimes at random the sound goes out (you need to turn it off and back on) and sometimes at random the picture goes out (turning it off won’t fix it but unplugging it for a few minutes does, go figure). We can live with that.

I can hear the mob screaming: get to the point already, you ingrate yuppie!

We’ve been seeing (everywhere) these flat screen televisions. LCD. Uses less electricity.

Doesn’t take up as much room.

We’d really like to reclaim some of the real estate that the current TV is holding onto. I don’t know if that means hanging a flat television on the wall, or just putting it on a slender stand so it doesn’t stick into the room so much.

So… should we buy one now, while the folks are having year end sales and christmas sales (as if there was a difference), or should we wait a while? Will the prices go down?

Should we wait a long while and save the money (since our tv works, mostly) and hope that in a year or two prices come WAAy down?

See, I wish all my issues were so trivial. And, speaking of trivial, if and when we decide to get one, I’ll have to actually decide which one. Gah!

3 thoughts on “Consumer impaired

  1. We’re in exactly the same situation. The big TV hogs tons of living room space, but we’re not sure the prices on the flat screens are where they should be to make the switch.

    At the very least, I’d wait until after Christmas when the retailers are trying for one last gasp of profit.

  2. Two separate issues to contend with here that I am aware of (since I had been pondering a similar situation recently).

    1. Currently the Flat Panels are coming down in price in a huge way right now. So much so that Sony is complaining about it. So, I am going to wait out the free fall just a bit longer. (y)

    2. The other reason I am waiting is trying to work out logistics. I would dearly love to get rid of the the old TV, and the ugly “Entertainment Center” it sits in. But, mounting the TV on the wall covers the TV, still leaving me with the issue of the Stereo, Tivo, PS2, etc that is also housed in that space. Just something else to ponder. :s

  3. We spend a big chunk of change on Greg’s big TV a few years ago and yeah the thing is annoying big. (big, big, big)

    I think if he mentioned upgrading to a flat one I may have to finally smother him with a pillow in his sleep.

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