Is it just me? (BIG vent)

[Rusty Hills Farm]

All I wanted was a new tv. Some bad weather last week fried our satellite "box" and when the technician came to replace it, we discovered that the tv fried when the box did.

Okay, so we haven't bought a tv in 5-6 years, so I guessed that it was not unreasonable to have to replace it....until I got to the store. Apparently they don't sell plain ol' color tvs anymore. They sell HDTV or LCD tv at something called 720p or 1080p or 1080i????? With ports and HDMI and mpeg (I think) and surround sound and a bunch of other stuff I also never heard of before.

I went to 3 different stores, all manned by pleasant young things who all looked about 12 years old and spoke this gobbledy-gook techno-babble that I do not understand. And the more I tried to understand, the more confusing and complex it all seemed to become. So I went home and tried to educate myself online.... Is everyone who is now posting online one of those self-same 12-year-olds I met in the stores?

Doesn't anybody speak actual words anymore? Is it all abbreviations that make sense to everybody but ME?!?

I JUST WANT A NEW TV, dammit, not a degree in electronics! Something that you push the button on the remote and --voile-- there is your program! When did it all get so $#@! complicated?!?

aarrgghhh!

Rusty

 

[debilorrah]

No it is not just you

 

[DianeB]

Sorry about the hassle buying a new tv. They haven't made tube television for a few years and most stores don't carry them anymore. You can try craiglist or ebay. Someone must be selling their old tv.

DB

 

[scbatz33]

Totally not just you!!!

I just wanted a pair of shorts the other day...yeah right. Either low rise, super tight, boy shorts, silky, etc, etc...what happened to just plain??? I like plain. I don't need lace or ribbons or zippers or decals. I just want plain.

 

[TipsyDog]

Sorry, but that's funny because I went through the exact same thing a year ago!

I just bought a 42" LCD (mostly based on a reasonable price) and took it home. Somehow I hooked it up and

it stays that way.

I got used to it after about a week and now I love it. I even added some speakers (surround sound) to it because either this TV has lousy sound or I'm getting older and can't hear so well anymore, not sure.

Good luck!

P.S. - When we have a power fluck everything in my house just flashes. I have now officially turned into my mother. She used to wait for one of us kids to show up and fix the blicking VCR time or the answering machine time.

Now I wait for my kid to show up and fix the DVR, DVD, digital camera errors and laptop issues. Just shows you that no matter how much the world changes, it's really still the same

 

[gritsar]

We have six TVs in this house and use one of them. All good old fashioned tube TVs.
Do you have Fred's stores there? That's where I bought the last one a couple years ago.
Wish you lived closer. I'd give you a TV that's been turned on maybe three times since I bought.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

I wouldn't mind upgrading to this new technology...if I just understood HOW. I discovered--quite by accident--that the Direcway tv remotes don't work with RCA and Sylvania and a few others out there. Trying to find a brand that I could be sure WOULD work....it's like I fell off the end of the world and landed in another dimension! That's when I started reading about 1080p versus 1080i and how all the smaller (think 32" here) seem to be 720p that somehow convert to 1080i but Direcway is 1080p-64?!? See what I mean about "techno-babble"??? And then there is stuff about channels up and down with the - key??? and analog versus digital when I thought EVERYTHING is digital now???

How do I figure out what to buy so that it will work with what I've got?!?

Am I gonna have to buy yet another new box? Will my dvr have to be replaced too? Does the whole house have to be rewired or are they only talking about the wire from the tv to the box? to the dvr?

Help! I've fallen down and I can't get up!

 

[TipsyDog]

OK - That's were you just tell the 12 year old at the electronic store what you have at home and he should make sure that it will work when you plug it in. It's the cable from the box to the TV, that's all. You don't have to rewire the house.


Good luck and God's speed....

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
Don't you know another 12 year old kid who can help you? Seriously, my son sold TV's in Sears and Circuit City, and my brother works in TV, so the gobbletygook they babbled at me was filtered through one of them. You really do need to know what you want before you go in there.

Here are a few websites where you can read up on the basics and maybe have a clue when you go into the store:

PC World's How To Buy A Flat-Screen HD TV

About:Com 'Buying a Television - What you need to know'

Whick TV to Buy in Today's Market?

Good luck! We ended up with a 50" Samsung DLP I actually stood in line for back on Black Friday in 2006. It's a great TV, but because it's DLP I know within a year or so I'm going to have to have it cleaned and change the bulb - it'll cost about $300 (the TV cost $788). I discussed this with a local TV repair house, didn't buy the maintenance plan but will use this guy to come here and fix it up for me. None of these TVs last as long as the 27" Zenith you bought in 1973 and still works - except it's got a dial and doesn't run via remote!

 

[DuckLady]

We bought 42" blah blah blah TV that blah blah blahs when you set it to blah blah.
When we went looking, one of those 12 year olds tried to impress us with his version of Klingon. When he paused for us to ooh and aah at his command of the language, we stared at him as if he was from outer space.

Then, a bit embarrassed, he actually asked what we were looking for in a TV and helped us find the one we wanted. All in all a good experience.