Big TV
5:39pm Sunday April 2, 2000

Whoa!  Big TV.  

We decided that if we refinished the basement, we'd get a large screen TV.  Going to stores and looking at them was fun but less than informative.  I just couldn't figure out what distinguished one from another.  So I took a day off work to research them via the internet.  What a great tool the internet is for finding out all sorts of things.  CNET is an excellent place to start.  Had to find out about DTV/HDTV versus older technology.  Also looked into rear-projection TV and what to look for.  Read lots of stuff, printed out things and started a notebook of information.  

It seems now HDTVs are at a premium, the thing of the future.  So I decided we wouldn't go that way.  Home theater systems are an additional cost; ie A/V receiver, amplifier, speakers, etc.  There's surround sound, Dolby Pro-Logic, & Dolby Digital sound to content with.  Surround sound simulates depth, Pro-Logic provides front stereo plus a mono rear channel, Digital provides front stereo, center, rear stereo, plus a subwoofer.  Then you want to be sure you have enough connections for RF, composite, or component input/output; RF being the lowest quality, component being the best quality.  Yikes!  Lots of things to consider.

Luckily CNET and even the Circuit City websites allow you to filter information of interest then create comparison tables.  The table created via the Circuit City website even loaded into an Excel spreadsheet (when browsing using MSIE) that made it easy to do further comparisons.  

I had boiled our decision down to two TVs, the Sony KP53V80 or the Hitachi 53SBX59B.  Both met our criteria of:

  • Non HDTV
  • ~$2000
  • Protective Screen
  • 50-55 inch screen
I also wanted the sound system to be good so that we wouldn't have purchase a home theater system right away.  And I wanted to be able to use the TV's speakers as a center channel once we do purchase a home theater system.  Both the Sony & Hitachi met this criteria.  But the Hitachi's built-in sound system is much better; 60 watts versus 20 watts, plus its speakers are built using bass-reflex construction.  

JR and I went to Best Buy first, just to have a look at what them might have.  They didn't carry either set.  Went across the street to Circuit City and there it was - the Hitachi.  A sales guy spotted my research folder and knew we knew what we wanted.  He proceeded to tell us all about how great the Hitachi is.  Minutes later we signed the receipt.

It is awesome.  PlayStation is a hoot.  If we ever get a DVD player I just might pee my pants!