Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Screenis Envy

Shamefully, it has become apparent that I have high definition envy. Garrett has a 42" plasma, and Jeremy has a 32" LCD, and both of my fathers-in-law each have a couple of LCD TVs. I watch Law & Order on my 19" RCA standard-def tube tv from college. Freshman year of college. To its credit, its an insanely long-lived tv. No problems in 10 years. I'm still ready for an upgrade.

Last night though, I had had a hell of a setup. My office had an offsite meeting at a hotel yesterday, so I took our office projector home with me for the night. Lauren and I took down a painting and watched Thumbsucker on our bedroom wall, and that is the life. Giant 100" screen, total darkness, and a better than theater experience because you're like, horizontal. It was tough to give it back.

I know that there are people with real problems. I talked with a guy I know today who's a financial planner, and he was full of Michigan horror stories about people with credit card debt equivalent to a year's salary, people losing 40% of their annual incomes overnight, housing values plummeting, and people needing to tap their retirement accounts when they moved, because they didn't have any equity from selling in a down market. It can suck right now.

Its just that, well, we also happen to be living in a golden age of television. HDTV. 250 channels (ask Jeremy about his satellite package sometime). DVRs. Telemundo. Sometimes I think that financial responsibility is so overrated, that why not finance a 65" plasma for the bedroom, because you only go around the planet so many times in this life, right?

On the other hand, that means that during those finite spins, I'm still glued to Law & Order, except it's freaking enormous, and you can see all of Sam Waterston's pores. Maybe that's not living after all. I think I'm going to take a walk.

7 comments:

Kendra Lynn said...

My brother-in-law, who didn't have a JOB at the time, spent 13,000 dollars on a home theater system. That is NOT COUNTING the remodling he did to his home to make his own home theater. Where did he get the money? God only knows.
I don't understand the urge to have so much.
Yes...a big screen would be nice, but really...is it a necessity?

Judy said...

When our TV went out a few months ago, I really tried to sway Scott NOT to get another TV. We have the 19" TV/VCR combo in the master bedroom, and did we REALLY need another TV? Is TV such a necessity that we HAVE to have one?

I almost won the argument until Scott brought up the tiny little detail called BASEBALL SEASON.

We were at Best Buy that night purchasing our flat screen 32". No plasma - no HDTV - but a nice new TV that shows my Astros quite nicely.

Jeremy said...

I have to admit, I didn't *NEED* a 32" HDTV, we have a 27" RCA that we bought 5 years ago that has a really nice picture (which has since replaced the 18 year old 19" we had in our bedroom).

However, after seeing my Dad and my father-in-law's HDTVs, I was hooked.

I did my research and ended up getting the MOTHER OF ALL DEALS on my HDTV - $650 for a 32" LCD HDTV from Dell of all places. It was a special one-day deal on refurbished units, something insane like 50% off and free shipping (right now, they're going for $1,199 - so I got a GREAT deal).

Shop around and compare, come up with a list of what's important to you in a television and what you're willing to sacrifice. For me, It was important to find a reasonably priced television, but I didn't want a poor quality picture. And where the picture isn't exactly the best of the best, it's one of the best in it's class.

And as for satellite television, lemme tell ya - when I had cable, it was out all the time, it was completely unreliable and I was paying for it every month. When I switched to satellite, I doubled the number of channels, reduced my monthly cost and it has only been out ONCE in the two years I've had it, and that was due to a faulty cable connection at the junction box in the basement that took me 5 minutes to fix, whereas the cable company would have scheduled someone to come out and I would have to wait days before my cable came back on.

Wow. That was my longest comment EVER.

The Narrator said...

I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but watching b-ball on a big-screen HDTV is better -- better -- than actually going to a game.

Jeremy said...

HDTV was definitely invented for sports fans - You can see the wood grain detail in the floorboards for basketball and see the individual blades of grass on the field.

I've been watching World Cup in HD, and it's absolutely amazing.

George said...

HDTV is heaven. My television experience has been flipped 180 degrees ever since going High Def.
Sporting events are the biggest difference I think. Now with the World Cup going on, I feel I am getting my money's worth for sure. No doubt about it.
Jon, "Do It"!

Jonathan said...

Thanks all for your expertise. Clearly you're all giving your TV viewing a lot of thought.

I just noticed what Lauren changed the title of this post too. Thanks for that, that's really cute.