The HDTV Saga

So, last week I went to Sam's Club with a friend and noticed they had a Vizeo 50" plasma HD monitor there for $2488. Pretty awesome price, and the picture looked pretty good. I almost threw down right then and there, but I wasn't driving, and I also figured I should do some due dilligence on the AVS forum board to see if the set was any good. Turns out the AVS guys like it.

So, that same day I figured I'd stop by Best Buy to see what sort of deals they were running, since it was right before the Super Bowl and those places always run sales at that time. That is when I saw a Samsung 40" flat-panel LCD HDTV that looked really sweet, and on sale from $3100 down to $2400.

So, I go home and figure I'll research that one too and then decide. Samsung also gets good reviews. Now, my desire is to eventually own an SED set when those come out and come down in price, so I figure if I get a 40" LCD, it'll be perfect as a bedroom set when I get the bigger SED later on, whereas the 50" plasma would be too big for the bedroom, and would be kind of a waste to buy. The Samsung also had a bit more bells and whistles than the Vizeo.

So, I go back to Best Buy and ask if they have the Samsung in stock. Nope. Knowing that Circuit City always mirrors the same sales as BB, I go there. Out of stock. I then go to Sears, cause they carry the same TV, but I wasn't sure if they'd price match the BB/CC sale. Turns out they do price match. That's the good news. The bad news is that they too were out of stock.

So, I decide I may as well get the Vizeo and head back to Sams.....and the sumbitch isn't in stock.

So now I'm totally jonesing for HDTV and can't get my fix. I go online and look to see which stores have the damn Samsung in stock....this is like Wednesday or something. Nobody within 300 miles or so has it. So I am bummed. Friday I check again and there are two stores, a CC in Albany and a BB in Valdosta that have the Samsung in stock.

Well Friday is opening day for FSU baseball and I leave work - with printed directions to get to both stores - and head off ot the game, intending to leave early and drive up to one of them. Well, the weather turns to shit and traffic is nuts, so by the time I get up to Bannerman it is almost 7pm. I'm thinking that heading off to a town I am not familiar with, during a nasty storm, late at night is not a bright idea, so I turn on Bannerman to head home.

The next morning I'm up early and head off. I get to Thomasville to gas up and realize that one of the stores is in Albany. Up to then I had thought both were in Valdosta. So, I go off towards Albany, which I know a little bit better since I used to make the trip through there all the time going between Tallahassee and Columbus when I used to live up there.

I get to the store around 9:30am, and it doesn't open til 10, so I go wander around the Home Depot next door for a while. The CC opens up and I head in. This place is a fucking palace compared to the CC in Tallahassee. It is easily three times the size, CLEAN, and well organized with the flat panel displayed all mouted up along the wall in one corner. I see my baby on the wall and ask the redshirt if they have it in stock. SCORE!!!

I hand over the plastic precious metal and also pick up a DVI-to-HDMI cable and an extra component video cable, since this TV has more inputs than the old Toshiba 40". No more switching the component cables between the XBox and DVD player, yay!!!

The selling of my soul completed, I bring the car around to have it put in and make my escape. They bring it out and we try lifting it into the back of the Tribble. Won't go. FUCK! We take the top of the box off and the damn thing has about a foot of packaging styrofoam between the top of the TV and the top of the box. Top of the box gets its ass left behind. Sorry bitch, this ain't the Rangers and you can't say hooah.

I drive the precious home and arrive just in time to see Jennifer and Sam getting back from the store with beer. Lots of beer. For Jennifer's birthday party. We still have 90% of that beer left, in case you're thirsty. Anyway, I get the TV into the house and start setting it up.

First things first this bitch has an ATSC tuner built in. So I wanna see if it will pick up the local HD feeds. Well, I could pick up the CBS feed, barely. Damn. Oh well, time for baseball, so I head off to the game. I get back from the game and we start getting ready for Jennifer's party. I just hook up the Xbox to the new TV and that's it. We have an MVP NCAA baseball tourney during the party and the thing just looks fucking amazing. I had bought an amplified antenna and an articulated wall mount on my way back form the game, as well as a new fancypants remote to replace the stupid Sony brick I had bought a few years ago. The antenna didn't do shit. It was actually worse reception when the thing was turned on then when it was off. Lame. I figured I'd try connecting the cable line stright to the TV and see how that went. Not too good. It got the channels, but everything was sorta F'd up. Hard to explain exactly, but trust me it was not a positive experience. I thought that maybe the cable box that I had would be able to work with the TV, but it only has composite and s-video out, and neither of those supports HD signals, so I got nothing.

Sunday, the big game day. I know now that I need an HD cable box, and call Comcast. Needless to say, they are closed, so no HD Super Bowl for me. I go to the FSU baseball game and my friend Josh invites me over to his place to watch the game there and we go, cause they always have more food than God. It was fun, and filling.

Monday morning I take the old crappy cable box down to comcast and trade it in for a shiney new HD box...with DVR, cause Jennifer kept complaining and it was only 5 bucks more. I get that home that night and hook it up. Damn, that is a nice picture in HD. SD programming looks like shit though. Oh well. HD is like crack, you gotta have it. We watched the CBS line-up in HD that night and it is teh hotness. That night I had also decided to take the wall mount out and start getting the TV ready for the wall. This is a 'universal' articulated mount. $350 bucks of heavy steel....that unfortunately, didn't really fit the TV, despite what the blueshirt at BB said. One of horizontal cross braces ran right across where you have to connect the power cable to the back of the TV. One of the verticle braces ran right over the A/V panel on the back, which kinda makes it hard to plug inputs into the thing. Feh.

So, yesterday I returned the wallmount and the antenna to BB. I then go online to look for some alternative mounting options. One thing I find is a nice little cabinet at Haverty's that has room for the TV and the A/V components. It's also only about $200 more than that stupid wall mount and antenna cost me. I need a place to put the components...they are currently on an old shitty microwave cart. I'd like something better. Anyway, I go with Jennifer to look at the cabinet at the store after work. We are helped by this absolutely FABULOUS salesman. And by fabulous, I mean break out the marshmellows, chocolate and graham crackers cause we're gonna roast up some smores over this flaming homo. He was a nice guy though. Jennifer didn't care for the cabinet, so that sorta put the end to that. My only issue with the cabinet is that it didn't have any media storage. All my DVD's are in a closet right now, which stinks, so I'm not overly upset at not getting that cabinet.

So, as it stands, I still have no permanent home for my TV or the components. I need to find something soon cause I want to get rid of the old TV and get the new one up and connected to the sound system. Hopefully something will come up.