My Busted TV, Part 5: Finale

We did it. We caved. After only a little more than a month without a TV, we gave in to the temptation and snagged a new box. A beautiful, sexy, 47-inch, 1080p, 120 MHz refresh, 4 HDMI-input, LCD TV. I feel a little guilty, given the time of year and how attached we had grown to online services, but I also am freakin' excited! For the first time in weeks, we watched True Blood when it aired (crazy season finale, no?). I watched a movie and played a few games and generally drooled over it all weekend... yeah, we were that desperate for a new one.

It all came down to Friday night. We were getting a little fed up not having a TV in general, so when a friend called and asked us to go to the Circuit City near us that's closing, our minds immediately jumped to looking at TVs. When we got to the store I made a bee-line directly towards the wall of glowing glory, scavenging the remaining models looking for a deal that couldn't be passed up while my boyfriend aided our friend in finding a Blu-Ray. We knew that we wanted something larger than 40 inches that was 1080p and sported the 120 MHz refresh rate (just about every manufacturer calls it something different, but it's all the same thing), so it was more a matter of minimizing choices and finding the perfect price point from there.

The problem was that nothing on the wall was really doing it for us. Sure there were a few that we liked, but most were still over priced for our taste. The miracle occurred when we turned the corner, defeated by our lack of the proverbial kill. There, in box and looking pretty as can be, already on the floor for us to grab was our new TV. With a 30% off sticker on it and a price that fit our preconceived idea of what we would spend on a TV, I quickly searched consumer reports and a few price gauging websites on my iPhone to make sure it was a good deal. I was pleasantly surprised that we would be saving quite a bit, so we decided to grab it and take it home immediately.

I have to say that I'm absolutely satisfied with the purchase. We spent the entire weekend basking in our new toy's glow and even forced friends to come over and enjoy with us when they had plans to go out and about. And as of this morning's snowfall here in Chicago that seems to be the first to stick, I can say that we nabbed it just in time for the long, horrible, terrible, Satan-inspired Winter's of my favorite city, because I leave the house even less frequently in the cold months than I do the rest of the year.

Lessons learned through our entire ordeal:

1. Don't let drunk friends fidget with your TV. This is a bad idea when sober as well, but inebriation exacerbates the problem even further.
2. Get a good ISP. Seriously. Most people (us included) deal with crappy internet service because we don't use it on a near constant basis. But if you ever need to, you'll learn real fast why it's important.
3. Hulu really does rock. I still don't get the negative press the service has received. Yes, there are some oddities (why only season 1 and 2 of Buffy?), but it's a solid service with a lot of support from the broadcasters. A few small ads per show is nothing when you get on-demand episodes of your favorite shows.
4. For the tech enthusiast, a TV-less living room may as well be empty and dead. We spent no time in the living room once the TV was gone, but now that we have one again, we can't find our way off the couch.
5. Although channel surfing is boring, you'll miss it if you don't have the option anymore.
6. LCD's are kind of sexy

So, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this series and my tales of woe along the way. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.