Consumer Blues
The bad part about being a compulsive early adopter is, you know it’s going to be expensive and you can be pretty sure you’re going to get screwed. The good part is, hey, toys. Or at least that’s what happened when we moved to Blu-Ray almost as soon as it was available. The Samsung player (the only one available at the time) pretty much sucked, with load times best measured in Popes, and a stubborn refusal to play any discs which had ever even shared a room with some dust in it. And I forgot to buy the Clean Room Service Plan.
But we didn’t expect the new TV to suck, too.
Bleeding edge enthusiasts will understand: you can’t just up and buy a 1080P player without a 1080P television to show you all your glorious pixels. At early-adopter prices, half the pixels is, well, about 50% too few. So we picked up a Mitsubishi DLP set with a 1080P picture. And there were 2,073,600 pixels on every frame, and they were good.
Then the set died. “Known issue,” said the chat boards. Mitsubishi had put in a bad thermostat, which would eventually register a billion degrees inside the set, even, I think, when it was off. And sitting under the Titanic. No problem — Mitsubishi had extended the warrantee to cover it, so it was fixed at no cost to us.
Then the projector bulb died well ahead of schedule. “Known issue,” said the chat boards, “and there’s nothing you can do about it but pony up the money for a new bulb.” Fine. They don’t call it the bleeding edge for nothing.
Last night, the set switched itself off again, and refused to come back on. During the warm-up cycle, the screen was black, black — not the dark grey “black” of a set with any light hitting the screen. Made a note to shop for bulbs in the morning, then went to bed.
Pulled the bulb out this morning, and it was just fine. Clean and shiny and the filament appeared intact. Found the closest Licensed & Registered & Mitsubishi Approved to Use You As a Personal ATM Machine Repair Office and talked to the nice lady who told me they could get somebody here on Friday. But she added that it sounded like a logic board or the power supply or maybe the thromdibulator, and that none of that was covered under the thermostat extension.
Oh, and who knows if they’ll actually have the right parts available.
Here’s where it gets tricky. We only have two TVs in the house, and I spend about six hours on Sundays monopolizing one of them, watching all of the weekend talking head chat shows to pick out material for PJTV’s “Hair of the Dog” (free, no registration). This Sunday, Melissa is cooking up a huge dinner — one of those all-day-in-the-kitchen affairs. And a three-year-old lacking distractions will become a much worse one himself — for Melissa in the kitchen or me with the working TV, or most likely, both. In other words, we need a second, working TV in here before Sunday.
Fine. We’d been planning on moving the Mitsubishi downstairs now that the basement is mostly finished, and replacing it in the living room with a smaller, more discrete model. No big deal doing it a couple months early. Except for the emergency rush situation — ever tried to schedule a TV delivery for the next day?
After seven phone calls and three stores, we’ve got a replacement coming tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, same time the Covad guys are supposed to be here to install the T1 line. While I’m also supposed to be preparing for and recording Saturday’s PJM Political show. And picking out material for Friday’s Week in Blogs segment for PJTV. Plus, the usual showering, shaving, getting the kid up and off to school, etc.
I might not make it all the way to Sunday. So if anyone at my wake starts making any Bob Schieffer jokes, I’ll haunt your ass.
This is exactly the situation that Goodwill stores and Craigslist were created for. You get a TV that is adequate for the immediate purpose, pay no more than $50, and then get the TV you really want at a decent price later, rather than overpaying for one that you didn’t really want just because it was available and could be delivered quickly.
You then donate the TV back to Goodwill, they sell it again for another $50, and you have helped them twice in their efforts to fund their job-training programs for the disadvantaged.
Douglas –
I’ve done just that at our local ARC, although not with a TV. The problem I have with this particular rush job is, fitting a set in the back of the Wrangler. Just can’t be done. And Melissa, with her (much) bigger car, doesn’t have the time to get the job done in the next couple of days. So we were stuck going somewhere where we could get almost-immediate delivery.
And a “happy earth day” to you too, steve!
“…the usual showering, shaving, getting the kid up and off to school,…”
You shave the kid already? It seems like only yesterday…
It only took two lamps dying for no good reason on my 62″ LED lamp DLP within 30 days (Which should be impossible, given their life is supposed to be 500,000 hours) for me to figure out a solution:
Liquid Crystal Display.
In particular whatever model number was the top of the line Sharp 52″ 18 months ago (they change model numbers like I change socks).
Now, now. You could have traded cars with Melissa at work, picked up said TV, taken it home and re-swapped cars, all after dropping the boy off at school.
When I researched HDTVs at Consumer Reports (we finally chose a JVC model), the site said that most LCD and Plasma HDTVs had a repair rate around 3%, but DLP units typically had a 10% repair rate. Their recommendation was “get an extended warranty if you go with DLP”.
One of the two reasons I don’t like projector sets. They break too easily.
Actually, I think the second reason is moot now. It used to be that they were pretty dim compared to plasma and LCDs.
I picked up a returned Plasma, from *Amazon*, and it’s been great.
If you’re going to replace your TV, I’d go for a LCD screen with LED backlighting. It uses less power and has higher contrast than the older LCD screens. Plus they’re lighter and produce less heat.
Wow. If you only knew someone with a pickup that has a bed the size of Rhode Island.
Oh, wait, never mind…..
Munchkins are not distractions. Put it on your knee and start teaching about talking heads. Could wind up a leader in the Federalist Party one day.