New telly!
Sep. 12th, 2009 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
philmophlegmI had seriously considered replacing our elderly main television earlier in the year. In its day, it was a very, very good television and it's given us six good years. But, it's only standard definition and an annoying flickering* that could previously be cured by turning it on and off again now seems more likely to reappear.
So, time to get a new telly. I had already done a lot of research. A quick update revealed that there were no new alternatives that I should consider, so it was simply a case of finding a retailer stocking the model I wanted** and finding the best deal. I thought this was going to be really difficult because my initial online forays on Thursday found only the dealer in Borehamwood (not exactly local) that I visited earlier in the year and a single online retailer. Ideally I wanted someone*** who could install it and set it up professionally. Not expecting to get lucky, I thought I'd ring around the local suppliers.
Bingo! Sevenoaks's Plymouth branch has two in stock, at one of the cheapest prices I've seen quoted and can deliver and install on Tuesday. Result! Since this was rather a lot of money to spend over the phone, I popped into Plymouth this afternoon and talked to the installer. I also got to choose cables. The golden rule with A/V equipment is usually to spend 10% of your budget on the cables. In the end the three HDMI**** cables came to a bit less than that, but since they'd won a 'What Hi-Fi' magazine award, I don't think I've skimped much.
* Not everyone can see this flicker, which we refer to as 'wibble'. My parents can't see it at all and bunn tends not to notice it, but I see can very definitely detect it and find it really annoying.
** Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090 50" Plasma, if you're interested.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Pioneer-PDP-LX5090/
http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Pioneer-PDP-LX5090/
*** Someone who knew what they were doing.
**** One each for the XBox360, the upscaling DVD player and the SkyHD box that we don't own. That's the next thing to sort out.
So, time to get a new telly. I had already done a lot of research. A quick update revealed that there were no new alternatives that I should consider, so it was simply a case of finding a retailer stocking the model I wanted** and finding the best deal. I thought this was going to be really difficult because my initial online forays on Thursday found only the dealer in Borehamwood (not exactly local) that I visited earlier in the year and a single online retailer. Ideally I wanted someone*** who could install it and set it up professionally. Not expecting to get lucky, I thought I'd ring around the local suppliers.
Bingo! Sevenoaks's Plymouth branch has two in stock, at one of the cheapest prices I've seen quoted and can deliver and install on Tuesday. Result! Since this was rather a lot of money to spend over the phone, I popped into Plymouth this afternoon and talked to the installer. I also got to choose cables. The golden rule with A/V equipment is usually to spend 10% of your budget on the cables. In the end the three HDMI**** cables came to a bit less than that, but since they'd won a 'What Hi-Fi' magazine award, I don't think I've skimped much.
* Not everyone can see this flicker, which we refer to as 'wibble'. My parents can't see it at all and bunn tends not to notice it, but I see can very definitely detect it and find it really annoying.
** Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090 50" Plasma, if you're interested.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Pioneer-PDP-LX5090/
http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Pioneer-PDP-LX5090/
*** Someone who knew what they were doing.
**** One each for the XBox360, the upscaling DVD player and the SkyHD box that we don't own. That's the next thing to sort out.
