This place fails to entertain today!

[Gonz]

In California, it's the law now that if you see something listed for one price (either on the tag on the shelf or in an ad) and it scans for higher, it has to be sold at the lower price. But strangely enough, before Curcuit City closed for good, often times stuff on their Web site was cheaper than in the store. For example, I bought some speakers online, paid for them and picked them up at the closest store, and it was cheaper than just going in the store and buying them. I noticed soon before the end of business, they changed that so the store and online was one price. I think a lot of people besides me noticed the price differential and took advantage, and between that and idiots typing in wrong prices in corporate, it's no wonder Circuit City died.

*raises hand*

Nobody can seriously price-match online. Imagine BB or CC matching their $199. video card with that new online store, you know Gonz's Specials, that has the same card for $79.

As a side note, I hear that manufacturers are beginning to drop Plasma TV's from their lines. Apparently, the power consumption is so high that folks are complaining & returning them.

 

[spike]

Really? I've been on the verge of buying a 50" Sharp plasma for a little bit. I wonder how that's going to raise my electric bill over my 32" CRT.

Is there a huge difference vs LCD?

 

[Altron]

My understanding was that plasma was never intended as a long term technology, but rather a 'stopgap' to get large flat-panels at a time before it was possible to manufacture a liquid crystal sheet bigger than 25-30 inches.

Searching online, though, at the power consumption - does not seem to be a huge difference between a LCD and Plasma at the same size. Most seemed to be around 300w. Of course, it will changed based on the brightness and display settings, but I didn't notice a huge advantage to one over the other. Of course, that was with 5 minutes of googling, so I may be wrong.

 

[Gonz]

Dunno, try this

 

[Altron]

your reputation as our ultra-liberal whackjob is at stake, if you don't buy an energy efficient TV. markie might take the top spot from you.

 

[randomJACKASS]

your reputation as our ultra-liberal whackjob is at stake, if you don't buy an energy efficient TV. markie might take the top spot from you.

Except that I am only liberal on a few issues. What is the matter, mommy and daddy withhold your allowance this week?

 

[Inkara1]

What's amazing is accoring to the chart, this Panasonic 58-inch plasma uses 196.37 watts when on, and this Panasonig 58-inch plasma uses 562.52 watts.

I didn't see any Sharp 50-inch plasmas on the list, but it would be good to research the power consumption before buying, especially since there can be so much variation from one TV to the next of the same size and same brand.

 

[Luis G]

I wouldn't buy a plasma unless its power consumption was on par with LCD, and even then I would be inclined to choose the LCD.

 

[Gonz]

POWER CONSUMPTION

Not a very important issue but worth noting. Because LCDs use florescent backlighting to produce images, they require substantially less power to operate than plasma TVs do. LCD displays consume about half the power that plasma displays consume. The reason: Plasmas use a lot of electricity to light each and every pixel you see on a screen - even the dark ones. Though plasma manufacturers have improved voltage consumption requirements a plasma TV will consume around a third more power for the same size display.

Plasma TV buying guide

 

[spike]

I wouldn't buy a plasma unless its power consumption was on par with LCD, and even then I would be inclined to choose the LCD.

I've only compared them in a couple stores but the Samsung and Sharp plasmas seemed to have richer brighter colors than equivalently priced LCDs. Then a salesman told me that was typically the case with comparable LCD/Plasma.

More research is needed.

 

[Gonz]

google plasma vs lcd...there are tons of sites.

In general, one is better in a brightly lit room.

 

[fury]

Doesn't it suck extra bad when you manage to waltz into a store that DIDN'T check one of those brick-in-the-box returns before rewrapping it, and then you just happen to get the one customer rep that does check, and won't give you your money back because they think you were the one that did it?

 

[catocom]

my mom has a bad habit of grabbing the first box, when shopping.
I'm picky about what the box looks like.

 

[Altron]

I'm picky too, especially with the tape on boxes. There should be only one layer of tape, and it should be thick tape. It should be very cleanly and evenly cut on the ends, and applied very straight, with no wrinkles or anything in it.

That's what factory tape looks like. The tape you get at the store looks different, and if you look close you can tell whether or not the box has been opened.

Hopefully, that didn't happen to you, fury.

 

[Nixy]

I generally don't buy boxes that have been opened and if I do I always ask to have it opened again to "check everything is in there".

 

[Inkara1]

Doesn't it suck extra bad when you manage to waltz into a store that DIDN'T check one of those brick-in-the-box returns before rewrapping it, and then you just happen to get the one customer rep that does check, and won't give you your money back because they think you were the one that did it?

So what did you buy? Or, what did you think you bought only to find out you bought a box of bricks instead?

 

[fury]

Didn't happen to me, thankfully, but I heard about it on a podcast, and ever since then, if what I'm buying comes in a box, I'm opening it before I walk out the store doors.