TV finally died! Now what?

[TinkOhio]

Well, its finally happened. The tv in our family room finally died. It was at least 10 years old, but it had a great picture and sound for it's age.

So now comes the hard part. What kind of tv do we buy now? We aren't the types to sit around and watch much tv unless it's rainy or cold out. We do watch the news most nights, and maybe a sitcom or news show every other night.

The other thing that is noteworthy is that our old tv sat in a beautiful armoire with a 27" high by 34" wide opening for the tv. It seems as though most tvs I have seen in the last few years are very short and wide. Also, many pictures seem to be stretched short and wide on those sets. We're dead set on keeping the armoire--it's the focal part of the room, and a fabulous piece of furniture.

Will we be able to even find a tv that fits into the furniture? And what kind of tv should we be looking for? We have cable access. What should we expect to pay for a tv that size now? Are there any good deals? We would hate to pay tons for all of the bells and whistles available when we really only use the tv for basic viewing.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[mrsklamc]

Honestly, if you don't want something new, with all the bells and whistles, I'd hit up craigslist.

 

[ellone]

The other thing that is noteworthy is that our old tv sat in a beautiful armoire with a 27" high by 34" wide opening for the tv. It seems as though most tvs I have seen in the last few years are very short and wide. Also, many pictures seem to be stretched short and wide on those sets. We're dead set on keeping the armoire--it's the focal part of the room, and a fabulous piece of furniture.

Will we be able to even find a tv that fits into the furniture? And what kind of tv should we be looking for? We have cable access. What should we expect to pay for a tv that size now? Are there any good deals? We would hate to pay tons for all of the bells and whistles available when we really only use the tv for basic viewing.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

As someone suggested you should probably look on Craig's List. New TVs now are all widescreen.

 

[mrsklamc]

Where in OH do you live? DH says you can have our 21" square if you want to drive to Indy for it.

 

[Colleen27]

You're going to have to look carefully at the total dimensions on specification sheets, but you should be able to get a 32" class widescreen TV to fit in your armoire.

I wouldn't worry about picture distortion too much, because fewer and fewer channels are broadcasting in standard fullscreen dimensions any more. We notice a lot more channels that appear "letterboxed" or where we lose the far ends of the picture on our standard TV than ones that appear distorted on our LCD.

 

[JediMaster]

A 32" should fit but check the brands dimensions. It should run about $250-$350, youwillbe amazed at the picture quality and clarity with the new tv 's nowadays. You might even say "why didnt we do this earlier!" Good '
luck

 

[TinkOhio]

Thanks for the help! We do want a new tv, we just don't need top of the line. Guess we'll check for 32" sets.

 

[Plantlady]

It might be cheaper to fix the old one.

Our tv died, so I took the electrical thing out of the back, and sent it to my brother, who replaced some part.

All very technical I know. But, it cost both of us nothing, as he had the part laying around off another tv.

 

[Taja]

Well, its finally happened. The tv in our family room finally died. It was at least 10 years old, but it had a great picture and sound for it's age.

So now comes the hard part. What kind of tv do we buy now? We aren't the types to sit around and watch much tv unless it's rainy or cold out. We do watch the news most nights, and maybe a sitcom or news show every other night.

The other thing that is noteworthy is that our old tv sat in a beautiful armoire with a 27" high by 34" wide opening for the tv. It seems as though most tvs I have seen in the last few years are very short and wide. Also, many pictures seem to be stretched short and wide on those sets. We're dead set on keeping the armoire--it's the focal part of the room, and a fabulous piece of furniture.

Will we be able to even find a tv that fits into the furniture? And what kind of tv should we be looking for? We have cable access. What should we expect to pay for a tv that size now? Are there any good deals? We would hate to pay tons for all of the bells and whistles available when we really only use the tv for basic viewing.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Most--if not all--of the newer television sets with horizontal proportions have different viewing settings. Check the menu button when you're researching specific televisions.

I'm not very helpful--I have a 19" and a 22" for my simple needs. Large screens are nice, but I don't like the television to be the focal point! *LOL*

 

[Judique]

Thanks for the help! We do want a new tv, we just don't need top of the line. Guess we'll check for 32" sets.

I would look for a more top of the line in a 32 inch set. I have several flat screens that size and there are differences that are notable to me. The better one gets a larger range of cable channels for one.

 

[seashoreCM]

The standard "new" flat panel TV nowadays is squattier than the standard "old" tube TV. The former is actually the correct shape for modern TV shows although older shows and non-widescreen shows will have a somewhat smaller picture than what you were used to.

Measure the inside of the cabinet and take along a tape measure so you can measure the TV sets in the store. Be aware that the picture on modern TV sets may go out closer to the side edge compared with on old sets so you need to be sure that cabinet doors don't obstruct the view.

One way to estimate how big of a screen you want (if you don't need to confine it to the cabinet) is to make up a rectangle using taped together sheets of paper. The width should be slightly less than twice the height (16 to 9 proportions). Hang the rectangle in different places while you sit on the sofa and look at it. Add sheets of paper or fold back parts of the rectangle while maintaining the 16:9 proportions until you get the size you like.

If you want a bigger picture, beware of mounting the TV high on the wall above the cabinet or above a fireplace. Having to look up that far may give some folks a sore neck.

It is usually not desirable to stretch the picture to look disproportionate just so the picture fills the screen, although this may improve the view for people sitting way off to the sides. You may want to forego having the TV in the cabinet if the final size of the picture for non-wide screen shows is too small. You can make a similar paper rectangle, same 16:9 proportions but sized to fit inside the cabinet. On this rectangle draw a one inch border and also two vertical lines near the sides marking off a 12:9 (4:3) rectangle in the middle. This is the size of the picture you will get for older TV shows and some movies.

 

[lynnmrapata]

Good Will is a great place to find a used, but healthy TV. My son's TV died and I had no intentions of buying him a flat screen for his room. Good Will had a fairly good array of brands and sizes to choose from. They'll even test it for you so you know that it works.

 

[Pembo]

We got a 32" flat screen to fit in our existing tv cabinet. Measure your cabinet carefully and then go look at tv's. We found that our new 32" tv was really only 30 3/4". If just barely fits and looks great.

 

[seashoreCM]

Good My son's TV died and I had no intentions of buying him a flat screen for his room.

By the way, you can get a gadget that connects between a computer and a monitor to let you watch TV on the monitor. It's much smaller than even a 13 inch box TV. One fewer bulky object in the bedroom.

However finding one secondhand is hard.

The most common version of this gadget does not require opening up the computer but also does not allow watching TV and using the computer at the same time.

 

[FergieTCat]

If you are looking for a "standard" flat screen TV, I bought a 32" Vizio from Walmart in December 2009 and it works as good as new. It was under $400 with shipping, and it looks like this is their latest model:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-E320VP/13904832

You might have to drop down to a 26" to get it to fit into your armoire. My wall unit had a little pull out platform, so my TV doesn't slide in the entire way. I am planning to get rid of my wall unit sometime this winter.

 

[yanilat]

Well, its finally happened. The tv in our family room finally died. It was at least 10 years old, but it had a great picture and sound for it's age.

So now comes the hard part. What kind of tv do we buy now? We aren't the types to sit around and watch much tv unless it's rainy or cold out. We do watch the news most nights, and maybe a sitcom or news show every other night.

The other thing that is noteworthy is that our old tv sat in a beautiful armoire with a 27" high by 34" wide opening for the tv. It seems as though most tvs I have seen in the last few years are very short and wide. Also, many pictures seem to be stretched short and wide on those sets. We're dead set on keeping the armoire--it's the focal part of the room, and a fabulous piece of furniture.

Will we be able to even find a tv that fits into the furniture? And what kind of tv should we be looking for? We have cable access. What should we expect to pay for a tv that size now? Are there any good deals? We would hate to pay tons for all of the bells and whistles available when we really only use the tv for basic viewing.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

I am thinking of getting an armoire for our TV, where did you get yours?
thanks!