So, passing by a store today, I saw a 26" CRT HDTV in the window with no insignia on it, but clearly functioning. As I was currently in the market for an HDTV, I went inside and inquired - $175. At this point, I am amused. I'm not looking for this thing to be the centerpiece of my awesome home theater system; I needed a working television to hook my XBox360 up to, and ideally, that I could watch the new season of 24 on (Starts on the 14th, right?).
I check the back - it has all the component spots I need. Two HD spots, 3 video spots, and a DVI spot (no HDMI, but I've experimented with HDMI, and have found it overrated). It of course comes with no box, and the remote control it comes with is a universal remote, but it fits the television perfectly. It has a few cosmetic imperfections, but the screen itself is fine and function. A little bit more snooping around, and I'm sold. Ironically, the TVs brand is Insignia.
I bring it home, and hook it up to my 360 on the HDTV. It works. It looks great. And thennnnnnnnnnn came the catch.
3 of the 4 corners of the screen corners are discolored. Nothing terrible - the picture quality behind it is still the same (no black areas). The top right corner the discolored area is small (think equilateral traingle with each side about 1"), and the bottom left is even smaller, but the top left is big and immediately noticable. To give you a ROUGH example of its size (those of you who have widescreen TVs), set your TV to 4/3 resolution (bars on the side). Measure the sidebar thickness on the left side. Then set it back to widescreen and pop in a 2.35:1 DVD. Black bars on the top. The intersection of the side bars and the black bar on the top is roughly the size of the discolored area. That means it's not really an issue when watching regular TV, nor much of an issue with 2.35 DVDs, but anything that takes up the ENTIRE screen, it's quite noticable. So for example, XBox360 games it's going to be there. In any game with a lot of stuff going on in the screen (ala Gears of War), it's barely noticable, and certainly you'd have to be looking for it to notice it. But on any sort of light background, or ESPECIALLY blue background, it's kind of like, "huh... my TVs a bit broken."
This of course means that the vast majority of the television is fine, and in fact, looks great. I mean, it's a perfectly good TV, and it works, and it fit my budget. Just to emphasize one more time, the entire screen works, but the corners are a bit wacky.
Believe it or not, I have 45 days to take this thing back.
What would you do? I know you can obviously say, "Well, depends on how much it bothers you," but here I'm asking, in my position, how much would it bother YOU?
I check the back - it has all the component spots I need. Two HD spots, 3 video spots, and a DVI spot (no HDMI, but I've experimented with HDMI, and have found it overrated). It of course comes with no box, and the remote control it comes with is a universal remote, but it fits the television perfectly. It has a few cosmetic imperfections, but the screen itself is fine and function. A little bit more snooping around, and I'm sold. Ironically, the TVs brand is Insignia.
I bring it home, and hook it up to my 360 on the HDTV. It works. It looks great. And thennnnnnnnnnn came the catch.
3 of the 4 corners of the screen corners are discolored. Nothing terrible - the picture quality behind it is still the same (no black areas). The top right corner the discolored area is small (think equilateral traingle with each side about 1"), and the bottom left is even smaller, but the top left is big and immediately noticable. To give you a ROUGH example of its size (those of you who have widescreen TVs), set your TV to 4/3 resolution (bars on the side). Measure the sidebar thickness on the left side. Then set it back to widescreen and pop in a 2.35:1 DVD. Black bars on the top. The intersection of the side bars and the black bar on the top is roughly the size of the discolored area. That means it's not really an issue when watching regular TV, nor much of an issue with 2.35 DVDs, but anything that takes up the ENTIRE screen, it's quite noticable. So for example, XBox360 games it's going to be there. In any game with a lot of stuff going on in the screen (ala Gears of War), it's barely noticable, and certainly you'd have to be looking for it to notice it. But on any sort of light background, or ESPECIALLY blue background, it's kind of like, "huh... my TVs a bit broken."
This of course means that the vast majority of the television is fine, and in fact, looks great. I mean, it's a perfectly good TV, and it works, and it fit my budget. Just to emphasize one more time, the entire screen works, but the corners are a bit wacky.
Believe it or not, I have 45 days to take this thing back.
What would you do? I know you can obviously say, "Well, depends on how much it bothers you," but here I'm asking, in my position, how much would it bother YOU?
) and if I could get it replaced with a perfect model (unlike the ACD), or get my money back and find a similar deal elsewhere, I would. $175 for a 26" CRT HDTV though, not bad!!
