Finally have a new T.V.

I am a cheapster. When I found out that I would have to get a digital box for my CRT T.V. and then I would have to pay more money for T.V. that could decipher digital signals, I was pretty upset. Come on. Analog has been good since the 1950s. In fact, I wondered if there was a conspiracy to force little people like me to buy new and more expensive gadgets.

I even resisted the mad rush to buy a plasma T.V. These T.V.s were selling between one to three thousand in our area. So yes, I have been resistant to this change.

However, my husband has been looking for a small T.V. for the bedroom. He likes to watch "History Detective." Should I mention that we own a pair of ears and don't watch cable or satellite? Anyway, it is also close to his birthday so I caved.

We found this 15" Widescreen LCD T.V. at Walmart. It was easy to set up and worked with a set of "ears." It was inexpensive considering the prices on the other T.Vs. It has a very clear picture. This T.V. also deciphers analog and digital channels.

The Cons

The picture is quite small. But, it is good for the bedroom, when one person (me) likes to sleep while the other person watches.

Another problem is that if the T.V. is at the wrong angle, the watcher sees a lot of shadows and gleam. To see the picture, you have to be at about the same level as the T.V. This is not a problem that you have with a CRT T.V.

This T.V. cannot be connected to a battery. Some of the smaller CRT T.V.s can be connected to a cigarette lighter in a car or other automobile, which makes them good for Amateur Radio. Unfortunately, LCDs and other types of digital T.V.s have not been considered for emergency purposes. For instance, if there is an earthquake in my area and the electricity goes out, previously we had a CRT analog T.V. which could be connected to a battery and we could see any emergency messages.

Now if the electricity goes out, we had better have a good radio because the T.V. will not work. And, we would not be getting any messages from the emergency responders. Oh yea, if you think the cell phones will be up, you need to read about what happened during Hurricane Katrina. --even the satellite phones were overloaded.

Anyway, for our purposes we like this small T.V. We will probably wait until the digital T.V.s go down in price before we buy a big one for our living room.