if you are not using at least a cheap surge protector on anything worth 2 cents in your house, you are crazy. you can get really inexpensive ones with a guarantee for connected equipment like $15,000 or even more i guess. just make sure you hang on to your receipt. worse case is usually that the surge protector will fail, sacrificing its life for your stuff. buying another one is more affordable than new electronics... granted it is hard to put a surge protector onto your appliances, but they do make surge protector outlets... i have often thought about getting that surge protector put in at the pole, but we will be moving again, so i havent bothered.

the townhouse that we now own had this problem of lights getting brighter for a few seconds when something like the fridges condenser would kick on (or ac, etc.) and I had the old lady call the electric company to see what was up... i was nervous as anything about hooking up my audio gear. anyway it turned out that there was a bad splice leading to our house that they replaced for free, once it was replaced, presto no problems. they will do a free inspection if you are having problems, to at least determine where the problem lies, with their side or your home. we have progress energy (formerly CP&L). i just use inexpensive surge protectors with high dollar connected equipment guarantees. i do have a back-up UPS unit on my computer though, but after i got it on rebate it was a damn steal.

Battery operated radio is a wonderful thing. Heck, after last summer's storm we ended up with a little battery-powered black & white TV, which now lives in a closet in the hall bathroom (the only completely interior room in the house).

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yeah after a power outage of about 10 days one winter storm i was given a portable battery powered tv, and while it is tiny, it is still nice to have. can hook it up in the car too if necessary :-). its a color casio i think. reception is pretty good for being so small, but it doesnt work for crap while driving :-).

Well, I received a letter from the Electric Co. telling me I am SOL! They are not liable for damages caused by natural disasters such as the storm we had, with sustained winds of 81MPH. I guess I have to schlep the set to a repair shop and get an estimate. Mrs. "Cadboy" has already laid down the "law" that we cannot afford a new set right now, so I hope it can be repaired at a reasonable cost. The 20" RCA we are using only has a coax input on back and my DVD player only has component cables connected to it, so it is not even hooked up right now. I would need to pull half the equipment out to access the connections and I don't want to mess with anything for a temporary situation.

Okay, I need opinions! I took my tv to a repair shop yesterday and am probably looking @approx. $150-$200 to fix - don't have the official estimate yet. While there, I saw some used/scratch-n-dent sets for sale. One in particular caught my eye - a 26" Samsung digital HD-ready widescreen set. They are asking $350 for it. It is a discontinued model,#TXN2670WHF, which I looked up in Crutchfield's archives. They were selling it for $650. If I find the repair bill a bit high, I was thinking that this might be a good deal to get into a hi-def widescreen set. Granted, it's a small set, but I only had a 27" anyway. What would some of you outlaws suggest?

samsung is typically junk. that model if i remember correctly has issues with the sides of images being stretched, especially when watching hdtv that is not widescreen (i.e. black bars on sides). there are peaks where the image is stretched outward of where it is supposed to be like an inch or so.

this is from ones that i have seen... samsung spends a lot of time/money in r&d but thats it. cutting edge products with no quality.

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This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Thanks for the info! Still waiting to get the estimate for the Panny. I think I'll fix what I have and keep it for now provided the repair bill is not insane. Speaking of quality issues, a cousin of mine recently purchased a 32" hi-def Sony for approx. $1,200 only to have the tube go out after only a few months. Sheesh!! Sony is having their problems as well according to the repair shop.

The official estimate is in! For a grand total of $160 including sales tax my tv will be like new. Now all I have to do is figure out where that $160 will come from(grocery money, gas money, wedding/birthday gift fund, Hmmm....what would an Outlaw do?

[This message has been edited by Cadboy (edited June 11, 2004).]

I did it...I picked up a used TV over the weekend. I could not get the wife's blessing to spend the $160 right now(too many expenses with 1 1/3 income - P.T. Home Depot) so I made a deal w/the repair shop. They took my broken TV in trade for a unit they were selling. It is a JVC 20" D-series model they were asking $100 for. I picked it up for $75 out the door! It has all the connectivity I need for now, and a good picture. The model# is: AV20D304. There are two caveats: 1)the original remote is missing so they supplied a Moteva replacement. 2)There are some small scratches in the middle of the screen which in some instances are noticable. Does anyone know of a product or method used to repair or minimize such scratches?

darn it. I'm very sorry i didn't see this thread before it was too late Cadboy. i have the Sears version of the Samsung (TXN2668WHF) you were contemplating and will tell you that I'm very happy with it!

you can watch 4:3 shows with black bars on the side (not really recommended full time due to burn in concerns) or in one of four stretched modes. for regular shows, I rather like the "Panarama" mode ... the aspect is nearly normal in the middle of the screen and stretched at the sides. only time it's really noticable is during higher speed pans or when there's a ticker along the bottom or top of the screen.

i've got two 1080i sources feeding it via Components ... my CATV box and a Zenith DVB318 upscaling DVD player. HD (or near HD upconversions) look great! If you check HTF and AVS, you'll find that while there are some people who had problems as curegeorg reported, the majority of owners where very satisfied with these two particular models.

I'd highly recommend the set if it's not too late to change your (or your wife's ) mind.

Not sure what to do about the scratches on your current replacement ... maybe some jewellers emory paste? you know, the stuff they use to polish the scratches out of watch crystals?

either way, good luck!

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pat----

email: pat@sklenar.info ---===--- home page: Grumpy's Lair