TV Plans

[prog]

Will buy a an inexpensive standard TV now, and then plan on getting the perfect HDTV later on, whenever it happens to cross my path. The thought of spending more than a little money on a heavy piece of mid-20th century technology doesn't impress me, but I also don't want to spend a lot of money on any modern set before giving it a significant amount of research.

Took T after work to the evil Best Buy, so I could meditate among the screens for awhile. I saw, among other tasty examples, a 20" flat-screen Daiwoo (jadelennox's pick among politically friendly brands, apparently) for $150, so that or something like it will probably go home with me tomorrow.

I almost leapt at a return-merch HDTV going for $900; way more than I intended to spend but a surprise at "only" three digits. Its was obviously missing pieces of its faceplate, though, and possibly a remote, and who knows what else, so. At least it helped me come to my decision. (And now I kind of see what my friends have meant when they mumble about the blue-shirted BB floorbots. There were at least 7 or 8 BB guys wandering around the TV corner, and half ran up, one at a time, to ask if I needed help with anything. The ones I spoke with struck me as friendly, eager, and not very confidence-inspiring. ("I dunno, man, I just got transferred here!" said one fellow, when he couldn't figure out whether or not the returned TV had a remote. I told him it was OK.))

Comments

be suspicious

[ex-colorwhe.livejournal.com]

2 guys there actively lied to me, actually, swearing up and down that every DVD player they carried could be run through a VCR with no extra equipment. Okay, maybe they didn't lie, maybe they were just ignorant, but they didn't exhibit any doubt at all, so I had no way of knowing to be suspicious; I thought asking 2 people separately was enough checks and balances.

My point is, of course, if you have any questions about the equipment, be very wary about any answers you get.

Daewoo: not so PC

[xymotik.livejournal.com]

Daewoo Electronics was until recently a part of the Daewoo chaebol (a monster conglomerate) of South Korea. They put out great PR when introducing their cars to the US in '98 but all the real dirt came out over the next few years. They massively overexpanded, mostly in the auto industry, and ran up $79 billion or more in debt by building plants in places such as Uzbekistan to skirt protectionist laws and currency fluctuations. Daewoo finally collapsed, being both a major cause and victim of the 1997 currency devaluation. The founder of the company is now a fugitive outside the country but he had built a cult of personality and has enough political connections that he hasn't been arrested yet. South Korean workers do have strong unions but they're quite good at applying violence (or at least the threat of it) to get their way. Daewoo's cars sold in the US under their own name did quite poorly in terms of reliability, safety, and relative fuel economy. I don't think their electronics have a great reliability record either--check Consumer Reports if you can.

South Korea, like much of the rest of the world, isn't too great when it comes to treatment of women and the government, backed by the US, was essentially under military rule for a long time. Meanwhile, South Korean citizens are increasingly against a US military presence in the country and in other situations I wouldn't blame them at all, but North Korea's dictatorship is truly nuts and if not for America's help the residents of South Korea would be saluting Kim Jong Il and on the verge of starvation just like the other part of the peninsula.

I don't know of any big electronics companies that are really all-around politically friendly (they mostly seem to suck; race-to-the-bottom and all that), but if you're concerned at least about corporate ownership, maybe think of Philips Magnavox of the Netherlands, because assisted suicide for the terminally ill, decriminalized marijuana, gay marriage, and legalized and regulated prostitution are all Good Things. Or for another alternative, both the consumer brands GE and RCA are owned by Thomson Consumer Electronics of France--I only mention this because when in Las Vegas a couple of days ago on the way back from Colorado, anything with a French connection like the Paris Las Vegas resort or French restaurants elsewhere had one or more American flags outside to appease the dummies still angry with France over its stance on Iraq (what, should we boycott Canadian bacon and Mexican food as well?).

Oe you could just buy the cheapest. That would work too.