Boxing Day: It’s Done
It started with an errant pixel on my 20” CRT TV that would intermittently fail; I spent more time than a thinking man should trying to clean it off.
Now I knew one day I would need to transition to HD, particularly once Blu-ray won the HD wars but being as pragmatic as I am I needed a good reason. The sick pixel started to provide one. Also my computer’s only outputs are HDMI so I haven’t been able to watch videos from my computer on the TV since I got the new PC.
I was so cognizant of this need to upgrade one day that I haven’t bought myself a DVD since the HD wars ended. I play the long game.
Then came Vegas; Jon and Josh dragged me into a Sony Store despite my firm belief that you shouldn’t waste time on vacation in electronic stores because you won’t buy anything and they don’t have anything you can’t see back at home. Anyways, they had the new Transformers movie playing on an HDTV from a Blu-ray disc. I knew that, as I was sitting there seeing things I swear I couldn’t see in IMAX, that I would take some significant step towards HD come Boxing Day.
Well I spent copious amounts of time measuring space, researching, and comparison shopping over the last week. The file I used to collect all the information I acquired became a sought after commodity itself.
After much searching of websites, flyers, and my own priorities I finally decided on a TV: a 32” LCD by LG capable of 1080i with 2 RCA inputs, 1 S-Video, 1 Coax, and 3 HDMI and a universal remote for $480 from Future Shop. There were other models as much as $80 cheaper but I decided the copious inputs, higher quality output (everything else was 720p but this set can also do 960p if you’re anti-interlace), universal remote (all other remotes for TVs that size were simple, not universal) and a recognizable brand name that I’ve had positive previous experiences with, in the case of LG my last cell phone which I loved was one of their products, was well worth the extra scratch.
But in my searching I also stumbled across a Blu-ray player for $100 from Best Buy, easily $80 cheaper than any other Blu-ray player anywhere else. It automatically up-converts DVDs to the maximum resolution of your TV and has a SD card slot. How could I not jump on that? Jon’s argument for the PS3 notwithstanding this was a no-brainer.
So on Boxing Day I needed to attack Future Shop and Best Buy simultaneously but they both open at the same ungodly hour. So I needed to draft my partner and institute a team split – me in Future Shop with the Visa and her in Best Buy with the debit card. Clearly I couldn’t in all fairness subject my son to that and getting a babysitter was potentially problematic.
So I waited for the online sales to begin at 5pm PST on December 24th. I was all ready with accounts with each website logged in and ready to go 15 minutes before the launch. 2 browsers prepped I launched my purchasing attempts simultaneously and after 20 minutes in queues I was able to buy both the TV and the Blu-ray player without leaving the house.
It wasn’t all good news; there wasn’t an in-store pickup option available so I had no choice but to pay shipping – a painful $50 for the TV and a very reasonable $10 for the Blu-ray player. I’m still hoping I might be able to edit the order after the fact for in-store pickup on the TV but even if I can’t I think this was the right way to go. Given all the hassle of actually shopping on Boxing Day I think it’s worth it. Now I don’t have to find a babysitter, get up early, risk driving the car in a foot of snow, finding parking, fighting the crowds, waiting in line…
Now I need to see what my first BluRay disc purchase will be…
