New SmartTV and Stuff

So in the wintertime when I'm not working (this year I'm working a little bit on an as-needed basis, which I enjoy but it doesn't pay many bills) and we're living on one income we suspend our DirecTv service. We love DirecTv but with all the content on the internet we really don't find it all that painful to leave it off for a few months - typically Nov-March - and it saves us a significant amount each year.

Meanwhile, my husband's eyesight is getting ever-worse. And our old TV - a 100# (or seems that way) monster doesn't have the crisp picture that newer television sets have even though the picture was still good, and the stereo sound was GREAT... but Pete has had to get up and walk up close to the TV to read text, such as the program guide, for months. So we saved up for a newer TV set that would work better for us. We knew we couldn't afford a really top-of-the-line model, but determined that 32" would be big enough for our small living room. We also wanted to make sure that the screen was as clear and crisp as possible, so we wanted 1080p resolution. We knew that internet apps would be fun, and could be useful as we made our way through the winter without satellite; wifi would be a must though, with a toddler and critters running around we didn't want more cords and cables. And that was about the extent of our wish list.

Anyway, I've been studying what's out there for a few months, and getting ahead on our bills so we could dedicate part of a paycheck to the purchase. (Easier to do it this way than "saving up" even though it amounts to the same thing...we don't use credit for anything but that's a topic for another post.) We'd been planning to wait until Christmas sales, but still looked at TV sets every time we were out shopping. And last week when we had to make a trip to Saginaw for an appointment, it was a good time to visit some of the larger stores like we don't have here, and do some more homework "in person".

I knew that our budget would be about $400, and I knew that we could get something that all of the attributes we wanted, but in that price range it wouldn't be easy...but could be done especially during the Christmas sales. Then on our day in Saginaw we saw this TV - a Vizio that got 4.5 stars out of 5 on amazon.com, was selling for over $600 there and for $550 at the Vizio website - for $440! Not remanufactured, not in any way used, but brand new. AND it not only had our "must-haves" but also had 3D, a USB port, PC connectors, surround sound, 3 HDMI ports (most in our price range only had 2), remote with a qwerty keyboard, and other goodies! It definitely was not just a basic model!

We saw this early in the day, then continued on shopping at quite a few places there, but couldn't find anything that had everything this TV had, not for the price...and of course, we went a little over our budget (we're eating a lot of chicken until the next paycheck - lol) to get it but in the long run we are very very happy with our purchase!

This TV was really an excellent buy and a lot of fun. Each TV manufacturer has their own group of apps, and Vizio's selection is probably no better or worse than any others, although I don't understand why they don't have YouTube. But as Amazon Prime members (that was also essential, that the apps package of any TV we got had Amazon Prime in it) there is certainly plenty to see. There are TV shows that I've never heard of or seen before that look pretty good, and I look forward to watching those as well as the familiar ones that I like to watch anyway. (Frazier comes to mind.)

Just really happy with this TV!