Going HD

About a month ago I received my first paycheck at my new job. As it was considerably better than my old low paying job playing with silverware I decided it was time to cash in some savings and pick up the item that I have been saving for all summer: a new TV.

My last set (a 27" Panasonic CRT ) I picked up back in the fall of 2001. I still remember going to the store not long after 9/11 doing what I believed was my part to keep the economy going after a horrendous act of terror. It wasn't much but since I was unfit for military duty, I was at least helping to avoid a financial panic.

I paid around $330 for that set at Sears and I couldn't have been happier. At the time I bought it, I had the largest set in the house and mostly used it for watching DVDs and playing Dreamcast games. After six years of serving this function rather well, plus the addition of a Gamecube, an NES, a laserdisc player and other devices it racked up many hours of use as my DVD Blog can attest.

A few months ago while playing Punch Out, I noticed that the screen started to have a large red spot in the upper left hand corner. My guess was that it came from a magnet near by in the form of some really awful small speakers I used for rear surrounds once upon a time. Now to repair this is to simply use a degausser to demagnetize the area. Of course that would require removing the TV to another location as this can inadvertently erase anything from a VHS tape to a hard drive. Seeing as how I didn't want any data lost I lived with it and toyed with the idea of going HD, although I was still at my old job I could not afford it.

Fast forward to the end of August and I had just accepted a new position at a new job which paid a decent and regular salary. I decided the time was right to use some of the emergency money I had saved this summer. Since I was happily employed, I went out and got my new TV.

First thing I had to decide was on the size. As my bedroom isn't that large I decided to go with a 32" widescreen. This allows for a wider set than my current 27 but for a somewhat shorter picture. At first I felt it might be a bit small but I am quite pleased with it. Going with this size made it easy to immediately pick LCD over plasma although had I opted for a larger set, I believe I would have gone the same way.

My new TV is the 32" Panasonic TCLX70 which was on sale at CircuitCity.com for a fairly reasonable price and I decided to go ahead and take the plunge. So with the new in and the old on its way out, the question now turned to my aging TV stand and piles of electronics.

The old TV stand was something of an enigma. I purchased it back in 2000 for around $20 at the closing of our local Bradlees store to free up the coffee table my really old TV was occupying at the time. While this rickety piece of particle board could certainly hold my new TV's weight it just was a huge eyesore and lacked any reasonable method or storing components.

I first went searching for a stand as soon as I had decided on the television. I poked around the usual places of Best Buy, BJ's, Target et. all and seemed to find a very common trend of cheap materials for a high price. While I loved the glass shelf look of many fine stands, I just could not bring myself to pay the ridiculously high price of a stand. I may spend $150 on a DVD player or a short stack of video games, but I'd be dammed if I had spent that on some particle board.

Being the sort of creative fellow I am, I decided instead of spending all sorts of money on a stand, I'd just build one. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Well not completely out of my reach but a heck of a lot more work than I wanted. After measuring and drawing up plans and calculating the cost for everything the price still seemed too high. I was starting to believe I'd just have to cough up the money for a good stand or stick with my Bradlees special.

Instead I got a creative idea on my lunch break at work. While browsing WalMart.com I came across a black TV cart for around $18. While it wouldn't fit my TV, I thought that two adjacent to each other might just do the trick. So a few hours and less than $40 later and I had two cheap shelves together and waiting for the new TV.

Once that was done I had to plug in and charge my trusty electric screwdriver and get ready to put it all together. After an hour or so that evening, I had the new stands together and the next day when the TV arrived I got it all set up. Currently the shelves are home to a DVD player, VCR, Cable Box, an NES, an SNES, a Genesis and Dreamcast. I may add in my PS2 at some point as well but for now this is just fine.

I'll have to post photos some time when I get the rest of the room clean but I am more than satisfied with it.