Pre-February digital changeover panic underway on Craigslist!
 

I was browsing Craigslist in Los Angeles for TVs, and I was amazed to see so many NICE late-model, top-of-the-line TVs for sale dirt-cheap. Sony 40XBR800 (WEGA flat-tube 40") sets for $300, and 36" WEGA sets for $75 in mint condition, working fine. My wife bamboozled me into going to Hollywood on Saturday night, and buying an as-new 2005 Sony KV-36FS120 flat tube WEGA, with original $300 Sony base, manuals, and original remote for $180. Not a scratch on it, and it smells like new plastic. We put it in the family room to replace another KX-1901 that I had in there (that we never watched).

The couple selling the set thought they had the last laugh, I guess. They were headed out to buy a new digital set after we took the 36" off their hands.

I don't know how long this sell-off of NTSC sets will last, but now's a buyers' market!!!!!! (I also don't know why we needed another WEGA... Kay already had one she bought new before we were together, and we got a 40XBR800 last year on eBay, also dirt-cheap. It's been in the back room, and I think in the whole year, it's been turned on 3 or 4 times). I still like my KX-1901 Profeel in the kitchen, and my Zenith 25DC56.

Charles
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...Sony36WEGA.jpg

I want one of those for my downstairs "livingroom" great picture on those TV's!

Evan

Even in my small corner of the world, I see many late model CRT TV's on craigslist. I've even seen a few 32" and 36" sets priced as low as $50! I'm sure most of these are being sold by people who are buying new flatscreens for whatever reason. However, there are still plenty of people out there who either can't afford a flatscreen and/or don't want a flatscreen that will buy these CRT sets. I've sold a few CRT sets lately and most of the buyers were on cable or satellite; so, they should not have anything to worry about. Another thing that helps sell a CRT set is that CRT sets are becoming rare in stores. Most of what is currently available is crap, anyway.

We for two aren't selling off our Philips 34" CRT until it quits working. We have a couple of times gone down to stores like Video Only and checked out new TV's and until you get stupid expensive they all look like shit compared to our's the reduced color palette and high contrast make the picture appear sharper until something moves then it looks like crap smeared across the screen. EVEN the wife asked the sales guy "WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THAT" we were watching a football game and the vivid colors and high contrast made it look all bright and new but the instant someone moved it looked terrible.

I figure the Philips has another 5 years to solider on before we even concider a change.

hhhmm.. I think you just gave me the twist on selling my TV.. advertise it as Digital ready... I'm taking a beating on what I have it listed for, and can't get one single e-mail on it..

A friend and I had the same conversation just yesterday. And talk about misinformation! Some places are telling people they HAVE to buy a new set or will see static come February. :no: A large portion of the viewing population is hooked to cable and cable companies for the most part aren't going to change a thing. They'll continue re-modulating signals in the same manner they have in the past.

Unless they are like Time Warner who in my location, is slowly stealing channels and placing them in their "Digital lineup" They have stolen National Geographic and my second PBS channel so far. Of course there were no refunds to me and the "Digital lineup" costs extra.

If I ever get a decent high speed internet service(other than Time Warner) at my location-they will be history.

PBS here uses a subchannel for DTV sometimes, but they do not seem to publish a schedule for it, so I can never know what they are broadcasting there.

If/when Comcast does away with analog delivery and requires the rental of a digital cable box for each TV; I will likely be gone. I've got a half-dozen TV's connected to cable and I'm not interested in paying rental fees on that many boxes plus the already high cable cost.

Yea but where you all gonna go. Satellite? its just as bad.

I've seen quite a few nice sets pass through Goodwill in the last few months, I think it's more a desire for big screen HD than panic about the changeover.

I'll hook each TV to a DTV converter and get 10 channels of mostly crap for free.

On cable, I get many more channels of crap; but, I have to pay for them.

I went with directv once and that was around $70/mo for 155 channels of mostly crap.

This topic is of a bit of interest to me. Which models should we look for for the best picture. Weren't there a few HD crt models out there, or are those the WEGA's? We're looking for a couple of nice big sets for the bedrooms.

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The WEGA came in HD 1080 with standard 4:3 screen, and also in a (more rare) 16:9 version. Most all of the WEGA XBR sets are HD, but some of the earliest ones (i.e. KV-36XBR200/400) are 440 HD only. I'd suggest the KV-36XBR800. It's the top of the line, and has HDMI inputs. 2004-5 vintage. I don't know the numbers on the 16:9 WEGA models, but I believe that all of the 16:9 WEGAs should be 1080.

Charles