TV Time

I am not the audio-visual connoisseur I never was. I wouldn't mind a nice home theater system, but it has never been a huge priority. Conversely, in my music studio, I was always well equipped with relatively high end gear. Prior to moving, we sold our ten-year old TV for close to three beans. We almost gave it away- along with a nice VCR. TVs and VCRs use a different format here- not that it matters with VCRs. Who can find tapes these days?

We sold the TV because Europe is all PAL fomat, rather than the NTSC of North America. Region coding of DVDs aside, my Pioneer player should work with anything that takes component video- in other words, most high end TVs. Norway's low end TVs just have SCART connections, which are a cartridge type cable that includes both audio and video on one cable. They are bulky, but less ugly than having a bunch of different cables flying around.

Anyway, we need a new TV. We are borrowing one from a family who are returning to Stavanger this week. We need to return it. My question is, do we buy a high end regular TV, or a low end LCD TV? We cannot afford a plasma TV, so they are out of the question. A 32" wide 6:9 conventional TV starts as low as about 4000kr. The cheapest 26" LCDs begin around 6000kr. Since these are measured diagonally, and since they are wide aspect TVs, they are "smaller" than the older apect ration sets (shorter). Also, this is the first time I have actually seen "inches" used as a measurement unit since we moved. I am guessing a 6000kr LCD set would require some compromises, so perhaps there would be some price creep up to the 7000-8000kr range before happiness arrives.

I just returned from Elkjøp, which roughly translated means "electric shop." It is the Best Buy of Norway. There were probably four times as many LCD/plasma options as conventional CRT choices. People here take their televisions very seriously. I still don't know where to begin.