No Beer and no TV make Bods something something…

Published on 7 August 2007 in , , ,

What happened to the days when things lasted? I’m sure they existed. I remember owning a TV for about 12 years – and it got transported around the country a few times to boot…

Sadly it doesn’t seem to happen very often any more. Just two months short of being five years old, and my TV has decided to give up the ghost. Well actually its decided to start off fine, then within minutes the colours are getting all wonky, before finally turning itself into standby after about five minutes.

The (phone) advice from one TV repair company (Video Techs) was that the tube’s giving up the ghost and it was likely to be far easier just to buy a new one. Which would be fine if I had a car – drive up to a nice shop, bundle it in the boot and you’re away. Unfortunately one of the downsides to not having a car, is that such things aren’t as easy to sort out. The internet is a great thing, but getting television sets delivered quickly is not one of its best skills.

Then of course there is the issue of what TV to go for. To be frank, most LCD and plasma TVs give frankly awful picture quality when plugged into a normal TV signal. There’s no denying that HDTV can look great on them – assuming you spend your money on something decent anyway. However most of my viewing certainly isn’t HD.

However so many people have fallen for flatscreen TVs as a concept that traditional CRTs (which may be bulky, but give a much better picture) are pretty thin on the ground in “large” sizes (my current TV is a 24″) so choices are low anyway. Argos lists just two widescreen models by Beko and that’s it. That’s not to say the Beko is bad – my fridge is made by Beko and it was good value and works very well. It’s actually probably the TV I’ll buy anyway given that out of all the retailers I’ve looked at, Argos seem to be the only ones who can deliver before Saturday (annoyingly I’ve got commitments on Saturday else delivery then would be fine!)

In the meantime, it’s no TV for me. There’s actually only one set in the house – although the computer can of course be used. But who wants to sit and watch TV on a desk chair in a bedroom? Give me a sofa anyday…