Today offered a 50 inch Sony LCD for $1300 ex demmo. Said okay. they said sorry no box.....oooooh sorry no bubble wrap or cardboard. Did i hear that Sears was going bust? Or was it that they were buying Target. Amounts to the same thing I suppose. Just plain daft.
The DVD for Hi def it seems comes in two main flavors. The one I mentioned, and the blue beam for reading progressive [non interlaced] DVDs. That one retailing for $1,000. [Sanyo i think] Mmmm not so attractive.
Leads from $40 - $120. Computer monitor RGB leads could be this kind of cost....until folk caught on and got Tiwanese products for $10. [they were better ]
The very pleasent and learn-ed young man in Sears, pulled the bulb from the LCD to show me. This cluster of plastic and bulb is $199 plus post and tax. It would only take 60 seconds to change. $100 a year for full in house maintainance. Well sort of, cos you would get the first year anyway...but they will even repair scratches to the case for that and give you a new one if you get trouble.
A popular cable broad-band and HD T/V deal is about $105 / month. this gives 2 BBC progs as well. Bit over budget for me, but not for a young [well paind] family I suppose.