The jump to HD...

It's all the bedroom's fault really. We didn't have much furniture in it and Valerie hated the wallpaper & paint color.

In September, Valerie began stripping the ugly wallpaper & border off of the wall (Lots of scoring, lots of DIF) and we repainted the room. (Benjamin Moore's Navajo Red if you cared) After the room was repainted (it took 4 coats but that's another story) it was time to decide on a bedroom set. After much looking around, we found a new set at Harlem Furniture that we both liked and the price was right.

As the bedroom was coming together, the finishing touch required us getting a new TV. The problem I had was there was only one place to put a TV in the bedroom, on my dresser, which is pretty tall for a TV to sit on so the existing 19" tube TV wouldn't work. I decided it was finally the time to explore a flat panel option.

The choice of technology was a really easy pick...

Projection = WAY TO BIG
Plasma = Starting around 42" it was larger than we needed.
LCD = Largest size range. Full HD screens from around 19" and up.

LCD was clearly the way to go. But it is also the most expensive technology currently available. Narrowing it down to Samsung was also pretty easy. They are pretty much the top of line.

Then we had to decide on size... originally, I looked at the 19" but soon realized that I wanted something larger. Because the 19" Widescreen looked smaller than the 19" Tube TV we had in there. I moved up to 23" and was pretty much set to pull the trigger on it until I saw Amazon.com's price for the 26".

Amazon also had a deal where you could buy a swing arm mount with it at the same time (+$150) and get it back in full after rebate. It seemed the logical choice. Not only did I save $350 off of Best Buy's price but I also got a nice expensive mount for free!

Looks like I'll have to wait another year before I we get the big HD set for the living room but for now, I'm betting I'll be spending a lot more time watching TV in the bedroom.