Posted 5:48 PM by Gene

Some time ago I said I'd write about my battle to buy cables for my stereo system. I may yet get around to it, but in the meantime I'm grappling over which new TV to buy. It'll be a Sony, that's sure -- not out of devotion to the brand, but because practically everyone agrees it makes the best TVs, and three of them just got top-rated by Consumer Reports. The problem is, what kind of TV? I'm close to deciding on HD, but there are quirks -- like the differing ASPECT RATIOS, which leave black bars on the screen no matter what (unless you watch on a wide-screen set which stretches the image like high-tech Silly Putty), and the fact that analog TV (which still makes up practically all our programming) looks rotten in HD. Nor is it too pleasant to contemplate paying $500 or more extra for a boob tube, and because it will BE a tube (no way can I afford plasma or LCD -- not yet), it will be HEAVY, and it will COST to deliver it, and I see ten-thumbed cauliflower-eared truckers smashing my new set to the ground. Plus the newer Sony models lack PIP, presumably because of the differing standards, or perhaps because Sony didn't meet it profit targets. For that reason I haven't entirely given up on analog; there's a discontinued model (the KV-27FV310) which by all accounts has a fine picture. Of course I'll need an outboard box -- all but the most expensive digital sets lack an HD tuner, and cable-ready sets are largely in the realm of sci-fi; plus I'll have to increase my tithe to the ROBERTS BARONS, who I'm sure have a few nasty tricks up their electronic sleeves. At least in the old days when you bought a color set you knew it didn't make your black-and-white clunker obsolete. I wonder if given the crowds fleeing network TV and the fact that until recently people have bought HD to view DVDs we're paying altogether willingly for it. The fact that the over-the-air greedmeisters keep getting their hired hands in CONGRESS to push back the transition date for digital also suggests some reluctance. All I know is, I've got PARALYSIS BY ANALYSIS.