Well, I started having difficulty with the blu ray player.  Some of the kids' movies weren't playing well or at all.  Most of the time, a lint free cloth for the dvd was all that was needed.  I also broke down and bought a lense cleaner for the drive (as the house can get a bit dusty thanks to my wood burning insert).  Most of the time that solution worked.  Other times I chalked it up to badly scratched discs.  Didn't really know we had a problem until I decided to run some of these movies on the computer which also has a blu ray drive.  The discs no matter how smudged or scratched performed flawlessly.  /sigh  So, I figure the blu ray player needed replacing.  So, I pranced off to Best Buy to purchase another.  Tested a few for load times and selected another Samsung non-3D unit.  Got it home, unpackaged it and found it wouldn't work for my needs.  It had no component outs, just HDMI.  Yep, the TV and HD tuner were all component out except for the RS-232 and DVI where they connected to each other.  All the other outputs on the HD controller were RCA and Component.  So, I decided to take the blu ray player back to get one with component outputs.  For some strange reason, I decided to find which players had those outputs.  Surprisingly very few.  And after further research, the ones that might have them wouldn't output more than 480i/480p because of outdated compy protection rules.  So with a quick migraine-relieving pinch to the bridge to the nose later I notify my wife about the situation.  I had been working on her about a new TV for a couple of years on and off.  I had nearly $900 saved up for a cruise I thought she wanted to go on anyway, so why not push now right?

 

I was somewhat torn because I really didn't want to get a new TV because it wasn't that great a priority, but nearly half our librarty was now blu ray.  Try explaining that to a 3 yr old why he can't watch one of his movies and expect him to understand.  So, I start researching and think about some of the TVs I've looked at during the holidays in the stores.  I remember seeing a set from Sharp that really caught my eye at Sam's Club.  For the price it was just as good if not better than the Samsungs and and Sonys that were on either side of it.  Well, come last Monday morning I stopped off to the Club after work and looked around at the offerings.  There she was, a beautiful 60" Sharp AQUOS LC-60LE633U!  They even had the stand I wanted in stock too.  So, pacing after nearly 20 minutes, I call the wife and tell her what my intention was.  She appreciated that I called her first which sealed the deal for her.  How I managed to get that TV and stand home in my Equinox without damaging them I'll never know.  It wasn't until I got home I noticed on the TV box that they are supposed to stay upright the entire time.  Grrrr.  Oh well.

 

 

I got me one of these 55" Samsung LEDs.  It's pretty.

Do we really need to say it?

Pure talent?

FreeEnterprise wrote: You could have just gotten a multimedia receiver...

That will be coming down the road if I can't get the older receiver to work with a PCM cable...

This one, but mine is 55"  I paid, I think $1995 for it in January*  and am extremely happy with it.  My previous TV was a 26" Vizio, and this one blows it out of the water.  The colors are very bright and for gaming I haven't ever played on anything that compares to it.  I haven't tried 3D yet as I don't have any glasses or movies.  All in all, I am very happy with my purchase.  

*Thanks guys**

** except for Scotchy and Kayback