No, you NEED it!!!

Thanks for the encouragement!!! The last TV I bought was my 20 incher... in 1995, ROFL.

Anyhoo, I'll let y'all know when it is all set up for some loverly TV watching. And I am getting Mr. Cheese to figure out how much more expensive it is to get the HD cable from Time Warner than whatever we're getting right now (our landlord doesnt allow satellite TV, or a roof antenna). I know you can get HD thru bunny ears but.... that's just SO low tech. ;)

So in a few months maybe I'll have enough to get the rear speakers, but in the meantime, the Wii should be extra fun in widescreen. I'm totally re-playing Zelda.

Wierd thing tho that I should have looked out for -- apparently Circuit City (which I thought had OK customer service) has really terrible customer service, according to some online reviews. anyone here ever have an issue with them?

Also I did not buy the extended warranty option, since I've always been of the ilk that if something is catastrophically wrong with a new piece of electronics, it'll break in the first month anyway. Is getting the extended warranty a huge waste of money like I think it sounds like? (it does NOT protect against things like spills or throwing the Wiimote against the TV)

I've always had very good customer service at Circuit City with the various things I've bought over the years. They've even been kind enought to retrieve the odd stuck CD out of my car stereo for free more than once.

Not an issue specific to CC (this applies to just about all of the stores that sell HD TV's: Do NOT purchase your cables from them, especially HDMI cables. We had this discussion previously starting here in one thread.

FWIW, another thread on HDTV discussions.

I think it's ~$10/month at Time Warner to get an HD receiver over the cost of digital.

OK I am reading that thread and now I feel all cold and scared inside. What expensive confusifying horror have I gotten myself into? Component Cable this, s-video that, cable card this, TiVo that, HD-TV-cable-aux Gwaaahhhhh!!! Blah blah Ginger indeed.

All I want is:

To watch HD programming sometimes (TW DVR is the only way to go, methinks, with my current setup).

To play video games in wide screen.

To watch DVD (and later, Blu-Ray perhaps) on a big screen.

I'm not sure how this will all work out considering our current set up is horrifically over-complicated (with 2 DVD players, a TiVo, a VHS player, an amplifier, two speakers, some bizarre sound-board which I have no idea of its functionality, and lots of plugs hooked into another box with a switch, which turns the DVD on occassionally). I cannot for the life of me figure out what Cheddar Boy has done to that... I consider myself relatively intelligent (and I'm able to figure out a computer pretty well) but I cannot for the life of me ever figure out how to turn that system on when I want to. *sigh*

TV comes on Saturday...... oy vey.

Take a deep breath. Relax.

Before you start buying lots of expensive components, consider a Harmony remote from Logitech. They're easily the best remotes out there (you type in your components and setup online and then program it via USB).

Once the TV actually arrives and you've started to enjoy it, I'll jump in with more crazy suggestions.

ah, the rise of technology, love how the extended warentee doesnt cover remotes or wiimotes.. lol does it cover cell phones that get thrown by accident ;)

Mother and father wont get HD till its time... so im stuck in a RTV degree with standard depth tv, and my last internship made some HD programming and couldnt even see it. lol

Good luck figuring out the remote and everything with the new tv, the newer the tv the more buttons on the remote, which do the same thing as older universal remotes did. sounds like a great purchase...

Yeah, take it one component at a time. We were without the proper cables for the DVD player for a week or so and we survived. :)

I forgot you have a Wii! :D It's soooo much better on a big ass TV.

Heh now I'm looking into the whole "home theatre in a box" suggestion (since the component stuff seems... WAY too out of my price range) Yamaha YHT F1500 seems like a pretty cool system... here

I'm gonna have to see what it is exactly we have at home already...