High Cost High Definition TV

For Christmas I purchased a gift for myself and my family. The gift was a 46" high definition 120 MHz, model Z series Sony television, a Sony home theater sound system, and a Sony blu-ray disk player, which were packaged together. The cost in the Best Buy advertisement was $1,999 which included set up by The Geek Squad normally valued at about $200. OK $2,000 is a lot of money but it had been more like $3,000 for a similar home theater system 6 months before this, I figured I would go for it.

When I arrived at Best Buy the transaction went fairly well with the addition of $120 for two "superior" HD cables. I purchased a stand since my previous TV was only 32" and wouldn't accommodate the new arrival. A suitable stand was an additional $400. $120 of that price was home set up. The stand was just too heavy for me to lift and set up by myself. This cost of the stand set up was not covered in the $200 home theater set up.

Since I have little technical skills I purchased the 4 year Geek Squad warranty. Another $300 but great protection since otherwise I would have to box the set up and send it back to Sony for free repair. Even that only lasted for the first year. It seemed worth the cost.

Delivery was $100 additional for the TV and other equipment.

Sales tax is 6% in Maryland or another $120.

But wait! The Geek Squad set it up and handed me three complex looking remote controls, one for the TV another for the home theater sound and the last for the blu-ray disk player. I had a fourth remote for my old VCR, which I decided to keep and attach. A mountain of remote controls ended up on my coffee table. The kind Geek Squad representative quickly offered to sell me a single master remote which would do the job of all four remotes in front of me. They would sell it to me and program it on their laptop computer for only $150 more. So I bought it. It was a choice between the single remote or inpatient therapy bought, which would inevitably be brought on by the high stress of having to manipulate over 200 buttons on the four individual remotes.

My $2,000 set up now cost just $10 shy of $3,200. Wow! I was way over the $3,000 mark which had prevented me from buying a HD system half a year ago.

I had another sad surprise when I went to my cable provider and found out that a cable box capable of reaching the high definition channels with service would be $10 extra a month forever, another $120 per year. I also found that the $10 only provided the very basic HD access. I actually paid an additional $29 above the $10 monthly for expanded HD access and for two movie channels. My bad!

I was now closing in on $4,000 for the equipment, set up and first year usage. I was hoping to take a nice vacation this year but had to downsize my expectations. In addition, I started to feel angry with myself since I had not purchased a 52" model, which I just had to have since by best friend had one. $4K and I wasn't even totally happy with what I had.

Since the Z series only comes with a maximum screen size of 46", I would have had to buy a Sony XBR, the current Sony top of the line, which would have brought my cost to almost $5,500 or the "W" series model, one model older than the "Z" I had but probably close to an additional $500 in total cost with all the extras I had purchased for my current home theater configuration.

Please keep my experience in mind if you go shopping for a high end home theater entertainment center.

I must also add though, I love the picture.