Product Review: Pirates of the Caribbean Television

Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has yielded a lot of merchandise sought by children: from action figures to clothing and even home décor. Many children seek to have a bedroom or playroom decorated in a pirate theme. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has made televisions, DVD players and even CD boom boxes all with a pirate motif. Recently, I purchased two 13" Pirates of the Caribbean television sets. While these are the older CRT style of televisions, the company also makes a 20" CRT television with a built-in DVD player and a 15" flat-panel LCD television. As someone who does not watch television very often, and as a person who wanted to reduce electric consumption (downsized from a 27" TV), I just wanted two small sets for my house.

After ordering from two different vendors, my reviews were mixed: one set arrived broken with the on/off button completely smashed in. This set I paid $90 total. The other set arrived in perfect condition and I paid $60 total.

While I was very upset with the broken television and refusing to ship it back at my own expense, I tried to fix it to no avail. However, the included remote did allow me to operate the television both on and off; so I decided to keep it. The set also included a pair of mock treasure chest legs which snapped on the bottom front of the TV, and a pirate's skull for the top of the TV.

Installing the treasure chest legs was an easy process; however installing the pirate's skull was very difficult as the holes do not line up. After ten minutes I was finally able to line one up on one television, but the other one I tried to bend the plastic tabs and ended up breaking it. Since there are three tabs, having one broken is all right, but the point is I would have liked it to have worked properly.

Another tedious task is the operation of the remote. No, it's not the installation of the batteries, but the operation of the remote itself. The channel up/down and volume up/down buttons are so close together many time when I try to change the channel, I end up turning up the volume and vice-versa. This has become really annoying and the designers could have fixed this problem by separating the buttons.

If deciding to purchase this television (all of the heavier CRT ones), note that they are not DTV compatible and will require a converter box. I have cable so it will not be necessary, but if operating without cable, a box will be necessary. Additionally, another operational snafu is the plugs for cable and DVD players. My DVD player requires to be plugged in and has a cable connection. With the Pirates of the Caribbean television, I must choose whether I want to watch cable (screw in cable) or whether I want to watch DVD's (unscrew cable, plug in player). If using this with a non-Pirates of the Caribbean DVD player, make sure your DVD player is the kind where you only have to plug in the yellow, white and red plugs, as it will work fine then.

Overall, would I recommend the Pirates of the Caribbean television player to shoppers? Yes, only if you need a low-cost, no-frills television, which is great for kids. While not for everyone, I am happy I made the purchase. My only regrets it not purchasing the matching DVD player while it was on sale.