Planned Purchase: 42-inch Sanyo LCD TV

I've been living in the Philippines for almost 4 years and in my house about 6 months less. We still do not have a large TV of any kind in the house. I've been trying to squirrel away enough money to buy a 42-inch LCD TV because that's what my wife wants. Unfortunately, emergencies keep happening to eat up any disposable income I'm able to save. Hopefully, her current 8-month stint in the US will provide enough extra income to take care of this planned purchase and many more.

Why 42 inches?

Frankly, I don't know why my wife insists on a 42-inch LCD TV. Perhaps it's because she had one in the US or perhaps she just likes that size, I'll never know. Our living room wall unit can accommodate the largest ones being made, so size isn't an issue. The narra wood wall unit we bought actually had an extra TV stand sitting in the area designed for a large wide screen TV, made for smaller TVs. That TV stand is now in our bedroom with an "Insignia" 19-inch LCD TV sitting on top of it. By the way, Insignia is a brand sold by Best Buy.

It doesn't matter to me what size LCD TV ends up in the wall unit because I'll never watch TV there. I don't watch TV in our bedroom either. My wife has it tuned to one channel and that's what channel it tends to stay on, even though we have cable TV. On the rare occasions where I actually watch TV programs or movies, I do it here, on my desktop computer – it's a 19-inch monitor, the same size as the TV anyway.

Sanyo is the Brand I'm Buying

I don't know why but when it comes to electronics, the Japanese brands tend to last the longest. There isn't a shortage of Japanese LCD TVs in the Philippines, but most of them are overpriced. Sanyo is the only brand I found to be affordable. I can get a 42-inch high definition (1080p) LCD TV for under $1000. The last time I checked, the cheapest Toshiba 42-inch TV was priced at 80,000 pesos (over $1700) and I'm sorry, that's just too expensive. The Sony LCD TVs are not just expensive, they're ridiculously overpriced – it's the name that costs the money.

A little of a year ago, one of my nephews worked at Ocampos, a department store in downtown Olongapo City. At the time, he told me I could get an LG 4-inch LCD TV, including a home theater system, for about the same price as the Toshiba. Uh, no thanks. Last month, my wife and I went there for another reason and a different sales person steered us toward the Sanyo LCD TVs – he was someone else we know (a non-relative). We didn't buy anything, of course, because we didn't have the money.

No Hurry

As long as I buy a 42-inch LCD TV before my wife returns in eight months, everything will work out fine and she'll be happy. I'm not in a hurry to get one and I'm going to make sure I pay the least I can for the best LCD TV I can get. We don't get anything in high definition via cable yet anyway, even though Colorview CATV told us it was likely to be rolled out two years ago. Of course, peripheral devices like DVD players can alleviate that as far as movies go.

On the other hand… I found a couple of DVD players which can play MP4 (the format used by DVD VOB files) and DivX (AVI) movie files. Since I have a few conversion programs in my possession, it would be a cinch to convert my DVDs over to one of those formats and watch them on a 42-inch LCD TV via that kind of DVD player. If I add some decent speakers, I'll have the kind of home theater system I alone would probably appreciate.

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