No one can resist the siren song of Wally World.  Not even me, even though I can’t bring myself to use the proper name of The Store That Must Not Be Named.  This is probably the secret of their success: even people who hate the place will shop there.

The only thing I like better than a good deal is when I find one someplace else.

Mark,

People that hate it shop there because chances are they are like me and don’t have a choice.  Either they have things other stores don’t offer or you have to drive way out of your way to get to another department store.  We shop there as little as possible and usually as a last resort…I would rather pay prices at the mall sometimes than go there.  It is the root of all evil.

Not to mention they are really good at making it where they are the only store in a given area…

Mark, I heartily agree with that last sentence.

Hmm. Not sure this is as good a deal as it sounds. I sell a Toshiba 32” LCD in my store for 649.99. A decent HDMI cord is about 35 bucks. So unless that PS3 is a screaming good deal at $315…..

Standard price for an 80GB PS3 is $399. Toss in the PS3 Blu-Ray Remote ($20) and a Blu-Ray movie (say 300 at $34.99), well, that’s not too shabby.

Beware Toshiba.  I bought a big-screen from them a few years ago (my brother got one as well, different model, about a year before I got mine) and they both punked out within three years, to the point that you couldn’t even see the picture anymore.  Repairs for Toshiba televisions are astronomically expensive.  In fact, it was cheaper to buy a replacement, since the prices had gone down in that time (and the technology had improved).

Needless to say, I will never buy anything else Toshiba makes, or at least not their televisions.

Nah, we didn’t buy them at Wally World, LOL, so this is one thing which can’t be blamed on them. 

Hmmm. I’ll find out soon enough. The HDTV I bought was a Toshiba. No complaints so far, but now I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Hi, Les.  When I bought my Toshiba, the picture was so great that everything looked real even though it wasn’t being fed an HDTV signal.  I have to admit that if a Toshiba isn’t a lemon, it’s probably a great TV.  It’s the lemon factor which is so problematic.  Mine is a Toshiba Cinema Series HDTV, for the record. 

Watch carefully for lines to appear in the picture.  They begin as very thin single green and red vertical lines, and progress over time to overall white horizontal static and vertical picture ghosting.  Funny thing is, it still keeps a decent picture until the TV gets warmed up.  Within 30-45 minutes, the problems start; and within an hour and a half, you can no longer see the screen well enough to bother watching it at all. 

My brother actually paid to get his repaired (he has the same model, larger screen, same exact problem), and it set him back $1700.  I opted to use mine as a dust gatherer instead, since to repair it means that I had put $3700 into a 36” television.  Argh.

It is also interesting to note that those two televisions punked out WAY before their time, given how little they were used.  We figured it out once, and if we had been using them like most folks use them, they would have died in less than two years.  Argh again. 

I guess I shouldn’t gripe too much, though.  This is the first television which has ever gone out on me, believe it or not.  However, this is also the first (and last) Toshiba I have ever purchased.  I’m actually wary about buying anything made by Toshiba now, as is my brother.  It was just a very bad experience for both of us.

Hopefully you will have much better luck with your Toshiba.  Just be sure to make a warranty claim the very minute you see any lines on the screen, no matter how small. 

I’ve been selling Toshiba sets off and on for the better part of 20 years. I’ve never run across a problem like the one you’re describing. Weird that both you and your brother have the same issue, but from my experience, their products hold up pretty well and your family appears to be the victim of an unfortunate and rare coincidence.

I prefer Sony sets, just because the picture quality is significantly better to my eye, but that’s nothing to do with longevity.