[Jeffhs]

While out for my usual evening walk tonight, I happened to look at the trash area behind my apartment. There, in a corner between one of three trash barrels and a concrete wall, was a Westinghouse large screen HDTV. I didn't have my digital camera with me and my cell phone doesn't have a camera, so I couldn't snap a picture of the beast. I couldn't see much of the TV because of where it was located, but I did see the Westinghouse "circle W" trademark on the display bezel. The set looked like (I'm making a wild guess) 40" or thereabouts.

I have no idea what was wrong with it, but, again making a wild guess, perhaps the screen was cracked or even shattered. There could have been other problems with the TV as well, but knowing how old TVs are dealt with these days when they go bad for any reason, I wasn't surprised. I did not try to drag the set into my place for at least three reasons: one, its size, two, the power cord was missing, and three, the remote was missing. I suppose I can add a fourth reason too, that I have no room in my apartment for a very large flat-screen HDTV, unless I were to hang it from a wall. Since I did not know whether or not the set worked, there is a chance as well that I would have wasted my time bringing it in here if it turned out not to be working properly, or at all, not to mention the time wasted hauling it back out to the trash from whence it came if it turned out not to be working.

I hope this isn't the start of a trend around this neighborhood, although with the short life spans of most flat screens I should probably expect to see more such sets biting the dust as time goes on, like that Westinghouse did. I don't know how many people in this building have flat screens, but I would guess most of them do (with the possible exception of my next-door neighbor, who still, AFAIK, has an RCA 25" CRT TV that looks like my RCA CTC185 19" set), since CRT sets are no longer available.

I wonder just how old that Westinghouse set was. I don't know for certain, but I would guess it may have been perhaps four years old and probably cost $1K or more when it was new. The owner's heart probably dropped with a loud plop when the set finally quit, as $1K is not small potatoes to most people.