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Originally Posted by frenchy
I look at it this way - how much great color tv did people miss from 1954 to the mid to late 60's till they finally bought a color set and the only thing they saved was a few bucks?
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We got our first color TV around 1977. My dad never thought it was worth the money and refused to buy one. Finally we kids bought my folks one. I noticed that my dad didn't return it to the store!
Of course, I also clearly remember the few neighbors and friends who jumped on the color bandwagon early. Aside from the staggering expense, NO ONE seemed to grok the use of the "color" and "tint" controls. The purpose of the chroma control was to turn it up all the way until everyone looked like a cartoon character. And the tint control should have been labeled the "green faces" control, since that's what I recall it most frequently being used for.
If you've got extra money in your pocket, I hear that it's not as big a crapshoot now as it was a few years ago to invest in large screen HDTV, but like computers, it's always going to be better, faster and cheaper next year. Unlike computers, the issue here seems to be twofold, first (like computers), if you continually wait for the better, faster and cheaper model, you will always be waiting since it's always going to be "just around the corner". But more importantly, at least as I understand it, unlike computers there are still enough variables in the greater HD scheme that you could get caught owning something reminiscent of a CBS color set or a 441 line B&W TV. Plus there's that pesky issue of not being able to any difference between SD and HD in many typical viewing situations.
Fortunately I don't have that problem; all the flat panel sets are still out of my price range although I just got a nice Sony 1272Q projector for free that does "real" (>720 V) HD projection. Only problem with that sucker is it's too heavy for me to lift and too big to fit in the living room!