About buying a small television
 

I'm moving into a bachelor apartment next month, so I won't have my roommate's television anymore. I figured I would buy myself a little 13" CRT TV or something.

But I was wondering if there's anything I should watch out for. Do you get what you pay for when it comes to televisions, or would a cheap one do just as well? I figure the technology has been out there for decades, so would a little novelty one from Wal-Mart or something be fine for a few years?

i picked up a little 13" sharp a few years ago for like 80 bucks on sale. its served me well. I dont know offhand of anything to avoid, it seems most tv's will last decently and i'd guess you'd want to upgrade to something bigger before you would wear it out.

I'd stay way from the combo tv's myself. It seems the low end versions of those are maintainence headaches.

Really? Wow, good to know, since I was thinking about getting one.

Absolutely. Many, MANY parts of newer tv's and vcrs are nonreplaceable. That means if it breaks, it's broken for good. Scary, but true. You will do far better to have separate parts, unfortunately.

I have a (15 year) old Sony 13" color. OMG. I can't believe it still works, and it looks pretty fantastic. Hell, it was even a demo from the store, so i figured 5 years at the most! Anyway, just stick with a known brand and you should be happy for a long while.

Good advice! Thanks. :)

The thing is, if it is combo TV (DVD/TV or VRC/TV) the thing is so cheap that you don't really need to worry about maintenance. If it breaks, donate it to Goodwill and buy another one.

For me the space saved by not having both a player and a TV is worth it. I bought a small one and put it in my kitchen on a wall mounted bracket.

If you want to pick up something really cheap, go look at Goodwill or in your local Nickel Ads. Garage sales also sometimes have small TVs. Craigslist is probably also a good place to look.

Somehow, over the span of my five-year college career, I managed to pick up 3 13" televisions and 1 27" TV. All of them still work. Notably, the TV we watch most is a 27" my boyfriend picked up for $5 from some dude.

If you're only going to have it a few years before upgrading, definitely go for something on the cheap side.

I had a combo tv/vcr one time, I hated it because I couldn't tape on one channel and watch on another like you would with a conventional tv anc vcr.