BS: TV set advice for Florida

Subject: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: John J
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 04:45 AM

My wife is visiting Clearwater in Florida (from England) for 6 weeks from next week and she wants to buy a small (say 13") TV / DVD receiver for use in her room. She'll be making return trips so there's no problem leaving the TV behind when she returns to England. She's going to stay with my not-so-young father who isn't in a position to advise. We're au fait with what's available in UK but totally clueless when it comes to American television.

Hopefully the Mudcat will come to the rescue (again!) with answers to these questions:

I gather you have terrestrial analogue tv, but do you have terrestrial digital too?

She is staying in a ground floor apartment, is it paractical to use an indoor set-top antenna or is an external antenna essential?

If an external antenna is essential, is it appropriate to use a 'splitter' where the feed from the TV antenna is used for 2 televisions?

Can anyone suggest a suitable supplier, better still: a suitable TV that won't break the bank? My wife doesn't drive so they would have to deliver.

Many thanks in advance.

John

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 06:03 AM

Almost any TV she's able to buy in the local Florida area should be suitable for where she'll be. The shops simply don't much handle anything not for the local mass markets.

In most areas, an antenna is of marginal use, since most places don't have many "local broadcasters." Unless you're out somewhere in the boonies where cable hasn't reached, she'll undoubtedly want to just hook up with the local cable company. That entails, usually, a monthly charge that varies greatly with what kind of subscription she signs up for, and can be anywhere from $10 (US) to $150 (or more) per month.

If she'll be coming and going, and will be absent for long periods, she should ask the cable service whether she can "suspend service" during times of absence. Often one can encounter "inconvenience" in getting sevice unhooked, and may be charged a "connection fee" to have it turned back on. With a "basic" service it's often cheaper to leave it connected if the break is less than a couple of months.

Some places are offering digital programming on some cable channels, but it's by no means universal. There is virtually no digital broadcasting that she could pick up with an antenna in my area, but it may have appeared elsewhere in the US.

US legislation has mandated "all digital" sometime in the fairly near future, so a TV set that she buys now probably will be "enabled" for it, but could require a converter box for digital programs. The salesperson at anyplace selling sets should know what she needs (but probably won't at a mass market outlet).

John

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 06:25 AM

TV Listings for Clearwater FL show about 8 local(?) broadcasters, all but one of which appears to be "limited subject" kind; but service appears to be mostly "dish." Subscriptions are quite similar to cable, with a converter usually required for which there may be an additional rental charge and/or purchase cost. A dish (or cable) connection in most areas gets about the same hundred (or few hundred) channels everyone else in the US gets.

The Wikipedia: Clearwater FL may be about as good a summary of the town as you'd get from the Chamber of Commerce.

Small town. Principle location for the Church of Scientology. Original location for the first Hooters restaurant. Has a couple of annual festivals possibly worth talking aobut.

John

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 07:51 AM

"Principle location for the Church of Scientology. Original location for the first Hooters restaurant."


ROFL....

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: GUEST,clearwater tv freak
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 08:38 AM

With just rabbit ears (antenna) she can get ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox 49 and the local PBS channel. MOre than enough TV channels I think.

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 07:21 PM

In my metropolitan Kansas area, with my rabbit ears, I get an ABC affiliate, an NBC affiliate, a CBS affiliate, a Fox affiliate, a PBS channel, and one fair independent. The problem is that on the local broadcast channels for about 60% of the actual broadcast hours they've dropped the network feed to insert "paid commercial announcements" on all of them (I can also get 4 or 5 24-hour-per-day "religious programming" independent channels, but don't watch them much since they're 100% pca.)

Clearwater FL may be a bit different, and of course it depends what kind(s) of programming may be of interest.

If she's in a "modern" appartment, in order to prevent a clutter of rooftop antennas some apartment complexes install one antenna and provide an antenna outlet in each apartment, often included in the rent. If the "community connection" is cable or dish, there may be a monthly charge for using it. She'd need info from the particular landlord to find if something of this sort is available.

The situation with respect to purchasing a "throwaway" TV likely is a bit different in most US places than she may be accustomed to in the UK. It generally is assumed that one will appear at a retail storefront outlet to make such purchases. For an item this small, delivery is unlikely to be included. Clearwater doesn't appear to be a very large city, so with luck the apartment might be within walking distance of an appropriate store, and a 2-wheeled laundry/shopping cart might make fairly easy transport of a small TV for a moderate walking distance.

Perhaps clearwater tv freak might be able to indicate whether taxi and/or bus public transportation is available/convenient in Clearwater, and what "big box" stores would be likely to have something suitable?

John

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: GUEST,van lingle
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 09:57 PM

Hi John J,

Try going to BestBuy.com and see if they have a store in the Clearwater area. I'm sure they do as they're sprouting up all over SW Florida. I can't really recommend a particular brand as I don't have a TV and don't know what's what with them nowadays. An alternative might be to buy one online and have it shipped to your fathers' house which might be cheaper and more convenient and if you find one from an internet outlet outside the state of Florida you can avoid sales tax. Circuit City is also a large electronics store in this area that competes with Best Buy.

You may also want to check with your father and see if he has cable TV. Most apartments and condominiums around here are wired for it. Check out comcast.net.vl

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: John J
Date: 24 Oct 06 - 07:59 AM

Thanks to everyone who has replied. I've reported all your ideas and suggestions to herself. The BestBuy.com looks like a goer, they have one in Clearwater. As for cable...I'll leave that up to her when she arrives. For now it looks like the poor old bunny-rabbit stuck on top of the telly!

I'll report back.

Thanks once again,

John

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Oct 06 - 10:13 AM

She better not tune to Fox then..... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: John J
Date: 24 Oct 06 - 11:54 AM

Oh dear.

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Oct 06 - 03:04 PM

I never buy anything big at Best Buy. Their policies regarding service stinks. They'll always try to push a maintenance contract on you (though so do most places these days--I rarely ever even consider them, let alone purchase any).

I have had good luck in recent years shopping at Sears for various household electronics like you're looking for. I found a very nice little 13" tv with a built in DVD that gets good local reception (it's in my bedroom and there isn't cable in there). It was reasonably priced.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: TV set advice for Florida
From: GUEST,van lingle
Date: 26 Oct 06 - 05:45 PM

SRS brings up a good point about Best Buy. Their prices are good but they're not the best of places to shop.
Other options might be Bill Smiths'Appliances or Sound Advice where the in store service is better and prices might be competitive with BB if you find something on sale, at Bill Smiths' anyway. Sound Advice seems to be generally more expensive.vl