Would you buy a Demo HD TV if the price was right?

[Strabo]

A local A/V store is selling a demo Toshiba 57 inch HD RPTV. Normally I wouldn't consider a demo TV because of the way they are abused on the showroom floor. But if their add isn't a misprint, would you pay $400 for a demo unit of a $2,500 TV with 1 year parts and labor warranty?

My biggest concern is if it dies 13 months from now, would I be able to go back to my current 27 inch regular TV that doesn't even have S-video input.

[Ken_McAlinden]

Take a look at how the picture settings are set in the store. If the "Picture" or "Contrast" setting is cranked up to 2/3 or higher of the maximum, don't even consider it. It's probably been overdriven for 12 hours a day seven days a week since it arrived in the store.

Regards,

[cleandan]

I agree with Ken. If the TV has been set up properly, used properly, and not physically abused, what you get is a TV that has been basically used a whole bunch because it has been on every day, the whole work day, since it was installed. MOST demo tv's are NOT set up properly. One of the issues is the contrast, and picture brightness. They are usually set to provide a WOW factor impact at the store, and not to provide easy viewing like you would set it at home. This causes the TV to work at full capacity and thus, burn out faster. If the TV has been in place for five months, and has been on 12 hrs per day, it has run about 2000 hours so far. Considering most TV's are on for about 28 hours per week, this equates to about 71 weeks of running time already. So its been run for about 1.4 years at full color and picture contrast. Now that you have the stats, you can make an informed decision. For $400 you really don't have too much to lose. If you like the thing go get it, because you certainly are not getting the $2500 variety...or did you sell some extra amp equipment?

[Sckott]

Yeah, I don't mind if it's an inexpensive toobe, but this is expensive stuff. Something hard to mess with when it goes wrong, expensive repair.

[Strabo]

or did you sell some extra amp equipment?

You guessed it. I sold the Lexicon.

I will probably pass. No where to put it anyway. :laugh: