Here's the government website where you can request the coupons and get more info-
http://www.dtv.gov/

I got our two coupons today, they are in the form of a debt card looking thing. But we got two of them today. I wish I knew what happened to other's who's coupon cards never made the journey...Maybe a dishonest postperson...

I got our coupons months ago. They are still in the envelope. I applied for them over the phone as soon as the gov opened its toll free number.
But we are procrastinating getting the converter boxes.

Hubby doesn't watch much broadcast tv. He likes his old tv w/ built in DVD player. We have three tvs like that -- with built in DVD players. (We are only married 3 years and had to combine our tvs into one living space. )

He says that we won't use the coupons -- just get one new tv. (We'll see. It seems like a big expense to watch the same carp.)

A friend of mine and also my father recently bought brand new HDTVs.

My friend gets cable and likes her tv. It takes forever for her to change channels -- she does not mind.

My father does not have cable. He was very disappointed with the HDTV because he got fewer channels than he usually gets (-- I think that this depends on where people live.) He got fed up and gave the tv to my mom to put in her exercise room for her exercise dvds.

By Feb, more stations will be sending out the HD signal and we will have more stations with decent reception.

Mari

well my plan to wait until the end of year TV sales went up in smoke.
Or lightning I should say, had some power surges during a 2 hr thunder storm and it must have messed up our UHF channels on our main TV.

So today I went to our local one stop shopping stores and looked at the TVs that were on sale.

Decided on a 32" Sylvania - Limited Edition
and after getting it set up i did price comparisons online and looks like I got it for a better price than what I found online - so that is a good thing
Plus we have 30 days to return it if it doesn't work out for us.
But so far seems to be good.
**
[Details: this LCD HDTV from Sylvania features a 32-inch diagonal WXGA+ LCD display with Clear Pix Technology for a difference you're sure to notice. It features a built-in ATSC/NTSC tuner (with HD Quality Output) as well as a 3D Digital Comb Filter. Picture and Sound Controls allow you to fine tune your experience, and the VESA Mount Capability allows you to mount your HDTV on the wall. Includes remote control.]
**

Set up was simple, it scanned for channels - so we now get both the analog {NTSC} & the digital {ATSC} versions of the "over the air"/antenna channels.

It is pretty noticeable that the ATSC/digital channels come in with a much clearer picture than the NTSC/analog channels.
The TV has a power saver mode setting also and only uses .04 in standby mode.
There's quite a variation of standby power use levels on TVs - you can look power use info for many electronics here -Energy Star site -
http://www.energystar.gov/

welll that Tv is going back to the store - screen flashes and flickers appearing after only 1 day of use

tested a VCR movie on it "Twister"

The image had a lot of ghosting, shadowing and a weird line of bluring at the bottom of the screen.
The sound for movies wasn't very impressive at all
the remote was not very ergonomically designed either - kind of light & cheezy actually.

Our old TV played & sounded really good with that same tape & the same DVD/VCR combo

on to the next brand

A Toshiba is my next try - on sale of course!
5 hrs on - good so far

http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/televisi...model=32av500u

remote is nicer and can be set up for other components
the Twister movie looks much better on this tv than the sylvania one.

Haven't cranked up the volume yet - maybe I'll dig out Top Gun tape to test sound/volume