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Super-size televisions offer view from stands, but ticket isn't cheap Web posted January 23, 1997
By S.B. Crawford
When the Super Bowl looms on the electronic horizon, sports fans everywhere stare glumly at their modest 19-inch television sets and ask themselves, ``How can a game this big fit on a screen so small?''
They yearn for a screen as big as the game itself. They begin to feel, well, inadequate.
The urge to expand pushes a few into purchasing their dream system. Electronics retailers see a jump in sales of giant televisions every year at Super Bowl time.
``We always sell a few more a week or two before the game,'' said Nicole Kendrick, a sales counselor at Circuit City.
F. Bishop Strickland purchased two wide-screens this past year.
``I've got a 50-inch in the bedroom and a 60-inch in the den,'' he said.
Mr. Strickland takes his football seriously. The North Augusta builder spent 14 years on the gridiron from high school to the pros.
``Bouncing Bish,'' as he was known, was a Hall of Fame halfback for the University of South Carolina and played three years with the San Francisco 49ers during the 1950s.
So it's understandable if football is more than just a game at the Strickland house. He even named the subdivision where he lives after the ``gamecock'' in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: Chanticleer.
And as for the Super Bowl, it is an institution.
``Oh yeah, we'll be watching. I guarantee,'' Mr. Strickland said.
He has plenty of screen to watch. His 60-inch ProScan set resides in a majestic 12-foot tall, handmade mahogany cabinet - a veritable shrine to technology.
Not surprisingly, this much devotion doesn't come cheap. The wide-screen projection televisions sold at many area electronics stores carry jumbo price tags - from about $1,500 to well over $3,000.
Dez Rick, a sales associate at Rex TV on Wrightsboro Road, says some customers take advantage of instant income tax refunds to finance the big system.
Some less scrupulous consumers, however, often try to take advantage of the retailer's generous return policy. They make only a temporary purchase, use the television system for an enhanced Super Bowl celebration, and then return it when the party is over.
``Sometimes customers try to abuse our 30-day return policy,'' admits Kim Cavros, sales manager at Circuit City. He says it happens rarely, but often enough that he expects Circuit City to temporarily amend the return policy until after the big game.
Best Buy has already taken pre-emptive measures against those who might be tempted to ``rent'' a wide-screen television. Signs posted near all the cash registers warn of a 14-day return policy for all televisions with a 35-inch or wider screen and a 15 percent restocking fee for the returned item.
That 15 percent fee could cost about $300 for an average-priced system.
Best Buy's inventory manager, Joe Hale, confirms that the temporary returns policy is directed at those who might scheme to borrow a big television for game day.
Mr. Cavros said he expects Circuit City to have a policy similar to the one instituted during the recent Summer Olympic Games. Customers who returned items purchased during the Olympics were allowed only an in-store credit or exchange, but not a full refund.
Even attempting to legitimately rent a wide-screen system can be difficult for those only interested in the short term. U-Can Rent and some other local rental stores require a minimum three-month rental.
Mark Elliott, owner of Rentronics, said the risks were too high to rent expensive TV systems for only a weekend.
``If someone wants to pay $500, I'll rent it to them,'' he said.
So what do you do? Do you live for the moment and plunk down that big wad of cash, or maintain self-control and suffer through another Super Bowl on that old black and white portable?
One option conjures visions of popularity and fulfillment; the other, ignominy and stale tortilla chips.
You choose.
The Stricklands have made their choice, so they won't worry about being lonely on game day. Mr. Strickland says friends seem to have multiplied since he purchased the big screens.
``I guess we'll have 25 or 30 people over here, and they'll all bring somebody with them,'' he said.
If you're serious about buying a king-size television, it's best to arm yourself with information. The variety of sets available is mind boggling.
Seek professional help. Ask lots of questions. Do research. Consumer Reports usually publishes an issue devoted to televisions in March.
The current rear-projection screens on the market are huge. Several companies, including ProScan, Hitachi, Toshiba and Pioneer, offer a 60-inch monster, but you can buy rear-projection televisions with screens as small as 41-inch diagonal measurement.
Most of these televisions come with a multitude of features, such as picture-in-picture viewing, closed-captioning and state-of-the-art high-fidelity sound. An average-price system costs about $2,000.
The rear-projection process is similar to watching a movie in a theater, in that the viewer watches an image projected on a screen. The rear-projection image is created by three beams of light - red, green and blue - reflected off a mirror onto a screen.
Normal televisions are known as direct-view. An electron beam ``paints'' the image on a screen that generates the image the viewer sees. The image is refreshed about 30 times a second on American models.
But if you desire image quality over quantity, rear-projection televisions may not measure up. Normal, direct-view sets deliver a sharp, bright picture clearly superior to the rear-projection models. And most brands offer a substantial 35-inch model to fill your video void.
If that won't do, Mitsubishi has an unrivaled 40-inch direct-view model. You will pay a premium price, however - more than $3,000.
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