I'm Here To Help

[allstar780]

Recently a friend of mine approached me with an issue; he wanted an HDTV for his basement (no windows) bedroom with a screen over 50 inches (his bedroom is about the size of my living room), it couldn't be a plasma because he wants to use it for gaming, and it had to be a good brand name... AND he didnt want to spend any more than the $1800 he had just got for grad. I work at London Drugs (canadian retailer) so I figured I would do some research when I got to work that day. I found a few options for him that I could likely convince my manager to bring the prices down on. (I should also mention I did not explore the option of bringing in special order items)

1st option:

Spend an extra $500 and get the Bravia KDL-52V4100 (with me getting a good chunk knocked off the MSRP of $2700)
(Plus cabling, surge protector, wall bracket or stand and taxes)

Total cost: over $2600

2nd option:

Spend an extra $200 and get the Regza 52RV530U (again with me getting him a discount)
(again, cabling surge and mount +tax)

Total cost: close to $2500

3rd option: (the one he picked)

Sony VPL-AW15 projector ($1300) + 80 inch DynaClear (sony high gain screen) ($399 MSRP; current price at the store is $989) + Everstyle roof-mount for projector ($180) + 24 foot Monster 400 Series HDMI Cable (retail is around $250 in Canada) + Surge protector ($50) + Spare bulb ($400)

Pricing breakdown with discount: Projector ($1300) Screen ($0) Mount ($60) Cable ($85) Surge ($35) Bulb ($0 cuz I called sony and said the bulb in our display model was burned out)

Total cost: $1480+tax (roughly $1550)


Results: One happy Sony owner! He has his satellite hooked up to it, as well as his PS3 for gaming/blu ray, and an 80 inch screen is overpowering when the couch is less than 10 feet away! Although the picture is a lowly 720p, it is still great picture, and once I set to work calibrating it instead of just eyeballing the settings, it will look even better

Plus it was a good day's work getting everything set up, mounting the projector, havin a few cokes, playing Call of Duty 4, you know, the usual.


EDIT: Forgot to add; we also wired a $15 dimmer switch from Home Depot to his room lights, a little light is nice for gaming, about half brightness