Element 50" LCD at $499 and FreeShipping!!

Just found this good deal at Target.com. They have an Element 50" TV on sale for 499 and they're freeshipping it as well. The TV says that it's JBL tuned, not sure what that means, but i'm guessing comes with a better sound quality than a regular TV would. Here's the link.

http://www.target.com/p/element-50-class-1080p-60hz-lcd-hdtv-fea...

Even with JBL speakers, they still don't sound as good from the 2006-2008 LCD TVs that used to cost over $3,000 before.

Yup I will try this out. Thanks

Look into the three year warranty for around $40. I would not buy a large screen tv without one. The old crt tv's use to last 20 years but these new fangled flat tvs don't last.

Before someone jumps in to say their flat screen is x years old without a lick of trouble, all this senile old fool is saying is...what was the question? Oh yea, buy the stinking warranty.

GeorgeT said:   The old crt tv's use to last 20 years...
Did that include the cheap, Element-brand CRTs sold at Target? None of my flat panel displays have died. But I didn't buy them off the bottom shelf at Wal-Mart.

If someone has this on for a good chunk of the day Wally's World of low Wages has a 50" Sanyo with some kind of eco feature for $550. According to energy star it only uses ~100W on the medium energy setting, which is probably ~120W less than this tv. For someone who has it on for ~6+ hours a day, it's cheaper to go with the slightly more expensive model after ~2 years or so.

Looks very good. Thank you.

n2bimmers said:   Yuyak said:   GeorgeT said:   Look into the three year warranty for around $40. I would not buy a large screen tv without one. The old crt tv's use to last 20 years but these new fangled flat tvs don't last.
Before someone jumps in to say their flat screen is x years old without a lick of trouble, all this senile old fool is saying is...what was the question? Oh yea, buy the stinking warranty. Is that just anecdotal or do you have data to back it up? Many of the manufacturer estimates on lifespan are on the order of 60k~100k hrs which is something like 10yrs of 24/7 usage.

Personally, I wouldn't get the warranty. When is the last time you've heard of someone's TV dying in the first 3yrs? Besides, if you use AMEX or Visa Signature credit card, you get 2yrs warranty for free anyway (1yr manufacturer + 1yr CC). Save the $40 (8% of the total cost) and spend it on your next TV. That's just my two cents.

My panny 50" died just 1 month after 1 year warranty was up. If I could go back and by an extension to my warranty for a whopping $40, i would def do it. He is right, new tvs haven't even been out for 10-20 years for them to actually do the test on. They are predictions. Let me tell you, their predictions suck!! Well, sure I'm not saying TVs never fail, but your story is just anecdotal - equivalent of people saying "their flat screen is x years old without a lick of trouble". I'm sorry that happened to you, but I think you were just very unlucky. My point is:
1) The 10-20yr comment really isn't relevant since a 3yr warranty doesn't make any difference whether your TV does or doesn't last 10-20yrs.
2) Yes, some people will benefit from the warranty (like you would have) but most won't. The fact that they're charging 8% of the cost of the TV means that the chance of TV failing in 3yrs has to be less than 1 in 12 or they'd lose money in offering this service. At a fail rate of 1 in 12, they'd be just breaking even without considering shipping/customer support/operational costs. So the real failure rate has to be MUCH lower; companies don't like to voluntarily offer service plans that costs them money, or even have the chance of costing them money.
3) I haven't seen any data yet that these TVs have inherently high failure rates - not anecdotes, but statistics. If you have them, please share. That's valuable information that we can all benefit from.
4) Assuming you have a credit card that extends warranty, you're basically buying warranty JUST for that 3rd year for $40 (day 730 through day 1095). And of course the value of the TV 2yrs from now will be far lower than $500 so the actual percentage you're paying extra is >8%.
5) In the end, you have to do a cost-benefit analysis and determine HOW risk adverse you are. The question boils down to: what do you think the odds are that your TV will be fine for the first 2 yrs but will fail before the end of the 3rd year, and does that risk justify spending $40? That's a personally decision but my opinion is that the warranty isn't worth the cost.

Speaking as someone whose relatives and friends usually call to help fix their electronics (Tv, laptops, PCs, game consoles, washers, etc) I have found a common thread in most failures (excluding manufacturing defects which generally show up very early). Most of the time the failure is thermal related. People put their TV in a enclosure with minimal air circulation or let the dust build up until is costs the inside components. My father-in-laws PC must have had an inch of dust inside when it quit, although after I blew it up and reseated everything it worked fine. SO if it works the first few months and it is kept cool, it probably will last many years (even cheap brands - note: thermal management is one area that cheap brands usually do scrimp on).

I did some research on the Sceptre and discovered that it's a terrible brand. Frankly most reviews i read on the Element we positive. For the same price, i'd probably pick the Element.

Spiderkiller2 said:   In this week circular, B&M use only Target has a coupon for 10% off a Single Television with the purchase of television wall mount. 15% off if you have a Redcard and need a wall mount.

I think they had a similar coupon awhile back for 10% off any tv when buying an HDMI cable. I remember people just buying the cheapest hdmi cable so they could use the coupon and then later returning the hdmi cable. I wonder if you could do this with the wall mount? That would be a pretty decent deal when you add the 5% off with the target redcard.

-Guru

We should try the best product with best service.

I'm looking to buy this and have it wall-mounted.

Any recommendations for a thin, affordable wall-mount that would go well with this TV?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for that info. Called the two Targets nearest me (Watertown & Cicero NY) and they both quoted me $649

desiredsecrets said:   I finally got HD Cable - it's a beautiful picture! Great TV for the $500 price!

I especially love hooking it up to my laptop and playing Diablo on it.

May I ask what settings your using for HD Cable? I recently picked one of these up for my father ($325 on clearance) plus 5% off pharmacy rewards + %5 off for redcard. We just set it up the other day but I haven't had a chance to play around with it much. Just wondering what settings you changed? I agree the sound on this tv is fantastic. Who cares if its pretty thick

Thanks,

-Guru

Thank you thank you! My husband picked one up last night @ $324!!

mikehorwitz said:   I'm looking to buy this and have it wall-mounted.

Any recommendations for a thin, affordable wall-mount that would go well with this TV?

Thanks in advance.

Best place to buy low-cost/decent-quality wall mounts is monoprice.com. It's also a great place to buy audiovisual cables of all sorts.

You can also buy cheap mounts off eBay, but I imagine it's a lot more hit and miss.

Thank you.. Good price!

I just came back from my local Target and they just sold out the last unit.
Too bad.. Someone grabbed the last one.