Attention Deficit Delirium

Ready to upgrade? (Image courtesy of PolkAudio.com.)

The economy is tanking and retail is hurting. Ironically, just when we cannot afford to spend money on luxury items, it is the best time for shoppers to get great deals, particularly in the area of home entertainment. Both DVD sales (and thus prices) are dropping, and in an effort to get consumers to buy into the Blu-ray trend, Blu-ray Disc (or BD) players and HDTVs are coming down in price. So what we do we about this conundrum?

If you really want to upgrade and have a decent budget, the solution is simple: financing and selective purchases. The 40″ Samsung HDTV I bought in March for $900 is now around around $750-$800, and the $240 Panasonic Blu-ray player I snagged at the same time is now down below $200. If you want a BD player and hi-def TV and have good credit, you can get up to 18 months of financing with no interest at Best Buy. If your combined purchase is $1,000, that could be as little as $60/month. I don’t mean to sound like a commercial, but that’s really good. It just means you dine out a little less each month or spend less on something else entertainment oriented. (Seriously, movie tickets are around $12 in New York now.) And if you have a little cash, or can perhaps hint to people what presents you’d really like around the holidays or for your birthday, you can slowly start building up your Blu-ray collection.

As far as software goes, many Blu-ray Discs are fairly inexpensive, particularly catalog titles. I’ve already bought some Blu-rays at Amazon; four discs for $62, down from $140 list. And Deep Discount.com’s amazing, annual holiday supersale is on until November 29th. It’s awesome. But if you’re skittish about making the leap into Blu-ray, I’ll be honest — a majority of the DVDs released over the past few years look pretty damn good when upconverted (just make sure your BD player does that). It means you won’t have to replace many if any of your DVDs, unless you’re a real stickler for quality. In fact, you could simply buy an upconverting DVD player for half the price of a BD one to watch on your HDTV. Another tip: Don’t buy your HDMI cables at the major retailers. I got mine at BJ’s Wholesale Club for $20, which was a third of the minimum price for the same item elsewhere. Just make sure they’re long enough to go from your cable box or BD player and your HDTV.

A Panasonic BD80 Blu-ray player.

Ultimately the holiday season of 2009 will be a great time to upgrade your home theater capabilities. Prices certainly favor the consumer, and between Black Friday and XMas (and possibly a little bit after) we should be seeing great deals that will make it possible to get an HDTV, upgrade your player, possibly go stereo and join the digital revolution. Hey, even if you just want to upgrade your TV to watch HD cable channels, it’s worth it.