# Television Cost



## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

Got this email flyer . . .



> SCEPTRE X322BV-HDR 32" LED Class 720P HDTV with ultra slim metal brush bezel, 60Hz
> 
> $179.00


By my simple calculation that's mo' than 90% drop in price in under 10 year.

How low can the price of televisions get?


----------



## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

I bought a 32" Seiko from HRGregg last year for $179. I regard its performance as flawless.

Back in the 1960s, working class families used to figure that if they thought they could get another year out of the car, then that was the year to buy a new TV. My father was a manager of a fairly large, prosperous store, and the color TV we bought in the mid 1960s cost him about a month's pay.

I saw a digital calculator watch for $600, and a few year later, Radio Shack sold them for about $20 something. A watch used to be a high school graduation present. One of my uncles gave me a nice Bulova Accutron - the kind with the tuning fork - for high school graduation in 1970. That was a big deal. A decade later, I was wearing a Budweiser watch and inadvertently left it at a bathroom sink when I washed my hands. I had driven about three or four miles when I realized that, so I brought the car to a screeching halt, but before I had even turned around, I realized that the $3 watch, which kept time as accurately as my Bulova did, wasn't even worth the time it would take to retrieve it even if it was still there.

I would guess the limiting factor on the price or a TV would be the display, but I don't know the display industry or market well enough to assess it.


----------



## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

My Sharp 1080p, 32" that I bought a couple of months ago was on sale at Best Buy for $199.00


----------



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

There's got to be something ironic about the fact that TV's are now cheaper than a monthly payment for TV channels when at one time we paid more for a TV than the payment on a house and the TV channels were free, albeit far fewer channels.


----------



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> The US price of LG's first curved OLED TV dropped from $15,000 to a slightly less stratospheric $10,000 late last year, but that five-digit sticker was still bound to scare away all but the richest buyers. It's a good thing, then, that LG has cut the 55-inch set's price a second time. You can now pick up the curved screen for $7,000


http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/10/lg-cuts-the-price-of-its-curved-oled-tv-to-7000/

Since it was announced last July at $15,000, that's more than 50% in less than a year. At that rate it should be $1,500 by when?


----------



## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

The original TVs were often built buy people who made lots of money and robots using many relatively expensive components (like they were in the days of yore).

Now they are assembled by people who cost less than robots out of a handful of VLSI chips, cheap casework and a few electrical fittings. Crafted lenses and mirrors don't come into play anymore. Sound systems are almost entirely ignored. Development is all about cost reduction and outside of adding some wireless phone features to TVs, that's about all they have to show for the development over the period.


----------



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

SayWhat? said:


> http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/10/lg-cuts-the-price-of-its-curved-oled-tv-to-7000/
> 
> Since it was announced last July at $15,000, that's more than 50% in less than a year. At that rate it should be $1,500 by when?


2018.


----------



## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

I bought a Sceptre 32" HDTV about three years ago and paid about twice that price. It's a very nice set; it even includes a USB jack where you can plug in a stick and listen to music.

Our first TV, an RCA 7-inch black and white set, cost about $300. That was back in 1948. There were only 12 channels available then, 2 through 13, and only one station, WPTZ, was broadcasting four or five nights a week in Philadelphia then.


----------



## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I've bought a pair of 24" Insignia HD TVs for $99 when they go on sale at Best Buy (one on Black Friday, one again a month or so ago) - and those are *1080p* models with 2 HDMI ports in addition to VGA.

For comparison, I paid $700 for a 27" SD tube set in the mid 1990s that had S-video, composite and RF inputs.


----------



## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

harsh said:


> The original TVs were often built buy people who made lots of money and robots using many relatively expensive components (like they were in the days of yore).
> 
> Now they are assembled by people who cost less than robots out of a handful of VLSI chips, cheap casework and a few electrical fittings. Crafted lenses and mirrors don't come into play anymore. Sound systems are almost entirely ignored. Development is all about cost reduction and outside of adding some wireless phone features to TVs, that's about all they have to show for the development over the period.
> 
> Not really. The original TVs were built on steel or aluminum chassis using vacuum tubes and discreet components, all soldered by hand. Robotics didn't enter the picture until relatively recently. Second generation TV's used transistors instead of tubes for the most part, but still had a few tubes. Integrated circuits began to make an appearance. Fast forward to today.-- the electronics in TV receivers consist primarily of integrated circuits, mounted on a motherboard by robots. Quite often, a solder bath is used to solder the many leads ot th components to the motherboard all at once.


----------



## Cyber36 (Mar 20, 2008)

Drucifer said:


> Got this email flyer . . .
> 
> By my simple calculation that's mo' than 90% drop in price in under 10 year.
> 
> How low can the price of televisions get?


Tiger Direct??


----------



## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Cyber36 said:


> Tiger Direct??


Walmart


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Today's televisions are essentially souped-up LED monitors with a digital tuner attached. Some of the cost savings are a result of some components being eliminated including VGA input and DVI input (in favor of HDMI) and the elimination of the Analog tuners.


----------



## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

Mark Holtz said:


> Today's televisions are essentially souped-up LED monitors with a digital tuner attached. Some of the cost savings are a result of some components being eliminated including VGA input and DVI input (in favor of HDMI) and the elimination of the Analog tuners.


My $179 Seiki 32" HDTV has one VGA and three HDMIs inputs, along with an analog tuner.


----------



## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Mark Holtz said:


> Some of the cost savings are a result of some components being eliminated including VGA input and DVI input (in favor of HDMI) and the elimination of the Analog tuners.


As long as NTSC repeaters and analog cable exist, there will likely be "analog tuners".


----------



## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

Analog cable exists? Tell me where to move to.


----------

