In July of 1999, we purchased an RCA 52" projection TV with universal remote at a local warehouse that had an "We'll beat the competition's price or pay you $100" promotion going on. It seemed like a good deal. We got it for around $1100.00 and then we bought the screen protector for $100.00 and the we bought (cause its RCA), the extended warranty (good foresight on my wife's party). We didn't want to spend a fortune for the TV which was going to be placed in a basement playroom so we wanted to go basic and no frills. This was the cheapest big screen TV we could find and as further described in my opinion, not worth the money we spent on it.

First, within the first 8 months that we have owned this set, it has had to be repaired 3 times. Granted the second visit should not be counted since the repairman did not properly diagnose the problem the first time and the second time was to fix the first visit's neglect. However, after the third time for a different problem, I have come to the conclusion that this is not good.

Besides the fact that the TV does not have a sharp and clear picture and the fact that you need to have an engineering degree to figure out how to set it up with a DVD player, a VCR, a satellite dish, and outside cable line (which I might add I haven't been able to properly hook up all of my components and its now 8 months), I would be guilty of neglect if I failed to mention that that RCA Service they claim is available for any problem with their products is basically non-existent. I have been directed to many different friendly robotic operators who asked me to press 1 for info on products lines, 2 for address, etc... I just wanted to know what I was doing wrong because I couldn't get the universal remote to work either in conjunction with the VCR, cable box or just by itself (and no, it wasn't a battery issue). Not much to ask. After I finally got a human voice (48 hours later), I realized I was dealing with an organization made up of moronic parasites whose budget doesn't include customer service. When I explained my problem to the human voice I finally snagged, the very flustered repesentative told me that I should just read the directions that came with the TV and program the TV on my own because I had the directions and he obviously didn't. I asked him what grade he was in and then hung up. At that very moment, I knew I was on my own and that it was just me against this 52" mammoth. I had to make a decision, it was either it or me, flesh and blood against nuts, bolts, a tube and screen. Maybe I was taking the remote thing a bit too far, but I didn't want to give up.

So to make a long story short, I can only watch about 10 channels from approximately 100+ channels I am paying for because I wanted to buy a cheap TV. In sum, that is what this set is...Cheap! Don't make the same mistake I did.









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