Many thanks to the people who commented on my TV woes.  I should have rounded you all up and taken you into Future Shop with me!  Especially those of you who enjoy haggling with the salespeople to save a few extra bucks! 

After that original post, I was determined to diagnose the problem, and see if it was something simple.  I was going to take note of when the TV was on, what time (if) it shut off by itself again, swap some cables around… basically do all the technical troubleshooting that I could do on my own.

*pop*  It shut off.  A whopping 15 mins after I sat down to watch something.  That was enough for me!  I didn’t even bother watching the rest of my show.  I just started to package it up, and went to bed.  So much for troubleshooting.  It would be Future Shop’s problem now.

I figured that I would take the Dynex back and replace it with the same model.  Of course, I did have to wait in the parking lot 40 mins for my TV to catch up to me, as there was a bit of a miscommunication with the driver bringing my old one.  (Don’t ask)

Replacing it was easy.  I had hoped that the same guy who sold it to me would be there, because I distinctly remember saying “I’ll roll the dice” the day that I bought it.  I wanted him to know that the dice came up snake-eyes, and the TV was a lemon.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t working.

Now, going without a TV really wasn’t an option.  And spending more money wasn’t an option either.  I could have downsized, and upgraded the brand name.  That might have gotten me a better quality TV, albeit with a smaller viewing area.  But I went with my original option… swap it out for a 1:1 exchange. 

There were no questions asked.  I did remember to ask the guy whether he was aware of anyone returning the same TV with the same problem.  His answer was “no”, and I’m inclined to believe him, if only because I couldn’t find a single instance online of anyone complaining about this problem.  So maybe it was an isolated occurrence.

I’m proud to report that the new Dynex 40″ LCD looks great in my living room, and so far has been running without any problems.  Now that I’ve moved past worrying whether it’s going to shut off on its own, I’ve started tweaking some of the settings to make it more personal.  I think that I’d like to add some additional speakers to it, especially since I quite often watch music videos.  But that’s something for another day. 

What do you do when Life hands you lemons?  You get a new TV! 

Should I have aimed for the LG?  Only time will tell.  I’ll give you the opportunity to say “I told ya so” in a few months/years…