NATIONAL
MANUFACTURER
$40
$55
$80
$90
$120
$170
NATIONAL
RETAILER
$30–$60
$80–$100
$100–$140
$160–$180
$200–$270
N/A
COSTCO
No charge
No charge
No charge
No charge
No charge
No charge
Costco
Concierge
at your
service
Comparison shop conducted on retailers’ websites October 2010.
small-screen LED LCD would make a great holiday gift, and a $20-off coupon is good from
December 2 through 19.
If you want it all—3D and LED LCD—
check out the 55-inch Sony (#558010). It comes
with two pairs of 3D active shutter glasses, 3D
sync transmitter, Wi-Fi adapter (I explain this
below), Bolt and Michael Jackson’s This Is It 3D
Blu-ray movies (mail-in offers inside box), and
four streaming Internet PS3 3D games/demos
(details inside box).
FRANCE FREEMAN
house to experience the 3D world of Sony, Samsung
and Panasonic up close and personal.
Thinner, energy-saving TVs
Thin is in. Look down the back of a row of
large ( 46 to 60 inches is the new “gotta have it”
range) LED-lit LCD HDTVs at a Costco warehouse. You’ll find many have bodies less than an
inch in depth. Wowzie.
It’s all related to how the TVs are lighted,
explains Bill Prescott, Costco assistant merchandis-
ing manager for televisions. “Switching from thick
fluorescent backlighting to brighter and smaller
LED lights has energized the LCD market,” he says.
“Sales are up as a result.”
These LCDs work well in both dark and
brightly lit rooms and typically present truer whites,
darker blacks and more vivid colors.
Inch for inch, LED LCDs are the most energy-efficient flat panels available, about 40 percent more
energy efficient than Energy Star–certified standard LCD sets. They are also safer for the environment, with no toxic lead or mercury, and are
lightweight for easy wall mounting. ( Costco.com
offers basic on-stand and on-wall in-home television setup in many states.)
You’ll find the latest LED LCD models at
Costco. For example, the 19-inch Vizio (#900190)
The Web arrives on TV;
It’s finally happened: With Internet-ready
HDTV, the Web and television are once and for all
married, and happily so.
Now you can view not only television programs
but some Web-based applications such as Facebook
and Twitter, plus news, weather, sports and video
entertainment. The apps show up as small “widget”
icons like those found on a smartphone. Each manufacturer has its own name for its setup—Sony’s is
Bravia Internet Video, Panasonic’s is Viera Cast and
Vizio’s is VIA (Vizio Internet Apps).
You can connect to these apps from your home
network via a wired Ethernet connection; some
Internet-ready HDTVs, such as Vizio VIA, have
built-in Wi-Fi that instantly links your TV to the
Internet via your home network wirelessly—
including through the newest version, called 802.11n.
Other models require an adapter to link wirelessly to
your home network. (Samsung and Sony wireless
adapters are available at Costco.com.)
None serve up a totally open Internet experience, but every manufacturer has partnered with
specific content providers, such as YouTube or
Netflix for streaming video and Pandora or NPR for
audio—and the list is growing. Some apps are free;
others require a subscription. Internet connectivity
is a prerequisite.
Be on the lookout in warehouses for Vizio’s
32-inch VIA (#703299), as Costco has carved out
extraordinary savings.
Costco warehouses and Costco.com offer
numerous configurations of Internet-enabled televisions. Yoon advises paying particularly close attention to network and Internet connectivity options
and requirements, as this lets you know how the TV
will connect to your home network and whether
you’ll need to purchase additional accessories on
Costco.com.
Happy visionary holidays, everyone. C
IN THE PAST four
years, Costco Concierge
Services has fielded
more than 3 million
calls at their U.S.-based call centers,
providing free technical support and setup
help for televisions,
computers, cameras,
camcorders, MP3 players and many other
electronic products
purchased at Costco.
As an additional
benefit of Costco
Concierge Services,
Costco includes, at no
additional charge, a
second year of war-
ranty on televisions,
projectors and comput-
ers (see chart at top of
this page). “Our sec-
ond-year warranty
coverage is a great
added value for mem-
bers,” says Concierge
operations manager
Franny Mooney. “For
example, a one-year
extended warranty on
a $1,200 TV will typi-
cally cost more than
$100 at other electron-
ics retailers. Costco
members get it at no
charge.”
To learn more, visit
Costco.com and enter
“Concierge” in the
search box, or call toll-
free 1-866-861-0450,
5 a.m. to 10 p.m. (PST),
seven days a week. C
