This year for Xmas, the big present was Wii. My children loved it and the entire tribe ended up loving it. We spent the entire day in front of the tv performing the different games Santa brought for the Wii. A few days after the Holidays, my boys are asking for a bigger and better television to go along with their game playing experience.

I realise that all of their friends have one of those new HDTVs but we never saw the reason for it. Our television works perfectly well and we don't really have the cash to sink into a new HDTV. I also heard that you have to fork out extra to the cable co. for HDTV service. I am not interested in paying more money than I truly need to.

We already pay so much for the movie channels we subscribe to and I am not willing to cancel those since we all love to catch good movies at home. Nevertheless, I did feel that maybe it was time for an advance. We could also take the television currently in the living area and put it in the upstairs spare room so our guests can have some private television watching. So one weekend, my husband and I went out to Circuit City to see what we could afford.

The sales associate showed us one of the less expensive HDTVs accessible and let us know that it was just as good as the large names. We considered it and then decided that since we always buy Pioneer, we would rather stick with a name we know. We ended up buying a new Sony HDTV for only a little more than the less expensive one.

The sales associate did let us know about something that made paying a bit more for the television worth it. He said there are antennas obtainable that give you the same signals as the cable provider does. You buy it and place it either indoors or outside and then you can have all the channels you would acquire through the cable company without paying for it every month.

We looked into it and bought one of the antennas for outdoors. We now have it all set up and we couldn't be happier. The kids love to play their games on the big HDTV and my husband and I love watching movies or tv on it. I must say I should have invested in this a while ago. I am amazed with the service we undergo from the antenna and the picture quality.