Last night, I noticed that the video quality of low band channels on my 13" Insignia test TV was so poor that I could not reliably evaluate the performance of the headend components I was evaluating. I probably paid about $70 for it within the last year, but in fairness to Insignia - if there is such a manufacturer - I beat the hell out of test TVs.

I'm going to hold off buying a replacement test TV until the ATSC mandate takes effect March. How much will low-end SD ATSC sets sell for? When the mandate on the 26" TVs resulted in the introduction of low end, house brand 26" ATSC TVs, the large stores, like Best Buy and K-Mart, priced them at $220 to $230. I think I could probably have bought a new cheap 26" NTSC for maybe $160 back then, so the price differential between 13" and 26" might have been around $90. Should I expect to find 13" ATSC SD TVs for around $140?

I would think so. For the time being, you could always buy a RCA DTC-100 off ebay.

I have ATSC tuners up the yin yang, including four spare Accurians. I just look forward to being able to cart around a practical ATSC test monitor. I affix a sliding door handle onto the top of 13" sets, and if I buy one shaped right, I can even wrap the line cord and coax around it. But at present, the only "portable" ATSC signal tester I have is my Dell laptop with a FusionGold5 USB outboard tuner, but that stupid computer program takes nearly ten minutes to boot up, and it is a pig on the battery. When I buy a 13", ATSC equipped TV, I'll either use an extension cord or a unified battery/inverter for situations in which using the extension cord is inconvenient.

The digital tuner "premium" seems to be somewhere between 50-100. The new digital tuner DVDrs introed at CES carry a $60-80 premium over current models. The only thing that may raise the prices is the introduction of flat panels. Makers might dump CRTs at the low end (5-13") in favor of LCDs. In that case the premium might be higher.

They always charged a premium when there were two options (one with a tuner and one without), but when it will be required in all TVs (and I seriously doubt they'll be releasing 13" monitors), the price should adjust rather quickly.

Any announcements yet on new SD TVs below 25"? I haven't seen any yet and they only have one month to release them!

Any announcements yet on new SD TVs below 25"? I haven't seen any yet and they only have one month to release them!
I doubt there'll be any kind of announcement - they'll just show up.