Another great CAG deal in the books - I just took advantage of Spun.com's 25% code and treated myself to a little shopping spree. But this was more than a typical CAG deal! It was a chance for personal growth.

Yes, growth! You see, for the first time ever, I traded in a pile of stuff. Not just one obsolete game. Not just three games to give me a little bonus at GameStop or anything like that. A whole PILE! For me, that's huge. I've historically had a very hard time parting with videogames, but I'm at a point in life where some general circumstances have counteracted my more pack rat-like tendencies. To sum it up:

1. MONEY. The value of maintaining a collection begins to change when a brotha gots RENT to pay!
2. SPACE. Your apartment, your sanctuary, your personal space - it's a whole new game once you move out of the family's house. You start to hate clutter, and you relish any chance to streamline things!
3. NETFLIX. This may seem out of place, but my brief time

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I have been narrowing things down in the search for my first ever HDTV. I previously determined two things: that I can accomodate a 50" screen, and that I'll be using a VGA cable for my Xbox 360 (since it is an older pre-Elite model).

I had heard great things about Panasonic Plasmas, so I had been focusing my research in that direction. This research uncovered a key problem, however: apparently most Panasonic models don't accept 1080p through the VGA input.

Further research would indicate that a number of Samsung models DO provide the full VGA funcionality that I seek. Right now I've got my eye on this model, the A550.

Now I've been doing some intense (and overly-paranoid, most likely) research on the subject of gaming lag in HDTVs. It seemed like Panasonic plasmas had the best reputation, so I'm a little afraid to abandon the Panny track. However, I think I might still be in good shape with that Samsung model, since:

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It's time for me to upgrade my apartment setup to Hiiiiiiigh Definition! So now I've got TWO big purchases lined up, and two big decisions to make:

1) I gotta get my first HDTV, and
2) I gotta get some HD programming to go with it!

So I figured I would turn to the CAG community for some answers, recommendations, and feedback!

Let me go over the basics of what I'm looking for:

- To minimize gaming lag, I am leaning towards a Plasma TV. Panasonic in particular, unless I see some convincing arguments for something else.

- I did some measuring and it looks like my living room can accommodate a 50" TV. And at that size, I think it's worth it to shell out the extra cash for 1080p.

- Meanwhile I've got a pre-Elite Xbox 360, and I hear the default component cables can't really do 1080p. What to do??? Well, it seems that a cheap way around this would be to invest in a VGA cable - it can...