Slashed prices, the digital transition and a budget-prompted tendency to spend more time at home motivate consumers to upgrade their televisions.

By Andrea Chang, LA Times - On the shopping list for budget-minded consumers: groceries, gas -- and a new flat-panel TV?

Shelling out hundreds of dollars on a television is hardly wallet-friendly, but LCD and plasma sets have been flying off the shelves all year, with some retailers saying TV sales are better now than they were during the holiday season.

Retail experts say the boob-tube boomlet stems in part from dramatic price-slashing by retailers that are trying to undercut the competition and need to move merchandise to make room for newer, snazzier models. The recent transition by broadcast stations to digital signals also brought out droves of shoppers who used the deadline as motivation to replace their outdated analog TVs.

But there's also a recession twist: Some industry watchers say that people are upgrading their TVs because they're spending more time at home during the economic downturn.

"Consumers are increasingly using the home as a place to look for entertainment," said Riddhi Patel, an analyst at research firm ISuppli Corp. "And TV becomes the main medium. . . . People are saying instead of taking trips during the summer, they may as well stay at home and buy a TV."

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