I am now one of you. No longer will I be shunned at social events, ignored by family, and laughed at by world leaders. That bleak and dark time of my life is now over. Why, you ask? Well, as of a few short months ago I became one of the 24 million households that owns a flat-screen HDTV. Utopia is now within my reach.
I had no interest in purchasing one at first. It was the re-carpeting of our family room that actually planted the seed.
For years we had a 27-inch 'flat-screen' television housed in a bulky cedar entertainment unit that just sucked up the space in that room. After lugging that 300 pound piece of furniture to another location to allow new carpet to be installed I dreaded moving it all back into the family room again. So, with tax refund money in hand I ventured down to the local electronics mega-store and plopped down a thousand bucks for a 37" plasma flat-screen, and $50 for a small stand.
After two months of wide-screen, HDTV viewing I can only say two words about the experience: freakin' sweet.
Well, let me clarify a bit. When you're watching shows in HD it is a whole new viewing experience. What they say about seeing everything in high-definition is absolutely true. I remember watching an episode of Bones a few weeks ago in HD and noticing all of the sweat, hair, and skin blemishes on the stars of the show. I was fascinated. The high-definition experience really comes out when you are watching a sporting event or some type of nature documentary. When you view it on an HD channel you feel like you could jump into the television and be part of the action.
When you're watching shows that aren't in HD, things are a bit different. Most first-run and newer syndicated shows appear without too much distortion. However, when you are watching an older show it can be hard to adjust to what you're seeing. That's because everyone on the screen seems to have gained a good amount of weight. I'm guessing that this has something to do with the aspect ratio of the screen, and that there is a way to adjust this per show or even per scene. I just haven't read enough of the manual to determine how this is done. Eventually, you just get used to it.
Besides that, I love my HDTV. I just wish that there were more HD shows and channels to watch! You would think that the networks would be kicking it into high gear to get hi-def shows on the air since there's a government commitment to convert all broadcast signals to digital by 2009. Right now, I only have 40 channels of HD programming to watch. Half of them are sports channels, while the rest are network-based, and not all network shows are in hi-def. How about a TCM HD channel, or a Cartoon Network HD channel? Get those up and running and you have a convert for life!
So, to the HDTV community, I ask for a warm welcome and perhaps an invite to one of your invitation-only parties. Don't worry, I already know the secret handshake.
Lost audio podcast recap: May 11, 2007
Subtle Subtitles
Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. Richard... I to became one of the new HD users just recently.. and very much in the same way you did, except we put tile in our family room. We got a 56" DLP... uummm Yea its sweet. So.. Welcome to the group. And as soon as we finish the dining room and Kitchen I think we are going to have one of them parties, and you will be ther first one on the list.
Posted at 10:22AM on May 12th 2007 by Kelsberry CrawDad
2. Cool and your right, you are not along...
I have joined that club too a months or so ago when after buying a new Sony 27" and had to return it, I decided to buy the popular Olevia 27" LCD HDTV for a good price.
Has is advantages as long as you can live with the widescreen format when watch fullscreen programming. Hope you like it.
Posted at 10:30AM on May 12th 2007 by Racedriven
3. Welcome to the family! I purchased a 32" Toshiba LCD for $799 back in November (gotta love Christmas sales), and have been in love ever since. If you have the capability, use HDMI for your TV watching. It's easily the best quality you can go. I fully agree about sports and nature programs, too. I can't STAND watching the NBA, but the games are so amazing in HD, I can't force myself to look away. Just wait till Football season, when literally every game on Fox, NBC and ESPN is in HD. *drool*
About SD channels, the aspect ratio is only screwed up if you watch in Theaterwide (that's the name for it on my TV) or Full screen mode. If you switch to Natural, it will display every show in its native ratio. That means all HD programming will come in as 16:9, as it should, and all SD programming will display at 4:3. The left and right sides of the screen will be black, but you won't be looking at a distorted image. I prefer that to stretching everything out.
Lastly, there are a bunch more HD channels coming soon. DirectTV is getting a whole mess of them all at once, while Comcast (from what the lady I talked to a couple days ago said) is getting more HD channels this summer, like FX and TBS and such, but will be installing maybe three one week, making sure they work, then installing three more a couple weeks after that, testing those, and so on and so forth. By the end of summer, it sounds like there will be a lot more choices for HD programming.
February 19th, 2009 can't come soon enough.
Posted at 11:05AM on May 12th 2007 by Matt
4. Just to clarify one thing Richard. All TV transmissions must be "digital" in 2009. That does not mean the transmissions have to be "high definition" or "HD". I'm sure most TV stations will convert to HD but they do not have to, only to digital signal.
Posted at 12:18PM on May 12th 2007 by Goody
5. In addition to Goody's point, it's also worth noting the digital requirement is specific to over-the-air broadcasts. It's quite conceivable some smaller cable/sat channels don't go digital and/or HD in a timely fashion.
Posted at 1:08PM on May 12th 2007 by Dave Zatz
6. Congrats Rich! It's a special time in every man's life when he can not only watch crap on TV, but highly defined crap. I think plasmas are pretty sweet, especially since most of them don't get "burned in" from static images anymore. Still something to watch out for, though. About the aspect ratio, Matt's right. There should be a button on the remote to easily switch between picture sizes/modes, and one of them will present HD programs in 16:9 and SD programs in 4:3. On my TV, I had a problem where the non-HD channels would all show up in 16:9, but the HD channels would switch depending on the native resolution of the show I was watching. Turned out that HD and non-HD channels each had different picture settings. Anyway, welcome to the club.
Posted at 2:15PM on May 12th 2007 by Chris Wyant
7. Did you get a surround sound setup too? HD supports 5.1 surround sound too. I have yet to upgrade my speakers, but expect to sometime this year. I can't wait to see Lost with the spooky accompaniment coming from all around.
Posted at 2:44PM on May 12th 2007 by SamMalone
8. Well, don't expect ME to welcome HDTV. I am hard of hearing and along with almost 30 million other Americans with hearing loss make extensive use of closed captioning. Unfortunately, that part of the technology has not been perfected yet for HDTV, so closed caption will do many things it's not supposed to.
For instance, it will appear, then disappear almost instantly making it unreadable; appear, disappear, then reappear in Spanish; slip off the side of the screen, etc. etc. We, who are involved in all the national hearing loss organizations are after the FCC, Comcast and anyone else involved to get the fix in before February 17, 2009 when analog broadcasting ceases.
One in ten Americans has some degree of loss so there's a good chance someone in your family or among your friends will be unhappy with HDTV unless a solution is reached.
Posted at 5:08PM on May 12th 2007 by Judy