Don't go down this road

I don't like to think of myself as someone who cares about a television. I'm embarrassed, actually, to tell of this journey. I still identify with the man I was 20 years ago, when I didn't and wouldn't own a TV. I still cringe when I see family rooms set up with an enormous plasma screen as the center of the universe, and there's not a book to be seen. Is your life that vacuous, I think? Have you no intellect left after you pay your cable bill?

Rigid ideology has a way of biting one in the behind, and the universe appears to be laughing at me lately.

Our decade-old television (tuned, of course, to appropriately edifying stations like BBC—to watch Torchwood and Doctor Who, but don't tell anyone) needed replacement. Robin's birthday was coming up—she hinted more than once how nice a new TV would be for the Inauguration Day party.

I bargained 25% off a 40” Toshiba at Best Buy (checking Consumer Reports on the iPhone to make sure it had a good rating), then went to Ikea for a cheap stand. This is where everything started falling apart.

The stand was up to Ikea's usual standard, meaning it looked crappy and cheap. A coat of paint just made it look worse. And it wasn't deep enough to hold our other components. After two days of alterations I admitted defeat and we found a nice media table at Cost Plus.

Then I entered the world of video cable components, connectors, multiple remotes, and archaic ancillary equipment. At last, I cobbled everything into one Entertainment Center. And we sat down to watch some TV.

A standard def signal displayed on a 1080i screen looks dreadful. The sound out of a contemporary television is tinny and weak. It appears the TV is the least of the changes, and cash is about to begin hemorrhaging. To get this system up to snuff we apparently need: a new Direct TV receiver, an HD subscription upgrade, some kind of external speaker array, a new DVD player, and probably a new amp for the stereo. Nothing we have now has contemporary outputs, like HDMI.

It is extremely tempting to go back to the old Triniton. Or just read a book.

Comments

[Christine]

We experienced this a couple years ago, too. Great new tv-- but we couldn't get any decent TV signal. Experimented with cable for a while and finally just said forget it. DVDs look great and sound okay-- we just don't watch any real "tv" anymore unless it's a series on DVD. Can't say I've missed it except for during the debates. I certainly don't miss the commercials.

[Paul Butzi]

We went this route some time back, including the HD DirecTv business. It's nice, but not earthshattering. But I was instantly converted into an HD bigot. If it isn't broadcast in HD, I don't watch it.

The big problem is that nearly everything on TV is dreck. Sturgeon's Law applies, in spades. So HD DirecTv gets you a billion channels of very high resolution, nice looking dreck, with a few gems stuck in there. The answer is a DVR, which makes picking the gems out of the muck much easier.

But for getting good bang for the buck, I have one word: Netflix.

[Tom]

It's a bit of a hassle / extra expense to set up, but believe me -- as a photographer and a visual person you will fall in love with HD. Discovery, Nat Geo, Science and others in HD are gorgeous. When I first got HD I even watched Discovery's sunrise show. )I don't think they have it anymore, but basically it was real-time sunrise over the course of an hour in a beautiful location.)
Even regular TV shows take on an extra dimension -- I vividly revcall the first time I saw the studio lights reflected in a teakettle on the Will and Grace set.
I don't work for anybody that has anything to do with HD, but I am a photographer, so I think you'll love it.

[Doug Plummer]

We'll get HD in a month, when our spot comes up in the Direct TV queue. They're not making us buy the new sat receiver/DVR, which is great. I just upgraded the receiver (to a "home theatre setup," god, that sounds trite) and it is far superior to our pervious audio setup. I'm hearing things in our music that I've never heard before.