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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

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If the NY Times Says So, It Must Be Official…

Bruce A Johnson | 08/20

HDTV Ownership Is “De Rigueur”

Pardon me if I channel Dan Rather at his worst, but: put the cat out, Martha, roll up the streets and poke the fire. The New York Times has declared that “High-definition TV is no longer a luxury option. It’s standard.”

Hmmmm. I assume that PVC has a pretty high geek-quotient among our readers. Do we have HDTVs?

I’ll admit it: I do have one, an LG 30” tube model. But I rarely watch it as a TV - it is hooked up to my editing system. And on the odd occasion when I do watch TV on it (as with the Beijing Olympics) I do so with an over-the-air antenna. But up in the living room or bedroom? Just plain-old standard-def. OK, call me a Luddite if you want - “pragmatic geek” is my favored term.

I reflexively recoil when I see declarations like this. Even the Consumer Electronics Association, those masters of gilding the lily, estimate that fewer than half of US households will have HDTVs by 2009. You gotta figure the truth is at least ten points lower than that. And as I’ve said before, doe the enhanced resolution really make content better? I doubt it.

So, folks, fess up: Got HDTV? And if so, can you imagine living without it?

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Not yet. We used our move to justify holding off. But one is scheduled for the living room. Will combine it with a promo from Qwest to bundle DirecTV billing and get a “free” HD DVR out of the deal.

The irony is, the first HDTV in the house may be in the kitchen. We just want a little flat screen to save space compared to the clunky Toshiba CRT we have. Just try to buy an SD TV these days - even a small one! Kinda silly; might “settle” for a 720p model for the kitchen to save money.

Posted by Chris Meyer on 08/20 at 08:59 PM

Eight years ago, I cancelled my cable subscription after I suddenly became legally blind and four top surgeons said “they couldn’t fix it at this time.”

A few years later, out of pure stubbornness I went to see a fifth surgeon. This MD said “Maybe…,” and he actually did fix it. After five operations I then found myself with 20/15 vision on a good day.

I thought about getting cable TV again, but looking at the daily listings nothing wet my appetite in the slightest.

So I decided to get an ATSC tuner and a small tabletop antenna (Zenith UHFTV, $20 at Amazon), and hooked it up via DVI to an HD monitor. I was very pleasantly blown away by the picture quality, and the rapidly increasing selection of digital channels.

Today I get something like 40 OTA channels, of which many are HD at night. Still perfect quality with just a $20 set top antenna, yes the PQ is noticeably clearer than cable or satellite (because there is no recompression).

And the monthly bill was and remains $0, which made me so embarrassed I signed up for Netflix at $19.95/month.

So i watch my movies in great-looking 1080P from an upscaling Sony player that is now $75.00. I could get Blu-Ray movies for an extra $1/month, but who cares when upscaling is this good?

And why should I bother ever getting a $100 cable or satellite bill again?

Anyone remember?

:O)

OK, so I’m lucky to live 43 miles from Mt. Wilson where all the TV stations have their antennas, and I have true line-of-sight through a window next to the tuner…

Why not use what “nature” provides over the air?

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