01.19
Ok, I’m a technical guy. I write code for a living and up until just recently I had a closet full of development machines and whatnots for various projects. I custom coded all the widgets on my web site and do my own server administration… hell I make my own ethernet cables.
But the purchase of my first widescreen TV almost did me in.
My father was a rocket scientist. Seriously. He probably forgot more math than I ever knew (and I took calculus in college) yet in my house growing up “home entertainment technology” was limited to the 4 channels that magically showed up on the TV and that old scale model of a Duesenberg with the AM radio in it.
Even though Dad could (and often did) clearly define the electromagnetic spectrum to the 10-year-old me and and describe precisely what was meant by Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF), our TV — well into the age of cable and VCRs — only ever got those same 4 channels.
“What the hell do I need cable for!?!” he’d bark and I’d mutter something about all the cool kids getting MTV and things would undoubtedly head downhill from there….
Anyway, apparently I inherited some of this. Despite all the tech in my house, I never put much into the TV so when our old CRT TV finally gave up the ghost (this after being thoroughly scratched by one of the the two small terrors that run through my house) I was dragged by the wife into Costco and pushed in front of the wide-screen TVs.
“That one” I said, pointing at the one that seemed to look the best even though I was completely uneducated on the ways of widescreen TVs. It became ours, and my education began after the fact.
The very first thing I learned about widescreen LCD TV screens is that they suck for SD signals. Though the 4:3 viewable area was only nominally bigger than our old CRT it was noticeably worse quality-wise. Not noticeable to the kids mind you, SpongeBob looks fine to them, but I notice it. Perhaps its that the LCD screen is better and it highlights the crappy signal, I don’t know.
Perhaps the DVD would be an improvement…
My DVD player, old but reasonably advanced, is capable of 480p resolution on a component connection, which in theory should be better than the stock 480i connection off the cable. As fate would have it looked like poo on the old CRT screen but looks pretty decent on the new screen… to a point. There are a number of settings to tweak it but as in digital photography it is all a tradeoff. Noise reduction is a wonderful thing but it softens the image and you lose detail. Crank DNR up enough and the movie looks like mud. In the end you can apply only so much duct tape, so my beloved Ironman DVD looks… passable.
I decided, therefore, I must get something HD.
Now, I’ve also been wanting a DVR for a while, but my wife was happy with a VCR (shades of my Dad, I know. How creepy is that?). It finally came down to my daughter who was absolutely distraught that The Wiggles started coming on at the same time as Wordworld as they are both her very favoritest shows in the world. Well, dear, if we had a DVR… or an HD DVR…
A trip to a Comcast (yeah, I know) pay center later and now we have an HD DVR. What a scam, ya know? You are already getting the HD signal but ya gotta use their gear to thet the HD output to your set. Slimy.
Anyway, I noticed right away that I’d need a DVI to HDMI adaptor/cable as I was out of component hookups (the DVD player and the Wii took those) so a trip to the brand-new but still dead-store-walking Circuit City solved that. Holy ass HDMI cables are expensive — even with the store-closing 30% discount — and who the hell knew that (like ethernet cables) there are different HDMI versions that support different bandwidths?!? More education ensued.
So, finally, I get all the right stuff and get things all set up. I get the HDMI bone connected to the TV bone and the cable bone connected to the DVR bone and… FINALLY, some whopping 1080i HD goodness!
And what the f*** is that *$*#^%@#% white line on the top of some of the channels!?!? So began my introduction into overscan. Turns out the new TV is capable of displaying the whole display signal which is great for components but not so much for TV signals. A lot of TV stations send data in the first few bits of their signals for things like closed captioning. So somewhere in the TV menus I found THAT setting and now we’re happy (if cutting off 5-8% of your image is something to be happy about).
So I think we’re good for now, we got some HD love and we got The Wiggles and Wordworld on the DVR and even got the SD signal coming in at 480p which is an improvement somewhat.
Man, I just wanted a new TV.
So, the thing I hear about cables, particularly HDMI and DVR pairings is “Amazon.” Probably not helpful in this instance, but it might help someone else reading.
Welcome to the digital TV world. As for the SD signal stinking, its true but you get used to it very quickly, in particular once you stretch the display. But think of the fun you will have hooking your mac up to it and watching youtube videos!!!!
My TV-watching experience has not been the same since DVR, but my hatred of Time Warner has increased exponentially since I acquired HD TV and an HD DVR, which doesn’t seem to be stable. Best of luck, Marc.