Friday, March 07, 2008

Lipstick on a pig.

re: HDTV.

Has anybody ever been sitting around and thought "Y'know, if only this vapid, content-free crap was more crisp and colorful, I'd totally watch it"?
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21 comments:

Turk Turon said...

Carrreefuuullll!
In a way, I agree: I'm gonna drop my cable TV contract soon. I just despise the commercials. I have several hundred DVDs that I can watch. I would've dropped cable earlier except for the cable-modem internet service. But now I can hook up a Blackberry to my laptop and do that surf and blog thing.
Although, the HDTV pictures are crisp and beautiful! Heh!

6:44 AM, March 07, 2008
BryanP said...

Sturgeon's Law ("90% of anything is crap.") applies doubly to TV.

However, there is TV worth watching. I prefer to pick up what I want to watch on DVD, but I do record a few things on my ReplayTV (off brand Tivo). As a result I rarely see commercials.

As with any form of information/entertainment, be it books or the intarwebs, if you take the time to find the good stuff it can be worth it.

BryanP

7:05 AM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

Have you noticed that almost all HDTV ads play up its benefits for watching sports events? I don't think I've ever seen an HDTV ad that touted its benefits for watching regular idiot-box fare.

7:36 AM, March 07, 2008
CrankyProf said...

But..but....the circus maximus looks so much nicer on my HDTV, and I enjoy it so much as I eat my government-provided stale bread!

I mean, if I can get "American Idol" in HD, why would I want to ...ew...READ anything?

8:15 AM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

The opinions seem pretty uniform: HDTV is primarily used for watching good DVD's.

What's interesting to me is that the quality of the picture coming from regular (non-HD, non-BlueRay) DVD's appears to be massively improved by watching them on a good HDTV. And we've got a cheapy DVD-player, too. Watching Ripley blast "Aliens" on a good HDTV, with the sound piped through the ol' stereo makes it durn near as good as watching in a movie. And without the cell-phonies and Crackberries to deal with, either. AND I can crack a gizmo-can of Old Speckled Hen to quaff while watching.

8:18 AM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

Sadly, when I first got my HDTV i did watch a lot of crap just because it was in glorious HD.

The reason they play up the sports channels is becausde 1/2 my flippin' HD channels ARE sports channels.

And since I can barely tell baseball from basketball (I'm THAT uninterested.) you can imagine how warm and fuzzy that makes me feel. the other other hand I know to leave the TV to the housemates when wordslike "playoff", and "superbowl" are being bandied about.

8:18 AM, March 07, 2008
Canthros said...

I guess I'm technically on my second HDTV. Although TV looks better, I watch so little real television (less than four hours a week, I think) that it's not a huge selling point. I could have got by on my 13", ten-year-old CRT boob tube, instead of upgrading to the 37" LCD.

On the other hand, it's reached the point where new video games are basically unplayable at that resolution. Since I'd just purchased an XBox 360 (peer pressure), it seemed more reasonable than it would have otherwise. And movies do look a lot nicer.

8:57 AM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

I hate to disagree with you... but once you get used to football in HD, you just can't go back.

And, perversely, there is a great deal of amusement listening to my wife watch the awards shows in HD "Oh, my god! She looks like shiite! Wearing enough make up?"

Then Lisa Rinne appears in HD and the dogs yelp and hide under the bed.

9:42 AM, March 07, 2008
Paul said...

We've got a better TV than any of our friends have, but our cable bill is the lowest at $13/month.

We use HDTV mostly for video games. The difference in that case is massive.

9:48 AM, March 07, 2008
Tam said...

"but once you get used to football in HD"

I suppose one can get used to anything, such as watching football, or having one's guts eaten out by rabid wolverines...

10:05 AM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

HDTV has ruined porn.

11:19 AM, March 07, 2008
ravenshrike said...

Hockey in HD is actually watchable. Not to mention there are a couple of shows worth watching. And by couple I mean one, as well as the occasional movie on FX.

11:40 AM, March 07, 2008
Dr. StrangeGun said...

I fully enjoy my 51" HDTV... but only because I also rent a DVR from Comcast and I can watch anything I want, when I want.

If that wasn't a possibility, I'd probably still have stopped with the raggedy 35" pawn shop CRT I bought four years ago for $400.

11:42 AM, March 07, 2008
BryanP said...


I suppose one can get used to anything, such as watching football, or having one's guts eaten out by rabid wolverines...

Could be worse. You could sit around watching guys whack at balls with sticks and run around a vague diamond pattern. Or you could just take a bottle of sleeping pills and get it over with. ;)

BryanP

1:47 PM, March 07, 2008
Tam said...

Whoa with the blasphemy, now!

2:58 PM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

Baseball in HD is pretty fantastic. Our HD provider also has various HD only channels, so I can get Discovery Channel in HD, which is awesome, as well as re-runs of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica in HD.

Oh and American Idol, of course.

:-P

3:58 PM, March 07, 2008
BryanP said...

I would never blaspheme against someone who outguns me. Besides, if I really wanted to make you froth I'd say something like "Eh, the 1911 ain't all that. I mean, it's better than a S&W wheelgun, but what isn't? Now forget all that. Let's go watch some gladhanding speeches from Castro and Chavez in HD."

Um. Tamara? Your pupils seem to be dilated. Tamara?

BryanP

4:09 PM, March 07, 2008
Tango Juliet said...

The raid on Brecourt Manor becomes even more impressive on an HDTV.

Winters and Spiers at their finest.

4:21 PM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

Wonderful, wonderful Tivo. There is NADA to do on this mountain after dark- and I'm running out of shelf space.

Nature documentaries are the big reason I've welcomed HDTV. You don't even need narration to make things like praying mantises and chameleons interesting at that resolution.

4:33 PM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

There needs to be a TV show... about a gun store...

4:57 PM, March 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

The very first HDTV that I ever saw was in a Tokyo subway station. From about twenty feet away, I thought it was a real fish tank.

When I realized what I was looking at, I thought, "That's really shiny. This is going to be big trouble."

11:18 AM, March 08, 2008

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