So the great shut down of Analog TV signals for the switch to digital has been postponed to June. The argument at hand is that not everyone is ready for the digital switch. Others argue that no one really uses "rabbit ears" anymore, anyway, so why hold off?
Well, I have mixed feelings about it. I don't have cable--for many reasons, one of which is that I'm cheap, and the other is that I really don't see the need to have so many damn channels. I get about 12 over the airways, and that's plenty. I go over to friends' houses and they have like 100 channels, about 60 of which are crap. So what's the point?
A little over a year ago, my bad-ass console TV died. I had to give in and buy a new TV, so I figured I'd go digital, so I bought this even more bad-ass 32" LCD HDTV, and started getting the digital channels along with analog. The picture for the digital channels is definitely more crystal clear, but I lose the signal much more often than I did with regular 'ol analog. I live next to a bridge, and whenever a big truck goes over it, the signal goes out (no, I'm not kidding).
So the claims that the pictures are clearer with digital is true, but the signal sucks. I think it's just the man trying to get us down and give in and buy cable. I will not give in! I will not go quietly into the night!
Damn the man, save the empire!
On a side note, I am really loving this song:
(I'd embed it, but it's disabled.)
2 comments:
I am not really digging the delay of the rollout. Since this was supposed to be rolled out in 2004 then 2006 then 2009.
They should just do it so people that still have the rabbit ears go. "Well what in tarnation? Is going on. I need to go yell at some customer service person about the TV they sold me 15 years ago"
Either people adapt or they get their media from other sources. I have Cable, Apple TV hacked with Boxee so I can watch everything on Hulu, The XBOX 360 with Netflix Streaming which has TV shows. You get better content from other sources. Only reason I keep the cable is for HBO. But most people I know don't have HBO so talking about Sunday's episode of Flight of the Conchords or Big Love is usually worthless adventure since most people haven't seen or heard of those shows.
The reason you get drops with digital is because it really is all or nothing. Unlike analog that can get grainy or static you don't get to deal with that in the digital form.
Comcast has a basic digital package for $20 a month that will give you all the local channels in HD and pretty much removes this problem. This method will work until 2012. When they kill analog on basic cable.
Though I do love this ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-pD-M0rY4
You know to be honest, you're probably better off investing in a new computer and just downloading any TV shows you want to watch. Living on the West Coast, you could probably DL the latest episode of House before it's even available in the Pacific timezone.
You can save the sweet HDTV for DVDs, or better yet, Blu-Rays. Yes, they do look a hell of a lot better.
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