June 07, 2007
As seen on TV
As I write this, I was thinking back to a Christmas gift many years ago from Chris. He had given me a DVD of Shrek, which had just been released. I thanked him but laughed. It was a nice gift, I said, but we don't have a DVD player. “But you work in hi-tech... I just figured you had one...” DVD players were cheap enough by then, but we didn't have a TV with anything other than an antenna input, nor a receiver that could do much with DVD quality sound. So even an "inexpensive" DVD player would cost close to $1000 in the end when one factored in the supporting audio and video upgrades necessary to appreciate it. We eventually caught up to the 90's about 5 years ago when we moved from Nashua to Milford.
I work in the area of digital graphics R&D at AMD. Just a hundred feet from my office desk are more gorgeous displays than you can imagine. One can barely walk to the kitchen without tripping on a covet-worthy flat panel display. While my group works on 3D graphics rendering, the floor is shared with a group that works on chips for high end digital televisions.
Ironically it never really phased me, seeing all of those $2000-$5000 televisions. If you love sports, watching 'the game' on a large screen in high definition is the bees knees. And there are a few other areas where high definition is jaw dropping. But to me seeing the nightly news, or Jay Leno, or New Hampshire Chronicles or ... whatever is "Meh, big deal." Seeing Dancing with the Stars in hi-def is probably a borderline "occasion of sin". *grin*
Recently, though, it's been bothering Michelle how nearly all of our Netflix DVDs ship only in wide format with the 16:9 aspect ratio rather than the typical television 4:3. As such our plain old TV, a whopping 20 inch diagonal LCD model, would take an already small image and letterbox it with black bands along the top and bottom. We shopped a bit for something more modern a couple of months back, but put the plans on hold when she ordered the shed and a new floor. I wanted to stop the hemorrhaging of our wallet.
Last weekend we revisited the issue. Like Alyssa, we bought a model from a lesser known brand hoping to make a name for itself by offering value. Whereas Alyssa went with a Vizio brand, we went with an Olevia. Ours is a mostly like this model 237V that they show on their website, except ours is a 237T (shown at right) where the speakers are bottom mounted instead of side mounted. Searching the web for prices at brick 'n mortar stores, Target seemed to have the best price on them. Best of all, when we actually got to Target to pick one up, they went on sale that day, taking over $200 off the price. Now it was really a good value.
The boys were pretty excited as I set it up. The only problem was that the model/line is so new, most standard universal remotes (including TiVo's) can't control it. Luckily, I'm happy to report that the new premium remotes from TiVo (one of which arrived yesterday) are the so-called "learning remotes" and can be trained for this model. So for now we are back in the nirvana of a single, intuitive remote "to bind them all". While it's not their main business, TiVo does make some of the most ergonomic remotes out there. This new "premium" one looks as though TiVo put Apple designers on the team to polish up the old design. It's high gloss with a touch of chrome and backlighting on the keys. ooohhhh. Point the OEM's remote at this one, it records/learns the invisible infra-red sequences, and can later play them back. Meanwhile it preserves the classic TiVo remote layout that almost everyone in this house knows by feel.
So far the most resolution we're using on this television is a mere 480p (progressive) via component cables. In other words, well below what the set is capable of. Both our TiVo and the Wii output this format as their highest quality available. As I predicted, plain ol' regular television programming looks a bit fuzzy or grainy on this screen. Michelle has given me the go ahead to consider the new hi-def Series 3 TiVo since they can now be had for about $410. It's still a bit steep, but my co-workers spent more than double that last Christmas half a year ago. But first I want to understand what Comcast will charge for a digital service package and a pair of necessary digital CableCard interfaces. Although not insignificant, it's not the one time cost of the box that concerns me, it's the recurring cable fees I want to understand.
If the fees are not unreasonable, Michelle says I should consider it my Father's Day gift. Funny how I didn't initiate the new digital television, but suddenly it's my present. *grin*