After owning an HDTV for a few months, here's some things I've noticed about local HDTV.
1. KOMO-TV and KING-TV news are in true hi-def, KCPQ-TV and KIRO-TV's are still window-boxed
2. Comcast has a pitiful selection of true HD programming. I get INHD and INHD 2 (which is cable only. It runs mostly old IMAX films, selected widescreen movies, some MLB baseball games, documentaries and concerts.) Discovery HD Theater, Starz and HBO in hi-def, ESPN-HD and selected movies in Widescreen Dolby on Comcast On Demand. All my usual favorite channels (Comedy Central, MTV, MTV-2, VH-1, Fuse, VH-1 Classic, MTV Hits, BET Jazz, Food Network, AZN, DIY, G4, CNN, CBC Newsworld, The History Channel, Biography, A&E, TBS Adult Swim, etc.) are still in low-def analog. Satellite TV may be the cure for this, as they say most of their programming is in true HD (although still window boxed on most channels.) But satellite dishes have a tendency to shake and move around during powerful Northwest windstorms no matter how securely you bolt them to the roof, screwing up the picture. Rain and snow also cause picture freezes sometimes.
3. KCTS-TV has four channels of HD programming, one for kids, an HD version of their regular channel, an educational channel and one that seems to specialize in "This American Life" and other documentaries. KING-TV has two HD channels, one for their main channel and the other running NBC Local weather.
4. For some reason, I can't keep the analog signals from blowing up to wide screen on our HDTV (yes, I read the manual for the TV and I'm still lost.) Everybody looks fat, Kate Moss actually looks attractive. Plus, movements on older movies and shows on analog cable become "checkered" (like an old Casio LCD pocket TV.) My old full screen DVDs/videos and my X-Box and PS2 also show up as wide screen, but not "checkered" as with my cable analog TV feeds.
5. Other home media: My oldest VHS tapes from the late '70s and early '80s look really bad in HD. But the Beta ones I have (you heard me) actually don't look too bad. My old 12" Laser discs, the oldest one I have is National Lampoon's Animal House, a 3 disc set (5 playble sides for the movie, plua a "dead side") from 1979 when the first laser discs for home use first came out appear to have been mastered from video tape or a third generation film master as the definition is pretty low and the picture is awfully darker than normal (but probably spectacular for 1979.) The labels on these discs actually reads "MCA DiscoVision", because the laser disc technology was a joint project between Pioneer/Matsushita in Japan and Universal in the States and Universal's US record company, then called MCA Records made and distributed the discs in the US in 1979, the last year of disco music's first heyday. Later 12" laser discs from the '80s and early '90s look much better. I also have an old RCA Selecta-Vision CED disc machine and several CED discs (including rare stuff like Eat To The Beat-Blondie, Urgh! A Music War, Video Rewind: The Rolling Stone's Great Video Hits, Tron, Roxy Music: The High Road, Duran Duran in the garage I bought at an auction a few months ago. CED was another '80s video disc technology they came out with from 1982 to I guess 1986. They say CED used a stylus of some kind to play the discs. I want to hook it up and see what it looks like on an HDTV. Come to think of it, where's my old Atari 2600 and Nintendo/Super Nintendo consoles?.....
6. I can't use closed captioning while watching local news in HD on any local TV channel. I can with the analog signal though. It really pisses me off becuase I like to take a glance at the news on this big fancy new cutting edge TV the powers-that-be tell me the picture is so wonderful on as I'm shucking out $50 a month in payments for it, but can't even see something as simple as closed-captioning on it as I'm listening to the radio while I'm making dinner. HDTV may be the cure for bad TV reception, but the lack of closed captioning isn't much help to the hearing impaired and probably why you don't see many of them in noisy sports bars, no matter how good the picture looks.
Any other folks with HDTV stories to share and advice for those contemplating buying one? Mine is simple. Wait until they finally have a selection of HD programming that justifies HDTV's current price tag. And the price of the HDTVs themselves come down. Right now, I kinda regret running down to Best Buy in Burlington on a whim....<P ID="signature">______________
"Never keep up with the Jones's. Drag them down to your level" - Quentin Crisp
[email protected]
</P>
1. KOMO-TV and KING-TV news are in true hi-def, KCPQ-TV and KIRO-TV's are still window-boxed
2. Comcast has a pitiful selection of true HD programming. I get INHD and INHD 2 (which is cable only. It runs mostly old IMAX films, selected widescreen movies, some MLB baseball games, documentaries and concerts.) Discovery HD Theater, Starz and HBO in hi-def, ESPN-HD and selected movies in Widescreen Dolby on Comcast On Demand. All my usual favorite channels (Comedy Central, MTV, MTV-2, VH-1, Fuse, VH-1 Classic, MTV Hits, BET Jazz, Food Network, AZN, DIY, G4, CNN, CBC Newsworld, The History Channel, Biography, A&E, TBS Adult Swim, etc.) are still in low-def analog. Satellite TV may be the cure for this, as they say most of their programming is in true HD (although still window boxed on most channels.) But satellite dishes have a tendency to shake and move around during powerful Northwest windstorms no matter how securely you bolt them to the roof, screwing up the picture. Rain and snow also cause picture freezes sometimes.
3. KCTS-TV has four channels of HD programming, one for kids, an HD version of their regular channel, an educational channel and one that seems to specialize in "This American Life" and other documentaries. KING-TV has two HD channels, one for their main channel and the other running NBC Local weather.
4. For some reason, I can't keep the analog signals from blowing up to wide screen on our HDTV (yes, I read the manual for the TV and I'm still lost.) Everybody looks fat, Kate Moss actually looks attractive. Plus, movements on older movies and shows on analog cable become "checkered" (like an old Casio LCD pocket TV.) My old full screen DVDs/videos and my X-Box and PS2 also show up as wide screen, but not "checkered" as with my cable analog TV feeds.
5. Other home media: My oldest VHS tapes from the late '70s and early '80s look really bad in HD. But the Beta ones I have (you heard me) actually don't look too bad. My old 12" Laser discs, the oldest one I have is National Lampoon's Animal House, a 3 disc set (5 playble sides for the movie, plua a "dead side") from 1979 when the first laser discs for home use first came out appear to have been mastered from video tape or a third generation film master as the definition is pretty low and the picture is awfully darker than normal (but probably spectacular for 1979.) The labels on these discs actually reads "MCA DiscoVision", because the laser disc technology was a joint project between Pioneer/Matsushita in Japan and Universal in the States and Universal's US record company, then called MCA Records made and distributed the discs in the US in 1979, the last year of disco music's first heyday. Later 12" laser discs from the '80s and early '90s look much better. I also have an old RCA Selecta-Vision CED disc machine and several CED discs (including rare stuff like Eat To The Beat-Blondie, Urgh! A Music War, Video Rewind: The Rolling Stone's Great Video Hits, Tron, Roxy Music: The High Road, Duran Duran in the garage I bought at an auction a few months ago. CED was another '80s video disc technology they came out with from 1982 to I guess 1986. They say CED used a stylus of some kind to play the discs. I want to hook it up and see what it looks like on an HDTV. Come to think of it, where's my old Atari 2600 and Nintendo/Super Nintendo consoles?.....
6. I can't use closed captioning while watching local news in HD on any local TV channel. I can with the analog signal though. It really pisses me off becuase I like to take a glance at the news on this big fancy new cutting edge TV the powers-that-be tell me the picture is so wonderful on as I'm shucking out $50 a month in payments for it, but can't even see something as simple as closed-captioning on it as I'm listening to the radio while I'm making dinner. HDTV may be the cure for bad TV reception, but the lack of closed captioning isn't much help to the hearing impaired and probably why you don't see many of them in noisy sports bars, no matter how good the picture looks.
Any other folks with HDTV stories to share and advice for those contemplating buying one? Mine is simple. Wait until they finally have a selection of HD programming that justifies HDTV's current price tag. And the price of the HDTVs themselves come down. Right now, I kinda regret running down to Best Buy in Burlington on a whim....<P ID="signature">______________
"Never keep up with the Jones's. Drag them down to your level" - Quentin Crisp
[email protected]
</P>