by Tommy
HDTV Ready Or Not?
February 28, 2006 in Uncategorized by Tommy
If you look below this post, you will see a bunch of links related to HDTV. The reason why this comes up has to do with my little trip to L.A (again I’m not exactly sure where the hell I was). I was taken to Eileen’s cousin’s house and he had a DLP television with a few boxes under it. I saw two DirectTV (something like that), a DVD player and a PS2. The television itself was about 55 inches or so and it was an “HDTV”. It seemed that he really didn’t know much about HDTV.
Anyone that has spent any amount of time with me knows that I hate two things more than anything else. The media is one and salespeople are the other. I also hate marketing folks but thats another story. Open up a BestBuy, CompUSA, Walmart flyer and you will see ads for HDTVs. Go inside one of those stores and you will see the actual televisions that are so called HDTVs. Also anyone that have spent any amount of time with me knows that I love to educate and destroy false marketing. I am not, however, one of those people that talk out of their azz and pretends to know everything. I know a little about some things and a lot about others. Those subjects that I know a lot of, I will talk about forever. One of my newest and most current pet peeves is the false marketing behind HDTV.
I will specifically talk about cable and satellite television service providers. Time-Warner (because they are the biggest) is constantly talking about “Digital Cable”. I feel sad for my fellow non-techies that buy into this junk and pay outrages prices to bring “Digital Cable” into their analog CRT televisions. I’m not here to teach anyone anything at the moment because that would take too long and this would become a five page post. I’ve gathered the links below (2006-02-28 and 2006-03-01) so that you can educate yourself before going out and buying a new television. I can’t help but feel pity for those people that think they are getting a 55+ inch “HDTV” for less than $2000 (I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true).
Arm yourself with knowledge so that you can distinguish the dumb azz salespeople from the good ones. Short story, I went with Randy one day to one of those Dell stands in the mall. I told Randy to ask some questions about the Macintosh so that he can see what I meant by dumb azz salepeople. Well I ate my words because the guy who he talked to was really honest and very (more like extremely) unbiased about his comments. Either way, “Reading is Fundamental” wasn’t just a stupid saying from back in the days. Do your homework and you won’t get suckered. A television is either “HDTV Ready” or its “HDTV”. Learn the difference and stop getting robbed.
Oh and one more thing. Unless the FCC keeps pushing back the date, your analog (CRT) television will stop showing anything by 2009. Again this is assuming the FCC doesn’t change the date again.