Tuesday, November 22, 2005

It has returned...

After several weeks without our precious widescreen HDTV, we finally had it return from the repair shop. Personally, I was hoping to have wasted that $250 on the warranty, but I guess it was money well spent since the delivery mileage alone was $200.

We also got our HD satellite receiver from Dish Network. It's pretty solid, but I'm hoping they up the HD channels. Right now there are only about five or so, but what they have are pretty good. Unfortunately, ESPNHD, the reason we wanted the HD receiver in the first place, is a joke. The games themselves aren't in HD. The dudes in the studio and the graphics are in HD, but the cameras at the games that are broadcasting the game apparently are not HD. The games are broadcast on the HD channel with these cool "HD" bars on the side to take up the space that the 4:3 picture ratio leaves from the broadcast cameras at the games.

There are a few games broadcast in HD, but "few" is the key word. Most days the actual HD broadcasting is done in 20 minute spurts according to the ESPNHD schedule. Kind of crappy, but I'm assuming that the good folks at ESPN are going to upgrade their hardware.

What is cool is Discovery HD Theater. It's unbelievable. It's like you are looking out of a window into the Guiana Highlands of Venezuela. At least that's what it was tonight. It's unbelievable. Some researchers were in these giant sink holes in table mountains in South America and they were finding new species of animals everywhere. Giant waterfalls and lush green landscapes were too cool in HD.

Combine the Discovery HD Theater with Monday Night Football and that will keep us satisfied and give us our HD fix.

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