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Moar about teh Shiny I Haz
Jan. 22nd, 2009 01:02 am[Poll #1335435]
Okay, I've had my TV for two and a half days, now. Mother always told me not to make judgements about something until I've lived with it for a cycle of three: Three days, Three weeks, Three months, etc.. So I'm just entering the end of the first getting-to-know-you dance with my thing. That said:
OMG! TEH SHINY!!!eleventy!!
Okay. So, first: about the buying of the thing. We went to Circuit City. Which is going into bankruptcy, and as soon as all stuff is off the shelves in each store, that particular store will close its doors.
When we got to the local brick-and-mortar place, there were only two TVs still in boxes underneath the display shelf: a white Samsung (and the samsung they had running had a pretty bad picture, frankly, with diagonal stripes of rainbowy interference running across the screen), and a black Sharp (with a clear, bright, picture). So the choice was pretty much a no brainer, without having to worry about technical details like what resolution it was, or whether it had a progressive or interlaced scan, or anything like that. Which was good. 'Cause I don't know that much about all of that other stuff. So I picked the Sharp, and the indoor antenna the saleman pointed out for tabletop use, and came home.
(Sidebar: the streetlamps along the highway leading away from the store were all being used as perches by about a dozen turkey vultures ... you think they got word that a giant beast was on its last legs? ;-))
When we got home, Audrey helped me set the thing up, and left, and I've just been playing around with it intuitively, learning about it as I go; I guess I take after my mother-- she never read instructions first either, working on the philosophy that if something is well-designed, its use will be clear after a moment's thought, and that figuring it out for yourself is easier, in the end, than trying to depend on instructions written by a stranger with a completely different thought process.
Biggest thing I've learned: When the digital signal is weak, there's no snow. But the picture pixilates, then cuts out, and the screen goes black, and you get a message on the screen that the signal is low. Also, it will come back after a second without my doing anything at all. Also, this is completely random (During the Inauguration, I muted the sound, and turned on NPR, so I could hear all of the words, even when the signal cut out).
Today, I was flipping through the instruction manual just out of curiousity, and it said, point blank, that the set must be used with an rooftop antenna.
You know, guys who make these things? That's the kind of information that's good to put on the OUTSIDE of the box, so people can get the right antenna before they get home, and take the instruction manual out of its protective wrapping, thereby voiding any returns (which is a moot point with Circuit City, anyway).
That going-black thing happened a lot less today than it did yesterday, though, so I'm hoping that it will get better after the mandatory switch-over date, and stations commit fully to putting all their energy into the digital signal transmission. I may also put a shelf on the wall behind the TV, so I can aim the antenna directly at a window, and put it at a higher level. I'm sure it doesn't help things that I have a small house, with a reduced-height foundation, and I'm surrounded by two-storey houses with much higher foundations, and it says, right in the antenna's manual that it will not work in a basement, period, because that's too low an elevation (I once looked out from a first storey window in my neighbor's house across the street, and saw the top of my own roof).
It turns out my TV is hi-def. And believe me, that part does live up to the hype. I can see the different speckles of color in people's eyes! I can count the threads in the clothes they wear! Heck, I can even read the fine print they flash up on the screen at the end of commercials. ;-) Of course, all that shininess doesn't do any good if the show being broadcast has bad writing (Knight Rider, and Wife Swap, for example, are still cringe-worthy, and Old School Who will still make me squee, even after I can see every last bit of scotch tape).
But it may, over time, make me more comfortable with my own image in the mirror, if I get used to seeing every pimple on Halle Barrie's face, or can see the boogers in Charles Gibson's nose.
A second nifty thing: there's a button on my remote called "display" and when I click it, a TV-Guide style summary pops up on screen, telling me what I'm watching at that moment. Which will be helpful when I flip the channel and hit upon the middle of a movie.
I was going to post a third nifty thing, but I've forgotten what it is, now.
Oh, well.
Okay, I've had my TV for two and a half days, now. Mother always told me not to make judgements about something until I've lived with it for a cycle of three: Three days, Three weeks, Three months, etc.. So I'm just entering the end of the first getting-to-know-you dance with my thing. That said:
OMG! TEH SHINY!!!eleventy!!
Okay. So, first: about the buying of the thing. We went to Circuit City. Which is going into bankruptcy, and as soon as all stuff is off the shelves in each store, that particular store will close its doors.
When we got to the local brick-and-mortar place, there were only two TVs still in boxes underneath the display shelf: a white Samsung (and the samsung they had running had a pretty bad picture, frankly, with diagonal stripes of rainbowy interference running across the screen), and a black Sharp (with a clear, bright, picture). So the choice was pretty much a no brainer, without having to worry about technical details like what resolution it was, or whether it had a progressive or interlaced scan, or anything like that. Which was good. 'Cause I don't know that much about all of that other stuff. So I picked the Sharp, and the indoor antenna the saleman pointed out for tabletop use, and came home.
(Sidebar: the streetlamps along the highway leading away from the store were all being used as perches by about a dozen turkey vultures ... you think they got word that a giant beast was on its last legs? ;-))
When we got home, Audrey helped me set the thing up, and left, and I've just been playing around with it intuitively, learning about it as I go; I guess I take after my mother-- she never read instructions first either, working on the philosophy that if something is well-designed, its use will be clear after a moment's thought, and that figuring it out for yourself is easier, in the end, than trying to depend on instructions written by a stranger with a completely different thought process.
Biggest thing I've learned: When the digital signal is weak, there's no snow. But the picture pixilates, then cuts out, and the screen goes black, and you get a message on the screen that the signal is low. Also, it will come back after a second without my doing anything at all. Also, this is completely random (During the Inauguration, I muted the sound, and turned on NPR, so I could hear all of the words, even when the signal cut out).
Today, I was flipping through the instruction manual just out of curiousity, and it said, point blank, that the set must be used with an rooftop antenna.
You know, guys who make these things? That's the kind of information that's good to put on the OUTSIDE of the box, so people can get the right antenna before they get home, and take the instruction manual out of its protective wrapping, thereby voiding any returns (which is a moot point with Circuit City, anyway).
That going-black thing happened a lot less today than it did yesterday, though, so I'm hoping that it will get better after the mandatory switch-over date, and stations commit fully to putting all their energy into the digital signal transmission. I may also put a shelf on the wall behind the TV, so I can aim the antenna directly at a window, and put it at a higher level. I'm sure it doesn't help things that I have a small house, with a reduced-height foundation, and I'm surrounded by two-storey houses with much higher foundations, and it says, right in the antenna's manual that it will not work in a basement, period, because that's too low an elevation (I once looked out from a first storey window in my neighbor's house across the street, and saw the top of my own roof).
It turns out my TV is hi-def. And believe me, that part does live up to the hype. I can see the different speckles of color in people's eyes! I can count the threads in the clothes they wear! Heck, I can even read the fine print they flash up on the screen at the end of commercials. ;-) Of course, all that shininess doesn't do any good if the show being broadcast has bad writing (Knight Rider, and Wife Swap, for example, are still cringe-worthy, and Old School Who will still make me squee, even after I can see every last bit of scotch tape).
But it may, over time, make me more comfortable with my own image in the mirror, if I get used to seeing every pimple on Halle Barrie's face, or can see the boogers in Charles Gibson's nose.
A second nifty thing: there's a button on my remote called "display" and when I click it, a TV-Guide style summary pops up on screen, telling me what I'm watching at that moment. Which will be helpful when I flip the channel and hit upon the middle of a movie.
I was going to post a third nifty thing, but I've forgotten what it is, now.
Oh, well.
