I keep seeing the commercials for the digital transition on late night television. Quite honestly I could give a *, because I barely watch TV as it is. I bought a bargain basement LCD television and it took me months to get the reception right. I finally figured out that a $3 antenna was the best way to go. Then after enjoying decent reception for about 2 months the TV went on the fritz. I may have had it connected to the AC without a power strip, I don’t know, but it turns on and then right back off and will not stay on.

Television is like something I spend the absolute least amount of money on. In my mind a 42 inch high definition screen looks like a 13 inch CRT in standard definition. I am not impressed; first off larger screens need at least 2160 to impress me. You may get lucky and find a computer monitor offering that but there are no plans for that on the consumer market anywhere remotely on the horizon. It may happen over in Japan but not in the states for years to come.

Is 1080 at 23 inches or more still high-definition, sure. Is it impressive, other than the color saturation, not really. Would analog have been interesting, yeah, analog high-definition was interesting for what it is worth, but was analog HD, or CRT HD really feasible, not at all.

I can understand why people who pay $300 a year to watch sports on Direct TV would want and need the latest HD, but someone watching All My Children should just save their money. I told my wife to buy me a 480 digital to analog converter box for Christmas. Those are only $50 dollars; I can’t use the government coupon because I ordered two like an idiot and let them both expire. I presented my case, but they ignore me as though I do not exist, which is completely fine because I’m not loosing any sleep over it.

I realize that I will not have television perhaps for weeks because of potential shortages of these converter boxes in the marketplace after February, which is perfectly fine for me. It would be a riot just to turn on the television and see snow on all of the channels anyway. I would have witnessed the end of an era without the seamless transition. Then I can log onto my computer and watch prerecorded television from various streaming websites. I’m sure someone on YouTube will have set their DVD recorder or their VCR with a digital tuner to record what happened while the lights were turned off in Texas.

Then this sequence of events will happen. We’ll (my wife and I) have a nice conversation about where we should go from here. I’ll argue that HD wasn’t that good when I did have it and that it is a huge waste of money. She’ll posit her argument for buying at $350 television set. I’ll suggest that the converter boxes are a nice compromise and she’ll say that I’m being cheap and that it will not provide all of the features, which I am and it probably won’t. I may even go a tad further, out of desperation and suggest that having seperate components is actually a good thing, in spite of the fact that my CRT does not have a perfect track record.

In fact I will probably make the leap of faith and purchase that $350 TV anyway, and throw caution to the wind and put off a bill until the next pay period. That’s about as far as I can go towards purchasing a new television in all good conscious. My own man purchased a Curtis Mathes television for around $2,000 back in 1980. That thing still works, though when the entire screen turns white you hear static. Funny thing about Curtis Mathes, the founder died in an airplane crash; the fire of which caused the crash started in the bathroom. The brand has been in demise ever since then.

I found a 26 inch Curtis Mathes for $499 at Target. Times have changed, and my father must be rolling over in his grave right now. That Curtis Mathes TV was almost worth $5,000, in today’s market adjusted for inflation. That 26 inch TV, is like $200 back in 1980. You didn’t show your face having purchased a television for that much back then, not if you were serious about your electronics.

My old man always bought the best, in fact he pretty much had the best that analog technology had to offer, within reason. Little did any of us realize that analog technology was about to die a slow death in the mid nineties. HD television would have been captivating back then.

I have a choice to make. I can upgrade my Internet connection, or get a faster computer so I can watch HD without the lag or I can just buy an HD television already. I’ve already compromised quality and am still watching rough 320 x 200 content that is difficult to find anywhere other than YouTube. If I buy the HD, I can get stuff free, not what I want to watch exactly, and not when I watch and not without the freedom to randomly access it like I do over the Internet but free nonetheless. No sophisticated graphics cards, no fighting with Windows or Linux. The lag is still there, but I doubt that lag will ever completely go away with digital television. Eventually transmission technologies will improve to the extent that the lag is a thing of the past, no more pixellation, no loss of audio.

My media means everything to me, but next to nothing to my wallet. The truth lies in that grey area inbetween, and the day of reckoning awaits me …