One of the few
luxuries left in life that isn’t illegal, to sit on
your couch or recliner with some chips and beer and
watch football. Ahh, it’s great to be an American.
But hold on a minute, it might be your father’s
recliner or maybe some of his Pabst Blue Ribbon
Beer, but this is not your fathers TV. There is a
revolution going on gentleman, ignore it at your
peril, but not since the advent of color TV in the
1950s have bigger changes taken place. Did you know
the end of TV as we know it will be on December 31st
2006? That date might get pushed back to 2008, but
regardless, it’s a coming. What’s coming? The end
of analog transmissions and the beginning of
digital, that’s what. Your current TV will not work
unless it has a built in digital tuner, and unless
you have a new TV 36” or larger and/or an (High
definition Television) HDTV you probably don’t have
a digital tuner. You will be required to either buy
a new TV or purchase a digital converter box which
should retail for approximately $ 200. The FCC is
going to use (sell) the analog spectrum to the
highest bidders, most likely cell phone companies.
But it’s not all bad,
“High Definition Broadcasts” only exists in the
Digital Domain. Have you ever watched football
broadcast in High definition on a wide screen TV? It
is spectacular, the grass is greener, you can see
the spit and sweat dripping off the players, their
uniforms looks better, the colors are more vivid, it
almost looks like 3D. But the best thing about it is
since it is a wider format you can see more of the
action, more of the field. You can see the safeties
creeping up to the line of scrimmage. It just gives
you a bigger more defined view of the game. Watching
football will never be the same.
What does all this
mean to you? Well guys, it’s time to upgrade, if you
haven’t jumped into stunning clarity of High
Definition, then you are going to miss out on one of
the true wonders of the Universe. The good news is
the prices are falling quickly, the same 42 inch
Plasma HDTV selling for $5,000 dollars last year
should be under $2,000 by this holiday season. If
you don’t need, or can’t afford a flat screen TV,
then a DLP HDTV is a wise choice, and they can be
had for around $1000. There is a ton of free HDTV
programming to watch, all the major networks
broadcast their entire prime time lineups in High
Definition (HD) plus almost all of the (national)
football games college and pro as well as Thursday,
Sunday and Monday night NFL Football. This web site
gives you a quick glance of what being shown on HD:
http://www.hdsportsguide.com/ HDTV is not
everything you want to watch, but everything you
want to see. ESPN and ESPN2 are now HD and if you
have DirecTV the NFL Sunday Ticket shows hundred of
NFL games in HD every year. Also, by this time next
year the DVD as we know it will start being phased
out to with new High Definition DVD.
So do your research
first because the options are a little daunting and
get what is right for you, but the time is right to
take the plunge into High Definition. For any
questions regarding anything in this article feel
free to e-mail me at robrient@kc.rr.com
