Jerry Timms

Today was such a busy day that I didn’t even have time to try out my tv after it had been delivered, because I had to rush off to an off site business meeting immediately after it was unpacked for me by the shipping company. But after a long afternoon of meetings and a trip to the doctor and pharmacy (yes, another sinus infection - I’m like the king of sinus infections now), I came home anxious to try my new 40″ 1080p Samsung lcd television.

I was curious to try out the local broadcast channels, because I had heard that local digital broadcasts come in very clear and can often look much better than even cable HD broadcasts because they are not compressed. So I decided to connect some rabbit ears that I had bought for my treadmill (it has a tiny tv in it). I connected them, turned on the tv, and pressed OK after it offered to memorize the “air” channels.

Well sweet Jesus, I was not prepared for the DVD quality picture and sound that awaited me. Not only is the picture absolutely perfect, but there are so many of them. Almost every local station broadcasts between 2-5 digital channels. So you have 10.1, 10.2, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, etc.

The “point one” channels are the same show that you would see on the regular broadcast channel, except that the shows are sometimes in true widescreen format (not stretched). The other channels are either other shows, or what appears to be a looped weather and news broadcast (like Headline News on cable). Most shows appear to be broadcast in 1080i, but there are some that are only 480p or 720p, and they don’t look as good.

I love this. So what have I learned?

1. You don’t get any static or snow with digital channels. Either you get them nearly perfectly, or not at all. If you live in a metro area, you will probably get all of them with even simple rabbit ears. The sound is really, really good quality as well!

2. There are a ton of channels to choose from, a lot more than what you’d normally get over the air with a standard tv. The local PBS channel broadcasts multiple Discovery-like channels. I had no idea all this gorgeous-ness was being broadcast for free!

3. In just a little over 2 years I’ll save enough on cable to actually pay for the tv.

So, there you go. Don’t let the cable and satellite companies make you believe that you need their overpriced signal in order to get HD programming. You’re probably wondering if I’m going to have these rabbit ears sitting out in plain view? Of course not! I just ordered a special tv stand that is getting delivered next week, and it has a big compartment in the back where I can put them out of view. Oddly, it kind of looks like a fireplace. Here’s a pic:

I just bought a TV. Screw it, what am I - a caveman? This is the most technologically advanced LCD TV on the market today, and gets the top editor’s pick from CNET. Also, Amazon had it on sale.

Today I suddenly realized that I may as well just cancel my digital cable service. It felt weird, because I’ve never canceled cable before except for moving and with the intention of setting it up again at a new address.

A couple weeks ago, I sold my giant Sony Wega TV to Daren. He wanted to move his widescreen HDTV in with Jerry, so he wanted to buy a TV to trade it for, and well, it was kind of a complicated transaction I guess.

Nevertheless, my TV has been gone for awhile now. It was huge, 300 pounds, and now it’s gone. Big empty wall where it used to be. It doesn’t really matter a whole lot to me, because for about the past year I’ve been watching less and less television. I really only watch about 2 shows right now….Heroes and Workout. I’m hardly ever home to watch much more than that, and even when I am home most of my spare time is spent on the computer either working or reading news.

I had concocted this elaborate plan where I would sell my giant TV, get a slimmer widescreen, an Apple TV box, cancel my cable service, and begin to buy all of my shows through iTunes. I figured that for as few shows as I watch, I would only have to pay about $20 per month just to buy the shows…thereby saving money that I would otherwise be spending on (way too expensive) cable service. And I’d get a sexy HDTV out of the deal, which I’ve been craving for years.

It sounded like a good plan until I purchased my shows this week, and watched them on my laptop. The laptop was fine. Why do I need an expensive TV? I thought about this for a bit. The laptop actually has the same resolution as an HDTV, and you know I love my laptop.

For someone like me who doesn’t watch very much television, I came to the conclusion that there would only be one reason to buy a new TV…to cuddle up with a date and watch a movie. You can’t really do that in front of a laptop. Well, you could…but it wouldn’t be same now would it?

Was I really willing to spend $2000 for this eventuality? I decided that I am not. So now I’m TV free.