Saturday, December 3, 2011

TV Land

After years of patient waiting for an HD TV that was both the size I wanted and the price I could afford, I got one. And after a series of e-mails with my brother, who is the master of all things electronic, I got a Samsung 32″ LCD. Nothing fancy, but seeing as how the last time I bought a new TV Bill Clinton was president, I think my patience was rewarded with a very good picture and Dolby stereo sound.

It was amazingly easy to set up. Gone are the days of complicated plug-ins and codes to set up remote controls; the thing basically did it itself. So either the machines are getting smarter, or the people who program them were tired of answering all of the technical questions. Whatever. All I did was unplug the old RCA, plug in the new one with the fancy cable provided by TiVo, follow a couple of on-screen choices, and there it was. It even connected to my DVD/VCR player without much fuss.

Then I played musical TV sets: the old living room TV is now in the bedroom, the old bedroom TV is now here in my home office, and the old office TV is in the guest room awaiting Comcast to reconnect the cable there.

Speaking of Comcast, they have gone to great lengths to upgrade their signals and provide digital service. For those of us who still have the old analog TV’s — apparently the equivalent of an Atwater-Kent tube radio — they have a little converter box that makes the signal compatible with the set. That is a grudging acknowledgement that not everyone lives the life of an HD TV in every room… and they can rent out the little boxes “for a very small fee.” Heh.

So I am in the 21st century in TV’s, at least in the living room. Perfect for watching re-runs of The Dick Van Dyke Show… in black and white.