HDTV

Regardless of what I just said in that headline, let me assure you: I love my remote control! It's the device that tells me "you don't have to just sit there and watch what's on. You have options!" It's perfect for someone who watches a lot of television, vital for someone who writes about television, and it really is the can opener of the living room. It's the tool you absolutely need.

Having said all that, there are several problems I see with having something so convenient at your fingertips as you watch the tube.

The only way a 3D version of ESPN could be cooler is if ESPN aired some kind of awesome competition at the X-Games that involved skateboarders and sharks.

So until some stoned extreme sports team organizer invents "sharkboarding," we'll just have to settle with a three-dimensional Discovery Channel.

The network is teaming with Sony and IMAX to launch its own 3D, 24-hour channel by 2011. It doesn't say exactly what the programming will entail, but expect a lot of giant man-eating animals trying to jump out of your TV and claw their way up the food chain.

If three dimensional television is just a passing fad, then clearly no one told ESPN.

The all sports cable network will implement 3D technology with a new sports channel, set to premiere this year. The first 3D game will be the FIFA World Cup in June.

Would you watch your sports if they were in glorious 3D? If anything, it would make watching soccer tolerable.

In the interest of objectivity and total fairness, I am a New Orleans native and have always been and always will be a hardcore New Orleans Saints fan. So forgive me if I enjoy watching this poor sap's very expensive television get gutted like a dead fish for daring to bet against my beloved boys in gold and black.

As all disappointed non-New Orleans fans know, the Saints are 12-0 this season, the first time in their 42-year history, and one fan Wayne Spring actually bet his Facebook friends that if the Saints beat the Washington Redskins last Sunday, they could come to his house and blow a giant football sized hole through his TV with whatever weapons they had lying around the house.

Not only did the Saints win in an overtime squeaker, but an entire militia of heavily armed, "Who Dat" chanting fans showed up to express their second amendment rights on Spring's high definition television. And yes, beer was present.



[via TVTattle]

I haven't owned a black and white television in 20 years, but a lot of people in the UK still do. In fact, 30,000 of them, according to the story at BBC News.

That seems like a lot to me, but I figured I'd ask TV Squad readers if they still watch one or not. Sometimes I'll watch a color movie in black and white (by turning off the color), to see how it looks and see if it gets any better (note: does not work with Pauly Shore movies).

All this talk of 3-D television has really puzzled me. It seems the companies are pushing more for the technology than the customers actually want it. It's the debut of the Toyota Prius all over again.

Television manufacturers are hoping the onslaught of 3-D movies, such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, will increase the whisper-level clamors for 3-D televisions. The TVs should be in stores next year.

To me, the two experiences are almost completely different. 3-D films work in the theaters because the audience is forced to look at the screen, whereas TV is a completely voluntary viewing experience. If there is a way to utilize the technology to enhance the experience on more than just a visual level, like Comedy Central's first-person junk-joke-fest Secret Girlfriend, then maybe you've got gold.

Apple has left some fairly noticeable heel marks on the free throw lines of the computer, digital music and the cell phone industry.

So what technology business does Steve Jobs have next on his "To Dominate" list? Why TV, of course. What did you think I was going to say? Toasters? Did you not read the name of this blog?

A financial analyst with the Piper Jaffray investment banking firm speculated that the company is eying at taking a stab at TV technology by releasing its own high definition television by 2011.

Is Best Buy just using good business sense or are they being mean?

Yesterday their web site listed a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for only $9.99. That's three dollars off of the regular $12.99 price! Well, no, it's actually $1600.00 off of the regular price. It was a typo, obviously, but several people did order the TV at that price (some even ordered two) before it was taken down. But Best Buy says it's not going to let those orders stand.

You've seen the commercial below. It's a Comcast ad that takes on Verizon FIOS by saying that FIOS costs more, doesn't have as much HD as Comcast, and is filled with too many lame videos.

Last night I watched the commercial again (for the 4000th time) and I noticed that they've changed the ending. The FIOS guy used to say "I'm going to write down your credit card number which I memorized when I was looking..." I always thought that was an odd line, pretty much insinuating that a Verizon rep would take someone's credit card number like that. But they've now taken that line out and replaced it with something else (though the new line escapes me at the moment - anyone?). I wonder if Verizon complained?

I've been thinking about buying a high definition or big screen plasma television for awhile. I don't really need one. I'm not even sure I can write it off. I just want to finally be on the same level as my friends and family members who constantly show off their big screen-HD-TV-snootiness as clear as the last episode of Yo Gabba Gabba.

Lately, I've given up the pursuit. I realized it was a wasteful, greedy, and (worst of all) selfish reason to want anything, just to look better than someone on a material level. I also realized that someone else out there would have a TV that would be 200 times better than mine would ever be.

That realization came to me when I found this 103-inch plasma TV set that runs for $110,000.

Does the thought of this face in 720 lines of crystal clear resolution make the soup you had for lunch a week ago rise in your gullet?

If so (you extremely shallow human being who will spend life alone until you die), then you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that Jimmy Kimmel's first foray into high definition television was quite an improvement.

He even showed his viewers just how beautiful the difference was by making the switch live on the air during Tuesday night's episode.

Have you been clamoring for an all 3-D television network? Have you been hoping and praying that the god of your choice would listen to your prayers and deliver unto you a fully three dimensional network? Have you been unable to sleep for months on end as your very sanity teeters on the precipice of your grasp on reality?

Me neither.

Nevertheless, a publicly traded company hopes to turn a humble syndicated network into the world's first fully three-dimensional channel.

One of television's most beloved and historic television shows is undergoing a major change tonight.

Oh and it's also going to be in high definition too.

Tonight's episode of The Simpsons will update their iconic opening sequence for the second time in its 20-year history.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate followed President Obama's recommendation and approved a delay in the digital TV transition date from February 17 to to June 12. If a similar measure passes in the House, then we all know what that means: four more months of DTV transition ads! Woo hoo!

Seriously, though, will it matter if the transition date is February, June, or sometime in Obama's second administration? At this point, even the most casual observer has figured out that the transition hasn't been communicated very well to the American public. People who have cable or satellite still think that they need to buy a new HDTV or upgrade to digital cable in order to be compliant with the conversion, people who got discount coupons for converters early on have found that the coupons have expired and they can't get more, and the people who have converted are being surprised that some weak stations won't come in due to the "digital cliff effect."

So you've got that new high definition television in the living room, your 120 gig TiVo recording all of your favorite shows and a cable box with more channels than a Roman aqueduct.

Think you've reached the pinnacle of home entertainment? The Consumer Electronics Show would beg to differ.

Some 3-D TV's popped up on the convention floor and the advent of the burgeoning technology is starting to create a bit of buzz that it could become the next step over HD TV.