HDTV SAGA CONTINUES:

Rest of the 10th of December:

Having finally got our Television upstairs, we placed it on the cabinet, and attached the external devices, as instructed, which was just the amplified rabbit ear antenna for now, we could finally plug in and turn on "Toshiba REGAZA 42" Integrated High Definition LCD Television with ColorStream HD... Dolby Digital. It was exciting until I realized I didn't know how to operate anything! I only knew how to turn it on. When I did, little "windows" popped up on the screen like on a computer, and with the joggle switch in the middle of the remote, I was able to follow the on TV instructions, but couldn't seem to get much going for me. I was suddenly in fear that the switch to HDTV was going to be a washout, and here we had banked on this huge 42" thing that seemed to only magnify the snow.

Then while watching it, every two minutes, a very clear picture of two lions--the showroom demo of the screen divided, showing the lion with Toshiba's ColorStream on and off to show the difference. It was supposed to only be for the showroom at the store.... their demo. I looked up in the book how to get rid of the lions, and found that just pushing on the center of the joggle, "Enter" would do away with the beasts. So in the evening we watched TV with my thumb on the middle of the joggle switch to get rid of the lions which seemed to appear just as we were to hear an important part of the program which we were watching. I had taken out my notebook and listed the pages, and next to each page line, I summarized what was in the book. It didn't seem to help me in the least, but new electronics are always like Greek to me.

At bedtime while Tom took an Aleve, I had a little vodka mixed in with my tonic water for the after effects of our two days of having brought heavy stuff up stairs, and from the after effects of Tom's fall. I had checked his wrist, the soreness, how his fingers operated, and the fact he could carry stuff without soreness as long as the flexed hand was aligned with his arm when carrying, but when holding something from the side, like the bales of hay, it hurt... so we think it was a strain, and no need for X-rays.

I unplugged the TV for the night, telling Tom that tomorrow I'll start over and somehow get rid of the demo lions appearing every two minutes.

Next day: Dec. 11
Tom was due for an appointment he's had all along for a check up at the doctor's, and left first thing in the morning. I told him to have them check his wrist. He had shown me that he also had a skinned knee, though not a serious injury, and said he hurt his hip, but thought it was just bruised. Later when he returned, he showed me a bruise he discovered on his neck. I guess because of the all point landing, he didn't do much damage to any one area, but his wrist was the worst of it.

So, when I got up, Wednesday I poured my coffee, and immediately plugged in the TV again, but before turning it on, while sipping coffee, I checked out the page showing the remote control functions. It took me awhile to find the right thing to turn the lions' demo off, as the lions began appearing every two minutes again. Finally I searched through every area of what came up when I poked the "Menu" button. Then I highlighted Channel Program, which was like the autoprogram, on the old TV. Suddenly there were beautiful HD channels. Although we get Picasso-like video from Binghamton, most of our stations are out of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre were these stations tuned in probably from the Scranton Wilkes-Barre area. All of the channels are being transmitted in analog now--we know that. But of the Big 3 local to scranton only ABC's channel 16 is now being transmitted in digital as well. When the channel number comes up and is just a number, with no -1 or -2 after it, it is just analog [i.e. ABC has 16, 16-1, and 16-2. A figure after means it's in HD... or digital, AND, by the way, the HD channels are EVERYTHING THEY'RE CHALKED UP TO BE! It makes what I've gone through all worth it, believe it or not.

Today: Dec.12
Our Channel 22 is not only just a very fuzzy CBS transmission, today because of yesterday's ice storm, we get nothing; but we could make out the picture for CSI last night, but it went out during the Eleventh Hour... literally... between 10 and 11... ha, ha. I was surprised that our Channel 28--NBC--is also just transmitted on analog so far. No HD yet, but it's a fairly good picture, but not when compared to HD. We still get the strange "Picasso-like shadowy transmissions" from NY for channels 34 and 40, and 46, but we get our Pennsylvania's PBS: WVIA/ 44 analog as well as 44-1, the HD; We get a good just 56 (analog) from Fox Television Network and then 56-1, 56-2, and 56-3... allthe dash numbers are different HD broadcasts. Then we get ION's channel 64 so clear you'd almost think it was HD except in comparing the next, 64-1(same broadcast), then 64-2 seems to be all cartoons, and 64-3 seems to be mostly infomercials, and 64-4 is The Worship Network. That's a pretty one to just look at, as so far it seems that most of the day, though they are selling the DVDs it, like an informercial, they show many beautiful videos of scenery along with kind of "New Age" music, and if you want to read it, there are really nice quotes from the Bible. Something to nap or meditate by.

This evening we'll be able to watch Fox's "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" as closely as if we were a member of the live audience. Nothing much is on tonight, so I'll probably watch my latest NetFlix selection, East of Eden, with Jimmy Dean.

Before we got our new TV, we had been thinking of getting a satellite dish bundled with our telephone and DSL which would be cheaper than paying for everything separately. But, we already watch too much TV. But, again, watching TV is what we do in the evenings, so why not watch it in the nicest way? Now with the HD channels we do get, and hopefully will get after February, I don't think we'll bother with any satellite dish as we would be even more transfixed to our TV, and we should get up and walk around a little bit during the evenings, at least during the commercials. With HDTV, even the commercials are more entertaining. And, we notice backgrounds more. We watched Two and a Half Men's reruns on FOX last night, and I could feel like I was in Charlie's kitchen. Nice set. Never appreciated it more.

I installed our DVD/VCR to the new TV set yesterday, and looked at a DVD just to see what it was like, and it was like having our own home theater. Wonderful. But, having hooked up everything, and got all the wiring plugged into the right places, it freed me up today and for the first time in 3 or 4 days I actually took the dogs for a walk during the day. Had been taking them for flashlight walks, as I didn't seem to have the time during the day.

Today, I should say, they walked, but I cross country skied. Before when it snowed in late October it just didn't seem right that I didn't enjoy the snow. I was afraid I lost my wonder of winter. It was all gained back today when I skied up to the Lake, and stood at the edge of the woods trying to find out where the strange noises were coming from, and looking up at the 100 foot tall pines, coated with ice, and a touch of snow, making strange noises because of their ice resisting while they were swaying in the breeze. My "wonder" is back. No matter what kind of picture you are watching, be it photo, theater, or TV, there is nothing that beats watching Mother Nature in person.