Dragging Rabbit Ears Into Today

If you’re still using an antennae for your television, you’re probably not reading this. Because you must not have any semblence of the times.

Mind you, I’m young, but seriously, when the government has to give you a rebate so you can get your converter box so that you can still watch your three or four channels? The problem is that can a digital converter box change the digital signal to black and white film projection with a crank wheel music player?

That’s right. Talkies. They’re on your TV.

For this generation, UHF isn’t a comprehendable signal style. And soon, like 8-track, it’s going to disappear into the abyss. Left only for nerds to remember as something that wasn’t as good as digital signals are, oh, and a dumb movie starring Weird Al Yankovic…

It’s okay though. It really is. There have been plenty of things that have disappeared and we’re all the better for it. Like Beta tapes. 8-track. Macintosh with it’s inviting green text. Super-sized drinks and fries at McDonald’s…

Okay, now that we all agree that this is a good thing, let’s get a government rebate for the next best thing- BluRay! Why don’t we get funding for these kinds of transitions? If we did, I’m sure HDTV sales would go up. Although, I think BluRay is a bit confusing for some. You see, if you bought one a while ago, then you’re going to have to upgrade the firmware so it can actually play newer BluRay discs and that’s not really all that easy…

But, I haven’t finished exchanging my wide collection of VHS movies, yet! It’s true. They were so much cheaper on VHS, it was easy to collect them with little regard for cost, but alas, now we have to start recollecting our DVD’s on BluRay. For what? Like 3 more years?

Technology, although I love it and think people should get a small amount of it, progresses too fast for itself. I just recently convinced my wife to get a LCD HDTV! Then, we were at CompUSA and she sees a new computer monitor that has “ExtremeHD” which is a resolution of 1650p! WHAT THE HECK?

My wife, who doesn’t care about this kind of stuff normally says, “You mean we already don’t have the best thing?”

And that’s how it goes. Soon enough, there’ll be octo-core processors (there might already be some…) and cine-wrap TV’s that stretch around you in your chair to provide a motion-sickness inducing movie watching experience, and surround sound that deafens you with speakers the size of the eye of a needle.

To recap: You can make a choice. Get with it, or stop watching TV. It has been fun to watch all of these broadcasts about the end of analog television signals. They’re serious! They’re really shutting it down! Next month, no less. But, don’t worry, with those analog signals opening up, bring on the commercial-grade wireless internet for the mountain people. (The fact that they moved to the mountains to get away from everything only to whine about not getting the internet is frustrating enough for another post some other time!)

Watch out! It’s happening in February, get with it!