This will probably be my last post on the subject since I can imagine some of you going. "OMG, she is still talking about this." ;) But I've actually learned some stuff since last night which may prove useful to others. HD can be quite awesome depending on various things, some out of your control. For instance...

* Do tell your TV you have an hdmi cable box. I originally was watching the HD channels through the TV input which not only explained why I wasn't seeing a huge difference in picture quality, but why the picture wasn't automatically adjusting to fit my screen.

* It all depends on the signal or if the show is, in fact, HD. I was watching an old episode of SG1 on SciFi's HD channel and other then it was nicely 6:9 ratio and blown up to fit the screen, I didn't see any big difference in the picture quality. A few hours later I caught a repeat showing of this week's SGA and big difference in the picture quality. At the point it dawned on me that SGA, filmed months ago, was shot in HD, the ep of SG1 from ten years ago was not. It also explains why the network programing (NBC, ABC, FOX, etc) seems hit and miss. Shockingly, our broadcast PBS affiliate, which normally sucks, has an awesome HD channel. I watched a Lifehouse concert this afternoon (No comments! I like Lifehouse!) and it was almost like being there.

* I have Universal HD which means I get to watch BSG's 'Act of Contrition' tonight in HD. Woo! Sort of. While Universal has a pretty decent signal, it could be better. I'm getting some pixelating and graininess. I know that's the fault of the HD box and the TV having to translate and reproduce the signal. (I read about all that.) Also, as raislak reminded me, there have been issues with Comcast compressing signals more than they should and, therefore, we aren't necessarily getting true HD.

* You can record HD. In HD or not in HD, I was thrilled to discover that Universal HD is rerunning the U.S. version of Touching Evil. I tried recording the ep to see what would happen and, bless my little DVR, it translated the signal to a normal digital signal.

* Do nott always do what the cable company tells you to do. When I spoke to costumer service earlier in the week, the guy told me I "may or may not have to call" to have Comcast send a signal to the new box to activate it. Both women I spoke to at the Comcast office told me I would have to call an 800 number to have Comcast activate the box. Well, after I hooked up the new box and turned on the TV I did get an error message on screen. But I also noticed stations were loading behind the message. I decided just to give it a minute or so to see what would happen. Eventually, I got a picture and when I tried the HD channels they, slowly, revealed themselves. I figured, great, I can save myself a call. After straightening out the settings on the TV, I ran through all the cable channels last night to see what I had and to mark favorites. I suddenly realized I was watching Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, and The Movie Channel. I only subscribe to HBO. I'm thinking that because I didn't call Comcast, the box just loaded all the signals it was receiving. When will Comcast catch this? Normally, I'm a pretty honest person, but I am paying for cable, including stations I don't want to get ones I do want, and the box and that is all quite a chunk of change so I'm thinking I'll just see how long I get away with this. ;)

I've pretty much been playing with the cable and TV all day only to be interrupted by sleep, since I ended up waking up at 5:45am (catching the end of 'Crossroads Pt 2' in HD and then the movie Invincible), going back to sleep at 8:00am, and then getting up to watch more TV, eat, and talk with my mother who I'm going to see tomorrow, but has to tell me what she was going to tell me tomorrow today. Not that I'm bitter. ;)

Now I think I'm going to pick up this dump a bit, color all the grey hairs, and perhaps see about getting the very long overdue recap of the Razor podcast done.

Since I'm speaking of BSG, Universal has moved up the release date of Season 3 on DVD to March 18th.

Also, a reminder that Season 2 of Torchwood premieres on BBC America at 9:00pm est tonight. I'm not really a fan of the show (to put it mildly), but I'm curious about a few things in the premiere.

Tags: bsg, hd
Current Mood: geeky

I finally have HD TV...and am not blown away. Probably because it's only as good as the cable signal and I'm still tinkering with settings on the TV. At one point I had a tiny picture with black all around it. Interestingly, with the new box and hdmi cable the picture quality, in general, is better. So, overall I'm happy with the upgrade, but I don't think I'll see true HD until I have an HD DVD player and that's a ways off.

Funny story related to the upgrade. I went to the Comcast office at lunch to swap boxes, explained to the woman I wanted a hdmi box, but knew they didn't have them yet. She said they were expecting them, had no idea when they would arrive, but could provide me with the older model HD box and component cables until the new boxes arrived. She even offered to put me on a waiting list. So I get my box, go back to work and at 4:10 guess who calls to tell me my new box is in? Turns out the truck just arrived from the warehouse with the new boxes. Normally, I'd be pissed about making two trips in one day, but it dawned on me it was a bit of good luck. Had I gone earlier in the week as I had planned then I would have had to go through hooking up the boxes twice. And if I had waited until Monday, which I thought about doing this morning, there is a good chance there would have been no boxes left. I say that since there were three other people in line with me waiting to exchange boxes.

Btw, writteninstars, I sold the DVDs which should pay for about two months of HD service. ;)

As I was tinkering with the cable and TV I caught a new BSG promo. It's fifteen seconds, if that, and features Baltar. I would guess there are character centered promos for each character (and I'm recording three hours of SciFi tonight to see if I can spot Lee's promo more promos). I wish I could remember more of what I saw. It starts out like the promos we've been seeing, Baltar against a black background, but with a new line of dialogue. Then it cuts to footage from an ep. I can recall that his hair was shorter (Woo!), he had on a olive green military (?) jacket, though he was clearly not *in* the military, and seemed to be addressing people and quite possibly was causing some trouble.

Last night I watched the Chuck sandwich. (If you watched it on NBC, you'll get that.) I had some issues with the second episode and with my not-good mood this week I thought that may have colored my opinion. But I really enjoyed the first episode so I'm thinking I had some legitimate issues.

( Chuck Versus the Undercover Lover )

( Chuck Versus the Marlin )

( Quick 'Friday Night Lights' comments. )

After reading danceswithwords post about starting a B5 watch and writtensinstars discuss her latest fascination, John Simm, I realized that nothing has really grabbed my since the BSG love took hold. (SG1 coming close, but not quite on par.) I don't feel like I'm in a rut, but it made me think that it would be nice to be excited about something new.

Tags: hd, tv_musings
Current Mood: bored