ABC Sunday morning goes High Definition

I have not been watching "This Week with George Stephanopolis" for the last few months. I'm not sure why. I usually watch "Meet the Press" and check in on ABC if I get bored with the conversation.

But today, much to my surprise, and three weeks late, I realized that "This Week" is now in High Definition. It is, in fact, the first network Sunday morning talk show to be in High Definition and I suspect that the ratings will go up.

I have always maintained that whoever blazes the HD trail will win out in the ratings, and therefore, in revenue. You've got a country of people starving for REAL High Definition programming. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and FOX all have the money to produce all of their network programming in HD but they don't. It's nice to see that at least some producers are taking the leap and realizing the benefits of HD.

I would much rather watch a show that I "sort of like" that's in HD than a show I like just a bit more that's not in HD. That sounds almost shallow, but it's true.

It's about time. Cheers to ABC for blazing the trail.

Mikey the Cable Guy - Will my TV work after February 2009

I finally had a chance to talk with a real cable professional; a cable technician who not only has been doing this job for a number of years, he truly was the most knowledgeable and polite cable guys I have ever met.

I can't tell you where he works or who he works for but we talked for quite some time. I got some final and definitive answers that I thought were helpful.

If you subscribe to cable TV, even if you don't have a cable box, you will be OK for the transition to digital. Here's the catch. Cable companies are going to do something they never wanted to do, nor ever thought they would have to do but the FCC and the TV Broadcast industry could not get their ducks in a row on time. The cable companies essentially be carrying analog and digital signals through the cable wire until 2012. So if you don't have a cable box, you're all set for an additional 3 years beyond the February 2009 cutoff. This issue has been lobbed around for a while and you get different answers from different people, but this guy I trust.

Finally some good news for people who right now can not afford to upgrade their cable or go out and buy a new TV. You just bought yourself some time. But after 2012, regular cable subscribers with no cable box will have to get a converter box, a cable box, or a new TV.

The big lie called High Definition

First, a quick hello to the many people around Maine who have written to me directly over the past few weeks with questions. It is nice to know that people are reading and learning from what I have written, and that if I have not covered a specific topic in enough detail, they write to me to discuss things further.

I was going to start posting the questions and answers on this blog but it was a bit overwhelming.

Anyway, I subscribed to cable high def to see what was going on with that. I'll be canceling soon.

Here's the big lie. While I know all cable companies are different, the basic HD package on my cable system offers TBS, TNT, and then a bunch of what I call reality TV channels for $10.95 a month. I don't get USA, A&E, History Channel, and any other channel that is what I call "watchable" on a regular basis. Not only are these channels not in the basic package, they are not even in the "Ultra" package which is where they have HDNet and WealthTV. Two years ago I had the whole Ultra package and enjoyed HDNet, and HDNet Movies, but they charged yet another $15.95 or something like that.

So for the money I am paying for cable HD, I get 2 channels that are worth it. I don't really need the Outdoor Channel in HD and most of the other channels, like Discovery, HGTV, etc. don't really have true HD programming. It is mostly old technology that has been stretched to fit your screen. Some of the channels don't even bother doing that and if you look closely you will see that they don't even fit the 16:9 ratio, there are extra black pillars on the side that you don't notice unless you really look. It's just cheesy TV.

So I'm done. My cable company doesn't offer anything worth paying for and I'm going back to basic cable (channel 2-26). I would go totally cable free but they haven't even perfected HD broadcasting over the air yet so I need to rely on something.

When will this industry get its act together and give people what they want. High Definition TV consisting of the same damn channels we have on analog TV. It's not that difficult.