Ahhhh, HD. Yeah, as 2 week old HD owner, I have to say that this is the first time one can state the sales pitch that's been used to death about every new generation of visual associated appliance, when setup properly it REALLY IS "just like being there". I watched the (American) football last weekend and not only was it one of the more remarkable jumps in quality I have ever seen on a screen, but it single-handedly converted my perception of my Expanded Cable (the notch below digital, but with a box and On-Demand still piped in) bill amount from "Rip off" to "Good Deal".
Add to that the Toshiba A2 I added to it shortly after getting the tv itself, and now I have realized the majority of my possible HD value (sports on the "free" HD of the Big 3 tv stations, and adding new life to the hundreds of Standard Def DVDs I already own..... save for those ones with CGI, still don't know what might help those..... my poor B5 DVDs
).
Desire for the wow of movies seen on HD DVDs might just finally do it to get me back into Netflix, given the hard-to-beat $20 barrier for HD DVDs currently. Especially since purchase of HD DVDs is a bit of a minefield, given that some movies get well converted into HD for their HD DVD rerelease, while others (I hear) recieve very little rework and look disappointingly similar to their Standard Def DVD counterparts. Truely it's looking to me as though Netflix was born for this niche, at least until the discs come down in price so that I can toss 5 or 10 bucks at one and not feel entirely burned if the quality lets me down.
And for those who aren't aware, one of the PRIME HD DVD viewing experiences is the BBC mini-series called Planet Earth, filmed with HD equipment (I'm not aware of the specs, currently) and the final product showing it (and at 60-80 dollars for purchase, perhaps also a PRIME candidate for Netflix, if they are carrying it). I guess this would count as one of the things I am currently watching.......
Also, I'm in agreement about Scrubs (and Arrested Development for that matter), it just kind of sits there. But then I was one of the few people who didn't thrill to most of Seinfeld (save for one particular Frogger episode, a brilliant translation of a game's virtual reality to physical reality using the game itself.......Nice touch, as Garfield might say), so there may not be much validation in my tastes. And The Office is indeed pretty near brilliant, especially once one experiences the real thing and has trouble seeing any difference between the reality and supposed spoof of that reality. Really pretty scary actually. I'm currently trying to size up Chuck. It has promise, but has remained a shade flat thus far, and that's with a great looking woman kicking ass and a foil that has to be amusing to anyone who is a fan of the Jayne character from Firefly.
So Chuck is also something I'm currently watching, well that and American Movie Classics channel's new tv series Mad Men (brilliant, haven't seen anything as good in dialogue and subtle satire since the first 4 seasons of The West Wing). Finally a little new tv content good enough to get me to go looking for tv on certain nights and cut down my overdose of DVD viewing.
