Waaay back when I was a kid, my father took me to work one day. It might have been part of "take your kid to work day" or something. Regardless, I loved going into my dad’s job because he worked in the Research & Development department at CBS in New York City. He’s actually been co-responsible for things that effect all of our TV watching. He had a major hand in a common type of video editing called offline editing. He also developed technology that allows that little network logo to appear in the corner of your screen. Another thing he did which I hate him for is working out a way to run TV shows a bit faster so CBS could squeeze another commercial into an hour of TV.

THANKS, DAD! >_<

But that time I was a kid, I was introduced to some incredible technology–I had already seen the first LaserDisc player, the first home VCR, the first practical, one-piece camcorder–that day, he showed me something that was called High-Definition Television.

He seemed very impressed with a truly MASSIVE TV set he showed me, which displayed some sort of football game on it.

"Look at how you can see all the people in the stands!" he said, showing the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning.

He went on about the incredibly high-resolution picture the TV had (in about 15 years these numbers would actually mean something to me) and how eventually we’d all have TVs like this in our homes.

The thing was, I wasn’t all that impressed.

I grew up watching crappy VHS bootlegs of "Star Wars" on my family’s 19-inch TV set. When my mom would want to watch something else, I’d go upstairs and watch TV on an old black and white set.

Picture quality was *not* something I cared about then and it’s not something I care that much more about now. Sure, I don’t like static, or weird lines in my picture, but do I want to replace my entire DVD collection with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray DVDs? No way. I’m actually converting all of my DVDs to play on the 2.5 inch screen on my iPod. Replace my 11-year-old 19-inch Magnavox with an HD set? Not until they come down in price–a LOT.

Sure, I’ll pick up a convertor box when all TV signals go digital, but I still don’t see myself going HD or HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. And neither do a lot of other folks according to a news blurb at IMDB.com (http://www.imdb.com/…-06/film/5 ). Apparently 7 out of 10 folks that did upgrade their TVs to HD aren’t bothering with the DVD upgrade. My point is that most folks just don’t give a crap about HD vs SD, analog vs. digital, etc, etc. Sure, we still want the "biggest" and "best" but with our economy tanking–who can afford to care about a better picture?

Sorry, Dad!

Maybe it’s karma for that extra-commercial-in-an-hour thing you did.
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