Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

There are some things that I have been on the bleeding edge of. I bought a DVD player before my local Blockbuster had a full shelf of titles. It wasn't a very good DVD player, but it was something.

HDTV has taken me a long time. There are quite a few reasons to hang back on this one. First and foremost for me was simply that I had a TV that worked. Next, HDTVs have been expensive. Then there's been the problem of programming. There hasn't been much HD broadcast -- so where in the world would I get a broadcast signal that took advantage of the capabilities of the TV?

Well, a couple of things have changed. First, my TV broke last week. Second, the prices have come down somewhat on the HDTVs (but honestly it's still pretty insane). Finally, my cable provider, Cox, now has a pretty nice lineup of HD channels including all of the major networks, a couple of ESPN channels and Discovery HD. I was able to trade in my Cox DVR for a Cox HD DVR so I can view, record and playback my HD progams. Yay!

This weekend was the first that I actually had a chance to sit down and really watch the new TV. Wow. Honestly you have to see it to believe it, but I couldn't stop talking about the picture. It's unbelievably crisp and bright. We got the Mitsubishi WD-65731 65" 1080p DLP HDTV from Best Buy. I highly recommend looking at this TV. The brightness and contrast are similar to a plasma TV, but the cost is much lower than a plasma. I was a little underwhelmed with the service at Best Buy, but the TV itself is fantastic.

Last night I got to watch the first 2 hours of the new season of 24 in HD. I was nearly in tears during most of the show for happiness. It's that good.