BL

The Big Lebowski, abridged.

HD

I got myself an HD TV a few weeks ago. Mostly because I saw some football in HD and it looked so good. But also to go along with the TiVo HD and the stereo.

As might be expected, I have some thoughts.

• All you people in the entertainment industry, the ones who made HDMI such a pain in the ass to use, you are all a bunch of assholes. This stuff is so unnecessarily difficult and convoluted, mostly to appease these dickhead "content producers" who thought that people would steal their shit if digital connections weren't laden with all kinds of copy protection.
• Antiques Roadshow is really fun in HD.
• Talk shows with two unattractive guys, like Bill Maher and Richard Belzer are not so much fun. HD makes gross people just a bit more gross.
• HD makes bad movies, like Aeon Flux, surprisingly bearable.
• HDMI switching 5.1 receivers are unnecessarily complicated.
• Technology continues to advance. I have a pure-digital signal path from the satellite to my TV. 5.1 audio. Self-calibrating hardware. But somehow, inexplicably, speakers are still connected to the rest of the equipment with raw wire that I twist together with my fingers. That seems dumb.
• Are there really people paying $135 for a 15' cable? Or $89 for a 4' cable? That is quite dumb.
• The TiVo HD is quite nice. Good bit of hardware.
• Why is it that everyone who designs a fucking box thinks they need to make their own remote? With the exception of TiVo's remote, they are all just a little better than abysmal. Wouldn't it be easier for everyone to adopt a single standard, make it easy to load up the program for your TV or your CD player, and just let people buy one remote? Does anyone really need more than one remote? Certainly no one wants more than one. Yes I know I can buy a universal remote. It just annoys me that everything comes with its own remote. Even my Mac came with one.

And, yes. I'm watching the State of the Union Address in HD.