Tuesday, March 28, 2006

High definition static and presidential elections (in this case, they’re not the same thing)

My folks’ TV went out last Tuesday so the quest for a new on immediately ensued (dad really looked sad – like we had to put down the dog or something). The following day they brought home a 36” plasma screen flat panel HDTV. *YUM* Mom and I take it out of the box as dad starts salivating, and as soon as I hook it up, plut it in, and turn it on…static.

“Wow…even static looks better in high def!” says the paternal unit.

No, old man, it doesn’t. Well, maybe it does, but that’s not what he was looking at. The folks didn’t understand that HDTV didn’t mean what we were watching was high def. It just meant a silly little distorted picture of normal TV. See, they didn’t order the high def package from the cable company and dad would sooner pull all his teeth out individually with pliers than pay more to watch television. The TV went back the next day (insert “shot the dog” look here).

At this point mom starts doing research, visiting 5 different stores, talking to different people, looking up dimensions of boxes and televisions, reviewing articles about what the FCC intends to do with TV in the next five years…just to purchase a television that, no matter what, won’t cost her more than $500. Three days of this goes on over $500 when only four hours went into the original $2k purchase. The way she was stewing over this you’d have thought she was single-handedly choosing the next president of the United States!

Anywho, they finally got their TV, a 32” flat screen unit, and they are much pleased with it. Which, I guess, is pretty good considering that I’m not about to package up another TV and truck it back for them. It shows a clear picture and can veto legislation. Live with it.

1 comment:

Jason said...

TMac's looking for a new TV. He just needs to talk his wife into it.