Axver vs digital television
Sometimes I feel like I must be a technological luddite, at least when it comes to television. I certainly go to no effort to upgrade whatsoever. I did not have a DVD player until last year. I was quite happily playing my videos. If I wanted to watch DVDs, I'd use somebody else's DVD player or my computer. I have only reluctantly made the switch to DVDs because a couple of my favourite videos are getting rather worn out. But that's my logic: while a piece of technology is serving me well, I feel no need to upgrade. Videos stopped serving me well when they began wearing out, so DVDs became a logical upgrade. It seems my technological reluctance has served me well, as I have missed out on the entire high definition war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, neither of which I have the faintest interest in. I'm not seeing what the victor, Blu-Ray, can offer me that regular DVD does not. Regular DVD solved my problem of videos wearing out, so for the time being, I'm quite content to stick with my regular DVDs rather than forking out cash to be yet another person pretending to be technologically up with the play.
But now Australia is phasing out analogue TV in favour of digital. This puts me in a bit of a difficult spot. At the end of this year, my television - which I have owned for over a decade and have not a problem in the world with - will suddenly become useless, except for playing my videos and DVDs. The analogue signal will be gone, and with it, my access to regular programming. I have no problem with analogue! I am perfectly content with the picture I receive now. I watched some digital TV up on the Gold Coast, and in flicking between analogue and digital, I could not perceive much of a difference at all. Perhaps that's just my shoddy vision; it wouldn't surprise me. But whatever the case, not only do I not have any problems with my current technology, I don't perceive any gains in the upgrade! But what am I to do? If I still want to watch television, I have to upgrade, which at best means spending $100 on a set-top box to allow my analogue TV to receive the digital signal, or spending much more on a whole new television, complete with spectacularly ugly and unnatural wide screen. In any case, I find it hard to like those flat plasma/LCD televisions. I'm used to them being either a luxury item of wealthy people with more money than sense, or people from the middle class with pretentions of being wealthier and more glamorous than they actually are. I know they have become rather common now, but I still have that perception from a few years ago.
I can't say I am terribly impressed with this whole state of affairs. I don't watch much TV; besides sport and the news, the only shows I watch on a weekly basis are Top Gear, Spicks & Specks, and The Chaser's War On Everything. I probably watch about as much television in a month as some of the people on my friends list watch in a day. I definitely must be a luddite, as the bulk of my entertainment comes from books. Outside of the news, I only watch television for light diversion, which would explain the three shows I watch, all of which are quite humorous. Because the ABC makes The Chaser and Spicks & Specks available for free download, I could just about go without television entirely if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't get through the week without SBS World News every evening. So I have no choice. I don't like it, but I'm going to have to fork out money for a pointless, unnecessary technological "upgrade". I enjoy my cricket and value my news too much to say goodbye to television. Lucky me.
But now Australia is phasing out analogue TV in favour of digital. This puts me in a bit of a difficult spot. At the end of this year, my television - which I have owned for over a decade and have not a problem in the world with - will suddenly become useless, except for playing my videos and DVDs. The analogue signal will be gone, and with it, my access to regular programming. I have no problem with analogue! I am perfectly content with the picture I receive now. I watched some digital TV up on the Gold Coast, and in flicking between analogue and digital, I could not perceive much of a difference at all. Perhaps that's just my shoddy vision; it wouldn't surprise me. But whatever the case, not only do I not have any problems with my current technology, I don't perceive any gains in the upgrade! But what am I to do? If I still want to watch television, I have to upgrade, which at best means spending $100 on a set-top box to allow my analogue TV to receive the digital signal, or spending much more on a whole new television, complete with spectacularly ugly and unnatural wide screen. In any case, I find it hard to like those flat plasma/LCD televisions. I'm used to them being either a luxury item of wealthy people with more money than sense, or people from the middle class with pretentions of being wealthier and more glamorous than they actually are. I know they have become rather common now, but I still have that perception from a few years ago.
I can't say I am terribly impressed with this whole state of affairs. I don't watch much TV; besides sport and the news, the only shows I watch on a weekly basis are Top Gear, Spicks & Specks, and The Chaser's War On Everything. I probably watch about as much television in a month as some of the people on my friends list watch in a day. I definitely must be a luddite, as the bulk of my entertainment comes from books. Outside of the news, I only watch television for light diversion, which would explain the three shows I watch, all of which are quite humorous. Because the ABC makes The Chaser and Spicks & Specks available for free download, I could just about go without television entirely if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't get through the week without SBS World News every evening. So I have no choice. I don't like it, but I'm going to have to fork out money for a pointless, unnecessary technological "upgrade". I enjoy my cricket and value my news too much to say goodbye to television. Lucky me.