Last week I received an HDTV set. The cable guy came out Saturday and hooked up the new digital decoder box required to decode the HD signal (what a freekin' mess of wires!!!). My first disappointment was how few channels are broadcast in high def. I receive basic cable and count only 8 high def channels (ESPN, Fox, WHYY (public channel), the big 3 and INHD1, INHD2). The channels that look the best are the two INHD (stands for "in high definition") and WHYY. They were consistently super crisp, with rich colors and have that 3-d depth that I expected to see from high def TV. For the most part, I was not as impressed with the image quality on the other networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN & Fox). I watched a golf tourney, and the ball had a fuzzy rainbow glow around it, plus the edges of the peoples bodies were not clear against the grass either. The Belmont Stakes were inconsistent, sometimes the image was very good, but other times not. Later that night the hockey game was on ABC, that picture was very good.

I guess the bottom line is that HDTV is still in it's growing stages, it doesn't necessarily guarantee great picture quality, there's other variables involved. I'll have to check it out some more, but so far I'd give HDTV a C- due to limited channels and inconsistent image quality. Personally, I was expecting to see some big budget nationwide cable channels like CNN, Discovery, MTV, Disney, etc. to be broadcast in HD, but not yet.

Also, the simple act of watching TV has become a complicated task....two remotes, 300+ channels, multiple source selections and a three-fold increase in wires behind the set . I kind of understand how it works myself, but now I have the chore of explaining it to the family (who just want to click it on and watch). Seems like every improvement in technology is saddled with baggage that you don't find out about 'till after you've committed. Will I keep it? yeah probably, I just wanted to share this info with others, so you know the plusses and minuses before you jump in.

Rick (the whiner)