My life in HD

Serge Seplovich / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

There have been many firsts for me this year. It’s my first year on The Vista staff, first year having my own room, and first year having a parking spot down at the beach. But the most significant first for me is having high definition TV in my own home. Now I wasn’t one to jump on to this bandwagon so quickly. I was happy watching television on my 7-year-old 20 inch that I bought with my own money way back in the day. I didn’t need crystal clear quality I was satisfied with what I had. That was until my house came furnished with its very own 37 inch flat screen TV with HD capabilities.

It took a while for me to warm up to this new technology. I’m not a big TV buff to begin with, so our HDTV received no love from me in the beginning. That all changed once I realized we had ESPN in HD. It all went downhill from there. I soon found the HD channels hidden all the way up in the 700s. I was flabbergasted. Every single channel you could imagine is also displayed in HD. It runs the gamut from HBO, to the Discovery Channel, to Fox, and it is all available in high resolution goodness for your viewing pleasure.

Palladia, a 24-hour live music network, is by far the niftiest channel in HD (besides those channels playing professional sports games, of course). Being an avid concert-goer, I nearly wet my pants when my roommate (hey Scotty!) stumbled upon this channel one lazy Sunday afternoon. We were in awe to say the least. To add to our excitement, we discovered the wonders of digital recording. Not only were we viewing concerts in HD, but we had the option to record and watch them at our leisure. We quickly flipped through the lists of concerts coming up and went crazy with the recording. Dave Matthews Band, Dispatch and O.A.R., all in the same week? Jab a fish hook in my cheek and reel me in. Throw in some surround sound with the better than real picture quality, and you have the ultimate concert experience in your very own living room.

The only thing that worries me about my newly found love for HD is having to go back to that fuzzy resolution that I used to not mind. I have no idea what I was thinking before by trying to resist this new craze. Now I’m just going to have to make up for lost time.