The Back Alley Archives

We bought an HDTV and Blu-Ray player yesterday, just in time for the Super Bowl.

I feel so hip and keeping-up-with-the-Jonesesy.

Strange? I don't have cable. I have a homemade TV antenna though and the picture quality for the Super Bowl was fucking flawless.

I'm gonna have to upgrade my antenna eventually, though, as the ABC signal is kinda weak - strangely it picks up fine during the day but it's unwatchable when the sun goes down.

The Blu-Ray player has all the internet apps of course, so I can watch stuff from Netflix and Amazon in HD (and a shitload of other channels) on the big screen.

I still gotta get with Blu Ray but the HDTV is a must these days. My cable company gave me free HD channels when I signed up with them and it's great. Just don't watch the news in high def. Those people are ugly as all get out.

My only issue is my first flat screen teevee crapped out after about six years. The screen just started having pixelated blocks in parts of the screen, which then turned into black blocks. Then one day, the picture just went black. I did some research on it and found it's pretty common and there's no fix to it.

Yeah, that's one thing I really don't like about these modern appliances - there's no fixing them. They're disposable. I bet you could still find a good huge console TV from 1975 that works, but damned if you'll find a working 50-inch plasma in 2035.

I'm still living in the 20th century; no Blu Ray, just a Sony 32'' 720 flatscreen.