Lately I’ve been thinking of going back to work. Mainly to force myself out of the house. I have lots of projects around the house–not fixing it up, I’m pretty good at ignoring chores and home projects. But novels to write and books to read and music to listen to. I’m by nature a loner but I realize that isn’t good for anyone, even me. I’m not good at hanging out in coffee shops or gyms and striking up conversations with people. So maybe I should go back to work and inflict myself on some unsuspecting productive member of society.

Fortunately I’m also extremely lazy.  I take a nap instead.

My new DTV converter

So I got a DTV converter for my television. I do not have cable nor satellite nor a modern TV set. And do not plan to get any one of them in the near future. I watch Bill Moyers, the Simpsons and sometimes the local news when making dinner–which I don’t do all that often anymore either. I did look into replacing my DVR because my existing one has incrediably crappy controls. But when looking around I did not see any DVRs that included (1) a digital receiver and (2) a hard disk.  Most assumed you have cable. Or wanted to record direct to DVD. I didn’t look too hard, but most TVs seem to be monitors too–no broadcast receiver, they assume  you have cable too. So when my TV dies I may find myself having little choice but enter the 21st century and get cable or some internet connection.  

But for now I have the DTV converter. I got the coupons. It’s strange that you get these plastic cards with serial numbers. Seems like much some contractor sold the government another gold plated solution.  I would have thought some bar codes on a piece of paper would have sufficed.  Maybe they want to discourage people from hacking bar codes and stealing converter boxes. (Yeaah) 

But I bought a couple of converters and I hooked them up. For the first TV the hook up actually went much faster than I had anticipated. I unplugged the antenna lead to the TV,  plugged that into the converter and then plugged a coax into the TV. Simple. The software setup was straight forward. I got a lot more channels than before, and a lot more channels than I want. Better technical quality (more on that later) doesn’t mean the content got any better. The converter had a ‘favorite channels’ option but it didn’t seem to work. Actually, the instructions were flat out wrong and I only figured out how it works by wandering around the menus–nerd behavior and OK for me, but nothing my mom would ever do. And I would think DTV converters are primarily for moms with antique ‘analog’ sets. And cheap bastards like me.

The second TV was slightly more complicated hook up. I have a DVD player, a DVR, and a VCR all hooked into the TV. The antenna is hooked into the DVR and that feeds back out to the TV. So I just had to switch the antenna to the converter box and the converter box to the DVR. The DVR is now permanently tuned to channel 3 for broadcast. The problem is that the DVR cannot record any channel anymore. It can only record from the channel the converter box happens to be set to. If I actually watched much TV this would be a show stopper. Commercials drive me nuts and I cannot watch a show as broadcast. I have to record it first so I can skip over the commercials. If I wanted to record a number of shows on different channels, this converter box/DVR set up would require me to change the DVR manually as the shows came on. I would have to be there as each show starts. Since I record so few shows, I can at least preset the channel so I don’t have to be there. But then I have to leave the converter box on. And to save the planet (hah) I’m trying to figure out how to shut these suckers down without incurring those stupid blinking clock lights when I fire them up again.

So recording is a minus feature. Is the picture quality better? While still with my analog signal, I recently recorded Dexter for a friend but made a mistake and didn’t adjust the antenna first. So the image quality is horrible. I don’t know yet if he’ll watch it or just toss it in disgust. So digital is better right? Well, so far it looks as though digital is much pickier about signal quality and either breaks up in a dozen pixels and no sound, or a blue screen of death. Whereas analog would have kept on trucking albeit with a fuzzy image.  So which is better?  I kind of think analog is. I think something is better than nothing. I’m after content, not ‘technical’ superiority. I’d much rather watch “The Gold Rush” than “Stars War VI”. 

Plus, I may just be seeing things, but it seems as though the digital image is extra blurry for a fraction of a second when making a jump cut. Sometimes I see this odd hexagonal pattern on monochromatic backgrounds. And digital just looks harsh to me. Plus switching channels is slow–as if the converter box has to think about it a moment.  Not good for someone with a low irritation threshold like me.

This particular brand displays a status light that looks rather like the slit eye on GORT the robot from The Day the World Still Still.  Which I find rather creepy. I’m thinking of covering it with electrical tape.