With some recent upgrades in equipment offered by DirecTV, we finally took the plunge into HDTV. We now get HD & DVR, including locals, and that’s a welcome upgrade over the standard definition Tivo we’ve been using. The DirecTV software isn’t as clean and Tivo’s (or UltimateTV for that matter) but I’m not sure how much of it just getting used to something different.
At install, I just had the tech swap out the boxes, leaving the cables as is. I was pleased with the result but I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something. My parents, who have more plasma televisions than I have motorcycles, commented during their Easter visit that the picture wasn’t as clear as it should be. That motivated me to make the switch from AV cable to HDMI and the change was unbelievable. I know that the type of connection can make a difference but I really can’t believe how much. I then switched the DVD changer to component cables and that too made a difference. So not only were we not HD, we were using was appearently busted ass AV connections. Doh.
With all that said and done, I’m now making sweet use of it by watching Planet Earth on Discovery HD. This show is what HD was made for as the visuals are spectacular. If you have HD, I strongly recommend you check it out.
you didn’t even have component cables? rookie 😉
the deep sea episode of Planet Earth was amazing…I DVR’d the entire marathon this weekend.