I guess, the saying goes, this changes everything. Scoble says the story is just starting to be written, and I have to agree.
You've heard it all before: going out to the movies is too expensive/loud/noisy/rude. And we were in the same camp. We're upwardly mobile college-educated folk, looking to spend more time with each other and less in the car. We had been trying to get out and see a movie maybe once a week, but the whole experience usually left us tired and irritated.
We also watch a bit of television, and almost all the primetime shows are now being broadcast in high definition. Knowing that other devices would soon be joining our media center, like the HD-capable Xbox 360, we opted to investigate the matter.
Our draw towards the Samsung HL-P5685 was the number of ports: 1 HDMI; 1 DVI; 1 VGA; 2 component; 2 composite; 2 coax. We could hook up all of our existing consoles, the 360 after release, and eventually an HD-PVR. For the time being we ended up going with the Comcast box (which is another story filled with hatred and despicable user design).
High definition service from Comcast in the Portland, Oregon area only cost $10 more a month, so we opted for it as part of the Comcast HD-PVR offer. The Samsung does a wonderful job of displaying all HD content, at either 720p or 1080i resolutions.
Once everything had been setup, we were amazed by the color and field-of-view we had at our disposal. We became entranced in the vibrant filmed-on-location colors of Hawaii on ABC's Lost, and now have instituted a Wednesday Lost Night with our parents to share the love.
One of our new favorite channel destinations is Discovery and INHD for their amazing educational content. I am personally waiting for the History channel to join the HD revolution. And a TiVo Series 3 would be nice too.
Even Mars likes the TV. Yay!
