2230 Is it just me?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

I'm sure there are technical words to describe what I'm seeing, but I don't know them, except maybe for "manipulation".

You know how the tv spots have been trying to convince us that the February switch to digital is "because it's so much better"? (Um, like, as opposed to all the money to be made selling the old bands?)

It seems to me somebody is stepping that argument up a bit.

For at least the past six or eight months I've had sets that pick up both digital and non-digital, and up until the past month I didn't notice a lot of difference on most of the channels that I get on my rooftop antenna. I could watch channel 10, or 10.01. The non-digital (analog?) shows have been coming in sharp and clear. About the only difference I'd noticed with digital is that the digital colors were more intense.

Suddenly, there's a BIG difference. (Although now that I think about it, it's been happening gradually over the past month, not suddenly.) The non-digital looks like it's put together with blocks of color. Slabs. Painted with palette knives. Wide ones. Looks a lot like the old beginner-level Paint By Numbers masterpieces. People's noses look strange.

It looks terrible.

It didn't always look that bad.

Do they think people will look at it and say, "Oh, wow, yeah, digital really is a lot better! I didn't realize there was so much difference!"

Well, there didn't usta be that much difference!

I really really don't like being manipulated.
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