Disjointed Conversations

Let's start with the non-picture issues. First the freaking thing is HUGE. It stands close to 3 feet away from the wall, and weighs in at little over 300 pounds. The only stand that supports the weight of this thing is Sony's own stand. Which leads us to the next problem: the stupid stand. I, like most people, have a receiver, a DVD player, and a satellite receiver. Guess what, as giant as this TV is, the stand cannot hold all 3 components. Now in my bizarre case I actually have a fourth component - a cable box. Luckily I was able to squeeze the cable box onto the stand next to the satellite receiver. This leaves the DVD
player sitting on the floor stuffed behind a speaker. Of course this is a less than ideal situation, making the playing of DVD's a hassle. Since the DVD player is several years old, I am less concerned about the fact that the player is probably filling up with dust bunnies.

So that's the non-picture issues. Which leads us to the picture issues. Like I said before, the picture quality is very good, and I am quite pleased. Until I got HDTV hooked up. Again, the picture quality is great; actually the picture is amazing. However, a 40" television with the standard 4:3 ratio, becomes a 32" television at best in the 16:9 wide screen mode of HDTV (and the widescreen DVD's that I enjoy). I really feel like I am missing out on something. My buddy Brian says that I have become an HDTV snob. I guess in some way, I have.

If you have never seen HDTV, you don't know what you are missing. If you have watched HDTV, then you know exactly what I am talking about. So I want to fully enjoy the entire HDTV experience (especially NASCAR races, and wide screen movies).

As I re-read this it is pretty apparent my reasons for getting a new television are pretty superficial, but I still am going to look.