How to mess with a guy who just got HDTV…

by on January 18, 2007

Are you getting invited over someone’s house who has a brand new HDTV? Then this columnist has some advice for having some fun.

Patrick’s mom pulled this routine on him after he was wondering why she didn’t buy an HDTV. “I can’t believe she can’t see the difference,” he told me.

Of course, if you try that, don’t be surprised when you don’t get invited over anymore for movie night.

  • Of course life is a whole lot cheaper for those who can't or won't tell the difference.

    However, you basically have to be blind to not be able to tell the difference, particularly when you compare the two on a big screen as regular TV looks so crappy.

    And you basically have to be deaf to not be able to tell the difference between stereo and Dolby Digital.

    But whatever, I spend money on my home theater for me and not so others can fawn over it.

    By the way, what TV did Buzz end up getting?
  • Ignorace is sometimes bliss. I've never had a $1,000 bottle of wine but since I don't how great it supposedly is, I don't think I'm missing anything. Of course, the prices for hidef TVs keep dropping, (unlike the bottle of wine) so when the price gets low enough that it's nothing special, that's the time I'll take the plunge. I can live in ignorance in the meantime.
  • LayZ
    The guy he describes that owns the HDTV sounds like the reaction you would have, Scoble ;-)
  • If only this guy would write something about how to mess with real estate bores..."I live in a socialist co-op" just seems to get them excited about converting me to capitalism!
  • LayZ: maybe! But I've actually had a few of those types over my house (my ex is one of them) and I just make note of their behavior and note that they won't get invited to SuperBowl parties or movie nights where we have limited seating.
  • Webomatica: I had a really old bottle of wine once. It was good, but not anywhere close to the difference between standard def and high def. Translation: If I had $1,000 I'd spend it on a TV before I spent it on a bottle of wine.
  • Alex: Buzz got the Westinghouse you recommended, if I remember right. Nice set.
  • Anton2000
    Dudes, want to waste your time in an interesting way?

    H.264 Codec: Video Compression for Consumer Applications

    http://www.ddj.com/dept/embedded/196802802

    enjoy :-)
  • met
    Scoble has been playing with Apple fanatics for a while now - using the same tactics :D
  • Chris
    Another tactic I have used is to make a new standard up. My mother-in-law was over to watch a football game on my HDTV and I told her it was a SDHDTV (Sports Digital HDTV). She then told a friend who in turn told her husband. The husband was an HDTV fanatic. He went crazy trying to obtain the new thing he didn't have.
  • The other classic is the TVBGone. Handy little keychain remote that will turn off any TV. Great for sports bars :)
  • Goebbels
    Or in the case of the SuperBowl, you can say: "See that ghosting. I'm going to watch the game in the other room."

    "Wahh, but it's HD, it's special!"

    "Yeah, well, I watch football all the time: I can see fouls, hands, and the small details just fine because I know what I'm looking for. You can watch "the game" for the commercials; I'm watching the game for the game."
  • oh houseing coops in the states

    from what I hear more Stalanist or North Korea that Socialist
  • Elias
    That's nothing. You forget about most of the bozos that buy HDTVs and watch the SDTV channels and think it looks "so awesome!"
  • Elias: now I understand why you always dress weird.
  • Kevin
    Read the link, if you want to make it even more exciting, find out when something being broadcast on a HDTV channel ends up being a Standard Def signal (I seen this and most irksome). When you know a program will be like that, go over to your friends house and ask to see hi-def on that channel. Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

    Elias: you need to have a professional calibrator out to adjust the frenzel modulation actuator, that should clear up the fuzzies.
  • As an author whose name escapes me once said, "A luxury once tasted becomes a necessity"
  • Mike
    Of course by the time you're 42 your sight and hearing are deteriorating anyway, you need the big screen to see anything, but the detail .... :-)

    And when (like me) you sometimes enable subtitles on DVD's to follow what's going on you know you're in trouble.
  • I can't tell the difference except when I'm watching sports. And then it really doesn't add anything to my enjoyment of the game.

    The only HDTV that I was really able to see a difference in was one from SVA that I saw at CES. It was also very pretty and flat screen-y and would hang on my wall quite nicely.
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