hi def jam

The guy from the satellite company called to say he was on the way to my house an hour earlier than scheduled. It was going to be a good day. He swapped the dish on my roof for one that can receive HD channels but told me that my order for an over-the-air antenna for local channels had been canceled. He said it was because the company is supposed to start offering the Knoxville stations in HD via satellite in January. I would have to wait until then to see the broadcast networks in high definition. Fortunately, one of the guys from Strickwood Communications called to say he would be coming by to program my universal remote once the satellite box was installed. I told him about the canceled rooftop antenna. He said he had some HD rabbit ears, which he would bring with him. They do the job just fine.

Perry Simon sent along a very helpful email. Coincidentally, I was thinking of Perry and his post about Mr. Magoo when I played my DVD of "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" and posted a photo of it the other night. Perry wrote:

Saw your post about the home theater system. While you're rewiring the house for HD (a very good thing -- we have a basic 42 inch Panny plasma and you end up unable to stomach "regular" standard def TV again), be aware that the TiVo Series 3 is cable or OTA only, not satellite. It does take Cablecard, which isn't necessarily a reliable option.

Tomorrow I will call the satellite company to get on their waiting list for one of their DVRs. Even though I have gotten into the habit of recording everything, I watched some "live" TV tonight in HD. Like Perry says, the difference is amazing. "How I Met Your Mother" looked so good it was, wait for it, leg-en-dary. During commercials, my son and I flipped over to ESPNHD. Hi-def is made for football fans. However HD could do nothing to improve the quality of "The Year Without a Santa Claus" remake. At one point I was actually looking forward to it.

Earlier today I watched some of the "Monday Night Kickoff" edition of SportsCenter. I saw a sideline reporter whose dye job looked horrible in HD. Her hair (except for the roots) was that reddish color that a lot of women I know started using in the mid-90s. As I watched, I wondered if maybe she didn't realize she was being televised in such great detail. Yet she must have known because she was holding a microphone with an ESPNHD mic flag right on it. I didn't catch her name. Whoever she is, she should go back to her natural hair color. It has to look better.