H D T V !!!

I bought Cathy and me a nice Xmas present - a Samsung LN-R328W HD-ready LCD TV set. Cost under $1440 delivered from B&H Photo. Comcast came up with a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD/DVR cable box and the tech installed it yesterday.

Wow! What a picture! I'm looking forward to watching the Patriots football game today.

However, there are a few negatives. (1) No closed captioning available in HD! I suspect that has to do with the fact that the Samsung doesn't have its own tuner. However, if I switch to "analog" mode I can get captioning. Maybe it's time for one of those wireless headphones. (2) The signal from the cable remote to raise and lower the volume doesn't work continuously when you hold it down. But the TV remote works nicely. (3) Not enough channels broadcast in HD. (4) The over-the-air networks have two channels each: one for regular and one for HD. Cathy is annoyed at that.

Comcast has two INHD channels that broadcast nature and music shows designed to show off the HD. Very cool.

Interestingly, the picture size when using 4:3 format is exactly the same (27") as the old CRT TV I moved to the great room. But it looks smaller because the screen itself is so much wider than the old set.