Why do I like HD music channels?

Since I had my high definition service turned on today, I’ve watched ESPN and MHD almost exclusively. For those of you who haven’t seen it, MHD is Viacom’s high definition music channel, with content from MTV, VH1, and CMT. I’m not such a big country fan, but I’ve gotten to watch a few concert feeds that I really enjoyed, including the Foo Fighters and James Blunt. Yes, it is a strange mix. Yes, my iPod is as confused as you are.

So anyway, back to my question. I think it is that the total experience of watching the concert is almost like being there. I can crank it up, tick off my neighbors, and completely feel the music. I really can appreciate my home theater system and the video enhances the experience. I don’t really like watching the normal music stations, but maybe it is a content problem, not a quality problem.

If you happen to catch the Foo Fighter’s live set, they mention Prince’s cover of “Best of You” from the half-time show at the Super Bowl. You can hear it here (Updated: Never mind, it has been taken down at all of the places I’ve found it.). There was a debate in Rolling Stone about which was better. You can read the article here.

TV in review: Pushing Daisies

We had been recording Pushing Daisies for quite a while, but never got around to watching it until the last couple of days. After watching seven episodes, it has grown on me quite a bit. It is definitely odd and fairly unique. It is a detective show, a fantasy show, and an offbeat comedy show rolled into a love story. Does that make sense?

The story essentially boils down to this:

• The Piemaker, the main character, can bring dead things back to life. If they stay alive for more than a minute, then another like thing has to die in its place (i.e. human for human, dog for dog)
• Charlotte, or Chuck as he calls her, was killed on a cruise. The Piemaker brought her back to life at the expense another person revealed in episode two.
• Olive, the waitress in his pie shop – “The Pie Hole” nonetheless – is in love with him.
• The Piemaker helps his private detective friend, Emerson Cod, solve crimes for rewards by bringing dead people back to life to ask them what happened to them.
• To top it all off, Jim Dale is the narrator. He was the audiobook reader for the Harry Potter series and is a world-class narrator.

The actors and actresses all do a wonderful job in their roles, striking a nice balance with each other. The writing is very well done, managing to be serious, funny, light, and heavy, all at the same time. It is one of those shows that leaves me feeling very even, for lack of a better word, afterward.

It definitely isn’t a show for everyone, but there is a lot to like in the show. It is definitely worth a look. All of the episodes up until now are available on ABC.com.

Wow

I just noticed that I only posted twice in November. It was a crazy month. Crazy I say!

My Tivo HD is installed

We had our CableCARDs installed in our new Tivo HD today. Honestly, the experience has been fantastic.

I was in Circuit City the other day and noticed a Tivo HD on the clearance table that always seems to be up front at the store close to my house. I wandered over and saw that it had been marked down to $150! I went home, mentioned it to Jennifer, then we went back and bought it. I was really surprised to see that it was in perfect condition.

I ordered service from Charter via chat. I asked a couple of times about HD service and was assured that we would get all of the HD channels except the premium ones as a part of our current package, so I set up the appointment for today at 3:00. Of course, I got a call at 12:30 asking if I could come home early.

I met the installer and found him re-cabling the outside junction box. He didn’t have a good reason for doing so. He just felt like it. I’m sure Charter got a bill for it. The CableCARD setup was very easy, but Charter took almost 45 minutes to get them activated correctly.

That said, when I turned on ESPN and watched NFL Primetime, I was in heaven. There was a highlight of LaDanian Tomlinson breaking a big run against the Chiefs this weekend that almost seemed like I was in the stadium. I’m in the middle of transferring all of my recordings from the old Series 2 box to the new one. I must say, the new Tivo makes standard definition content look better than my old Tivo.

The only complain that I can make about the Tivo HD is that the interface is a little sluggish at times. It isn’t a major issue, but there are times that it lags behind a few seconds. Now, I’m in the middle of transferring shows over WiFi, recording a high definition program, and watching recorded content, so It might be a bit too much load on the hard drive. I’m definitely considering an additional hard drive for it since the eSATA port has been enabled as of the last software update.

If you have an HDTV and cable service, the Tivo HD is definitely worth looking into. It would be hard to find a deal like I did at this point, but I’ve seen them for $279 at Costco and $289 at a few other places, like Fry’s. Be sure to give it a look if you’re in the market for an HD DVR.

Pirates vs Spies?

Geoffrey Kleinman of DVD Talk got to participate in a Disney “Pirate for a day” outing hosted for some journalists in Los Angeles. I must say that it sounds intriguing. It reminds me of something that Jennifer was telling me about.

In the UK, there is something called “spy games” hosted by Into the Blue. It is a variety of training exercises that teach vital spy skills, because we all need them. It is a little off the beaten path, but it looks really neat. I don’t fancy myself as James Bond, so I probably wouldn’t go make a fool of myself on my own dime, but if someone else wanted to pay…