Puttering in the Study

HD TV at last

Today at long last we finally got HD in the Smith household.  Just over a year after getting HD-capable TVs in the study and den, I finally broke down and upgraded my DirecTV DVR to a HD-capable model so we could watch the Cowboys in the playoffs.  Last night the unit taped the Patriots against the Giants (on NFL Network - which will become important later) and the picture quality was amazing.  I also discovered numerous HD companion channels to channels we enjoy watching, like HGTV and Food Network.
Even better, the old DVR - a Samsung with our beloved TiVo - was moved into the study so at long last I have TiVo in the study, not just a satellite box.  And with upgraded satellite dish meant that we could move the former study receiver (a simple RCA unit) upstairs to our bedroom, where it's paired with my old study TV, a 17" Samsung that's been unused for the past year.  I also understand the connections in the wiring closet well enough that I could switch which room in the house uses that receiver, i.e. move it to the twins'  room.  So life is better in all three rooms.
This morning I spent an hour or so updating my Logitech Harmony remote to properly run the systems in all three rooms. 
The more I use this thing the better a job it does (and it's the low-end model) at controlling the equipment in the den, the movie room, and now the master bedroom.  In each now I just punch what I want to do - watch TV (which typically means listening to Audiovisions as a starting point), listen to a CD, watch a movie, etc., and the press of one button turns everything on to the correct settings.  And the more I use it the better I get at programming all the right features into it - this morning I got everything I needed off the big TiVo remote from the den so I already don't even miss it.
Now for the bad news.  While we get local stations, we don't get them in HD, and the signal our local Fox station sends out is atrocious, so network TV in general, and Fox (on which the Cowboys most often play) is still poor 480i quality - at best.  While we have terrific DVR functionality, the picture for most programs we record and watch is still poor.
The fix for areas like us that don't have HD signals from our local stations available via satellite is supposedly to install a simple TV antenna, and pick the HD signals via off-the-air transmissions from the stations, most of which are now transmitting in analog and digital (which may or may not be in HDTV).  After confirming this morning from DirecTV that there is no way I can purchase Cowboy games in HD (or any other way) when the local station carries them I started shopping for an indoor receiver to see if getting the UHF/VHF signals was a possibility.  I ran across the above indoor antenna at Radio Shack, and ran down the street at about 2pm to pick up one (catalog # 15-1892).  I plugged it in, let the TV scan for antenna signals, and almost immediately was looking at over a dozen digital channels, with most local stations having HD signals - some in 720p and some in 1080i).  The Cowboy game came on immediately crystal clear in 720p, second only to the startling picture the local CBS station was putting out in 1080i.  The antenna stations have to exist as a second source of signals, which can't be recorded on the DVR, and which I really don't have a means for recording (yet) but it's well worth watching in real time, the picture is so good.
I still haven't figured out the details of how to fine-tune the unit, but it sits on my stereo shelf behind a potted plant (luckily the shelves are very deep and have lot of room) and works like a charm.  I am kicking myself for not buying it a year ago - I had just assumed I needed a rooftop unit to get a signal this good.  But here it is - I'm getting HD signals from the half-dozen local stations I care about.
So a very good weekend on the entertainment media front.
  Just wish the Cowboys had done as well!

Apollo 13 - commentaries by Jim & Marilyn Lovell and by Ron Howard

I watched this movie twice on more or less back to back nights to listen to the commentary by Jim & Marilyn Lovell and by director Ron Howard.  The Lovells were very entertaining and informative, and Ron Howard's commenstary made clear how much the movie meant to him - how much he learned during the process of shooting it and how well all of that was integrated into the crafting of the story told on screen.  He explains which shots were on set and which were filmed in zero-G on the KC-135, and how they managed to get some of the shots.

I watched these on my old DVD in the study since I was mainly interested in listening, and was struck by the difference between the standard DVD (albeit upconverted to 720p) and what the HD DVD looks like even on the 720p projector in the movie room.  The picture clarity is just astonishing compared to DVD.

Bram Stoker's Dracula - commentary by director Francis Ford Coppola

Recently watched this with the director's commentary by Francis Ford Coppola.  It was very illuminating because it explained, albeit in a pretty rambling fashion, why he did what he did in making the movie.  He also made clear that this was a job to him - he was hired to make it and did it for the money because of some financial setbacks.  He explains a lot of things that helped me understand why the movie looks the way that it does, but it was apparent (he said so) that he had not seen the film in almost fifteen years, and was sometimes surprised and at a loss to explain what we were seeing.

Christmas morning - 2007

Once again Santa must have missed the info that our boys have not been particularly wel-behaved thus year, because they made out like bandits when the big guy came. 

Grayson was most excited about his 10 in 1 game table, since he'd apparently become a foosball master at Camp Fern this summer. I really think he takes it too seriously, myself.  Parker's favorite was his workshop , but he and Collin really liked their little Enterprise-A and Enterprise-D cast-metal toys (until yesterday, when Parker accidentally flushed the secondary hull of the Enterprise-D down the toilet - truly sending it where no man has gone before.) 

Grayson also really likes his spy car, as you can see. 

Christmas Eve - 2007

This year we had the traditional Christmas Eve dinner and opening of the gifts at our home (following Childrens' Mass at St. Joseph's).  As usual with four small boys it was mayhem, presided over (loosely) by Jamie's uncle and dad (Steve and Jim) pictured to the left.

Grayson was thrilled by his new jacket   and went into serious Michael mode when he got his How Things Work book. 

New Dogs - Belle & Snowflake

I don't know where in the world it came from - one minute Jamie is her usual self swearing that we will never have a dog, and the next minute she's searching every classified in the world and calling everyone who's ever had a dog to find out what's best for little boys.  She settled on Golden Retrievers, and last Wednesday we got two seven week olds, which we named Belle and Snowflake.   

Halloween - Batman, Robin & Robin

This year Grayson recycled his Batman costume for Halloween (which he constantly upgrades) and Collin and Parker both wanted to be Robin, so he got a match set of sidekicks.  He's not smiling, as you can tell - he never does when he's Batman because it would be out of character.

The boys went down to Baton Rouge to see Gaga and carved pumpkins.   

Our little Cowboys fans

Our boys have become rabid little Cowboys fans.  Here they are in their Cowboys shirts with Grayson doing some bizarre pose with his Tony Romo card (yes, he's started collecting football cards).

Star Trek - The Animated Series

  I got the DVDs of the old 1973-74 animated Star Trek series several months back and they quickly become Collin and Parker's favorite entertainment (here we are watching an episode in the study).  The call it the "cartoon Star Trek", and know each episode by which character's name is on the disk.  Their favorite is One of Our Planets Is Missing (mine as well) and I got them to start watching the Star Trek movies by explaining that the first one is about the Enterprise meeting a cloud also (but a blue one, not red).

Jamie is deeply, deeply unhappy about this turn of events.

Grayson's lemonade stand

  Grayson's latest project is a lemonade stand, which we are building out of scrap lumber in the workshop.  He insists on wearing eye protection, and since we didn't have goggles, he wore a fireman's hat.