The world is in high definition
When I was starting senior high school, my dad and I went to get ourselves new glasses (my first pair). I had trouble seeing far and I was supposed to wear the glasses to school. I never did. I ended up wearing them only for driving after my driving instructor asked if I had glasses when I had had trouble seeing a road sign in time at an intersection. Then in university I had to start wearing the glasses because the lecture rooms were big and a lot happened through the overhead projectors or on the chalkboard.
I’ve never worn the glasses outside so my world’s been slightly blurry. I have trouble seeing faces clearly and recognising people until they start waving at me. I luckily can catch a bus in time so I’ve been content. I sort of like the gentle blurry outlines of things.
A week ago I went and got new glasses because my old ones had burrowed a groove on my temples. (Although I don’t wear glasses all the time, I’ve got used to wearing them in front of the TV — which is quite often.) I had my eyes checked and was shocked when I heard the optometrist say “that’s bad.” I think — and certainly hope, because I don’t think my new numbers for correction are really that bad — he meant my eyesight had got worse (compared to 12–13 years ago!). It probably has but I think my first checkup might not have been as accurate as it could’ve and should’ve been: As crazy as it sounds, I had wanted to do well in the exam. I don’t know if it’s even possible to cheat in an eye exam because I don’t know what kind of things they really pay attention to, but I remember having to determine which way an E symbol was pointing and since I was able to see whether it was turned horizontally or vertically (albeit not seeing it clearly), there was a 50-50 chance I guessed correctly. Not once did I say that I didn’t see it properly.
This time the exam made more sense to me because I had to tell which lens out of two possibilities made texts clearer, and only once or twice did we check the board with alphabet to see whether I could read the bottom line (and boy, could I!).
Now I have brand new glasses. I tested them at home right away and for a while felt like I couldn’t walk a straight line (probably due to the slight astigmatism correction in my right eye which made everything wobble as I turned my head side-to-side) but luckily I soon got used to them. It’s weird to be able to read the backs of my books from far away and see the several digital clocks around the apartment without squinting.
Yesterday I took the glasses out for a spin — once I was pretty confident I would pass a test of walking in a straight line. And jeez how I was freaking out: I can see each individual spruce needle on the ground! I can see the faces of people standing far far away! I can see the bus’s number as soon as it appears from behind the trees! I can read small street signs! And at home, my god the standard definition channels look crappy and pixelated on my lovely HD TV! (Luckily, I found out that the DVR is to blame so I just have to get a new HD box which doesn’t cost much. Phew.)
The TV is a nice segway here: I had told the optometrist that I rarely wear my glasses, and he said that once I experience what it’s like to see clearly, I may change my mind about wearing them. He may’ve been right. Just like nowadays I can’t really stand watching an old tube TV (like the one my parents have), I think I may prefer the world in HD, too.
(Also, the frames are really cute )
Maybe my glasses aren’t too bad yet, as I still prefer HD screens, too. SD sources have been unwatchable for ages without some electronics in the middle doing their magic with the pixels.
I have to admit, though, that I gave up on HD channels, because the HD digibox from DNA Welho just plain sucks. It randomly reboots when it gets overwhelmed, which happens more often with HD bitrates…
P.S. Late commenting this one — I’m not keeping up with my Internet…
I used to think I didn’t get any HD channels (for free) except for Yle which picks and chooses between channel 1 and 2 (dumb) but suddenly I’m getting MTV3, Fox, Nelonen… in HD! I had heard that they should be free but I didn’t believe it because none of my devices had agreed to show them. Maybe they’ve turned free some time after I’ve updated the channels (probably years ago).
Damn, spoke too soon. Apparently the HD channels for our national commercial channels were only a part of a HD campaign by Welho and not a normal situation.
You can get the HD channels for “free” if you have a DNA Welho TV card. The card is a couple of euros monthly, although you might have to pay 30e fee to get it.
I just renewed my Welho commitment for another 2 years, switching to the Viihdytyskaista bundle. It comes with a TV card at zero cost. It also comes with an HD digibox that’s just as bad as the previous one I had, if not even slightly worse (or it could be I’m now just seeing buggy behaviour that only happens when viewing HD channels).
From what I’ve read on the net, there are no good HD digiboxes. I believe this is due to the small market of DVB: not many countries using it, unfortunately.
The jury is still out on whether I’ll keep watching the HD channels or go back to SD only. I have an A/V receiver that does a decent signal upgrade from SD to HD, so with a good SD signal (that covers pretty much all the Finnish channels) the end result is pretty good. I haven’t tested the digibox builtin signal upgrade directly to the TV (maybe I should).