The overwhelming HDTV of doooom!

The 62" HDTV is now set up in the living room, and boy, is it beautiful. We don't have any HD to feed it quite yet, but it sure makes everything else nice. The screen size is almost more important than HD: that's what gives you that immersive environment. But big screens are what, in turn, make HD nice, because a picture that looks fine at 20" starts looking flawed at 60".

Got a friend and coworker to help us bring it home from CostCo because it wouldn't fit in our Prius -- it barely fit in his Ford Explorer. Bought him dinner at a local pizza place (good New York style, or as close as you can get in Vermont).

Setting up the pedestal (came free with it) took more time than setting up the TV. With my hands and knees alternately aching, I acerbically muttered, "women don't have to assemble RTA furniture, but they do have to have babies, so I guess it all comes out even". (Women, please don't throw things at me. It's a joke.)

Currently connected are: the TiVo Series 2 which has the DISH Network receiver connected to it; our Panasonic DVD player; and an old Sanyo VCR. I'm going to be hooking up the cheap surround sound system tonight.

I can't get the universal remote that comes with it to control the TiVo, though TiVo is on the list of systems it can control, and our TiVo is not unusual in any way as regards IR. If I can get that working, I might buy a second remote of the same type.

Also need a new cable to get better quality from our DVD player (though right now, it's already pretty good -- watched a scene from Serenity and boy, it's so much more engaging than on our old TV). Finally, I've put a TV calibration DVD onto our NetFlix queue.

I keep thinking of visually striking movies that need to be rewatched now. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Contact. Serenity. All the Lord of the Rings movies. All the Star Wars movies -- okay, maybe not all of them. Serenity. Alien. Se7en. Serenity (wheee!).

Hey boss, I need to take the next two weeks off. No, make it a month.