So I, like so many other people out there get opinionated from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you follow some rules. Know your shit, be able to try new things, and finally and most importantly be able to admit you were wrong. I will tell you a few of these things that I was either wrong or spoken against in some way (and in some ways I was right), and I have in some way changed my tune on some of these.

   Ok first up HD and Blue Ray. I will fully admit I have been against these 2 for years. Not the fact  that they are good but initially the way they were shoved down our throats. If you remember originally every damn retailer couldn’t stop with the sales pitch of “Everyone will have them and every station MUST broadcast in it in the next couple of years”. Trying to get everyone to be scared and buy one. That’s the kinda crap that annoys the everloving shit out of me. It was complete BS, there was a bunch of years we could take our time converting to HD and let the price come down, and MOST importantly we were able to (if you were smart), wait until the HD-DVD vs Blue ray wars were solved. I eventually got a HD ready TV and a HD cable box years after I was urged to by the sales people of the world. Years after I had my projection TV (and 18 months ago to be precise) I finally decided I wanted a new TV. I was going in for an LCD TV and I walked out with a great deal on an LCD a Stand for it, and most importantly my 1st blue ray player. See it might seem cliche’ but when I saw the Dark Knight on the same TV I was getting being played on blue ray well… I was sold. Sure it was pure genius in marketing, but it looked THAT GOOD. Yep I was then a blue ray convert. It is a good ending b/c even though they sold me by a store trick Blue Ray is every bit the best thing since sliced bread. I love when a movie is truly made for the format, because you can just tell. It almost looks better then real life. Two warnings or rather complaints about the format. First old movies. They may release older movies on blue ray, but you might as well get the regular version and let the blue ray do it’s thing in up converting it b/c it’s just not any better on blue ray at all. I am guessing prob. something to do with the way they filmed older movies and the film they used etc. The second thing is price. It’s just ridiculous the price of these discs. Make the blue rays the same price as DVDs and  I will start muying more of them. This is slowly starting to happen but still not quick enough.

   The next piece of technology that I didn’t buy into until I tried it is the new 3-D TV. I tried this in Best Buy the other day and watching the MLB All Star game and yep, it’s just as good as they say it is. It’s fricking AMAZING. Now don’t go jumping out and buy one b/c it’s about 3-4 years to being anywhere near usable at home. There is nothing good enough out yet on it, not enough channels who broadcast in it, and most importantly even the glasses them selves are somewhere in the range or 150$ EACH! So it’s good for a gimmick and I think it looks good and all, but I am not sure I can watch tv ALL the time with glasses on. So I don’t think this will overwhelm the country any time soon. I tried, and I didn’t think I would like it at all, I was wrong about it being good, but I was NOT wrong about it being many years before this will be even close to main stream.

   Lastly I will talk a bit about something so basic that everyone is pretty much using it… Netflix. I never thought I would like the idea for netflix mostly b/c I just don’t think I would get much use out of it. The Red-Box is my real deal and I can go to it for 1$ and not pay anything a month. Now the extremely Hot and talented Mrs. Geekjock has convinced me to try out Netflix, mostly b/c of streaming directly to the TV. A big factor in me giving it a “try” is both the batting of the wife’s pretty eyes and the word of a co-worker who streams movies while we are at work on her netbook. She says they have no buffering problems, and no loss of connection, and I know how shitty our connection options are at work. So if she says it’s that good, I guess I can give it the old fighting try. So this week off from work it has basically been my plan to try out the streaming. Well the new TV I have is one model before they can use streaming and what do you know so is my GD 18 month old blue ray. GRRR. So it’s up to good old X-Box to do the instant access and streaming of movies. Basically I re-up’d my X-Box Live Gold membership and today we tried it out. Hey it worked pretty good. I was impressed my dad who is in town for the week thought it looked good. Even tho I noticed the movie which I had seen before, had some distortion in a way but still not real noticeable to the normal viewer.  The drawbacks right now with this live streaming are: First there isn’t the biggest selection of movies able to be streamed on the service, and I am hoping they will add to this as time goes on as well; Second the X-Box needs to be on. I don’t think it was as loud while the movie was going. Maybe either I had the TV louder or maybe it shuts some big elements off when you are doing this vs using the disc drive for games. However, anyone who has an X-Box knows every minute you have it on you are that much closer to the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RROD); And finally it’s still the price per month. I don’t know if I will use it enough to warrant it but there is are worse ways to use 9$ a month I guess.

   So there you have it. Things you think are shitty at one time or another may not always be shitty. Keep your ears open and an open mind. Some people you trust might have used these things and they will eventually become afordable. So try something new yuo might like it!

The GeekJock

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