Well, the format war just got easier for me. Paramount and Dreamworks say they're no longer going to do Blu-Ray discs. That means that Transformers, when it comes out later this year, will be on HD DVD. As Engadget says, it's probably because the price of the players is coming down very quickly.

I was already leaning in that direction because of the fact that the HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 is down to $180. Even if the format doesn't survive, that's not a terribly expensive mistake.

While watching tennis over the weekend, Diana mentioned how crappy it looked. DirecTV has not been real strong ever in terms of quality, especially with the local channels. I remember that even on the "old" CRT TV, seeing compression noise in the picture. I know it wasn't the TV, because seeing it in Steph's apartment on digital cable, it looked fine. I've settled for a long time.

When I got the HDTV last year, I got a tuner card for my home-made DVR (using BeyondTV) to get over-the-air HD signals. Unfortunately, I'm kinda far away, apparently, even though I can see the transmitter antennae, to use a simple antenna in the window. I can only get FOX and ABC.

The DVR itself is a barrier to change. I mean, it's free. I built it three years ago now, and it still works like a champ. It talks by a serial cable to my DirecTV tuner. It tunes over-the-air signals. I'm not really missing anything, though I'm paying $50 a month for mediocre quality from DirecTV. Upgrading would cost $200 up front for a DirecTV HD DVR/receiver, plus another $20 a month, and my existing DVR would be taken out of service. There isn't much benefit there. And cable doesn't even have a DVR option.

I think the obvious solution is to have a better antenna, outside the house preferably, but there are apparently housing association rules against that. There's little doubt that I could pull in those over-the-air signals easily. So I guess I'm stuck.

I guess it doesn't matter that much, because I only really watch 24, House and Boston Legal, all in HD, from the air, free. I like Scrubs too, but I can't get in the NBC affiliate, so I record it from DirecTV. I guess I'm just starving for real HD content, especially movies. That player for the Xbox is probably the best path to that for now. It'd be nice if the iTunes store would start doing its movies in HD.