My Search For Reality in TV Revealed Satellite TV and Television's Future, Now.

I never dreamed of TV becoming amazing again – I was the guy with 12 o’clock blinking green on his VCR. Yes, I said VCR. So getting the hang of today’s TV was not a piece of cake.

Recently, during an emergency replace-ectomy of my dying Zenith behemoth, I realized I was in deep trouble. Never mind DVD. Who knew of progressive scan and digital convergence. Aspect ratios and digital comb filters. Anti-glare coatings and so many lines of resolution? I knew of the tv satellite dish, but...

This was a long way from the TV I was nurtured on?

I remember seeing Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show gyrating inside a black & white-glass-globe-picture-tube about as small as the window on a front-load washer.

…Man did the warm glow of that box-at-the-end-of-a-wire get me excited.

Oh, I watched plenty alright! And you know what? I can’t remember ever complaining about getting up from the couch to change the channel… or to adjust the antenna.

Then, Wagon Train on a 19 inch “color set” was about as good as it got.

I lost track of television’s high technology after a while I suppose. I saw TVs getting bigger and I did get hip to cable and the remote control – but distracted by life and a million other things – today’s satellite TV and the whole awesome new experience almost passed me by.

It wasn’t until my first trip to a home-electronics super-store - to replace the dinosaur 25inch Zenith color console, in a polished-wood-cabinet that matched our living-room furniture long ago - that I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore… but rather, lost.

Lost in a new-world-unknown.

A world where I discovered satellite tv on flat screens square and wide, Where thin plasmas hung on the wall and flat-panel LCDs framed in silver sat upon slender, tilting pedestals.

I saw TVs that connect to your computer and one, giant-screen, rear-projector that eats digital camera memory sticks to show your photos of grandma on vacation in larger than life and surround sound.

Oh, TVs are still getting bigger, alright. But now they are amazing again and I’m excited. But with that “excitement and amazement”, comes downright confusion. How do they do that? What of “all that” is right for me?

Now, I like the idea of a tv satellite dish on my roof, but it’s a new-tech jungle out there my friend. Prepare if you too are from Kansas.

I'll help you get a clue about what's out there before you buy “what could become” the most incredible entertainment experience you and your living room - or Elvis, could ever dream-up. And for a lot less than you think, too.

Keep your eye on the Planet. I’ll fill you in soon about why I can’t leave my home anymore.