But now Australia is phasing out analogue TV in favour of digital. This puts me in a bit of a difficult spot. At the end of this year, my television - which I have owned for over a decade and have not a problem in the world with - will suddenly become useless, except for playing my videos and DVDs. The analogue signal will be gone, and with it, my access to regular programming. I have no problem with analogue! I am perfectly content with the picture I receive now. I watched some digital TV up on the Gold Coast, and in flicking between analogue and digital, I could not perceive much of a difference at all. Perhaps that's just my shoddy vision; it wouldn't surprise me. But whatever the case, not only do I not have any problems with my current technology, I don't perceive any gains in the upgrade! But what am I to do? If I still want to watch television, I have to upgrade, which at best means spending $100 on a set-top box to allow my analogue TV to receive the digital signal, or spending much more on a whole new television, complete with spectacularly ugly and unnatural wide screen. In any case, I find it hard to like those flat plasma/LCD televisions. I'm used to them being either a luxury item of wealthy people with more money than sense, or people from the middle class with pretentions of being wealthier and more glamorous than they actually are. I know they have become rather common now, but I still have that perception from a few years ago.
I can't say I am terribly impressed with this whole state of affairs. I don't watch much TV; besides sport and the news, the only shows I watch on a weekly basis are Top Gear, Spicks & Specks, and The Chaser's War On Everything. I probably watch about as much television in a month as some of the people on my friends list watch in a day. I definitely must be a luddite, as the bulk of my entertainment comes from books. Outside of the news, I only watch television for light diversion, which would explain the three shows I watch, all of which are quite humorous. Because the ABC makes The Chaser and Spicks & Specks available for free download, I could just about go without television entirely if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't get through the week without SBS World News every evening. So I have no choice. I don't like it, but I'm going to have to fork out money for a pointless, unnecessary technological "upgrade". I enjoy my cricket and value my news too much to say goodbye to television. Lucky me.
