What are you? Def?!!!

Getting home from the Delaware shore, we were greeted by a box containing two "Digital Transfer Adaptors" for our two peripheral televisions (bedroom and basement).

If you're anything like me, you ask "Why?"

From the Comcast website:

Comcast is upgrading its Expanded Basic Cable* channel lineup to digital-quality signals on all TVs connected to Comcast. These new changes will allow Comcast to offer over 1000 HD choices and access to over 10,000 On Demand titles. In addition, these upgrades allow us to complete additional changes that will deliver much faster Internet access speeds and smarter phone service.

My younger daughter and and I opened the package, read the instructions, and started the easy installations. One worked (bedroom), one didn't (basement), and the main cable box wasn't giving us any channels above 19 (The Weather Channel). (No Mad Men tonight?!!) Three calls to Comcast later, no real improvement, and the diagnosis is that, at least in the two problematic televisions, we're suffering from a "low signal," so we set up an appointment for a service call (12 days from now).

Not to protest my masculinity too much, but please note that the "low signal" problem wasn't in the bedroom. Whew. ;)

As I cursed this High Definition world in which we have been forced to live (what exactly was the problem with analog broadcasting again?), I determined that I'm simply a Low Def guy...content to be not the sharpest nail in the toolbox, a little vague around the edges, and colorful if a wee bit dim.

Remember three networks (and public television and some uhf channels)? That collapse may be a bigger blunder than breaking up Ma Bell (and replacing those cool princess phones or others with heft enough for Russell Crowe to do some damage with for devices you can keep in your pocket, receive and send email, find a restaurant -- there's an app for that! --, take photos, tweet, and...)

I'd trade all that for a phone you can feel satisfied about when hanging up angrily.

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Postscript: a few hours later the signal must have gotten stronger because we're getting the channels now. Gotta cancel the service call, but the good thing is I have some time!