At Frye’s over the weekend I saw two half shelves worth of HD-DVD software. This is only remarkable because I had not been to an electronics superstore recently to see such a display. I know they’ve been out for weeks or a month or a I don’t care.

The HD-DVDs were grouped at the end of the anime section just before the nature and historical videos. I can’t remember the first weeks or months of DVD’s launch but it was probably just as pathetic (I remember only seeing Eraser and Twister DVDs for a year before I cared about DVD as a source of entertainment). The discs were packaged in the same clam cases as normal DVDs, the “HD-DVD” banner at the top was the only tip-off. Blockbuster!/must buy! titles included: Rumor Has It, The Chronicles of Riddick, Van Helsing, Swordfish, Doom.

This is all I get after dropping $500 on my new Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player? (I ask hypothetically, as I don’t have any such player.) Penny Arcade found a use for the Phantom of the Opera HD-DVD.

If I were the King of All Home Entertainment Media (like Mark Cuban or Mickey Mouse), I’d write this memo to all my media minions:

Dear whichever studios are launching HD-DVD: The following titles will force me to adopt your new disc format: Digital Video Essentials (to calibrate before we watch the rest of the launch titles), Star Wars Episodes IV-VI, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, Alien and Aliens, King Kong, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Harry Potter movies, Moulin Rouge, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Princess Mononoke, Serenity (actually this is a launch title! Go Team Whedon), Sin City, Apocalypse Now, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Romeo+Juliet, Fight Club, Terminator 2, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Lion King, The Incredibles, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Spider-Man movies, Batman and Batman Begins, X-Men Movies, Superman 1 and 2, Kill Bill, Casablanca, North By Northwest, The Graduate, The Fifth Element, Blue Velvet, and Planet of the Apes.

Now that’s a launch.

After every geek collects their jaws from the floor they would be ready to invest in the best HD-DVD player they could find. The entire launch catalog described above would break all home video sales records. These are the movies we are willing to buy over and over again. It wouldn’t matter if half of the titles were rushed to production and didn’t eek out the finest high definition quality because the movie studios could release an extra special edition six months later and we would buy it again. The HD-DVD would just have to look and sound marginally better than the best SD-DVD had to offer for the same title.

HD-DVD’s launch needs a huge push. Rumor Has It couldn’t launch a bottle rocket with a flame thrower.

It’s a talent that everyone has, yet they think they don’t. The power of innovation. If you’ve ever marvelled at somebody’s creative prowess, guess what, you can create and innovate too. It just takes time. Everyone is born creative. The box of crayons in kindergarten were not limited to those who possessed potential; because the truth is, everybody has potential.

You know how long it took to learn to ride a bike or drive or to never commit the same mistake again? It’s the same with innovation. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of time before this mind function comes easily when called. This article will teach you a few tips on how to bring innovation into your life.

Don’t listen to what other people say. Follow the beat of your own drum. Allowing for the input of other people will only bring cacophony to the music you are trying to make. If you have an original idea, don’t waste your time and effort trying to make people understand. They won’t. And the help you will probably get comes in the form of negative feedback. If all those geniuses listened to their peers, we would probably still be living in the middle ages.

Spend time on it. I cannot stress that enough, although, please do not mistake this tip to tell you to quit your day job entirely. Do not. This involves some tricky time management but with a little discipline you’ll be able to squeeze both in.

Exercise. Take a walk. Run a mile or two. Send all those endorphins coursing through your veins. Exercising certainly clears and relaxes your mind and allows for anything to pop up.

Record your dreams. Aren’t some of them just the craziest things that your conscious mind would never have thought of? If you’ve had these dreams before, and I’m sure have, this only shows you the untapped innovative power you have lying within. So jot down those notes. Those dreams may just create an innovative spark in you.

Find your own style. You can always tell a Van Gogh from a Matisse. You’ll know Hemingway wrote something by the choice of words on the paper. So it is the same with you. People will appreciate your innovation more because it is uniquely yours and that no one else would have thought of what you were thinking. That will let people see how valuable an asset you are.

Don’t hide behind nifty gadgets or tools. You don’t need the most expensive set of paints to produce a masterpiece. The same way with writing. You don’t need some expensive fountain pen and really smooth paper for a bestseller. In fact, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of the Harry Potter Series on bits of tissue. So what if you’ve got an expensive SLR camera if you’re a crappy photographer? Who cares if you’ve got a blinging laptop if you can’t write at all? The artist actually reduces the number of tools he has as he gets better at his craft: he knows what works and what doesn’t.

Nothing will work without passion. What wakes you up in the mornings? What keeps the flame burning? What is the one thing that you’ll die if you don’t do? Sometimes people with talent are overtaken by the people who want it more. Think the hare and the tortoise. Ellen Degeneres once said that if you’re not doing something that you want to do, then you don’t really want to do it. And that’s true. Sometimes you just want something so bad you become a virtual unstoppable. And that is passion. Passion will keep you going.

Don’t worry about inspiration. You can’t force it; inspiration hits when you least expect it to, for those unpredictable yet inevitable moments you should prepare. An idea could strike you on the subway, yet alas, you poor unfortunate soul; you have no sheet of paper to scribble down a thought that could change the world. Avoid these disasters. Have a pen and paper within your arm’s reach at all times.

I hope this article has helped you bring more innovation into your life. Keep in mind that you’re doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else’s. But soon enough they will notice, and everything should snowball from there.

More self-improvement related info can be found from internet’s most complete resource at http://www.selfimprovement.thegreat.info

Karin Mellart has years of experience in online business and marketing, writing, and varied activities. She is a partner of TRG Ad Campaings and www.ArticleFile.com – The Internet’s Article Resource.

Rear Projection Television - An Affordable Option

A great deal of consumer appeal for Rear Projection TV systems arise out of the shear simplicity that this product offers as an immediate solution to getting a bigger TV.

No mess, no fuss, if you have the space, either visit your local big screen retailer - or better still, check at your favorite online electronics superstore - to order your product and get it delivered in just a few days; unpack the product and there you have a big screen TV in your living room ready for immediate use!

Rear Projection TV Facts:

As already stated, rear projection offers a most immediate solution to getting a bigger TV. Probably, this is also one of the main drivers behind rear projection television sales.

Yet the real ‘culprit’ behind the popularity of rear projection TV systems does not arise out of some particular benefit associated with rear projection, but out of the fact that most big screen retailers seem to give the impression that rear projection systems are cheaper than a front projection setup.

This may be true in retail stores, but not necessary so when buying online. The reality is that for a given budget level, prices online are such that front projectors will deliver a much more cinema-like experience for the same price bracket. Therefore, do not base your decision on price alone to decide between a front projection setup and a rear projection TV box.

Clearly, there is a market for both - the primary decisive factor should be your room size. If you don’t have a large viewing room, a 40″ to 60″ diagonal TV will probably be more than adequate rendering a rear projection TV the ideal affordable solution - as long as it fits in the available space.

Size - or rather unit depth - is becoming less of a problem with modern LCD and DLP rear projection TV units. A typical 52” diagonal widescreen DLP or LCD rear projection TV set requires no more than 15-inches in depth; this contrasts heavily with a similar size CRT rear projection model which would normally require between 22 and 24 inches in depth.

What’s more, considering that a similar size Plasma TV is still out of reach of most average household budgets, today’s slim-styled LCD and DLP rear projection TV sets, with their lower prices yet high performance, are becoming the affordable ‘immediate’ big screen TV option in the television mass-market.

However prior to committing yourself to a rear projection TV, it is important to be fully aware of a few limitations associated with rear projection systems, namely: limited screen size, limited viewing angle, glare problems, poor aspect ratio management, poor use of floor-space, etc.

We take a look at each of these limitations in further detail below:

Screen size:

Rear projection TV systems come in screen sizes ranging from typical 42″ up to a maximum of just over 70″. This may or may not be a limitation. It is true that you can get a 100″ projection with a home theater projector for the price of a high quality digital 50″ rear projection TV, yet the screen size should be dimensioned to suit your room. If your room size does not support such big projections, rear projection is probably the way to go.

Viewing angles:

Rear projection TV systems used to have a rather limited viewing angle - with the optimum viewing position being one directly in front of and eye-level with the unit. Move away to either side, and color, contrast, and brightness will degrade substantially. A narrow viewing angle will limit the number of people who can watch the set due the lowering in picture quality at the extreme viewing angles. Most modern systems support a viewing angle of circa 150 degrees - which should be adequate for normal home theater use. However, it is always best to check on this prior to your purchase as some products are worse than others.

Reflections:

It is common that any light source at a complementary angle to your viewing-angle will result in glare - in particular if the unit makes use of a screen-saver (a clear protective material that covers the fragile screen itself). Glare can seriously degrade the picture quality. The only real solution is to take away the offending light source; in some cases the situation can improve if one removes the screen-saver – BUT remember that an unprotected screen is fragile and expensive to replace if damaged.

Floor-space:

Any rear projection TV is literally a large box with a relatively large footprint. It is true that modern slim-type models do exist that are no more than 15 to 18 inches in depth - depending on the screen size, yet the cheaper CRT-based rear projection TV sets will stand out by at least 24 to even 30 inches to allow for the necessary air-space between the back of the unit and the wall.

Remember to take this into your calculations when planning your home theater as these two feet or so will have to be deducted from your available viewing distance.

Rear Projection TV Speakers:

Forget all about them! Do not give any weighting to the speaker system coming with your rear projection unit. You would not be using them as you will surely want to replace these with your dedicated home theater surround receiver speaker system.

Do not even think of using the build-in speakers of your rear television set as a center channel replacement. They will just interfere with the sound coming out of your dedicated system - hence do not pay anything extra for this as you will surely be switching off your TV sound completely during a movie show.

Aspect ratios:

We have already mentioned a number of limitations associated with rear projection television, yet in comparison, these are just minor issues. The real serious limitation with a rear projection TV is aspect ratio management.

This is the trickiest of it all. Standard television comes only in 4:3 but rear projection TV systems come in both standard 4:3, and in the 16:9 widescreen format. Once you choose your format however, you have to live with it - so once again, you have to choose wisely.

The 4:3 (1.33) or 16:9 (1.78) referred to as the aspect ratio, is the ratio of the screen width with respect to the height of the image. All standard non-HDTV material is in the 4:3 format while most modern films come in one of the many widescreen formats - the most common being the 2.35, which in itself is not compatible with any of the fixed aspect ratio TV systems.

There are various ways to deal with this - including:

• Image stretching to fill the available screen.
• Use of black or gray bars on top and bottom of a 4:3 screen to show the movie in its correct aspect ratio as originally filmed, but then the effective film display will be smaller.
• Pan and scan editing where only the most important portion of each frame is shown with the rest being discarded.

Image stretching and horizontal bars can be extremely irritating while in the ‘pan and scan’ you are giving up film information to have a full screen view. Worst of all, prolonged use of horizontal bars - especially black bars - leads to tube burn-out in CRT based systems at huge costs to you.

The incompatibility between screen formats renders the decision on aspect ratio a rather complicated issue when choosing a rear projection TV set. Surely, there is no such dilemma with a front projection setup, but if your only way forward is rear projection, then you will have to choose wisely.

Here no one can help you in your decision - it is simply a matter of preference. The best way to decide on aspect ratio is by first determining what you will be viewing most.

Making the Choice:

Surely, there is a market for both front and rear projection TVs – it is all a question of knowing what are the advantages and limitations of each with respect to your specific needs.

Andrew Ghigo – A Telecoms/Electronics engineer by profession, with specialization in digital switching and telecoms fraud management systems.

Editor and publisher of http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com - a site dedicated to all home theater enthusiasts with the scope of serving as a comprehensive home theater guide to home theater systems, product reviews and home theater design.

This article is an excerpt from a series of guides appearing under the Projection Television section of the site.

HD Radio is a new technology that enables AM and FM radio stations to broadcast their programs digitally, a tremendous technological leap from today’s familiar analog broadcasts. These digital broadcasts provide listeners with radically improved audio quality, more radio channels through multicasting, and new data services.

It’s possible that you might find an HD radio at your neighborhood Best Buy or Circuit City – especially if you’re looking for an HD car audio system. There are also several sites on the Internet where you can compare prices from different online sources.

Tabletop HD Radios

Two manufacturers offer compact, portable, tabletop HD radios that have amazingly clear, room-filling sound. They are Radiosophy and Boston Acoustics. The Boston Acoustics HD Recepter Radio is available through J&R Music and Computer World, Crutchfield and C. Crane, Amazon and several other sources. Its price is almost always $499.95.

Radiosophy offers a great-sounding, tabletop radio called the MultiStream HD. It sells for about half the cost of the Boston Acoustics unit but is on back order at this time. You can order a MultiStream HD at the Radiosophy site with delivery in early January.

More manufacturers are expected to announce portable, tabletop radios during the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2006.

HD Car Radios

Six manufacturers have HD Technology radios for the car. They are JVC, Panasonic, Kenwood, Sanyo, Alpine and Eclipse. Again, more manufacturers, including Sony, are expected to soon announce HD Technology car radios. You can find most of these units on sites such as HotBuys.com, Crutchfield, Shop.com, BizRate,com, and Shopping.com.

HD component receivers

Finally, three companies have component-type HD technology receivers available. They are Yamaha, Audio Design Associates (ADA), and Day Seguerra. All three of these HD technology-compatible receivers are designed to be used in conjunction with home theater systems.

You are most likely to find one of these HD Technology receivers at your local home theater retailer or high-end sound components store. It appears that the Yamaha RX-V6400 receiver is actually available. The ADA HTR-2400 was supposed to have shipped in the the third quarter but we have been unable to verify whether or not this actually happened. It is also not possible at this time to verify if Day Seguerra has shipped is M2 receiver and modulation monitor.

To learn more about HD Radio, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz. Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio and family finances.

It just might save your life

Think of the many times throughout your life when you experienced a strange feeling that turned out to be an early warning of danger.

Use your early-warning radar.

Did you take heed of that warning and avoid the impending danger, or did you ignore your built-in early warning radar and walk right into harm’s-way?

The funny feeling in the pit of your stomach or the feeling of the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end are ways of your body telling you that something is very wrong.

Any veteran police officer or soldier who’s seen combat and lived to tell about it will explain that part of their survival was due to trusting their “gut-feeling” that they were in danger.

Here’s how it works:

There is nothing magical about this sixth-sense. It’s simply your body’s first reaction to adrenaline entering your blood stream.

As your digestive system is being shut down to allow more blood to flow to your muscles, you get a queasy feeling in your stomach.

Your body is getting a shot of adrenaline because your brain has determined that you’re in danger. It isn’t paranoia or imagined fear. It’s real, and you need to pay attention to it. Deadly attention.

Your sub-conscious which operates ten times faster than your conscious mind has picked up on signals of danger that your conscious mind has not yet processed.

Many times after the immediate threat has subsided you realize what it was that caused your sub-conscious to go into the fight-mode.

After thinking about it, you start to understand that while you were talking to the stranger and had that “gut-feeling” that something was wrong; you had seen out of the corner of your eye a second person to your right at a ten foot range.

At the time it was only a flash of movement to your right, but in hindsight you realize that it was an accomplice of the stranger trying to hide from your view behind a car.

Because you trusted your “gut-feeling” you took defensive action and survived. Had you ignored that un-easy feeling, you would not of been aware of the second person coming at you with a tire-iron.

Steps to take when you get that “Gut feeling”:

1.) Move! Don’t wonder why, just move!

2.) If you’re armed, make sure your weapon is ready to be used. Preferably in your hand.

3.) Take a 360 degree look around you. You need to shift to a higher state of awareness, from Yellow to Orange. This is where you identify a possible target. Make your plan of what action you’ll take if the target makes a move toward you.

4.) Stay aware, there’s a good chance you have multiple attackers.

5.) If you’re sure you’ve got a problem, look for the fastest way out.

6.) If you’re unable to tell what caused the “gut-feeling” of danger. Don’t think that your in the clear. The problem may still exist, so let yourself shift back to Yellow, but stay sharp. Be prepared to shift back to Orange should any new target present itself.

It’s been part of you since birth.

You can see the effects of the instinctual “gut-feeling” clearly in an infant child. If an adult that doesn’t like kids picks up the baby, the baby will cry. If the adult who picks up the baby likes kids, the baby will smile. No matter how the adult acts, or what the adult says to the infant, the baby can sense the adults true intent and will respond to it.

We as adults have that same instinctual ability to sense danger. We just need to learn to trust it, practice using it, and never doubt it.

Just as a yawn is a signal that you’re tired, and a sneeze the sign of an impending cold. Your “gut-feeling” is a life saving indicator that you’re in serious danger, and to be prepared to take appropriate steps to defend yourself.

Learn to embrace this God-given self-defense instinct. Never ignore it. Use it, stay safe, stay alive.

Scott Flint, Senior Chief Instructor
West-Wind Kung-Fu Schools
Author of : Waking The Tiger Within—Self-Defense That Saves Lives

Available at Amazon.com or order direct at http://selfdefensemanual0.tripod.com

This book is available for only $9.95 25% off of the retail price

About The Author

Scott Flint, a 5th degree Black Belt, holds the title of Master Instructor, has taught over 3500 students during 27 years. Has learned from experience exactly what women, men, and children must know to be safe in all environments.

Scott is also Senior Chief Instructor of West-Wind Kung-Fu Schools in California. He is Director of the Taipei Chinese Kung-Fu Association United States Of America Branch.

Besides traditional Kung-Fu, Scott teaches a course in Personal Protection using the Combat Pistol

wakingthetiger@yahoo.com

As the owner and webmaster of a satellite tv comparison website I often get many questions about the different channels and options that are available with DIRECTV.

In my earlier articles I’ve discussed some of the basic differences between DISH Network and DIRECTV. In this article I will specifically discuss DIRECTV so that you may become more familiar with the packages that this company offers.

Let’s first take a look at the channel packages that are currently offered along with a brief explanation of each.

Available Channel Packages

Total Choice

This package features approximately 95 channels including many of the most popular channels. E!, TBS, USA, Comedy Central, CNN, Nickelodeon, ESPN, ESPN2, Discovery Channel, MTV, Food Network, and many more are found in this channel package. There are also a small number of XM music channels available for those who enjoy digital music. Many people find this to be an acceptable number of channels. However, if you’re interested in a larger selection of television and music channels you may be interested in one of the following.

Total Choice Plus

This package includes 33 more music and programming channels in addition to those featured in the “Total Choice” package. If you’re a music fan, the additional XM selections might make you choose this package instead of the “Total Choice” option.

Total Choice Premier

For the individual that likes to spend hours in front of the television the “Everything” package includes all of the channels currently offered by DIRECTV. Sports Channels, Music Channels, Educational Channels, and Lifestyle Channels are all included along with the commercial free movie channels.

Conclusion

As you can see there are a great number of choices for you to select from. It’s difficult for you to go wrong with any of these selections because of the huge availability of popular channels. If you’d like more information on DIRECTV please visit www.bestdishdealonline.com

Michael Hizer is a successful internet marketer and expert in satellite television and online shopping. You can find the best deals in satellite television at http://www.bestdishdealonline.com

Do you hate to make small talk? If so, you have lots of company.

You may find small talk irritating, predictable, mind-numbingly boring.

Yet, learning to play the small talk game can have lots of good benefits. You will have a much better chance of succeeding in making new friends, and advancing in your career if you can master the major art of making small talk.

Small talk is the name commonly given to the fairly predictable superficial chatter that makes up a large portion of our social encounters. Neighbors chatting over the fence, strangers speaking to each other in a grocery line, or workers talking at an office party will often engage in the exchange of fairly ritual, routine observations, comments and questions. Often there is no intent by either party to take the conversation to a deeper level.

Most of the comments and questions tend to be of a fairly trivial sort. For example, a person might say, “I wonder when this heat wave will ever end,” or “That’s a nice dress, where did you get it?” Other typical small talk dialogue might include basic questions like, “What do you do?” Or “How long have you lived in this neighborhood”?

Small talk often has a bad name. Many people dislike small talk, precisely because it is so mundane and trivial and predictable. It rarely touches on anything important. It does not lead you deeply into the soul of another. It is conservative and safe. You do not discuss really serious issues like world hunger, or the meaning of life, or the results of a recent scientific breakthrough.

People who are very intellectual or very shy, and those who are socially rebellious, are often unable or unwilling to engage in this sort of chatter, which they consider meaningless and trite. They long instead to have only intense, meaningful, and soulful exchanges about important matters.

If this is true of you, if you have had nothing but contempt for the very existence of small talk, if you look down with disdain on all who engage in it, it is time to consider revising your opinion. Small talk, however despicable, however cliché, has an important role to play in initiating, developing, and deepening social connections with other human beings.

Think of small talk as the oil that lubricates the wheels of social interaction. If you see a person regularly, you can use small talk as a way to gradually learn more about each other. Small talk gives people a low-key, non-threatening way to exchange very basic bits of information with each other. Through these very tiny, safe, and cliché exchanges that each person offers the other, you can find out what interests you have in common, and whether or not you like the character of the other person.

A complete inability or refusal to engage in small talk can severely limit the overall number of social relationships you develop. Refusing to engage in some form of small talk will send out the signal that you are not a friendly person, or that you think you are too good to talk with others.

On the other hand, the more often you engage in small talk encounters with others, the more likely it is that you will find people who want to move on to discuss some of the topics that are of more importance to you.

Instead of refusing to play the small talk “game”, why not really make a game out of it? Decide to practice small talk strictly for fun and give yourself points for starting it and keeping it going. Think of small talk as a skill you can develop, and practice working to become better at it. Do it everywhere, and do it often.

Becoming good at small talk will eventually pay off and give you even more opportunities to talk about those things that really matter to you. You can actually learn to enjoy the light hearted, low key, small talk process, and you may end up liking many of the other people you meet along the way!

This article is taken from the downloadable book by Royane Real titled “How You Can Have All the Friends You Want - Your Complete Guide to Finding Friends, Making Friends, and Keeping Friends” Check it out at http://www.royanereal.com

• What is HDTV? Do I have it?

  Let’s not get too hung up over the technical details. If you bought a new TV (tube, LCD rear projection, DLP rear projection, LCD or Plasma or whatever else shows up on the market) which can display a High Definition picture and you have purchased a High Definition programming package with High Definition hardware (Set-Top-Box or DVR), then you have HDTV. Even an older Enhanced Definition (ED) set can display a very good HD picture unless you are very close to the screen - too close for normal viewing.

  As for which of the two main resolutions, 720p or1080i, are best for sports, don’t worry about it. The network programmer or program service provider has already made that decision. ABC shows its programs in 720p, CBS in 1080i, ESPN in 720p, FOX in 720p, HDNet in 1080i, NBC in 1080i, TNT in 1080i, WB in 1080i and WGN in 1080i. For what it’s worth, 720p is generally regarded as superior for watching rapid movement but your High Definition TV will convert these to its own native resolution automatically. If your HDTV is made to display 720p, it will convert all 1080i programs to that resolution while doing little or nothing to 720p programs. If you have a 1080i set, it will do the opposite. This is all possible because the programs are all in a digital format so very little picture quality is lost.

  Just sit back and enjoy

• Why are sports better on HDTV?

  There are many reasons but these are three of the most important:

  1. High Resolution provides more detail on the screen

     At the lowest HD resolutions, you still have many, many more times the number of dots and lines on the screen making up the picture than the old television standard and this means you see more details more clearly. If you have seen some of the newer artificial turf, you know that dirt (or at least rubber particles) fly when a soccer ball bounces or a football runner cuts this way or that. Now you can actually see it on TV.

     Was it a curve or a fast ball?
     Was it really a three point shot or was the player’s toe on the line?
     Did the receiver have possession or did the ball touch the grass?
     Where will this putt break or pick up speed?

     With HD the replays are much, much more clear. Details are critical when officials view replays and now you can see what they see. This is the way sports were meant to be seen!

  2. Widescreen shows you more of the field

     It’s true! Almost without exception, new HDTV’s are large widescreens and that alone means a bigger picture. HDTV’s aspect ratio is 16:9 (Width:Height) as opposed to 4:3 of the current NTSC system. With the higher resolutions, you don’t lose any of the detail. For football, which is played on a rectangular field, the picture is spectacular. See the quarterback and the defense he is attacking at the same time. You see the receiver cut and break free just as the quarterback does. That changes the way you watch and understand the game. From behind the running back you see more of the line of scrimmage as the line blocks and he makes his decision about which hole to hit. It really is more like being there.

     The wider screen is changing the way sports shows are produced. The camera can be pulled back for a wider shot and, because of the high definition picture, detail is not lost. More of the golf course can be seen as the shot flies off the tee. This gives you an entirely different perspective on what is happening.

  3. Dolby Digital surround sound puts you in the park

     Don’t forget the sounds of sports. What would basketball be without squeaking sneakers on hardwood floors? What would baseball be without the crack of the bat when a slugger hits a hard fastball? When a shot rattles the rim, a safety creams a receiver, a tennis player returns a serve, a track official fires his starter pistol or the horses’ hooves pound the turf, you can now hear it with crystal clarity. No static, hissing, crackling or popping. If you pipe this through your home entertainment surround sound system it’s like watching through an open window.

• Can you get HDTV on satellite?

  You bet you can! Both DirecTV and Dish Network have high definition programming and are adding more all the time. You might have seen the news about DirecTV’s new satellites this summer or seen the specials being promoted by both providers. Satellite is today’s lowest cost way to get high definition programming and HD is the future of television. It’s happening now, there’s no need to wait.

Garry Mabry

Your guide to Sports Programming on Satellite TV