So, last night, we ventured over to the home of two good friends and watched the SuperBowl.
Well, to be more honest, the bowl I spent most of my time watching wasn’t the SuperBowl at all — it was the bowl of Rotel dip with hot sausage. Let me tell you something: you might have had Rotel dip before … but unless you had it with some hot-spiced Jimmy Dean sausage in it, you ain’t had no Rotel.
I also played a little chess (stalemate!), gobbled down a turkey burger or two, and worked my way through a half-dozen thick, melt-in-your mouth homemade chocolate chip cookies before settling in to watch the game.
Honestly? I couldn’t care less about football — but on our friends’ new Samsung 56″ DLP-powered screen, I could watch grass grow. Here’s why.
First things first: if you’ve not seen the picture on the new 1080p Samsung DLP’s, you haven’t really seen what HD television can do. The clarity is hypnotic; even when I was elbow-deep in a crockpot full of melted Velveeta and crumbled sausage, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
The combined size and sharpness make this is the first television I’ve seen that really delivers on the promise of a “home theater” experience. I mean, if you have the space for this baby, why would you drive to Madison to pay $12.50 to be dissed by a surly ticket taker, fussed at by the concession staff, and irritated by in-theater cell phone users? I’d much rather burrow down into the couch with an entire bag of Frito’s and a pound of melted process cheese and simply enjoy my movie.
Unlike the earlier Samsung models with their silver chassis, the latest Samsung boxes come in pure black; as a result, the bright picture seems to “float” in your living room, unencumbered by a frame. The television itself disappears, making the experience all the more immersive.
Our own beloved Samsung 46″ television was kidnapped forty-five days ago by a local television repairman and hasn’t been seen since. (More on that later.) Meantime, I confess my SuperBowl experience has me thinking … if the 56″ picture was that stunning, wouldn’t the 62-inch version be even more so? (If knocked out that wall between the living room and kitchen, I might could just wedge it into our current condo … and with our Amazon.com Prime membership, I can get it shipped for free…)
Just a reminder to all who would like to keep their healthy vision. Dept. of Health here in the UK instructs that the proper viewing distance from any TV is 3x the screen size. So you would need to sit a WHOPPING 15 ft away from the screen to be on the safe side. Even if you simply took the advice of the guy at the TV store (who say 3x is too much, but 2.5x is recommended) you will still need to sit 13 FEET away from the TV.
I suspect my memory is fading of the living room sizes in the US. But, you would need to be in a special basement room or a freakin’ (>£1M) expensive house to have any hope of situating a viewing room properly.
P.S. I am not a ninny…I just bought just max size TV for our living room: 42 inch Panasonic Plasma (a beauty for the price) !! Glad i did, b/c with the lights off, surround sound engaged, THX or Dolby rockin’ the house it is so much better than the movie theatre. (Besides, I can slouch on my couch with my honey).