On Cable TV and Connections

In this current age, it is interesting to see how the function of TV is rapidly evolving and how, we, the consumers are gaining control of what, why, when and how we watch what we watch. And thats why we don’t have Astro at my home. You could get Astro, even though its a long drawn out monopoly on cable TV that may look enticing at first until you’re on the couch, channel surfing and realise this is the 10th time you seen My Best Friend’s Wedding (although I know a few people who wouldn’t mind it, ehehe).

Or you could just source all your entertainment from The Internet and have several well connected (lol!) friends with similar interest. C’mon guys, I don’t want to come back from work and have the 2008 season of The Bachelor: London Calling shoved down my throat. (this happened last week, I don’t want to talk about it).

So my suggestion is to cut your Astro subscription and get a HD media player that reads off your hard drive (WDTV is a good one) and you’re all set to take control of what you watch. But this doesn’t work if you’re a football fan, have kids addicted to cartoons or have elders addicted to Ria. It works great otherwise.

 

Then again, because you have a full drive of movies doesn’t mean you will watch them. I have been meaning to watch Aronofsky’s The Fountain since 2004 but never gotten around to it. And its still in my hard drive even though the original one that it was transferred to has crashed! Maybe I’ll just skip it and go to Black Swan straight. But really though, has it come to a point where it is a chore to actually dedicate time to sit down and watch a movie?

I blame The Internet for my short attention span and the never-ending thirst to be virtually satiated by bits of information, teasingly handed out by the refresh button. Every time we publish something on the Web, all we do is put ourselves there wholeheartedly and hope that someone comes by for a taste of validation.  So its always refresh, refresh, refresh. We have 20+ tabs open for a topic but barely understand it after reading so much on it. I have to start reading story books. It brings you places but at least its a controlled environment.

Back to movies, being able to obtain movies just from you home brings on a new full blown addiction, the need to keep that churning that bandwidth, making it work to keep that hard drive filling up continuously. When it hits the sweet spot, i.e your maximum bandwidth limit, you feel affirmed, self assured that you, my friend, are  the lanes of a developed civilization, in where you form a pseudo bond (think Van der Waals) with your peers whom you’re exchanging bits and bytes with. You will never meet them but you’re so happy that they’re there.

And when that 1080p movie or whole series season, is beautifully assembled in its complete, full form, sitting in your folder, the feeling of elation, and to some sad extent, accomplishment, fills that void in your heart. Just for a little while though, before you scrounge and rummage for more. Its never enough. Try describing this feeling to someone in their 50s and they will not get it. This is our story. Not theirs.