By Thaq Diesel

One year ago I bought a new Sony Wega HD television, using the Super Bowl as the impetus for finally getting away from analog signals.  After a year’s worth of sporting events in my living room, I still say to my wife, “See? You can see the holes in their jerseys!  Look at how you can see the reflection off their helmets?  See that woman in the third row?  It’s like you’re really there!”  Her reply, “YES, I KNOW!  FOR THE HUNDREDTH TIME!”  The sports that benefit the most from the HD format thus far, based on 1 year’s sampling:
College / NBA Basketball – My bias against the NBA (thug city, individual play) isn’t helping, but I still don’t enjoy HD NBA basketball that much.  It doesn’t hold my interest.  HD college ball is pretty engrossing though.  I don’t notice much difference to the overall experience. 

ML Baseball – It’s better, but it doesn’t add much to the experience.  You can see more of the field in a given camera angle, but otherwise it looks much the same overall.  The slo-mo replays on FOX are probably the best HD baseball has to offer so far - checking out each blade of grass on a slow grounder bare-handed by the shortstop is pretty neat.  There is room to grow here and I expect the concept to get better with more years of experience under their belt.  What really killed my HD baseball fun though was seeing the Albert Pujols cold sore in vivid HD during the late innings in the World Series.  It was pretty disturbing.

Soccer - World Cup in HD – simply awesome.  Well except when the USA is sucking the gas pipe.

Olympics – Winter Olympics in particular.  You feel like you’re on the mountain only without freezing your balls off. 

Football – NFL in HD is about as good as it gets.  It’s like taking your favorite food, doubling the portion and adding an extra flavor you love to it.  CBS really needs to get its act together and broadcast all its regional games in HD next year.  I hated when my Bengals were shown with the smaller, boxed-in view. 

Hockey – This isn’t to say that, despite how much I love it, hockey is a better product than the NFL or that I enjoy hockey ore; they’re not even close.  BUT, hockey on television is light years ahead of where it was in the analog days.  You can see more than a third of the ice at one time.  You can actually see the ice skate cuts left in the ice.  The puck is much easier to follow.  Hockey in HD, above all other sports, is most similar in feel to what it’s like to actually be at a hockey game.  This sport has by far gained the most in watchability since HD broadcasts were introduced.

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