A Day in the Life of A/V

. Sometimes It’s the blocky anti-aliased pixels on an LCD screen that make me cringe, other times It’s the scratch of a low bit rate mp3, but whatever the cause, I often find myself annoyed and unable to enjoy that which is supposed to be entertaining.

The thing is that I see things differently than others. There is a beauty in High-Resolution, High-Definition, and High-Fidelity that I strive so hard to experience, and I can't stand settling for less when there might be an easy solution that would only take a few minutes to set up, or a little concerted effort to plan ahead for. For example, watching a movie from a DVD player using standard A/V cables on an HDTV often distorts the aspect ratio of the original film stretching out the image and giving all of the actors unusually rounded heads. Why not just hook up a computer via HDMI, or adjust the aspect ratio settings on the TV? Problem Solved. Maybe we want to watch a cool YouTube video such as a movie trailer. I would rather wait the 10 minutes required to have it queue up at 720p resolution.

This often gets me into trouble. Some of my friends don’t seem to see things the way I do. They are not so obsessed with the way things look or sound, and it doesn’t bother them that they are not experiencing the best of what current technology has to offer us in the audio/visual world. My critical attitude is sometimes impossible to understand, and can bother me as much as it does them.

I’m am currently studying Information Technology. Somehow this means that I’m supposed to like Linux and hate everything Microsoft. I love Linux for what it offers in certain situations, but I will never be able to give up Windows. The user interface is so much more pleasing, and is much better suited for media reproduction and entertainment.

Other areas that are big considerations for me:

• Music Downloads – iTunes 128 kbps bit rate - really!?
• TV’s – 720p at 46+ inches – What’s that? Like, low-hi def.?
• Online TV – Just let it queue up at the resolution I want, don’t try and stream at 240p. Please.
• Speakers and audio devices – Yes, you must respond to frequencies down to at least 20Hz.
• “Which movie should I rent?” is analogous to “Which one is available on Blu-Ray?”

It’s not my fault that the blaring difference between 64 kbps and 192 kbps audio can determine how much I enjoy it. All I can do is try and be tolerant and not impose my pickiness on those around me. At the same time, I wouldn’t trade my sensitivity for anything, because when the sounds ring just right, and the visuals are bright and crisp, I’m in heaven.