Digital Love

Today is the day we say goodbye to analogue TV and welcome in a shiny new (although not that new, really) digital era. These should be exciting times, shouldn't they? We're all going to be living in the modern world as of now and I'm pretty sure this can only mean that hovercrafts and holidays on the moon are just round the corner.

But, for some reason, I'm not really that excited at all.

Part of this lack of joy could be laid down to the fact that most of us switched over to digital TV ages ago. Today is just the last chance you have to do that freely before you no longer have a choice, which isn't really that exciting at all. In fact, as with most things I find, the way I'm being forced into digital is making me long for analogue more than I should ever long for something that doesn't really work and is way behind the times. It's making me want to rebel and fight back and attach a small, circular wire aerial on top of a big black box with a thick glass screen that can't show Channel 5 because you're not in a good catchment area. It's making me want to have to move that aerial to get a better picture and, if I wanted to get a decent reception for some shows, move the TV all together into a different room where the signal had less obstruction.

I couldn't find a picture of a round aerial, so you can have this one instead.

The main benefit of digital, apparently, is that it offers you lots more choice with a lot better quality. But having had digital in my possession for the last six or seven years I can tell you, and I'm sure you already know, that what digital really offers is a lot of repeats of shows you'd already seen on analogue TV at a quality that is all good until it rains or the wind picks up when you're satellite will get knocked about and you'll only be able to watch the shows that are showing on channels available on analogue in the first place! Obviously after today that will no longer be an option, so in the midst of a storm when I want to sit down with a cup of tea and watch Glee (which I do want to do on a regular basis) my only option will be to turn on my laptop and find it on Sky Go, which won't stream properly because of the storm affecting my wireless signal too. My analogue alternative will no longer be available to me and this makes me sad. It makes me sad that a big part of my childhood is being taken away from me and, no matter how shit that part of my childhood was (because I'm not for one moment suggesting analogue is the better of the two options) it's still a bit upsetting to see it disappear completely.

I remember one Saturday afternoon when I was very small sat in front of the Ceefax page with my Dad (90's entertainment at its finest) waiting for the football scores to come in. My Dad told me that if Lincoln won we'd get promoted, and we did win. Ceefax told me all about that. It gave me a match report afterwards in just as much detail as the ones I can now find by pressing the red button, only Ceefax loaded faster and didn't take me through hundreds of pages to find it. I just typed in the right number and away I went. 

Today we bid farewell to that simplicity. Today we welcome in the future.

When I turn on the TV tonight I will stick some cling-film over my screen and reminisce. On the screen will be Glee, and in my hand will be a cup of tea. Sorted.