It’s not high definition, but it’s huge. I had to move my recliner back as far in the room as it would go, after Mike and John delivered my new TV set today. I’m not ready for HD yet anyway, so this will tide me over until I am. It has a big, sharp picture, and enough inputs and outputs that I could buy even more components than I already have. It will take some time to get everything organized and set up the way I want it, though.

I still can’t tape from TiVo, although I think I can tape from cable. I still don’t have the surround sound set up correctly. And for some reason I don’t have the TV sound channeled through the stereo amplifier, as I did with the old TV. But at least I followed through on marking the connections beforehand, so that the basic setup of the system was just a matter of plugging the right cables into the right holes.

It took me most of the afternoon to get comfortable with the new remote and all the new things I could do. So I missed a lot of the race, although it was on all day. I wanted to be ready for the Oscars tonight, without having to think about anything but watching. I’m happy to say that Hollywood’s biggest night is even bigger on my new TV set. Especially Queen Latifah, who always looks good.

For some reason I didn’t realize that the graphics would be bigger on the new screen, along with the picture itself. Now I can read the fine print from all the way across the room. You can probably guess what a blessing that is. I can’t wait to watch more foreign films on DVD with subtitles I can actually see.