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Now that HDTV is almost everywhere, standard-definition TV can be seen for what it is: horrible.  Many people, of course, still have standard sets at home, but by now everyone has seen an HDTV in action, and it’s hard not to be impressed.  The Bits blog today discusses how the last four years have really seen the format rise to prominence.  Eric Taub cites the number of hours of HD coverage at the Beijing games versus those held in Athens, and it’s clear that high-def is now standard.

I watched tons of coverage of the Athens games, but I doubt a second of it was in high-def, since I didn’t know anyone at the time with an HD set.  Apparently, in Athens, NBC’s high-def coverage was entirely separate from their network coverage, with different camera angles and announcers.  This year, every second of the games is being broadcast in HD, and the quality is really outstanding if you can see it.  While in South Carolina last week I didn’t have access to an HDTV (which is surprising considering that the much less expensive Hyatt Park Place near O’Hare had a gigantic plasma screen, and this fancy-pants Westin in Hilton Head didn’t), so I had to make do.  But knowing what I was missing made it less enjoyable.

Of course, at the moment, my two year old HDTV is dying a painful death, and is basically unwatchable.  It was the first high-def set I saw for under $500, and since it looked so much better than the standard-def sets that were still the most commonly available at Best Buy at the time, the “Insignia” was what we bought.  But what remorse!  The top third of the picture is about half again as bright as the bottom two thirds, and above a very distracting line across the screen the picture is extraordinarily distorted, so that a round shape (like, say, a human head) is stretched into a long oval, and parallel lines curve inward toward some unseen horizon.  It’s enraging.

So we clearly need a new television, and, obviously, HD is the only way to go.  On one hand, prices for televisions seem astonishingly high compared to a decade ago.  But that may be because in 1998 most people only had a TV of thirty inches or less.  I remember when a thousand dollar TV was automatically a gigantic appliance that took up about ten square feet of floor space.  Now that same thousand dollars will buy you a pretty large flat screen HDTV that may even mount on the wall.  So, while the average American household now probably spends twice what they did a decade ago on their TV sets, they get something much better.

Olympic sports can be divided into two categories: ones which I could not conceive of doing myself (gymnastics, platform diving, etc.), and ones which are more relatable, even though I know I’d never have the skill (archery, rowing, cycling, etc.).  Running is of the latter variety, insofar as I know what it is to run, and even race against another person.  The difference, naturally, lies in the level of talent.  I cannot run a hundred meters in ten seconds.  That is simply incredible.  Olympic track events are, to me, the essence of athleticism.  The footrace is sport in its purest form.  And since I know what it feels like to run, and since I know I couldn’t run a 26 mile marathon in two days–much less two hours–I am in awe of these athletes.

I freely confess that I am no expert on gymnastics, either men’s or women’s.  But I do know one thing: if you don’t stick the landing, the performance is much less impressive, whatever else came before.  So it is frustrating for me to see so many gymnasts fail to land squarely on two feet, and, somehow do better than the few gymnasts who can stay still.  I hear that gymnastic routines are more technically difficult than ever before, and I don’t know enough to deny that.  To the contrary, I watched an athlete on the still rings a few days ago who powered his body above his head in such a way as to not only defy all laws of physics, but according to the television announcer, to be the first gymnast capable of said maneuver.  It was impressive.

But, while all these routines are becoming more challenging, the gymnasts simply cannot land without taking a big step, hop, or falling down entirely, even when it seems like that would be the least complicated aspect of their sport.  And it is troubling to see an athlete who does stick the landing score lower than one who doesn’t, marked down instead for not attempting some element that is supposedly more difficult, but which my eyes are too inexperienced to distinguish.

Meanwhile, the obviously underage Chinese gymnasts and the ridiculous new method of score tabulation has sullied, to me, what is an otherwise fantastic Olympic sport.  My proposals: let’s see some birth certificates; and let’s go back to a system in which a “10.0″ is perfect.  Everybody understands that.

I’ve been catching as much Olympic coverage as I can while here in South Carolina (right now, for instance, I am watching men’s swimming in the hotel lobby), and am a little confused by the way these games are televised by NBC.  There is a relentless focus on swimming, to the point that they will show every qualifying race, while entire sports get no primetime coverage at all.  Then, what does get prime television time, is shown only in the context of what would almost seem to be a predetermined script.  Last night, for example, the men’s gymnastics team event was on, and, of course, NBC concentrated on the Americans.  But, even when France was in first place, we weren’t shown any of the French gymnasts’ routines.  Instead, NBC focused exclusively on the USA vs. China story.  Maybe it’s true that that was the biggest rivalry, but it doesn’t reflect the spirit of the Olympic games, to me, to have such a limited scope.

Meanwhile, I have no idea what I have been missing on the other NBC-owned networks, since the hotel doesn’t receive any HD channels.  For all I know I have missed many of my favorite events.

NBC advertised some 3,500 hours of Olympic coverage across several networks, but judging by what I’ve seen so far, 3,400 of those hours must be dedicated to soccer.  This morning, both USA-HD and Universal-HD are showing soccer; and MSNBC is simply simulcasting Universal-HD.  NBC is showing a cartoon.  I appreciate that soccer is popular, but it’s also on TV all the time.  I know there are dozens of other Olympic events taking place at any given time, events that are seldom, if ever, seen on television outside the context of the Olympics.  I wish they’d show them instead of Italy vs. Korea soccer.

In prime time last night I did get to see men’s gymnastics, which I love, women’s beach volleyball, which I also love, and swimming.  If I had a complaint about the swimming, it’s that the media is so in love with Michael Phelps that they spend lavish amounts of air time talking about every aspect of his life, that we miss other interesting things.