Pixels and Tiles

Image provided by Charles Strebor
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rantz/

I’ve been having some problems with my TV. To be truthful, it’s my husband’s and my TV, which makes it critical seeing he’s a sports fan. The trouble started last year about this time when Tennessee was hit with a devastating ice storm.

I don’t know if others in the area continued to have problems after the cleanup, but we sure did. We couldn’t go two months without calling the cable company to set up an appointment for one of their service technicians to come out to the house. The same guy kept on showing up and doing what adjustments he thought would help. If I remember correctly, his name was Erik but don’t quote me on that. By November of last year, I was almost ready to invite Erik to dinner. After all, we were seeing him more often than most of out neighbors on our street.

He would come in the company van, and knock on the door carrying a small monitoring device and some cable. I told him the picture was “pixeling” again. He needed more of an explanation, not understanding what I was talking about. Once explained, he told me that the correct term for what I was seeing was called “tiling”. How was I suppose to know that the language jargon of computers wouldn’t work for the TV? I mean, a person can watch TV on the computer. It stands to reason that when pertaining to a picture, whether it be on a computer or a TV, the smallest unit of the picture would be called a pixel. Obviously not.

About the third week of last month, January, the TV started acting up again. We couldn’t watch a program for fifteen minutes without the picture “tiling”; and it was usually in the middle of the screen. It’s annoying when Sarah Jessica Parker’s face looks like weird puzzle pieces while watch Sex and the City. Husband was cussing under his breath while watching his hockey games because invariably the picture was “tiling” so he either couldn’t make sure where the puck was or what player was shoving it down the iced court. We shrank at the thought of calling the cable company for the umpteenth time so we started watching more of the movies we have in our collection of DVDs.

When it got to the point where every three minutes was a “tiled” picture, I had had enough. I called they up, got put on their “animated  service”, pushed the zero button, and when a real person answered, I scheduled a home appointment. The soonest someone could get out to my place was two days later.

During that two-day stall, the company called us four times. First time was to verify the appointment. That one was expected. The second one was animated, asking if I still wanted the appointment. Do that many people make appointments with the cable company and then decided they don’t want the house call? Maybe they do. I just know that when I make an appointment, I want the meeting to happen — no second thoughts. The third one was also animated, asking again if I wanted to keep the appointment. When I got off the phone, I shook my head and laughed. The company must be paranoid about house calls these days. The fourth one was an honest-to-goodness person, the technician himself. Can you guess why he called? “Yes, yes, I still want you to come to the house.”

I swear, I live in the land of idiots.

The meeting went well. It wasn’t Erik this time but that didn’t matter. The guy not only fiddled with the TVs, but also checked the computer cable box and switched out cable.

It’s now been a few days since that appointment. I did see a brief moment of “tiling”, but so far it’s only been that one time. Is cable the way to go or should a person go with satellite? We’ve always had a picture with cable, though it may be “tiling” like crazy. When we had satellite, there were times we didn’t have a picture at all. Still, the satellite was slightly cheaper. None of this technology is perfect. Tolerance and patience must endure through any deals with it — that is, up to a point.

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When does that point come for you when dealing with today’s technology?

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. – Ann Landers