American Idol and Digital Receivers

Andrew and I don't have cable; we don't watch all that much TV, so we've been sticking with broadcast and saving a bit of money there. A few months ago, we started hearing about digital receivers and such, so Andrew sent in for our free coupon thing from the government.

Yesterday, we finally hit up Best Buy to get our receiver. While we were there, I picked up a copy of Wii American Idol karaoke.

I might not be a fan of the show, but American Idol for the Wii is too fun. They have a selection of maybe 4 dozen songs or so, everything from that song, "It's Beautiful" (Or is it "You're Beautiful"?) to "Bohemian Rhapsody." You sing along with the song, and the judges from American Idol (Randy, Paula and Simon; see, I know my pop culture trivia!) critique you based on keeping with the rhythm of the song and keeping the right pitch. Based on how well you do, you might bomb out or else go gold or platinum (I have yet to get a diamond). The more platinum songs you get, the more songs you unlock (5 more until I unlock "Somewhere Over the Rainbow!").

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect from the game, but it's a lot of fun. Andrew said it's exactly like Rock Band, only it's without all the other instruments. I guess that means I might like Rock Band... or that Rock Band fans might like American Idol!

So far, my best song is "Tiny Dancer." I did surprisingly well on Aerosmith's "Don't Want to Miss a Thing," too. I'm really bad at the low pitch songs; the pitch mic has a hard time recognizing my low notes (no matter how low I go, I can't seem to get low enough for some parts of "Knocking on Heaven's Door").

I'm thinking about bringing the karaoke game over to my parents' house. There's a chance my mom'll get a kick out of it. That or Guitar Hero. I wonder if you can rent that along with the guitar from Blockbuster? Hmm.

Anyway, back to our Best Buy purchases. The digital receiver works *really* well. A few of our channels came in really static-y, but with the receiver, it's just as clear as having a cable connection. Andrew commented, "If I'd known it worked this well, I wo uld have sent for hte coupon a long time ago!" We have a second coupon, so we're planning on picking up another for our other TV. The digital picture is widescreen, too (I didn't know TV shows were filmed in widescreen; did you?). I'm excited to catch "House" tonight!