New Tech Not Always New and Improved

(Editor's note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any product and/or service on the part of Newsmax.) 

A few weeks ago, I said goodbye to an old friend: the 44-inch-diagonal Sony Bravia HDTV that I have watched for more than 20 years. I bought it for $1,000 in 2002 ($1,750 in today’s dollars), and it was a defiant gift to myself at the time.

I had just moved out of my home, and the Sony was one of the first purchases I made for my new apartment.

State-of-the-art at the time, the TV was still working 22 years later when I upgraded to a new one, a bigger Sony Bravia (55-inch screen) with a 4K picture. Priced at $500 ($285 in 2002 dollars).

Consider what a horrible business this is from Sony’s point of view: a customer relationship based on a single transaction two decades ago, with scant opportunity for further sales.

For an HDTV that today is 70% cheaper than it was 20 years ago, adjusted for inflation, even though it has a higher-definition screen that is 25% larger.

Moore’s Law, writ small.

My switch to a new HDTV was something I had dreaded and delayed for a decade after the 4K standard became popular.

New tech can be worse tech, and my recent misadventure is an abject example.

One gets the feeling Sony could have done better. 

Like millions of Americans, I have just "cut the cord," cancelling my cable-TV package and holding on to internet access.

Instead of paying a fortune for hundreds of cable channels I never watch, I assembled my own portfolio of apps, picking from giants such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, AppleTV, and YouTube; and middleweights Paramount, Peacock, Max, and TLC Go; and myriad "mini-nets" like Pluto, Xubo, Fubo, Tubi, and Crunchyroll.

The cost savings is huge: my monthly bill for internet, TV and two cell lines, which previously cost me a combined $340 a month, is down 50% to $165 per month.

But the transition has been so confusing and frustrating that it makes me miss my old cable service: the hundreds of channels at your fingertips, each with instant click-ability and always-on readiness, the easy-to-grasp grid of networks, shows and times.

The good old days.

I gave up all of that — to plunge into a morass of ineptitude in the once-simple act of watching TV.

For weeks I have been unable to find most NFL or college football games; and I have ended up lost inside an app I didn’t seek, or down in some sub-directory and unable to click my way out.

Loading an app takes 30 seconds or more while the screen goes dark, making it look as if the TV has shut off. Or the screen blurs because too many viewers are online at once.

One day I was unable to turn on the TV at all — access denied unless I logged in with a password that was unknown to me.

Other times the screen freezes, and I am unable to turn off the TV.

It just sits there, glaring back at me. In my first week, three "cold reboots" were required to resuscitate this cantankerous contraption.

The new Sony, with an operating system by Google, also can track your viewing, and it even has a camera staring back at you. So, my new friend also is a little creepy.

Internet TV was a bad idea from the start, offered by the same tech giants that gave us the spinning wheel on-screen during "buffering" delays, and products with bugs to be fixed later in unending updates, and frozen screens requiring cold reboots.

All in, I have a total 350 channels to watch, though I still am missing two favorites: CNBC (where I was an anchor) and ESPN.

It's likely I will tune in to only two dozen or so. Now, if only I can manage to find them.