I have seen the future and it is crystal clear.  Not just clear, but more colorful, more vibrant, more dramatic than anything you have ever before seen on your television.  Better, in some cases, than you can see with your own eyes!

I am speaking of High Definition television and last night Chronicle launched into this brave and complex new world, becoming the first television program in New England to go all HD.  With the flick of a considerable number of switches and after years of work and millions of dollars, history was made.

I was convinced from the very first images I saw on a high definition set.  If you've seen sports in HD you know that you can literally see the blades of grass on a baseball field.  You can pick out individual fans in the stands.

In one portion of tonight's Chronicle show you'll see an interview with a beekeeper.  When I did the interview, I was aware of what looked like a cloud of dust over beehives in the background.  It wasn't until  I saw the interview played on an HD screen, that I could clearly see that the cloud of dust was in fact millions of bees.  In this case, the lens was better than the eye.

What amazes about high definition is how clear the whole picture is.  It's not just the foreground images that are crisp, but it's the letters on the sign on that small shop in the background, or the leaves on that particularly vibrant tree.

And the viewers saw it.....and it was good.  Response today via e-mail and phone was running 9-1 in favor of our new look. 

To be sure, there will be adjustments for viewers, especially those without HD sets.  But even on most standard definition sets, the images are crisper and more detailed than ever before.

Once you sample high definition you are overcome with one desire......to run out and buy a HD set.  If you do, I'll see you at the store.  I don't have one either, but I for one, am convinced the future is here, and I plan to watch it unfold in its sharpest detail.