Even Cats Love HDTV
cats October 19th, 2007Last month I wrote about my new, awesome Sony Bravia HDTV. Dave and I have been enjoying the Sunrise Earth program on the Discovery HD Theater channel a couple times a week. Stunning is the only way to describe it.
Evidently cats can enjoy it too! It’s been reported that cats have some trouble distinguishing between real objects and those projected on an HDTV set. Here is Shadow enjoying penguins from a recent episode of Sunrise Earth. Her head moved back and forth, following them as they waddled across the screen.
She sat like this for almost ten minutes. If you have cats, you’ll know they can barely sit still for any length of time unless they’re sleeping. Easily distracted, they’ll respond to the slightest movement. I was able to go upstairs, prep the camera, and take a few shots without her budging from this spot. She sat there for another five minutes afterwards, enthralled by the penguins.
I was going to suggest she’s in this trance-like state because she has a little brain. But that’s pretty much how I look when I’m watching Sunrise Earth. So let’s just say I must have the smartest cat in the world, shall we?
Stumble it!
October 20th, 2007 at 12:35 am
You know my cat, the Siamese, does the exact same thing when I put finding Nemo on, although instead of sitting she’ll eventually pounce the tv and then complain in annoyance when this invisible barrier has stopped her from catching her prey.
October 20th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Corivus — I’m so scared one day Shadow will leap at the set and scratch at the screen. One good swipe and it’s all over, for both the TV — and the cat.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:04 am
I didn’t know about cats having trouble with objects on HDTV !
I learnt something new !
October 20th, 2007 at 9:58 am
@ Jaffer — I read an article somewhere (wish I could find it!) that explained the scientific reason cats have trouble distinguishing certain visual input. That link in my post was all I could find. The phenomenon’s been observed by many, but I wanted to know WHY they do it. I’ll keep digging.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Ohhhhh…I want. And so does my cat. Maybe if Dave reads this post it’ll convince him we need an HDTV for X-mas – if only for our cat. I keep hearing such great things about the documentary Planet Earth, and your shows sound good, too.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:49 am
J.D. — It’d be money well-spent, for sure!
October 20th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
If only I had one. Well I can dream about it! Did you hear that the new sets can use more power than a fridge, pretty scary stuff.
Regards
Peter
October 20th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Peter — You know, I suspected it drew a lot of power. It just seems like it would. So it’s always turned off when no one is watching it. And part of it is wondering if running it too much somehow shortens its life. Anyone out there know for sure?
October 24th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
My dog also enjoys HDTV – The Dog Whisperer is his favorite show, we even TEVO it for him…yes, my dog is my child!
October 24th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
CC — Wow! That’s livin’, having your humans record shows for you. You have one lucky dog there!
Incidentally, Shadow has not watched Sunrise Earth since that first time. Perhaps she prefers watching animals her own size (as in the penguins). It’s hard to figure out what exactly she’s a fan of. I would think birds, but we watched “Winged Migration” in HD the other day and she didn’t even notice them, despite looking at the TV a couple times.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
You know, now that I think of it if I get a flat panel TV I’m definitely going to have to mount it on the wall. I love my cat to death but I know she’ll try and attack a TV like that. I experience the same thing with my cats and my reef tank, the new cat (big giant tabby that my roommate has) is always trying to chase the fish until my Siamese does a flying pounce on him to try and “save” him.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned the story but the Siamese (sera) is absolutely terrified of fish now. This happened when I was feeding my tiger oscars, 3 of them at a foot long or more, well they liked to jump up for their food and roll over on their bellies. But I had just gotten back from vacation and discovered no one had fed them. So they were quite… jumpy.
As I was feeding them my then newly acquired kitten, Sera, decided that she wanted their food. Well the oscars thought she was food and began to attempt to eat her. I’ve never seen her that frightened before. I had to take her off the tank because she wouldn’t move and the oscar’s weren’t paying attention to their food and had knocked down one of the glass plates into the tank.
Ever since then she’s attacked any cats that get interested in the evil things behind the glass. Its kinda funny to watch and wonder what’s going on in her head when she’s watching from a distance.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Corivus — I do get nervous sometimes when Lucky, the crazy one, jumps up on the table the TV is sitting on. I worry that he’ll scratch the TV and ruin it. The TV was far more expensive than the table he already scratched.
But that’s the price we pay for not declawing our kitties.
Sounds like you have some skittish ones in your house. Beware!
March 21st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
OMG! Your blog is hilarious and it’s almost freightening how much I can relate… First the Ice Cream trucks from hell, and now cats… I have 4 wonderful kitties myself… 1 Abby, 2 Bengals, and a Grey tabby… One day, after we got our brand new HD 65″ widescreen TV (yes, it’s big), our Abby was hanging out on the couch, my husband was so proud…”LOOK AT THAT RESOLUTION!”… and turned on some wildlife channel that was in HD… There was an Elephant herd running towards the camera…I sat there and watched our abbysinnian, his eyes almost popped out of his head, and he took off and ran up the steps like a batt out of hell… I almost pee’d the floor laughing… Needless to say, he didn’t come back downstairs for a couple hours… he still glances at the TV when he walks by…guess making sure that there isn’t a heard running towards him.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
RatherNotSay — That’s HILARIOUS!!! We do get a little worried that Shadow will scratch at the screen trying to bat at an animal. She almost did that when horses were on Sunrise Earth last week. She liked their tails moving about. It’s good that your kitty is afraid of the TV now (at least when elephants are on!)
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:53 pm
my dog loves the hdtv…he watches hdtv all the time
August 24th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Me and my Girlfriend have two precious cats one named Ilang an the other Kumar. But they don’t let us watch movies in my girl friend’s laptop. They get attracted to images on the computer and they sit on the keyboard making the pc go nuts. We have to close the room and let them in the kitchen with food so they get distracted eating, while we watch movies. Its pretty funny since they are so fast and in the blink of an eye they are sitting in the middle of the screen.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
flat panel televisions — I don’t doubt it. Everyone loves it!
Faq HDTV — Hilarious! Our cats know exactly where we don’t want them to sit. We’ve been lucky so far with the TV. There was only that one time when one of them tried swatting at a bird in HD. Can’t say I blame her. It looked so realistic!
January 21st, 2009 at 10:55 pm
makes me wonder what your cat’s response might be if it was watching a documentary on the big cats. something tells me Shadow might not remain glued to the screen in quite the same way as with the penguins! – Stephen
January 24th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
hdtv reviews — You’re right! You know, she’s a special kitty. She’s the only one of the three who will watch TV intently. She enjoys sports like tennis and she likes nature shows with moving animals. We’ll make a couch potato out of her yet!
February 25th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
My dog watches Sunrise Earth intently — she occasionally watches television very briefly, but will watch Sunrise Earth for 10 minutes or more at a time. It’s precisely the right speed to attract here. Really makes you think.
February 28th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Matt — You make a good point. Our cats may avoid other shows simply because everything looks like a blur to them. But if they see animals or plants moving ever so slightly on the screen, that may be what calls and keeps their attention. We love to watch them watch!
April 25th, 2009 at 4:43 am
I need an HD TV to test out this theory with my poodle. He isn’t impressed by regular TV, but he can tell if there is a real animal barking or the screen or if it is a sound effect.
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April 25th, 2009 at 6:09 am
Claudine — Same here. We love to watch our cats’ reaction to dogs barking on TV. They tear through the house thinking there’s an intruder. This didn’t usually happen until we got surround-sound.
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:57 am
It would be great if she know how to turn it off ^_^
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August 8th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
wow.. what a cute
pls tell her don’t catch that penguin
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April 12th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Great article. Hehe, Shadow is a cute kitty! I know my cat also has a hard time distinguishing HDTV from real life. She either crashes into the TV or stares for the longest time…
Did you see Computer To HDTV?