Meemaw walks in, holding a pirated Blu-ray of “Die Hard.” “Any of y’all know how to turn off the region lock? This one’s from Hong Kong.”

Sheldon, however, sits alone in his room, looking at a single frame from the Blu-ray manual: “1080p: Twice the detail of 720p.”

“There,” George grunts, wiping sweat from his brow. “Your mother insisted on this ‘Blu-ray’ player for the church’s Easter pageant rehearsal tapes. Don’t touch it.”

He whispers to himself: “I saw it once. The perfect resolution. And now it’s gone.”

“See?” George says. “Too much technology.”

Sheldon Cooper, age 9, sits cross-legged in front of the family’s new 27-inch CRT television. His father, George Sr., has just finished wrestling a tangled mess of component cables behind the entertainment center.

Sheldon, holding a copy of “The Physics of Optical Storage Media,” pushes his glasses up. “Father, this is a 1080p Blu-ray player connected via composite cables to a standard-definition television. You’ve essentially strapped a rocket to a tricycle.”

“I used physics ,” Missy grins. “Sheldon talks enough for all of us. I just listen.”