HD signal availability hurting sales of HD TV sets?This story over at News.com piqued my interest - apparently a lot of people are unhappy with their HD television sets because they do not have access to HD content.?
Still, after spending thousands of dollars on fancy new high-definition televisions, owners commonly don't even watch shows in HD programming, according to Bruce Leichtman, principal analyst at research firm Leichtman Research Group. "Call it cognitive dissonance or ignorance is bliss, but most households, about two-thirds, aren't watching shows in HD even though they think they are," Leichtman said.
Might want to grab a coffee or something as I'm going to rant a little here. There are a few things that are hurting HD adoptance - one is the stupid HD-ready moniker. About 10 years back, receivers were marketed as being Dolby Digital ready. It essentially meant that if there was some sort of decoder that could process the signal, the receiver could then output the 5.1 channel. HD-ready is just as bad - while the display can handle a HD signal, up here in Canada, it means a 500$ cable box to do it. My buddy and I both have HD sets but he only took the plunge recently for the box.?Problem two is programming. There are currently six channels up here that are in Hi-Def. While some of the programs on Discovery look great, one of our jokes is that we are watching the same whale program over and over again. Third is consumer education - if letterboxed movies are any indication, there are a lot of?people who are not savvy with electronics and I think the 16:9 format bugs a lot of people.?More content, Hi-Def or not, needs to move from 4:3 to 16:9.?I could go on but yeah, a lot of it is the entertainment, cable and CE industries having zero coordination.?On the subject of video however, ATI has whipped up a great whitepaper on video technology a lot of it being pertinent to HD.?p>Article Link: Mixed response with HD adoptation
Leadtek WinFast TV USB II Deluxe Review (2005-03-12)