National "Make Sure Your Friends and Family Are Actually Watching HD Content on Their HDTVs Week" Starts Today (Because I Say So)
From a recent survey of just over a thousand people conducted by Best Buy (which was certainly done for marketing purposes, but is still informative):
The fun really starts when you start trying to explain the difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD.
• Almost all consumers (89%) feel they don't completely understand HDTV technology-how it works and what it takes to get the full HDTV experience• While 41% of HDTV owners admit to knowing little to nothing at all about HD, they would not want to admit that to friends and family; Half (52%) of HDTV owners agree it would be difficult to admit their HDTV wasn't set up right after showing off to friends and family
• Half of HDTV owners (50%) admit they are either not watching HD programming, or they aren't sure if they are. Of these respondents, 35% didn't realize they needed to subscribe to HD programming to watch HDTV
• Nearly four in ten consumers (39%) don't identify an HD-ready TV as a necessary component of the HD experience
• 52% of respondents don't realize you need a special HD compatible cable to experience HD programming
Anyway, do your part: make sure everyone you know with an HDTV is actually getting HD content, via their cable or satellite company, over-the-air broadcasts, or HD disc. It will make them happier and make you look smarter.
(Also, that survey quote is from an email, not the link, although the information is the same; that's why it's not a direct quote, should be looking for one.)
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Wow, those folks must have too much money or too little time. I just bought an HDTV and I did research for about 2 months before I made my decision.
Let's not and say we did.
The fact that people can't distinguish NTSC from HDTV ought to tell you something. The fact that the studio's are issuing takedown notices over YouTube content at sub-VGA resolution says an awful lot about how essential HDTV is (for content, DRM is a different matter) .
So go out, play a DVD with an upconverter. We won't tell.
"they needed to subscribe to HD programming to watch HDTV"
Except for the many millions of people who are within range of OTA HD broadcasts...
"you need a special HD compatible cable to experience HD programming"
Yes, the coax from my antenna to my TV is super special... 8-/
For that matter, component and VGA cables are perfectly capable of carrying 1080p resolution, and I wouldn't call either particularly special.
For decades people have been coming from the US to Europe (or vice versa) and commenting on the difference between NTSC and PAL so it's probably a bit of a stretch to say they can't tell the difference between NTSC and HDTV.
Oh, my mom is certainly getting HD. :(
I'm not, but her setup is enviable, at least by me. :D
Many of our customers are purchasing high definition LCD televisions for use with standard definition cable service. For them, the larger picture area and decreased physical profile of the television is what sells the unit rather than the available resolution.
Quite a few of them simply aren't willing to pay for HD signal distribution either, and for good reason. One RF video amplifier can drive signal for 50 TVs, with only one wire needing to be pulled. With this method, each screen demodulates the signal itself and allows each TV to be tuned to a different channel with many channels to choose from. For HD, there just isn't a solution that simple to the best of my knowledge.
Keep in mind that these are commercial clients, not residential Best Buy customers. However, the lack of knowledge can be found regardless of the market. The best any of us techno-weenies can do is to share our knowledge with everyone in the hopes that educate even a few un-savvy folks.
The problem is that everything related to HDTV is so ludicrously overcomplicated. You've got three different resolutions (720p, 1080i, 1080p); a number of different display technologies (CRT, LCD, plasma, OLED, DLP, LCD projection, etc.); three different cable standards (component, DVI, and HDMI); two competing disc formats (HD DVD and Blu-Ray); and, just in case you weren't confused enough, the question of whether or not your older display supports HDCP. You have to be an expert to make anything even resembling an informed decision.
-HDTV is digital TV, but not all digital TV is HD. Most OTA (Over The Air) content is standard definition.
-5 standard definition channels can be broadcast with the bandwidth of one HD channel. Most OTA stations broadcast HD content during limited hours, not all the time.
-It is not necessary to subscribe to HD content. My local public tv affiliate does free HD broadcasts.
-It is not necessary to buy an HDTV to get the benefits of digital TV. A ATSC tuner box connected to a conventional NTSC TV delivers a superior picture to analog TV.
- BestBuy wants you to think that HD subscriptions are required because they can sell DirecTV subscriptions in their store.
I think a lot of these numbers are due to people who may not be tech-savvy who are taken down the garden path while shopping for a new home entertainment system.
Case in point: A nice but tech-clueless co-worker recently bought and installed a huge to-the-gills new home entertainment TV/Stereo/Personal Death Star sort of entertainment system. She had originally gone in just to buy a new TV.
Among other things, it took 3 visits (billed) from Time Warner Cable and one from BestBuy to hook up all her crap.
Then, she groused that "she didn't see the TV difference" in HDTV...until one day, she came in beaming that "she had discovered all these channels past the digital music channels" that "made all the difference in the world."
Then after a few months of bliss, TWC did something to her system again and now her surround sound isn't working.
My personal philosophy is to never buy anything I can't install and set up myself....
Best Buy also wants to sell you an HDMI cable for $125.00 (Best Buy "Heartland" store, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, May 2007), insisting that the component cables that come packaged with the digital cable box (Rogers Cable TV branded Scientific Atlanta 3250HD) don't deliver "a really digital signal."
My survey says most Best Buy employees are wankers.
It doesn't help when it says HD on the screen during sporting events, even on the standard def channel.
I have many customers who have HD TVs and simply have the TV set to the wrong input, so they are watching it in standard def. I go to their house and flip to the component in, and they are shocked by the difference, and then they feel really dumb.
Most people don't know how to use their widescreen TV, watching 4:3 broadcasts in vertically squashed format without even noticing, so this doesn't surprise me one bit.
I've seen the difference between Hd tv and analog, but honestly why is that so important? Is it really worth the time and money to be able to see each facial hair on an actor's face? HD is useful for video games where detail can make a huge difference, but to watch and episode of Friends, is it needed?