A Choice
 
My Dad Recently I took my dad shopping for a new TV set.  His 10 year old RCA 27" tube started turning green.  He'd been told by friends to get an HDTV because 'if you don't you won't be able to watch TV in a few years' and ‘its better’.  He sounded desperate and pressured into buying a flat screen HDTV.  He'd recently had a the chance to live in a house while on vacation that had an LCD HDTV and had some very understandable concerns about how they distorted SD 4:3 network programming if used in full-screen mode or had black bars that made the viewable screen size smaller.  So I went looking for some stats on the progress 16:9 and 4:3 has made into the marketplace recently.  I found very little in terms of solid numbers, except for this: http://ezinearticles.com/?HDTV-Offers-Pristine---Vivid-Images-And-Unbelievable-Audio&id=461650 That information is directly from The Consumer Electronics Association, a manufacturer's trade organization.  To boil it down it down to numbers this is what it says:  Right now 15% of the viewing public has an HDTV.  That means that out of 107 million sets in the US 15 million are HD capable.  Of those people only 28%  say the picture is better on an HD set.  So of those 15 million people that have the opportunity to view HD content in their homes only 4.2 million say that the picture is better on an HD set than on an SD set.  That means that 4% of the entire viewing public in the US believe, right now in early 2007, that HD offers a noticeably superior picture.  Taken on a larger scale, if every home in the US that currently has a TV set was given an HDTV replacement there would still only be 28% that would say it offered an improvement over what they had.     A Personal Note I'm one of the people in that 4% - I see the difference of HD. To me its a striking, immersive and engaging improvement. But it comes at a price. And its not just a monetary price. As the distractions of popular entertainment get more addictive the interaction we have with real human beings becomes less and less a part of our lives. That’s a topic that has completely different intents than just what format we, as videographers, should be using to mine our raw material, but I think its important that that my stance on the advancement of technology, in general, be known. My Experience Going through this experience with my dad I now have first-hand experience of the confusion that stems from the flood of information proffered in purchasing environments and water cooler discussions about HDTV.  16:9 vs. 4:3? Black bars on my movies and 4:3 network programming? ATSC reception issues? The ability to "up-res" SD DVDs for HDTVs?  These and many others are are common topics that the average viewer has to wade through when their TV set dies.  Even I, a video production professional, have a hard time giving people advice about what set would be best for them.  For my dad the best option was $375 name-brand, 32", 4:3, SD, flat-screen tube.  He loves it.  The picture is great and I don't get any calls wanting to know why there are black bars on the screen, why the people all look short and fat or why some shows look absolutely horrid (which happens when SD programming is presented on large-screen LCD and plasma TVs). Predicting the Future There are some predictions in the aforementioned article as to how many homes will have an HDTV by the end of 2007.  Those have to be taken with a grain of salt.  Every past prediction about the infusion of HDTVs into homes has been overestimated.  As shown by their own poll the vast majority of consumers don't see the need for something better.   But that is finally going to change.  By force.  Its in the best interest of the Consumer Electronics Association and the FCC to have everyone believe that HDTV's will become the norm by customer demand rather than as part of the industry-wide planned-obsolescence campaign which is really the case.  Who do you think is really behind the DTV countdown? The pressure by electronics manufacturers may seem like the force behind the transition but also consider the documented windfall the FCC is about to get selling off the analog television frequencies and the money trail gets even longer.   Finally, walk through a big-box electronics store or glance through an electronics store flyer in the Sunday paper.  You will see that HD, 16:9 sets are being presented as quite nearly the only option, and a much more expensive option at that, with higher profit margins and accessory selling opportunities. As I heard during an excursion to an electronics store salespeople are even using the FCC-mandated analog transmission deadline as a selling tool. All this is marching on despite the indisputable statistics of weak demand. Why? Because someone told us it was better. © 2007 JoelPeregrine.com | All Rights Reserved http://dtv.gov/http://ezinearticles.com/?HDTV-Offers-Pristine---Vivid-Images-And-Unbelievable-Audio&id=461650http://www.ce.org/http://www.dtv.govhttp://www.fcc.gov/http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/05/b1707035.htmlhttp://www.joelperegrine.comshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5shapeimage_1_link_6
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
JoelPeregrine.com