High Definition TV

[ValenciaSon]

How popular is it in Spain? How popular is it in your country?

[cubix]

I know that you live in the US, but I think at the moment it's over-rated, not enough programming, and many people don't have access to it.

When I was doing my home stay in Salamanca, I was supirsed that in Spain and the states, they had almost the same types of programs. One night my roomate was sick so I had to stay back with him, we watched the spanish version of blind date, who wants to be a millionaire, Maury(re-uniting families and such) and some sketchy news show(spoke waaaaayyy to fast). And they only had like 5 channels.

[Ben]

I haven't seen it anywhere but then again I haven't been to a TV shop in a long time...

[Neil Jaynes]

Televisions are the opiate of the nation, forget religion (or lottery) they are satans little helpers in disguise, they rob children, adults and anyone caught in their glare of vital intelligence, they steal your ability to socialise with people and destroy your will to live.......................

oopps wrong meeting.........................

[greytop]

As Spain is going to all digital TV broadcasts in the next few years the HD standard will gain ground I guess. The Sky satellite now has some on offer although you have to take out a further subscription to view them. I read somewhere that a lot of the TV sets currently sold as "HD compatible" may not in fact give very good results. Guess it is the same as with most technology - wait till it settles down unless you have some real good reason to jump in early, or a bottomless bank account!
I´ve been around long enough to remember most of the changes to the TV system from the old 405 line black & white days via 625 lines, colour and now digital. None of them ever made a bad program any better! Luckily they still fit sets with a censor button called ON/OFF.
I hope they do not lose the local channels in Spain when they finally switch off the analogue system. They have limited resources but happily broadcast the whole of a fiesta such as the building of the huge floral "virgin & child" in Valencia for the Fallas or the Moors and Christians from Alcoi etc. Fascinating to an extranjero.

[ValenciaSon]

When there is a properly rendered program on tv, I have never failed to impress even the most uninterested person when I show them what HDTV can do. I have a 43" HDTV which really amazes people. But what really floors them is when I show them my home theater" dedicated room housing a 110" (279.4 cm) diameter screen and HD projector.

Now if the content is in SD (standard definition) which is ~ 425 lines of resolution in the US and a little higher in PAL and you have a an HD set trying to render those images, you see a lot more of the flaws and limitations of those lower resolutions. You're also subject to the quality of your sets built-in video processor and its ability to up-convert images. So you can get a lower quality image in HD sets.

[DUH CAR]

Have a HD Sony LCD TV and a satellite HD PVR. We absolutely love that combo. Makes our old projection TV look like crap. Lots of programming in HD on the U.S. networks and even the Canadians are getting on board. Local news is going HD this year as well. Especially like the programs on PBS.

[JanesDaddy]

Televisions are the opiate of the nation, forget religion (or lottery) they are satans little helpers in disguise, they rob children, adults and anyone caught in their glare of vital intelligence, they steal your ability to socialise with people and destroy your will to live.......................

Love that line. It's so true!

Anyway, to the question. I worked for my local cable company in Montana for a year. We offered an expensive digital TV package with 100+ channels, but the 5 HD channels were US$10/month extra. Most of the HD content was sports, plus some nature/documentaries from PBS and Discovery. (Did that make me a dope dealer? ;) )

Sales of HD TVs have been very slow. Some surveys suggest 15% of US households (http://www.screendigest.com/reports/06highdeftv/readmore/view.html) have HD-ready TVs, but the number who subscribe to HD services is lower (what a waste of money!). No politician has the balls to turn off the analogue signal while there are still so many people who don't have HD sets, so it'll be a long time before HDTV is pervasive.

[JanesDaddy]

This was in today's Grauniad Media section (http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1760761,00.html);
...the switch-over to digital ... is ahead of schedule, with around 70% of households already receiving digital. Britain still leads the world in this respect, though other countries such as the United States have opted for a switch-off date three years earlier than 2012, Britain's target date.

The good news is, the World Cup (this June) will be broadcast in HD!

[ValenciaSon]

Who or which network is broadcasting the World Cup in HD?

[JanesDaddy]

Who or which network is broadcasting the World Cup in HD?
The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4834322.stm), Sky (http://www.hdtvuk.tv/world_cup_in_hd/index.html), ABC, ESPN (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=339604&cc=5901), to name but four (there are probably others in other countries, too).

Also, Odeon cinemas in Bath, Guildford, Liverpool City, The Printworks Manchester, Newcastle Silverlink, Greenwich, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Birmingham, Wimbledon, Maidenhead, Norwich, Southampton and Sheffield. It'll cost £5.50 per game, but the screen is pretty big!!

[ValenciaSon]

Thanks JanesDaddy!

I can't wait!

[gary]

How popular is it in Spain? How popular is it in your country?

I get the feeling that its all the Emperors New Clothes - we will watch TV on whatever is available - We were givem FM radio and now Digital radio but folk still listen to AM (and even longwave if they want to listen to ball by ball comentary on the cricket!)

Surely the only point of HD TV is to sell us all the DVDs that we already own on a new platform - BlueRay or SonyHD - now that a CRT TV lasts 15 years plus they have to move us on to a new platform every so often to keep profits up!!!

[ValenciaSon]

The vastly superior image quality HD has over SD is real and observable by the average Joe. It's definitely not the emperor's clothes scenario. The real reason HD DVDs and Blu Ray is now coming out is because the studios were paranoid about releasing their content in HD in a digital format which they equated with easily copied and distributed. Otherwise, DVDs could've been in HD much earlier so the idea of new formats to re-sell the same content is not the motive.

[gary]

Well, ValenciaSon, you would say that - you bought one!!

Plasma or LED?

With regard to copying content the pirates will simply dub the content to an old format and distribute it on DVD. I don't condone piracy and, as an ex pro entertainer I buy my downloaded music from iTunes so that the artist and the label get what they are due - but theres a whole generation that have grown up with free content and to them any form of encryption is a challenge.

Also, if I've paid through the nose for a film on blueray (theyre saying $40 - £25) I ought to be able to watch it anywhere I want. What about the notion that Blueray discs will contain an iPod version with heavy Digital Rights Management?

The obvious way to sell this content is online - will there be any physical discs any more in 5 - 10 years?

[JanesDaddy]

...I buy my downloaded music from iTunes so that the artist and the label get what they are due
But in the news lately (http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=14495&Page=1&pagePos=2),
Artists sue Sony for iTunes royalties
Sony Music stands accused of deliberate underpayment of artist royalties for digital music downloads in a new US class action filed yesterday...
Let's face it, big corporations (Wal*Mart, Micro$oft, Sony, whoever) will always abuse their market position to stick it to the little guys (i.e. the recording artists, consumers, etc).

[ValenciaSon]

Actually, neither, I have a DLP rear projector 43" tv by Samsung, a 38" direct view by Proscan and a DLP projector by Sharp. All HD. I will buy a high def DVD player after a while. I read that Samsung is coming out with a hybrid unit which handles both blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, in addition to DVD-audio and SACD.

[gary]

I read that Samsung is coming out with a hybrid unit which handles both blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, in addition to DVD-audio and SACD.
Dont be so sure - the dual platform was going to be by Samsung but there is something contractual that stops them producing it according to John C Dvorak in his Cranky Geeks Podcast - Latest one specifically about HD TV & associated stuff... worth a listen

http://www.crankygeeks.com

You can download audio version @ 13.4Mb but there are about half a dozen video formars as well - all available through iTunes of course.

[ValenciaSon]

Actually according to Sound and Vision magazine, Samsung will observe how the Blu-Ray and HDDVD formats fair against each other. If both seem in similar demand, they will proceed with a hybrid model.