cliffbo
12-30-2007, 11:28 PM
Thought i'd post this, Viper, because it quite clearly verifies an argument we were having a while back... like i said, people buy these TVs and at some point they will want to know why HD? that's inevitably will lead to people buying more HD ready equipment, like 360/PS3/HD-DVD/Blu-ray
So I have an HD TV, now what?
There's more to high def than owning a big TV, says survey
Rob Mead
29 Dec 2007 16:30 GMT
If you think getting high-definition TV here is tough, then spare some sympathy for our cousins over the pond. For despite the fact that 30 per cent of all US households now have HDTV sets, only 44 per cent of those use them to watch high-def TV. How so?
The chief reason, according to the US Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is that many Americans don't want to pay the subscription charges involved.
Getting the full HD experience
Others simply aren't interested in the technology. They've arguably only bought a big, flat panel TV because they needed to replace an existing set. While the final group are perhaps the most benighted of all - they simply can't tell whether they have high-def TV or not.
Advertisement
The UK lags behind the US in terms of HD adoption. But 2007 was finally the year when HD TV sets became truly affordable. Just take a look around on the web - you can pick up a high-def LCD for around the £500 mark. See Samsung's 32-inch LE-32R87BD, for example, or Panasonic's 100Hz TX-32LXD70.
Walk along an average UK street and flatscreen TVs are now all the rage. But, as anybody who's stumped up for a new HD TV will tell you, standard-def pictures will look horribly grainy on a big LCD or plasma. You've got to keep spending to get the full HD experience.
Both Sky and Virgin Media offer HD content via subscription. Sky HD easily leads the way, with exclusive HD channels, including Sky One, SkyArts, two Sky Movies HD channels and Sky Sports HD. It supplements this with BBC HD, National Geographic HD, the History Channel HD and Discovery HD.
Blu-ray or HD DVD?
If you're not going to sign up to Virgin or Sky HD, then Blu-ray and HD DVD provide high-def disc options. Neither format has managed to wow UK shoppers so far (nor US shoppers come to think of it). But Sony's PlayStation 3 provides the best available Blu-ray option, while Toshiba's HD-EP35 player offers full-spec HD DVD playback for around £270.
The ongoing format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray still scares many prospective buyers off. There's obviously a risk that one format will ultimately win out, leaving anybody who bought the losing format with a potentially useless bit of electronics.
So the smart move is to stick with DVD. It's still a perfectly good delivery system and, with a good upscaling DVD player like the Denon DVD-1730, you can jazz up your existing movies to near-HD quality. Upscaling is also a feature of Blu-ray and HD DVD players, so you could arguably buy an HD DVD player and never actually watch an HD DVD on it.
Lastly, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 both offer HD gaming. The Xbox 360 also offers HD movies for download via the Video Marketplace on Xbox Live. The selection of downloads is limited at the moment (who really wants to download Ocean's 11?). But expect such digital downloads to give Blu-ray and HD DVD a serious fight in 2008.
The results quoted in this article come from a CEA members-only survey called "HDTV: You Have the Set, But Do You Have the Content?"
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertainment/high-definition/news/ive-got-an-hdtv-now-what?articleid=1347290907
So I have an HD TV, now what?
There's more to high def than owning a big TV, says survey
Rob Mead
29 Dec 2007 16:30 GMT
If you think getting high-definition TV here is tough, then spare some sympathy for our cousins over the pond. For despite the fact that 30 per cent of all US households now have HDTV sets, only 44 per cent of those use them to watch high-def TV. How so?
The chief reason, according to the US Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is that many Americans don't want to pay the subscription charges involved.
Getting the full HD experience
Others simply aren't interested in the technology. They've arguably only bought a big, flat panel TV because they needed to replace an existing set. While the final group are perhaps the most benighted of all - they simply can't tell whether they have high-def TV or not.
Advertisement
The UK lags behind the US in terms of HD adoption. But 2007 was finally the year when HD TV sets became truly affordable. Just take a look around on the web - you can pick up a high-def LCD for around the £500 mark. See Samsung's 32-inch LE-32R87BD, for example, or Panasonic's 100Hz TX-32LXD70.
Walk along an average UK street and flatscreen TVs are now all the rage. But, as anybody who's stumped up for a new HD TV will tell you, standard-def pictures will look horribly grainy on a big LCD or plasma. You've got to keep spending to get the full HD experience.
Both Sky and Virgin Media offer HD content via subscription. Sky HD easily leads the way, with exclusive HD channels, including Sky One, SkyArts, two Sky Movies HD channels and Sky Sports HD. It supplements this with BBC HD, National Geographic HD, the History Channel HD and Discovery HD.
Blu-ray or HD DVD?
If you're not going to sign up to Virgin or Sky HD, then Blu-ray and HD DVD provide high-def disc options. Neither format has managed to wow UK shoppers so far (nor US shoppers come to think of it). But Sony's PlayStation 3 provides the best available Blu-ray option, while Toshiba's HD-EP35 player offers full-spec HD DVD playback for around £270.
The ongoing format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray still scares many prospective buyers off. There's obviously a risk that one format will ultimately win out, leaving anybody who bought the losing format with a potentially useless bit of electronics.
So the smart move is to stick with DVD. It's still a perfectly good delivery system and, with a good upscaling DVD player like the Denon DVD-1730, you can jazz up your existing movies to near-HD quality. Upscaling is also a feature of Blu-ray and HD DVD players, so you could arguably buy an HD DVD player and never actually watch an HD DVD on it.
Lastly, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 both offer HD gaming. The Xbox 360 also offers HD movies for download via the Video Marketplace on Xbox Live. The selection of downloads is limited at the moment (who really wants to download Ocean's 11?). But expect such digital downloads to give Blu-ray and HD DVD a serious fight in 2008.
The results quoted in this article come from a CEA members-only survey called "HDTV: You Have the Set, But Do You Have the Content?"
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertainment/high-definition/news/ive-got-an-hdtv-now-what?articleid=1347290907