HDTV Future? (1 Viewer)

[KenA]

I'm moving into my first house in September and my first purchase will be a HDTV compatible TV, followed in time by a HDTV receiver (holidays). After roaming around the TV and HDTV forums, something has been bothering me. It seems that the prices for HDTV upgradable RPTVs are dropping dramatically (soon to be obsolete?).
I have also read about possible changes in the way receivers are connected to the monitors. Should I hold off to see if the standard is going to Firewire instead of component? The last thing I want to do is purchase a multi $K HD upgradable TV if I will not be able to upgrade it.
Does anyone have any more information about this debate? Any web pages I should check out?
Thanks.

 

[Abdul Jalib]

This is the question that everyone wants the answer to. Nobody knows.
In the U.S., the public air waves are almost guaranteed to stay free of copy protection, due to laws already in place. The HDTV broadcasts of ABC, CBS, NBC, etc., will always be able to be displayed by current sets.
The issue is only DirecTV and Dish. My guess is that only pay-per-view movies will be affected by copy protection, while HD HBO/Showtime will remain recordable but will show upconverts instead of HD transfers until a movie is "old"; HD Discovery, Mark Cuban's 24 hour HD sports channel, and other anticipated future non-movie HD channels should suffer no copy protection. However, I could be wrong. Satellite services are certainly free to cease broadcasting HDTV altogether, or to switch to broadcasting it such that decryption is only possible on their proprietary devices into firewire-equipped TV's, or whatever else they want. DirecTV and Dish probably do not actually want to screw you over, but the powerful MPAA is pulling their strings.
At this point, you should probably wait a few months, since the new models are coming out. If a large percentage of the new HDTV models have firewire, then maybe give in to the MPAA and get a firewire-equipped HDTV. It's certainly the safest route, but note that there is no guarantee that firewire will be the copy protection scheme finally used, if in fact any copy protection scheme is ever used.
------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Philips_HDTV/joinClick to subscribe to Philips_HDTV discussion group

 

[KenA]

Thanks! I guess I'll wait until October.
------------------
»"We're gonna need a bigger boat!"«

 

[ChrisMatson]

I have been considering taking the plunge into the realm of HDTV, but now I'm going to wait until at least late 2001 before dropping over $2,000 on a TV.