The future of DTV has just recently taken quite a blow (1 Viewer)

[Lew Crippen]

I’m with Jack—I can’t figure out what you mean.

Not trying to sound aggressive Liz, but do you mean that all you watch is Seinfeld reruns, or do you mean that is all you think is being telecast.

If all you watch is Seinfeld reruns (and I assume some other, older sitcom reruns), then you probably should not.

But (at least on my TV) there is a lot more on the air than old sitcom reruns. And much of it in HD.

I’m not exactly with Jack on my TV habit—for example I get pumped every Sunday night during the opening credits of The Sopranos—more perhaps for the sound coming out in full 5.1 sound than for the picture:

Woke up this morning…

Great stuff—without digital, a lot of the impact is lost (at least for me—many others may not care at all).

 

[AaronMK]

The transition to HDTV really doesn't seem all that different from that from cassette tapes to CD, or from video cassettes to DVDs.

If this transition is really important to the FCC, then they should be focusing their efforts on getting TV manufactures to make converters a standard feature in their models, not trying to make people feel like they are being forced into buying a very expesive television set. (Heck, they were able to do that with the V-Chip)

Even being in the positon of not being able to afford an HDTV, it seems silly to lock everyone into an archaic format.


and the response I have had to this for years is that the only thing everyone having a widescreen set would do would change the AR of P&S material to 16:9, unless the TV changes shape to fit the material. Too many people just want their screens filled.

I would much rather the FCC mandate OAR for all DVDs (and any other method of delivering video programming) then have a mandate for HDTV. A P&S presantation is just as fake as most of the "Rolex" watches sold on the streets of NYC. If selling those watches is a crime, shouldn't selling a P&S DVD be as well?

 

[LizH]

What I meant was that right now, much of the programming -- IMO -- out there is mediocre-to-awful. "Seinfeld" was intended as a metaphor for modern programming in general.

I'm not going to spend $400 on a set to watch a medium that is comprised primarily -- IMO -- of derivative, mass-market garbage.

[rant]How many "CSI" and "Law & Order" clones can a person possibly stand? And don't get me started on the brain-rotting reality crap out there.[/rant]

To me, it's not worth it.

And before anyone jumps on my beloved Birds of Prey, let me say this: it got off to a rocky start ... but it got better as time went on. I thought it had an intriguing and orginal premise.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, the transition to digital media didn't leave your existing devices as gigantic paperweights. You could still play all your LPs, cassettes, VHS, etc., so long as you still had your original equipment, and your equipment was still useful for playing your collection. The jump to HDTV means that your TV is no longer useful, and the people most affected by this are the people who can least afford to upgrade.

Then there's the thought of just how pervasive NTSC is. I've got two VCRs and a Replay hooked up, none of them HDTV-ready. Upgrading is a major inconvenience. For better or worse, people consider television a utility, and react to changing it the same way they'd react to power cables suddenly no longer fitting into their outlets.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Now I see your point.

Think of the conversion, though, as your opportunity to jump into the HDTV fray. You can watch the same drek in 1080i (assuming it was first broadcast in 1080i).

Adam, if I have a criticism of PBS it is just that: the inexorable creeping in of commercial messages. According to PBS spin, they are not "commercials" simply because the promo copy doesn't conclude with a call to action ("Buy today!"). However, most of the spots also run on commercial broadcast television. And given how the PBS Pledge Drive thing is getting ever more aggressive, the network no longer is completely, as you put it, a safe haven from billboards.

 

[LizH]

I suppose I still have my DVDs.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Jack: Exactly. Pledge drives were always a nightmare but they were offset by an insurgence of exciting new content. As recently as the mid-nineties, we'd have the set on PBS all day long during pledge week and someone would yell in if they were previewing something new and exciting. Otherwise, it was commercial-free and classy. Now with the weakest incarnations yet of 'This Old House' and 'Antiques Roadshow,' old repeats of British sitcoms and much the same content I watched a decade ago, it fails (with the exception of fantastic specials like the 'Great Performances' series) to grab my attention with the onslaught of new channels. And I'm not sure that's bad; if TV was entirely government run what motivation would there be to produce decent content at all?

 

[AaronMK]

If media consuption is a utilty, then the transition from tapes to CDs also had the effect of the outlet changing. You can't go into stores and get the latest albums on cassetes anymore. It looks like it will be that way soon for VHS to DVD as well. So if movies and music are what you get from the outlet, then your cassete and VHS player will no longer fit into that either.

I still don't really see how this is different from other transitions where people have had to buy a new piece of equipment to consume a new prevelent media format. (Well, being mandated by the FCC I can, but not from a consumer electronics point of view.)

 

[LizH]

I really didn't have PBS in mind when I first wrote my post.

My criticism was directed primarily at the six major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Understood. The PBS discussion just happened to weave through and around the confusion about your initial post, it wasn't neccessarily a direct result there of

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

If you don't have cable, you don't get TLC, Bravo, and the History Channel.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

But they are never-the-less commercial alternatives to public television content. That was the point being made.

 

[dan fritzen]

No one is throwing them aside, they can use a analog TV with HDTV. All they need is an HD tuner and they can ouput to their old sets, and since the FCC is mandating all new TV's over 36" ( i think) must have a HD tuner going forward prices will come down on HD tuners until they are as cheap as DVD players are now.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Adam, the chief PBS affiliate in Los Angeles (KCET-Channel 28; there are three other PBS affiliates in the area) has stopped running culturally stimulating fare during its Pledge Drives. Instead, we are getting ad nauseum repeats of the two-hour New Age fantasy, The Power of Intention, with New Age guru "Dr." David Dyer. And endless repeats of fingerpainting tutorials from Donna Dewberry. And the hundredth rerun of The DuWop Fifty and even Lawrence Welk.

Look, I'd happily take reruns of Frontline and NOVA and NOW with Bill Moyers during these endless Pledge Drives; those are the programs that compel me to tune in to PBS in the first place.

Of course, I've hijacked the darn thread. Sorry, all. We're discussing the DTV transition aren't we?

 

[LizH]

The last figure I heard was that 80% of American households have cable and/or satellite TV.

Given that -- IIRC -- 98% of american households have at least ONE TV, OTA signals probably accounts for 18% of that figure (The other 2% don't have TV PERIOD .)

 

[MikeM]

But they aren't mutually exclusive. Most people I know who have cable/satellite also have (and use) OTA on their TV (or another TV in their house) as well. So I'd guess that the number of people who watch/use OTA TV would be much much higher than we think.