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Here we are, only two years before the original date for total switch-over to HDTV broadcasting, and I get the distinct feeling that the U.S. is nowhere near to getting the bugs out of a system for delivering a convenient and reliable HDTV signal to the public.
We can beam pictures from the surface of Mars, but the outlook for me getting an HDTV broadcast of the Super Bowl in my home looks pretty grim.
And no one seems willing to admit the obvious -- that the U.S. in 2004 is still not ready, neither sociologically nor technologically, for HDTV. There are fewer people screaming, “I want my HDTV!†today, than were screaming, “I want my MTV!†two decades ago. The overwhelming emotion surrounding HDTV everywhere is… indifference.
Broadcasters treat HDTV as a tremendous burden, instead of as their future. Local channels are barely meeting the FCC equipment requirements, or begging for exemptions, while maintaining a “no one’s watching anyway†attitude toward the quality of the HDTV signal they put out.
My local cable company announced HDTV service with great fanfare late last year, but they offer only three of the eight local channels listed as broadcasting HDTV in my area at antennaweb.org. Of course, one they don’t offer (and have no definite timetable for adding) is the CBS station, which is carrying the Super Bowl this year.
Retailers would love to sell you an “HDTV-ready†widescreen digital TV set, but have little knowledge about how to get a high-definition signal onto your screen. Go into a retailer and ask about an ATSC tuner, and nine times out of ten they won’t know what you’re talking about. I am shocked at the small choice of ATSC tuners out there in 2004. Most retailers, if they carry any at all, carry only one brand, take it or leave it. And the knowledge about features is almost zero. “Here it is,†…that’s all they know.
Antennas are still looked upon as things people got rid of when cable moved in. At the Channel Master web site, it listed Lowe’s as a retailer in my area. I went to the store and found the employee didn’t know where the outdoor antennas were -- he sent me to the wrong aisle. I searched around and finally found exactly *one* giant multi-purpose CM antenna, not the HDTV UHF antenna I was looking for. The Radio Shack store I visited said they were “sold outâ€. There are five Radio Shacks in my city, after he called two others without success, I told him to stop.
Well, I could always order an antenna off the internet, but first I needed an HDTV tuner. After reading many complaints about several models of ATSC tuners at this message board, I finally determined that LG’s newest tuner was the best choice for me. Two days after placing my order, I learned that a software glitch had halted shipments of all LG ATSC tuners, and may force a recall of those already sold. It doesn’t exactly build confidence in a system to learn that technological bugs are still rampant. I am now nervous about spending hundreds of dollars on a piece of equipment that the manufacturer can’t guarantee will be reliable. Do I buy another model without the features I want, and hope the thing works without crashing, or abandon my hope of getting an HDTV signal to my new plasma TV in the very near future?
When my dad bought his first color TV in 1957, at least he didn’t have to worry about whether the tuner software was full of bugs, or whether the system would reboot in the middle of “Bonanzaâ€. The more I learn about HDTV, the more respect I have for NTSC -- maybe it doesn’t work beautifully, but by God it works!
We have the technology today to broadcast and receive a television picture in people’s homes that is vastly superior to anything my dad saw on his 1957 color TV set…
…or do we, really?
The dirty little secret is we aren’t ready, not the broadcasters, not the cable companies, not the tuner manufacturers, not retailers… not anybody. The technology is not ready, and the distribution system is not ready.
The U.S. is not ready for HDTV.
We can beam pictures from the surface of Mars, but the outlook for me getting an HDTV broadcast of the Super Bowl in my home looks pretty grim.
And no one seems willing to admit the obvious -- that the U.S. in 2004 is still not ready, neither sociologically nor technologically, for HDTV. There are fewer people screaming, “I want my HDTV!†today, than were screaming, “I want my MTV!†two decades ago. The overwhelming emotion surrounding HDTV everywhere is… indifference.
Broadcasters treat HDTV as a tremendous burden, instead of as their future. Local channels are barely meeting the FCC equipment requirements, or begging for exemptions, while maintaining a “no one’s watching anyway†attitude toward the quality of the HDTV signal they put out.
My local cable company announced HDTV service with great fanfare late last year, but they offer only three of the eight local channels listed as broadcasting HDTV in my area at antennaweb.org. Of course, one they don’t offer (and have no definite timetable for adding) is the CBS station, which is carrying the Super Bowl this year.
Retailers would love to sell you an “HDTV-ready†widescreen digital TV set, but have little knowledge about how to get a high-definition signal onto your screen. Go into a retailer and ask about an ATSC tuner, and nine times out of ten they won’t know what you’re talking about. I am shocked at the small choice of ATSC tuners out there in 2004. Most retailers, if they carry any at all, carry only one brand, take it or leave it. And the knowledge about features is almost zero. “Here it is,†…that’s all they know.
Antennas are still looked upon as things people got rid of when cable moved in. At the Channel Master web site, it listed Lowe’s as a retailer in my area. I went to the store and found the employee didn’t know where the outdoor antennas were -- he sent me to the wrong aisle. I searched around and finally found exactly *one* giant multi-purpose CM antenna, not the HDTV UHF antenna I was looking for. The Radio Shack store I visited said they were “sold outâ€. There are five Radio Shacks in my city, after he called two others without success, I told him to stop.
Well, I could always order an antenna off the internet, but first I needed an HDTV tuner. After reading many complaints about several models of ATSC tuners at this message board, I finally determined that LG’s newest tuner was the best choice for me. Two days after placing my order, I learned that a software glitch had halted shipments of all LG ATSC tuners, and may force a recall of those already sold. It doesn’t exactly build confidence in a system to learn that technological bugs are still rampant. I am now nervous about spending hundreds of dollars on a piece of equipment that the manufacturer can’t guarantee will be reliable. Do I buy another model without the features I want, and hope the thing works without crashing, or abandon my hope of getting an HDTV signal to my new plasma TV in the very near future?
When my dad bought his first color TV in 1957, at least he didn’t have to worry about whether the tuner software was full of bugs, or whether the system would reboot in the middle of “Bonanzaâ€. The more I learn about HDTV, the more respect I have for NTSC -- maybe it doesn’t work beautifully, but by God it works!
We have the technology today to broadcast and receive a television picture in people’s homes that is vastly superior to anything my dad saw on his 1957 color TV set…
…or do we, really?
The dirty little secret is we aren’t ready, not the broadcasters, not the cable companies, not the tuner manufacturers, not retailers… not anybody. The technology is not ready, and the distribution system is not ready.
The U.S. is not ready for HDTV.
)
