[mythtv-users] DTV: It Has Begun

[jedi]

On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 09:00:46PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> David Brodbeck wrote:
> > Brad DerManouelian wrote:
> >> I'm pretty sure they're comparing the reaction of seeing HD over SD to  
> >> the reaction of people seeing color after watching black & white TV  
> >> for years. They're trying to convince people to upgrade, that's all.
> > 
> > They have to "sell" HDTV to the public so they see the switch as 
> > benefiting them in some way.  The changeover was mostly driven by a 
> > desire to sell off the old spectrum, not because the public was 
> > demanding it; except for videophiles and sports fans with bigscreen TVs, 
> > most people were perfectly happy with NTSC.
> 
> Most people were quite happy with VHS tape. Certainly the public was
> never clamoring for better resolution, they didn't even understand what
> that was.
> 
> I witnessed the reaction of many people to early HDTV demonstrations,
> and the most common comment I heard was "Wow, it's wide", or something
> like that. The change in aspect ratio with 1080i is the most obvious
> change to most people.
> 
> As for sports, the lack of quality in the decoders in most TV sets, as
> well as limitations all along the distribution chain, make most live
> sporting events in 1080i an excellent demonstration of macro blocking
> whenever there is any serious action, though the crowd shots and
> commercials look better :-)
> 
> Hogan's Heroes was no funnier in 720p then it was in NTSC, though the
> detail on the uniforms was more obvious.

     ...which ultimately doesn't matter if they're cutting out more and
more content. Old shows like this run longer. The definition of "prime
time" was different back then. So things are edited out to fit runtime.
That editing has escalated in recent years to fit in more commercials.

     On the local broadcast station, we can tell that more stuff is
missing versus when this show was broadcast 10 or 20 years ago.

     So the level of detail on the uniform may not really matter...

     It's gotten so bad now that they're cutting out bits that setup
jokes that are executed later on in the show.

> 
> But the bottom line is that the changeover has to be promoted as
> something better, not as a way to make money for the government.