Super Bowl Is a Super Time for HDTVs

HDTVs are the hot item this weekend.

(Courtesy of JVC America)

Forget the holidays. It's Sunday's Super Bowl that drives the most sales of HDTVs. The big game will have moved about 2.4 million high-definition sets into homes, according to research from an electronics trade group.

Perhaps more interesting, nearly half of viewers will use a PC or cellphone to check stats on the Internet, says the survey by the Consumer Electronics Association. That helps justify TV makers who are adding Web connections to their sets.

The problem is that TVs themselves are already too complicated. About 20 percent of people buying HDTVs don't get a high-def signal but think they do, according to another survey by Leichtman Research Group. They'll actually be watching the bowl in standard definition, which can sometimes look worse on a HDTV than it does on the old tube. That's got to lead to a lot of grumbling.

But if you think TV is already getting too complicated, just wait until the Web mucks with it.