Dave's Download

Nearly Half of HDTV Owners Aren't Watching HDTV

By David LaGesse

Posted: January 26, 2009

A lot of baffled HDTV owners: About 44 percent, or nearly half, of the HDTV owners aren't watching HDTV.

Seems amazing, doesn't it? That is, of more than 39 million U.S. homes with installed HD sets, only about 22 million of them are getting high-def programming, says Mike Paxton at In-Stat.

Maybe a few of them choose not to pay for the HD channels from cable or satellite. They could at least attach a cheap antenna and get free high-def broadcasts. But most are just confused. I know because I routinely help friends and neighbors find HDTV, which is located on different cable or broadcast channels from the SD content they've been watching.

To make things worse, standard TV usually looks worse on an HDTV. That's a lot of disappointed viewers.

re: ripoff? #2

WJS,

You should also know that, at this point, Dish Network is the only cable/satellite provider I know of that has an HD-only package (TurboHD) available. DirecTV requires an add-on of $9.99/month for HDTV. Comcast, the cable provider in my area of Illinois, does the same. Of course, as Scott pointed out, you still need an equipment upgrade.

Rob Dunbar of IL @ Jan 27, 2009 19:49:47 PM

re: ripoff?

WJS - I'm sorry that you didn't have a salesperson that would explain the critical details of owning an HDTV or that you didn't learn that via your own research. You obviously aren't alone. Still other users surely do upgrade their equipment appropriately (cable or satellite box) but do not realize they have to use a certain type of cables to get an HD signal out of those receivers.

Not only do you probably need new hardware to view HD if you aren't simply using an antenna, the TVs are typically larger, which exposes the poor picture quality of an SD signal. It's not so much that HDTVs themselves make SD look bad, it's that a larger TV makes an inferior signal look much worse once it is "blown up". It's much the same as viewing an old 800x600 digital picture blown up on a large computer monitor - you see pixelation when the picture is magnified.

I've had HD for almost 7 years, and we now have 3 HDTV in our home. We virtually never watch any programming that is NOT in HD any more. The favorites list on our DirecTV receivers don't even contain any non-HD channels. And my wife who is by no means a techie even refuses to watch SD programming any more, even though at first she "couldn't tell the difference".

Just like anything, technology comes with requirements. When you bought your first digital camera, all the sudden you needed more hard drive space and a backup mechanism. Was that a "bat and switch" tactic by the computer companies to sell you new hardware? No, it was just a "side-effect" of adopting to new technology. There are many similar examples with computer technology.

I wish more people would do their homework before making the leap to HDTV, and I certainly wish the salesmen did a better job at educating their customers. Be thankful there are so many options today and so much HD programming. Back when I got my first HDTV, if I saw one or two HD programs a week, I was ecstatic. The quality of HD cannot even be compare to SD - and in MY opinion it is worth every penny.

Hopefully those that "don't know any better" soon learn what they are missing...

Scott of MN @ Jan 26, 2009 22:38:29 PM

The HDTV ripoff

Having waited until prices came down, and finally convinced that HCTV was not going to be another "flash in the pan", I recently purchased two Vizio HDTVs from a local store to replace our aging CRT based televisions. We brought them home, hooked them up to our DishNetwork, expecting to find HDTV clearer and more enjoyable. Boy were we wrong. The picture we saw in the store was NOT what we got. We were very disappointed. The picture was far worse than we received on our old Mitsubishi CRT TV.

If they are going to have the store demonstrator TVs receiving HDTV signals, the least they can do is put a sign up saying so. We felt almost as if we were forced into upgrading our DishNetwork package after the fact just to enjoy a clearer picture...the entire reason we bought HDTVs in the first place.

We now consider HDTV to be a "bait and switch" gambit, much the same as this new "digital signal", forcing people to upgrade just to continue to watch television. Knowing what we know now, and given a choice; would we have bought new TVs? Probably not. Now that we have HD signals coming over the satellite, I can say that the picture is clearer and more enjoyable; but at an extra $25 per month I question how long we'll be able to afford to continue that. We may just end up turning the things off for good, and using the money we save for something more useful...like gas or food.

WJS of ME @ Jan 26, 2009 17:31:32 PM

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