HD
Posted: Tue 6 June, 2006 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Thoughts 2 Comments »Is it just me, or is the entire HD TV “revolution” just the teeny-weeniest bit hyped?
OK, sure, you can get “crystal-clear” pictures. (For the time being we’ll gloss over the fact that nearly all HDTV screens are plasma or LCD, and thus suffer problems with pixel-lag, blurring, blah, blah, blah) But to do so – and frankly the current crop of HD transmissions don’t make this worthwhile – means buying:
- a new HD-ready TV
- A new HD set-top box
- paying extra to subscribe to the HD channels
- a new HD-ready DVD player
- more cables
and if you want to see DVDs etc. in HD
Currently it’s reckoned that to see HD stuff, you’re likely to need to invest at least £2,000 . All for nice “crystal clear” pictures.
So I’m sorry, but at the moment I really don’t see the point of shelling out for that. If it’s successful, the price for all this equipment will fall. It will become cheaper, more available, and there will be better content.
For now, though – well, thanks, but I’ll wait ’til I need to upgrade to that kind of kit.
And how many “consumers” have bought new TVs expecting to see HD and not realising that they need a new box etc etc. By the way – AFAIK all HD sets will be either LCD or plasma
Well you know they are going after the early adopters first before bringing down the price.
And if you are going to be buying a new plasma or LCD anyway, you might as well go for a HD, which if not crystal clear is 4x the quality.
I don’t think I’ll be buying a HD DVD player, but once the whole BlueRay/HD format war has settled, I’ll buy an HD Mac Mini (or whatever device apple has created).