I don't really see the mass-market attraction of HDTV anyway - too expensive for the improvement it offers. Of course, there's a niche group that love it, of course
i don't see HDTV as a niche for long. once you watch HDTV, you don't really want to watch the standard stuff. in fact, i only watch stuff that's on HDTV (except tennis, because the Tennis Channel is standard).
i think it's all a matter of price point. at 3-5K, it may be niche, but look at what happens as the prices decline. in fact the HDTV price points are coming down quickly, and i think that'll change the way everybody watches. i bought a Sony 30" CRT HDTV for just $900 last summer and i don't like regular TV anymore.
considering what boob-tubes we Americans are, i think sub-$1000 is a good price point for an HDTV. the CRT quality is awesome, but at 30" it is probably way too big for most consumers (not the screen size, but the fact that the CRT tube becomes so massive this beast weighs more than 150 lbs). sizewise the LCD-based models are much more attractive, but last summer at least they were still way too expensive for my taste. but once they go below 1K, look out.
the fact that Tivo doesn't support HDTV today is why i didn't sign up with them (i don't want to switch to DirecTV). i think there's a significant overlap between DVR users and HDTV owners. unfortunately, i am stuck with the very lousy Scientific Atlanta HD-DVR which works with Time-Warner. otherwise i would get Tivo. but by the time Tivo is HD-ready, i think it will be possible to junk both my DVRs and buy extenders for MCE, with equivalent or better functionality, and avoiding having to pay fees to Tivo or Time Warner for extra DVRs/digital receivers.
personally, i find it hard to understand why somebody would go to the trouble of buying a Tivo just to record garbage-quality TV. |
