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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DenverTechie who wrote (7076)	5/23/2000 5:36:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

DenverTechie and Thread- Thanks for your comments. It sounds as if it's both an economic decision and consumer value question that keeps HDTV on the back burner. Conincidently, I just read an article in the WSJ about a writer's(I think he was a tech writer) crusade to actually view a HDTV broadcast. As you can imagine, it was not easy. From what I recall, he lives in NYC. And luckily he found out, via the Internet, that Time Warner was broadcasting three HDTV channels as a test. Of course TWX denied the testing but the writer was diligent and succeeded in getting the signal to his HDTV converter box. The converter box costs somewhere around $4,500 and was FedEx to his home overnight. And of course he had the HDTV already. He did not say how much it cost but I'm guessing in the same neighborhood of the converter box. He then proceeded to get the unscrambling codes off the Internet and sure enough, he was able to watch three channels being broadcast in HDTV. Now comes the interesting part. His description of what he saw was pretty astounding. So clear, you could pick out the individual gray hairs out of a person's head. And it was so clear, it had the illusion of 3D, etc, etc. Same reports I have read for years. Which brings me to my next comment/opinion. Why isn't it obvious that HDTV is the killer app, so to speak, for the broadcast world? Our TV crazed society certainly would love to have this type of high quality video. I would find it hard to believe that this isn't worth say, $10-$15/month extra for all cable TV customers who elect to have the service. Afterall, not too long ago everyone thought TV was free. Now the price has run up to $30/month and it's still has a 100% penetration rate. And now it appears there are millions upon millions willing to pay the new fees of $20/month for dialup, and $40/month for broadband 24x7 Internet connections(52% penetration rate). Considering the average US consumer spends 4.4 hour/day watching TV versus 0.5 hour/day on the Internet, it would appear to be a no-brainer--Will they pay extra for HDTV? The answer would appear to be a resounding, "Yes." So I'm a little lost as to why the MSO world doesn't think the same way? -MikeM(From Florida)