[opendtv] Re: So Soon? Next-Gen Broadcast TV In Works | TVNewsCheck.com
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:39:13 -0500
Craig wrote:
> In reality, the real transition was the one that took place with displays.
> ATSC was not the driving force, but the knowledge that broadcasters would
> deliver HD services helped many people justify buying a new wide screen
> TV. The MAIN driving force was actually DVD, which provided widescreen
> content for those new screens (and this wans not even HD).
Mark Aitken wrote:
> It is likely that had Broadcasting NOT converted to digital (remember when
> DTV was about what Broadcasters were doing?) that HDTV/wide-screen
> displays would have continued to dribble in growth for a decade (or more)
> longer. It was the availability of HQ content, largely driven through
> availability made possible by the Network/Affiliate model (now somewhat
> more broken), that drove consumer adoption.
It's revisionism to say that OTA HDTV didn't force along both the development
and the wide adoption of HDTV. It was all about OTA compatibility and the ATSC,
from 1983 and for almost the next two decades. It wasn't until 2002 that
satellite started carrying HDTV, and 2003 for cable. OTA had been transmitting
HDTV since November 1998. If it hadn't been for the HDTV transmissions OTA, and
the developments by the ATSC, these other distribution nets would have dragged
their feet much longer.
As a matter of fact, I remember very well how much complaining there was about
HDTV, by the MVPDs, in the late 1990s.
People saw HDTV in stores, and they went for it. (Except Craig.) And the MVPDs
could not help but play catch-up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television_in_the_United_States
http://cjhengineering.com/hdtv/hdtvhistory.htm
LCD TVs naturally helped the situation a lot, in the 2000s, when their prices
dropped so steadily. There was no *technically* necessary premium for producing
wide screens in LCDs, and it was a no brainer that they could accommodate much
larger screens with far less bulk and weight than CRTs.
What sold HDTV was live sports. And what forced the MVPDs to carry HDTV was
that their customers bitched loudly, when they had to go to the trouble of
making the initial primitive ATSC receivers work.
Bert
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