At 11:00 AM -0500 11/22/05, Manfredi, Albert E wrote: > >My conclusion is that people are not interested in the boring >old big analog CRT sets, or fuzzy RPTVs, but at the same time, >they aren't seeing the prices of the new "digital" sets low >enough yet to replace their big old analog TVs that cost only >$200. Case in pooint, the 26" set I bought last year, for over >$1200, still costs $900 this year. Hardly cheap enough to be seen >as a replacement for an analog set that would cost less than >$200 today. > You make a compelling case Bert... ;-) I think you are spot on about people not being interested in big screens with SD/NTSC resolution. Twenty percent of U.S. homes had displays 32" or larger - what the CEA classifies as a "home theater display" - BEFORE the DTV transition started. Most of these sets were either huge direct view CRTs or CRT-based RPTVs, and the picture quality sucked. You had to spend upwards of $10,000-20,000 in the early '90s to put together a high quality big screen home theater. A good line doubler could cost $15,000 alone. Most of the big screens that were purchased before 1995 are now collecting dust in the back of aa TV repair store.Most of the people who owned these sets were primed to buy an HDTV capable home theater system. I think the latest stats show that about 30% of U.S. homes now have a home theater system; of these, I believe about half are HDTV capable. So what I think Joel and Mark were trying to point out is that much of the potential market for big screen HDTVs has already been served, and that sales are beginning to show signs of slowing, now that the initial demand has been satisfied. To make matters worse, we are now getting into the replacement cycle for this market niche; I have no idea what the percentages are, but a significant portion of the sales of Big Screen displays are second time buyers like myself. And I think you are right about the price of the replacements for those cheap legacy NTSC receivers still being too high for the masses. But there are some signs of encouragement. For example, you spent $1,200 last year on an LCD display no larger than the CRT sets you could have bought most anywhere for $300. LCD Panel displays have great consumer appeal. I credit this to several factors: The form factor - they take up far less space than a CRT with similar screen diagonal. The PC factor - people have become accustomed to the sharpness of their computer displays - LCD panels now dominate the market for PC displays. The Convergence Factor - people have become accustomed to watching video (mostly DVDs) on their computer displays, and now think of the computer display as being MORE CAPABLE than an ordinary TV display. The notion that one screen can be used for both computing and entertainment applications is beginning to gain momentum - which helps the consumer justify the higher cost relative to a TV. Perhaps the real problem is this whole notion of "replacement." The Broadcast DTV transition has been promoted as another upgrade, like the transition from B&W to color. The underlying business model is not changing. But the world has changed; What if most consumers are looking for something more than a simple replacement? Something more useful than another dumb TV. Regards Craig ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.