From: hal@finney.org
Date: Fri Dec 29 2000 - 11:08:33 MST
[Catching up on some old mail]
Harvey wrote:
> In a way, this has already happened with digital TV broadcasts in the
> U.S. Digital TV gives a better picture than analog. BUT, it is also
> easier to subdivide into more channels to make more profit. Every
> time you divide a channel, you reduce its quality. Digital broadcast
> TV has actually subdivided their channels so that the resolution and
> bandwidth is slightly less than broadcast. The digital medium which
> should be superior has been degraded so that it is worse.
While this is a frequent criticism of the HDTV marketplace, it is not
very accurate at present. Looking at
http://www.ce.org/market_overview/market_overview_stationinfo.asp?area=21,
of current DTV broadcasters I count 53 using high definition and only 11
using standard. Consumers need essentially the same equipment to receive
either an HD or SD TV signal, and for the expense they are shelling out,
they want to receive HD. Broadcasters get a lot of complaints when they
provide low quality images for those multi $K sets.
In the long run it MAY be that broadcasters will switch more to SDTV,
but we don't know this for sure and it will ultimately come down to
market preferences.
Hal
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