I was planning a post about the HD DvD wars. I figured it would be a good "third part" to my entertainment system experience. It's still coming, but instead I want to take this time to talk a little about the confusion about DTV. It all started when I glanced at the comments section of Evan Blass' HD DvD Wars Commentary today.
Note to self: Stop reading the comments section!
My annoyance started with this comment "People are buying HD NOT because they suddenly want HD but because they are being forced to buy a new TV due to the analogue signal turn..." The post continued on a poorly edited run-on sentence, but you get the idea. Bottom line: This is clear and utter confusion by the public caused by the government and propagated by the big box stores so they can sell expensive equipment.
Here are the facts:
HDTV (High Definition) & DTV (digital television) are two different things. HDTV is the aspect ratio and picture quality. DTV is the signal type. DTV naturally creates better picture quality. HDTV & DTV are like chocolate & peanut butter. They are great apart, but even better together.
If you get your TV via antenna and you don't have a digital decoder, then you will not have TV much longer. If you are in this camp, you probably aren't going to be reading this post anyway.
Folks with satellite with truly outdated receivers might have problems with the signal derived from local channels. I can't image this group still exists, but satellite receivers use an OTA (over the air) tuner to get the local channels. If that tuner is still NTSC, then it's time for a box upgrade.
The other group of people that might have issues is the camp that has old TV's and get cable direct (without the use of a cable box.) This isn't technically because of the government switch. This would be the case for individual cable companies dumping their old tech to coincide with the government switch. Worst case for you, the cable company will make you rent/buy a box, ie, your cable bill will go up.
The final group that could fit into the "technically" screwed camp are computer people. If you have an older TV tuner card in your PC, you may find yourself needing to upgrade the card. But again, this is only the case if you fall into one of the 3 camps I've already named.
The rest of you are fine. You've got a digital decoder/tuner even if you don't know it. You've got satellite, a cable box, an ATSC tuner, or don't watch TV.
Again, this whole thing only applies to broadcast TV. Cable & Satellite viewers are only affected in rarest of situations I mentioned above.
I can't stress this enough. This is a non-event for middle-class America. It's akin to Y2K, only with less impact. Every guy holding a beer at the neighborhood cookout who rants about the government forcing "us" to buy a new TV is full of shit. They are either clueless (like me when I talk about complex automotive repair) or lying in earshot of their wives to justify a new TV. Every post on the internet like the one I quoted above was written by someone who read half the story and then ran with it.
Buy an HDTV because they are cool and because your old TV sucks! Buy one because your husband's birthday is coming up and he's a good guy!* Don't buy them because of the moron who thinks he knows something. Don't buy them because the government is turning off someone else's signal.
Tomorrow, I'll make my comments about the HD DvD war.
* Both of these comments are totally directed at my mother-in-law. Their living room TV has been in the family longer than I have.
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