Digital television technology set to become must-have
By CHRIS WALSH, Scripps Howard News Service
January 22, 2004
Add another acronym to the growing list of new technologies that promise to change the way Americans watch TV.
High-definition television, or HDTV, has been touted as the "next big thing" in the TV world, offering eye-popping pictures that make traditional TV images look like home videos.
It will do for television what FM did for radio, what DVD players did for videos, what broadband is doing for the Internet, analysts say.
While it still must clear several hurdles — including consumer confusion — HDTV penetration in the United States is growing, and it's expected to become a must-have technology in the next few years.
"It's here, and it's here to stay, no ands, ifs or buts about it," said Pete Seel, a journalism and technical communications professor at Colorado State University who co-authored a book on HDTV.
So what's all the hype about?
High-definition television offers a picture that's two to 10 times sharper than traditional TV. Viewers see much more detail, such as a quarterback's eyes as he scrambles during a play or Cameron Diaz's facial blemishes.
HDTV offers 2 million pixels of resolution, while the typical TV has about 210,000 pixels. In addition to greater detail, there's also more to see.
Traditional TVs cut out significant portions of images to make them fit on the screen. HDTV sets typically are wider, so there's more picture.
High-definition signals also reduce flicker and background noise, and many HDTV programs are in Dolby Digital sound, creating an experience that consumers say puts them in the center of the action.
"It's like being in the luxury box in a stadium, like you're looking at an event through a glass window," Seel said.
High-definition television has been touted for several years. The technology initially found a market with techies and avid consumers who wanted to watch DVDs in high-definition.
But it has been slow to catch on with the masses because of high prices and minimal programming options.
HDTV gathered steam last year as digital-TV-set prices fell and cable- and satellite-TV companies boosted HDTV programming.
More than 2.4 million HDTV sets were sold in the United States from September 2002 to September 2003 — a 50 percent increase over the previous year, according to the New York-based sales and marketing research firm NPD Group Inc.
The surge can be attributed to several developments.
The FCC has mandated that over-the-air broadcasters make the transition from analog to digital signals by 2006, although analysts say that likely will be pushed back several years.
HDTV is basically the highest quality of digital TV, although not all digital TV is high-definition. The mandate has forced broadcasters to invest in the networks and technology to broadcast digitally, giving consumers more programming options for HDTV.
And many consumers began buying digital TVs in anticipation of the switch, although the more common analog TVs still will work with a special decoder.
Analysts also point to the battle between cable- and satellite-TV providers for subscribers as a catalyst for HDTV growth.
Both sides have pumped millions of dollars into providing HDTV programming, and analysts see high-definition as a key competitive technology.
Satellite providers began offering HDTV programming as early as 1999. Cable companies didn't really jump on HDTV until last year.
Cable operators may have an advantage over satellite because they can offer a higher number of local HDTV programming and can add other high-definition channels more easily down the road, analysts say.
"Satellite can't really do that," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst at the Cambridge, Mass.-based technology research firm Forrester Research. "As the number of high-definition households jumps up to more than 10 percent in the next couple years, that will be a big advantage for cable if satellite doesn't find a solution."
In addition, HDTV service through cable typically is cheaper.
Still, HDTV still has a ways to go before it becomes as common as color TV in U.S. households.
While HDTV prices have plummeted and subscribers have been growing rapidly, the technology faces some hurdles.
Consumers need several components — a capable TV set, HDTV programming and an antenna, decoder or set-top box — to receive high definition.
Add to that the fact that TV-set manufacturers and cable and satellite companies make different technologies that are not always compatible together, and confusion abounds.
"If you ask the average citizen, 'What is HDTV?,' there's going to be confusion. HDTV technology is not really well understood," said Boyd Peterson, a vice president at the Boston-based consumer research firm Yankee Group.
"Customer education is absolutely critical for people to throw down $1,000 for a new set monitor. That's going to have to be cleared up."
