The DTV transition is here
Ok, it officially started some time ago, but it is
finally being adopted by the average consumer. I was visiting my parents this weekend which is like going back in time in regards to technology. I love my parents, but it pains me to visit and watch SD when I am used to HD. While I was visiting my parents, they came home with a new TV and to my surprise it was equipped with a ATSC and QAM tuner. My father plugged it (I helped him lift) into his basic cable and and my mother easily used the remote to setup the TV and a few minutes later we were watching down converted HD. If you have never seen down converted SD, let me tell you it looks much better than analog cable. The cool part is that the TV automatically found the QAM channels and added them to the line up. Of course the channels numbers are not the same as digital cable, but it was still nice to have them there.
Here at HD Beat we are always talking about consumer acceptance and to me when my parents buy it, it has arrived. I mean my parents didn't buy a DVD player till I bought them one for Christmas in 2002!
Have any of you seen these new ATSC SD TVs in action?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bob Colby @ May 1st 2006 8:39PM
If it's a recently-produced set in the 25"-and-up range, they didn't have much of a choice - if you check the big-box Sunday supplements, it looks like the analog sets of that size are completely sold out and gone. Does it also have a NTSC tuner?
Is it 4:3, and if so, does the downrezzed programming come in letterboxed?
Ben @ May 1st 2006 9:42PM
Yes it had a NTSC tuner and integrates well with the ATSC tuner. Yes it leterboxes the HD and has a zoom and stretch modes.
James @ May 1st 2006 10:24PM
I haven't seen or actively looked for SD televisions with those features, but I can attest to the fact that downconverted HD looks wonderful on an SD set. Last week I recorded both the cropped, SD version of the Lost recap ep as well as the HD feed and my parents I all agreed that it was a stunning difference for us.
It makes you wonder how much trouble networks would have to go through to broadcast a better feed that wasnt HD, but was at least optimized for viewing on SD sets. I'm sure part of it is banwidth, but that a larger reason would be the general decrease in interest for HD networks if average customers didnt see a big enough difference in image quality to get an HDTV.
Ken @ May 2nd 2006 2:20AM
Every new 25" and bigger TV has a built-in ATSC tuner now, and the picture DOES look good (think DVD movie thru component video quality).
I am just waiting for some of the little LCD's to get it (like the 13, 15, 17, 19" ones)