It seems that this question gets posed by one mainstream media outlet or another every year or so, and what better time to ask again than following estimates that 50 million American homes will be HDTV-equipped by the end of next year? It's no secret that carriers are pushing HD more frequently in their advertising, and now that select basic cable channels are finally making the move to HD, we wonder if the currently satisfied viewers will get curious and follow along? Numerous analysts have suggested that consumers won't make the jump en masse to demand HD programming until a noticeable amount of non-network content becomes available in HD, and while CNN, Food Network, TBS, and A&E (for instance) are all going (or have gone) HD, there's still hundreds of channels out there that have yet to purchase the first piece of HD recording equipment. Is HDTV ready for mainstream? Our gut says not quite, but we're a lot closer today than we've been.

[Image courtesy of PSBSpeakers]

As if there wasn't enough variations of HD feeds, and the fact that NTSC and PAL just can't seem to get along, the last thing the blokes across the pond want (or need) is another complication when it comes to catching American sports on their HD sets. Thankfully, Eurovision is not only sparing everyone the trouble, it has reportedly claimed a victory in the typically messy conversion game. The global network operator has apparently transmitted HDTV coverage of NHL and NBA games shot in America to Europe, all without down-converting to NTSC in the process. The content originated in 1080i/60, and was rebroadcasted in the UK-friendly 1080i/50 format, all while keeping users on both ends thoroughly pleased. Eurovision's head of production and services, Tony Naets, proclaimed that Europeans who witnessed the converted coverage "were delighted with the results, which included the ingest of the original coverage through the resources of Eurovision Americas in Washington, the conversion from the original broadcast format to 1080i/50, and the transport of the converted signal via our dedicated transatlantic fiber to the European uplink." While quite a mouthful, we think we dig what he's saying, and as soon as Europe sends a few of its own HD soccer football feeds our way, we'll be grinning from ear to ear as well.

This article is making the rounds on the internet so we may as well throw in our two cents. I think there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about HDTV in general and 1080p specifically, and this piece in particular has a lot of both swirling around it.

First, let's address the section I've seen quoted most often in forums (usually misinterpreted or presented alone with no context). "How about Blu-ray and HD-DVD? If either format is used to store and play back live HD content, it will have to be 1920x1080i (interlaced again) to be compatible with the bulk of consumer TVs. And any progressive-scan content will also have to be interlaced for viewing on the majority of HDTV sets."

What does that mean? If you have a player that outputs only in 1080i (like the HD-DVD player Ben reviewed) and/or a 1080i TV, you will see ... you guessed it 1080i. Not incredibly complicated or shocking, just something I've seen people go into a frenzy over and suddenly believe 1080p is as real as the boogie man, Easter Bunny or gas that costs less than $2.75 per gallon. Trust me, 1080p is real, but you have to be careful about what you're getting.

As it stands, this piece is at best half done, definitely outdated and somewhat inaccurate.