Nielsen: One-third of U.S. homes have HDTVs, but not everyone watching HD

[admin]

Just over a year ago, less than 20 percent of American homes had an HDTV set; as of February, though, that figure jumped to 33.3 percent, leading Nielsen to predict that HD is "on course to becoming the benchmark in television viewing." That said, the sad fact remains that not everyone with an HDTV is actually watching HD.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/50041/nielsen-one-third-of-us-homes-have-hdtvs-but-not-everyone-watching-hd/

[Budreaux]

That's because HD isn;t exactly considered mainstream yet, IMO.
Most cable/sat companies offer the HD as an added package.

What tickles me is the "on course to becoming the benchmark in tv viewing".
Do these folks not realize that we are not the leaders in this market any longer?

Once HD becomes a staple of tv viewing, then, obviously, more people will be viewing it. But many many households are trying to pinch every dollar they can right now, so an HD add-on package isn't an option for some of them right now.
I'm lucky that Time Warner is home of the Free HD. More will follow.

[drfsupercenter]

WOW is the home of free HD too...

Do any cable companies use 1080p? Ours only does 1080i, and they use a Scientific Atlanta box, which upon Googling, turns out TWC and Comcrap use as well. I know DirecTV advertises full 1080p programming, but are they just deinterlacing what the rest of us get and marketing it as better?

Either way, for the 3 days we've had digital cable it's not bad... the stupid cable box is just an annoyance since I'll try to record a show to DVD and someone comes and changes the channel... Thank God for Jerry-rigging the thing so the analog cable goes into the TV and DVD recorder, then it also goes to the cable box which is connected to the TV and RCA input of the DVD recorder... the cable guy would probably faint upon seeing my overly complex but fully worth it cable box rig.

[Budreaux]

My cable box is a Pioneer

[NightTran]

some pp don't have cable still can watch HD ?

[drfsupercenter]

Hmm, your Time Warner uses Pioneer? I've read tech forums where people have a Scientific Atlanta HDMI box... so maybe it depends on the area. (Though in theory you could buy any cable box you wanted to, and just remove the cable card from the back of the box, stick that in yours)

And people without cable can watch HD, yes... they've had FTA digital HD channels for over a year now. (And I know some people who do that - they have cheap satellite, then use an antenna to get the locals in HD... thanks to the FCC, though, all cable companies are required to give you unencrypted local HD so if you have an HDTV and even the most basic cable you should be set )